Irene Hannon, who writes both romance and romantic suspense, is the author of more than 45 novels. Her books have been honored with two coveted RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America (the “Oscar” of romantic fiction), a National Readers' Choice Award, three HOLT Medallions, a Daphne du Maurier Award, a Retailers Choice Award, a Booksellers' Best Award and two Reviewers' Choice Awards from RT Book Reviews magazine. She is also a two-time Christy Award finalist.

A former corporate communications executive with a Fortune 500 company, Irene now writes full time. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, long walks, cooking, gardening, traveling and spending time with family.

To learn more about Irene and her books, visit www.irenehannon.com. ​​

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1. How did you get started as an author?  What or whom inspired you?I didn’t really “get started” as an author; I was born a writer. So I’ve written for as long as I can remember. It’s part of my DNA. I’m also an avid reader and book lover. I can’t say any one person inspired me, but the support of my parents, an incredible high school English teacher, and the amazing writers who whetted my appetite for fiction all encouraged me when I began to think about writing my first book.
 
2. What writing projects are you currently working on?  What can you tell us about these projects?With the release of Tangled Webs in October, I’m wrapping up my Men of Valor series, which features three brothers with special forces background. The McGregor men have been phenomenal! In 2017, I’ll be continuing my Hope Harbor contemporary romance/women’s fiction series, which is set in a charming small town on the Oregon coast where hearts heal…and love blooms. Sandpiper Cove will be out in April. I’ve been so gratified by reader response to this special place. And in October, I’ll be launching my Code of Honor suspense series, which stars three longtime friends who had challenging childhoods. I should point out that all of my series books can be read as standalone novels. No plot points carry over from book to book.
 
3. What does your writing process look like?I typically spend a fair amount of time upfront learning about my characters and developing the major conflicts. Once I have a good handle on those elements, I start to think about the best way to open the book, and begin to work on the first chapter. From there, I dive in and let the characters guide the story. I don’t outline. Each day, I sit at my computer and review and edit the words I’ve written the day before, then move on to new material and follow where the story leads.
 
4. What are some of your favorite books/authors?I read so many authors, it would be difficult to name a favorite. But I know I can always count on Linda Goodnight, Becky Wade and Kathryn Springer to deliver a good story—among many others.
 
5. What period of history interests you the most?  Does this influence your writing?I don’t write historical novels. All of my books are set in present day. So no particular period of history influences my writing.
 
6. When did you write your first novel?  How old were you?I wrote my first book—more of a novella, because it was short—in my early twenties. And it was really, really, really bad. I don’t think I even showed it to my mother. I still have it, but it’s in the deepest, darkest corner of my closet, where it shall forever remain!
 
7. What did you want to be when you grew up?  Did becoming an author ever cross your mind?I considered quite a few professions in my younger years. Actress (I wrote/produced/directed/and starred in many backyard shows), astronomer (until I found out how much math was required), and organizational psychologist. The latter almost became my profession; I majored in psychology in college. But I ended up getting a master’s degree in journalism. I honestly never thought about being an author as a career. I came from a family that was rich in love, but we didn’t have an abundance of material blessings. At one point, my dad worked three jobs at once. So I knew when I went to college I had to find a practical career that would pay the bills. Once I graduated, I worked in corporate American for more than twenty years, writing novels on the side. I didn’t become a full-time author until I’d laid a firm groundwork for a career in publishing.
 
8. What hobbies do you enjoy when you are not writing?I love to sing, so you’ll find me performing in community musical theater productions whenever my schedule permits. I also love to garden, and a vacation isn’t a vacation for me without some long hikes in remote settings with spectacular scenery. J

​​Enter the giveaway HERE.

V. Joy Palmer is an avid blogger and is co-founder of Snack Time Devotions. She is a youth leader at her church, and loves acting crazy and drinking coffee with the teens. When Joy isn’t urging the elves that live in her computer to write, she’s hanging out with her husband, their adorable baby girl, and their two socially awkward cats. This is her debut novel.

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Jody Hedlund is a best-selling and award-winning author who loves history and happily-ever-afters. She makes her home in Midland, MI with her husband and five children. When she's not writing another of her page-turning stories, you can usually find her sipping coffee, eating chocolate, and reading.

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1. You’ve written about many other true historical couples. What drew you to write about Newton and Polly?
Like most people, I’m familiar with the song Amazing Grace and knew it was written by John Newton who’d once been an atheist slave trader. I’d even heard a little bit about John Newton’s saving grace moment when he was aboard a ship during a life-threatening storm and cried out to God.
 
