Category: Blog

Hey everyone! I just got back from a writers conference over the weekend and am feeling refreshed and ready for the world. As some of you may know, my mother, the inspiration behind the Rose of Petrichoria series, passed away November 27. I went into a funk that I just couldn’t pull out of. Stopped writing, even though I should have been working on Found, the second book in the Faith in Concordia series. My launches for the last few books have been pretty lackadaisical and I’ll straight up admit why to you.

The Rose of Petrichoria hasn’t been selling well. Once someone reads it, they love it, but I haven’t been successful at all at getting it into the hands of readers. When Mom died and my sales continued to do poorly, I just felt like I failed her. I know, and knew, it wasn’t true, but my heart was broken and it tends to lead the way most times for me.

I went to the Northwest Christian Writers Association’s Writers Renewal conference empty, but left feeling encouraged by our speaker, Rachel Hauck (author of Once Upon A Prince), and inspired by the workshops I attended. This leads me into a few favors I have for you, my amazing readers.

Have you read Forgotten? If not, what are you waiting for? It’s only $.99 cents now, so click on over to go get it. If so, I have 3 requests. First, review! At Writers Renewal, I learned that at 100 3+ star reviews, my book will become more visible on Amazon.

Second, send me any quotes or memorable scenes from the book. Has it been a while? I’d be eternally grateful if you reread it (even if it’s a speed-read) to see if you can find anything. I have a few marketing ideas that would benefit from having some pull-quotes.

Finally, please share! I believe in my story and I know it has touched quite a few of you. I would love it if you could share the link to Forgotten on your social media.

Thanks for all your support!

 

I have had a few people ask me, “What is NaNo WriMo?” To be honest, I never really thought to write an explanation of it. I thought it was common knowledge, but it’s not! So, I’ll explain it.

NaNo WriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it occurs every November. During the month, writers will go on a writing frenzy, dedicated to writing a novel at least 50k words in length. If you finish by the end of the month, you win! This was my first year participating, so I wasn’t aware of a couple things I will take advantage of for NaNo WriMo 2018.

I did finish my novel, Missing, which came out today. My original plan was to put out a new novel in the series every November, but due to my Beta readers’ outcry, I’ve decided to continue writing the series now instead. That does mean Fire of Southland will be put on the backburner. Because I was struggling a bit with it, I think it’s a good decision anyway. Perhaps things will come more smoothly when I start it up again. I will probably do that series after I finish Faith in Concordia.

Since I have Rose of Petrichoria books still coming out in February and May, let’s plan on having the untitled book two of Faith in Concordia out in August. K? K. Cheers!

As you know, if you have read the Note From The Author following each book of the Rose of Petrichoria series, my first novels were inspired by my wonderful mother. She suffered from Vascular Dementia for the last 10 1/2 years of her life. Though she lived with a caregiver, I took care of her as best I could in every other way, including weekly visits, sleepovers (until the last year), her finances, and other legal matters.

At first, she had near-blindness and short-term memory, but at the end, she no longer had her sight or long-term memory either. As her dementia progressed, she had a stage where she was unknowingly inventing memories and telling them alongside her true memories as if they were fact. If you hadn’t known her a long time, and subsequently had heard each of her stories a million million times, you would never know.

People around her didn’t really