However, I’d never heard anything about the love of his life, Polly Catlett, until I began to dig a little deeper into his life. It didn’t take me long to realize that Newton had a passionate love for her, and his love for her affected just about every decision he made for good and bad. Theirs is a beautiful love story, one that God used in a powerful way. I decided it was a story the world needed to hear.
 
2. Polly Catlett is one of those forgotten women of history. Since most people have never heard of her, she can’t be all that important, can she? What role did she really play in Newton’s life?
Newton readily admits in his autobiography that he fell in love with Polly Catlett at first sight. He says this: “At the first sight of this girl, I felt an affection for her that never abated or lost its influence a single moment in my heart.”
 
He was completely taken with Polly so much so that every time he visited her, he overextended his stay. Such irresponsibility cost him at least two different jobs and in the end was one of the major reasons he was captured and impressed into the king’s navy.
 
When Newton’s naval ship sailed away from England, he was so depressed that he contemplated suicide. He said: “Nothing I either felt or feared distressed me so much as being thus forcibly torn away from the object of my affections.”
 
During his time away as he was involved in the slave trade, Newton’s love for Polly never diminished. If not for his passion for her, he probably wouldn’t have boarded the ship that took him away from Africa. He wouldn’t have experienced the life-threatening storm on the way home. And he might not have written Amazing Grace.
 
So, yes indeed Polly Catlett was incredibly important. If not for her, the world may never have known the most amazing hymn ever written.

3. Whenever fiction is based on true people or events, authors have the added challenge of maintaining integrity to the truth. How do you balance fact with fiction?
I always make it my goal to stay as true to the known facts as possible. I want to represent the people and events that I write about as accurately as possible. So for example, Newton and Polly really did meet at a young age. Newton really did claim to have fallen in love with her at first sight. He overspent his time at the Catletts on numerous occasions and lost his jobs in the process. Because of his lack of character, the Catlett's forbade further contact with Polly. He was impressed into the Royal Navy but later deserted, was whipped, and demoted. He was later transferred to a merchant vessel and from there spent time dealing in the slave trade in Africa.

​4. The title of the book says, A Novel of Amazing Grace. In what ways does the theme of grace come out in the book?
The theme of grace is very prevalent throughout the book because inherently that’s the theme of Newton’s life.  In other words, I wouldn’t have been able to accurately write this book or portray Newton’s life without showing the amazing hand of God at work in drawing him back to the truth of the gospel.
 
Not only did God spare Newton’s life during a life-threatening voyage back to England from Africa, but God spared Newton numerous other times, during his youth and also while he was in Africa working as a slave trader. Newton should have been a dead man. But God saved him time after time, and certainly not because Newton was righteous.
 
In fact, Newton was vile, blasphemous, and mocked and rejected God. But through it all, God never stopped loving Newton. When Newton finally dropped to his knees and wept over his sins, God was there waiting to draw him in with outstretched arms. That’s truly Amazing Grace.
 
5. What do you hope readers walk away with after having read Newton and Polly?
During the very last time I read the book while I was doing my last edit, Newton’s return to God brought me to tears. I hope readers, too, are overwhelmed by the sense of God’s presence and grace in Newton’s life.
 
More than that, I pray that readers will have a new sense of God’s grace extended toward them, that they’ll realize that no matter what they’ve done or where they’ve been, that God is waiting to draw them into his outstretched arms into his amazing grace.

1. What stands out in your mind about what has made you grow the most as a writer?
If I had to narrow down one specific thing that has helped the most in my quest for publication, I’d have to say this: My careful, ongoing, and thorough study and practice of writing techniques has been the single most beneficial aspect of my writing career.

In other words, I read writing craft books, studied fiction-writing basics, and then put what I learned into practice. All the studying and writing has been the number one thing to help me in my writing career.
 
2. About how long does it take you to write a book? 
My writing pace varies from project to project. My historical fiction (like Luther and Katharina and Newton and Polly) generally are much more time-consuming to write than my other books. They require weeks and weeks of concentrated research simply because they are so much more complicated. Not only does the researching take longer, but the writing does too because I have to stop and do additional research.
 
On average, I’d say that my historicals take me about 5 months including the research, first draft, and then self-editing. Obviously, once I'm done and turn it into my publisher, there's still a lot more work that goes into getting the book ready for publication. But my first draft process usually encompasses about five months.

3. What's life really like as an author?
Many people have misconceptions about what it’s like to be an author. When people think of authors, they usually think of JK Rowling or Nicholas Sparks. In reality, most authors never reach that level of fame, never make millions, and never get movie deals.
 
In fact, most authors are hardly able to eke out a living. The market has become so flooded and competitive that very few authors can gain enough traction to break out and become a big name.
 
That means most authors have to work really hard to keep their careers going, working long hours with little glamour. In the end, most authors keep going, not because of the glory or money, but because of their love of telling stories.

​4. What’s coming up next in your publication schedule? What can readers look forward to?
 
In January of 2017, readers can look forward to the 5th and final book in my Beacons of Hope lighthouse series! Be looking for a cover reveal soon!
 
Then in March of 2017, my third young adult book, For Love and Honor releases. This book spotlights the third knight in the series, Sir Bennet and tells how he finds his one true love.
 
In June of 2017, I’ll be unveiling a brand new series published by Bethany House. More information coming soon!

​Times gone by snatch Rachelle Rea Cobb close, so she reads and writes about years long ago--her passions include the Reformation, Revolutions, and romance. Rachelle wrote the Steadfast Love series during college. Five months after she graduated, she signed a three-book deal with her dream publisher, WhiteFire. She's a homeschool grad, Oreo addict, and plots her novels while driving around her dream car, a pick-up truck. In June 2016, she married a man with the same name as her fictional hero, and they live happily ever after in Small Town, South.

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1. When and where did you first get the idea for the Steadfast Love Series?
A song I was listening to on the radio inspired the title of the first book. So I wrote Diamonds, but when I finished it, I realized to my great frustration that the characters weren’t done with their story, even though I had been quite adamant that I would write a stand-alone novel. But the story wasn’t finished, so I kept writing.
 
2. Readers often pick out favorite quotes from a novel. Do you have a favorite of your own from The Sound of Silver?
Yes! In fact, my friend Mindy, a calligrapher, even created a beautiful piece of art from one of my favorite quotes: “Within the pages of books one’s heart can be revealed.”
 
3. Can you tell us what first drew you to writing Inspirational Historical Romance?
My first exposure to the genre came when I read Heartsong Presents novels when I was twelve. Those small books introduced me to how much I believe in the power of story, especially love stories set in times gone by.
 
4. I saw on your website that you also write reviews, articles and offer editing services. What's one of your favorite things beyond writing novels that you enjoy?
Editing is such fun! I daresay I enjoy editing a page full of my own (or others’!) words just as much as I enjoy splashing words onto a blank page.

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Julie Lessman is an award-winning author whose tagline of “Passion With a Purpose” underscores her intense passion for both God and romance. A lover of all things Irish, she enjoys writing close-knit Irish family sagas that evolve into 3-D love stories: the hero, the heroine, and the God that brings them together.
Author of The Daughters of Boston, Winds of Change, and Heart of San Francisco series, Julie Lessman was named American Christian Fiction Writers 2009 Debut Author of the Year and has garnered 17 Romance Writers of America and other awards. Voted #1 Romance Author of the year in Family Fiction magazine’s 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards, Julie was also named on Booklist’s 2010 Top 10 Inspirational Fiction and Borders Best Fiction list.
​
Julie’s most recent novel, Isle of Hope was voted on Family Fiction magazine’s Best of 2015, and Surprised by Love appeared on Family Fiction magazine’s list of Top Ten Novels of 2014. Her independent novel A Light in the Window is an International Digital Awards winner, a 2013 Readers' Crown Award winner, and a 2013 Book Buyers Best Award winner. Julie has also written a self-help workbook for writers entitled Romance-ology 101: Writing Romantic Tension for the Sweet and Inspirational Markets. You can contact Julie through her website and read excerpts from each of her books at www.julielessman.com.

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​NEWSLETTER | THE SEEKERS | JOURNAL JOTS

1. What do you want readers to take away from reading your Isle of Hope Series?
 
The main message I’d like readers to take away from my Isle of Hope series can actually be summed up by my favorite quote from Isle of Hope: Unfailing Love, where the pastor father who destroyed his family through an adulterous affair conveys to his son the most important lesson he has ever learned:
 
“It took losing everything, Son, including my life, to finally understand what I was too blind to see. Everything to liberate me from the same pride that lost Lucifer his soul. And that is—God alone is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beat of my pulse. He is the strength in my bones. He is my beginning and my end, and there is no hope in anything—” His father took a step forward, an almost ethereal glow of faith in his eyes like nothing Jack had ever seen, “anything … except Him.”
 
And what do you want readers to take away from reading Love Everlasting in particular?
 
That our confidence and strength has to come from God, not people, things, or careers and that true love—the kind that lasts a forever—can only come when the God Who loves “forever” is part of the equation.
 
2. How/why did you decide it was best to indie or self-publish the Isle of Hope Series? 
 
Well … I actually pitched the Isle of Hope series to my former publisher, Revell, and they actually wanted it. But … they asked me to cut it in half (it’s 520 pages) and tone the spirituality way down. Both my agent and I agreed that since Isle of Hope: Unfailing Love is loosely based on my own dysfunctional relationship with my estranged father at the heroine’s age, it was far too personal — and far too powerful according to my agent — to cut down the heart of the message. And that message can be summed up in a quote from the book: “Forgiveness is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves.”
 
Has it reached the reader audience as well as you had hoped?
 
Unfortunately, no, which is a shame because it really is a life lesson I learned the hard way that can open others’ eyes to the critical importance of forgiveness — and hope — in our lives.
 
3. What are some of your favorite books? Have these influenced your writing?
 
As far as favorite books, well, number one is no secret--Gone With the Wind. This is the book that launched my romance-writing career at the age of 12, and I think I may be one of the few people around who actually LOVED Scarlett O’Hara. And don’t even get me started about Rhett Butler (be still, my heart!). Another all-time favorite of mine is To Kill A Mockingbird—incredible storytelling!
 
Some of my classic Inspirational favorites are Francine Rivers, of course, particularly her Mark of the Lion series—awesome, and then Liz Curtis Higgs’ Scottish trilogy, Fair is the Rose, Thorn in My Heart and Whence Comes a Prince—probably one of my favorite series of all time! But I also absolutely adore newer authors like Laura Frantz, especially her Love’s Reckoning and The Mistress of Tall Acre novels and MaryLu Tyndall’s, both of whom I read everything they write. The list of favorites goes on and on and is too long to list here, but pretty much everything from A to W (i.e. Tamera Alexander in the historical vein, to Becky Wade in the contemporary). J
 
4. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?  Did becoming a writer ever cross your mind?
 
LOL … Miss America, or at least that was my Halloween costume three or four years in a row! But becoming a writer? Ah, yes, that dream was born when I was twelve after reading Gone With the Wind. That amazing book immediately inspired me to begin my own novel at that same age, a 150-page, single-spaced manuscript that actually became the basis for my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure, some forty years later.
 
In fact, I was so hooked on romance after reading GWTW, that when I was in high school, I dressed up as a nun to go to a free showing of GWTW for the local religious and clergy. One of my friends had a sister in the convent, so she loaned us novice habits and off we went! I sat there mesmerized, shoving free popcorn into my mouth as I watched the tug-o-war between Rhett and Scarlett. It was one of the most fun times of my teens … until we ran into the nuns from our high school! Whew, we got into trouble … but it was soooo worth it (at least at the time!).
 
5. What is your current writing project?  What can you tell us about this project?
 
My current WIP (work in progress) is book 1 of the Silver Lining Ranch series called Love’s Silver Lining, which comes out next year with Gilead Publishing. But first I hope to release a prequel novella to that series early next year called For Love of Liberty, and readers can find out more about that and The Silver Lining Ranch Series here.
 
Then I hope to tackle book 3 in the Isle of Hope Series, Unchanging Love, which will release in Fall 2017. It will be the love story of Shannon’s twin sister, Cat, and Pastor Chase Griffin, the ex-Navy Seal who woos a wayward girl back to God--and to himself. Here’s the premise: A bold and independent woman challenges the ideals and—and the morals—of a pastor who loves her no matter the mistakes that she makes.
 
Of course, down the road, I still have plans to pen several more O’Connor trilogies based on the cousins from the families of the hero/heroine couples in The Daughters of Boston and Winds of Change series, beginning with Gabe, Henry, and Hope, all the way down to Katie and Luke’s children.

​Sydney, thank you SO much for hosting me on your blog—it’s been fun! I love to hear from readers, so they can find and contact me at www.julielessman.com, or through Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or Pinterest or by signing up for my newsletter or my Journal Jots blog. I am also part of a group blog called Seekerville that inspires, encourages, teaches, and informs aspiring writers on the road to publication and beyond. Although Seekerville has been listed on Writers Digest 2013, 2014, and 2015 “Best 101 Websites for Writers,” it is also a blog devoted to readers as well.
 
Oh, and readers can also check out my favorite romantic and spiritual scenes from each of my books on the “Excerpts” tab of my website.
 
Finally, I have the following FREEBIE & SALE currently going on:
 

• 50% SALE ON ISLE OF HOPE, FAMILY FICTION MAGAZINE’S BEST OF 2015!”

Now’s your chance to get my 5-star, award-winning contemporary novel, Isle of Hope for half off, so check out the sale HERE!

• FREE DOWNLOAD ON THE NOVELLA PREQUEL TO ISLE OF HOPE!

YES, there IS a prequel to my latest novel, Isle of Hope, and it’s called A Glimmer of Hope, so take advantage of this free ebook HERE!
 
Thanks and hugs,
Julie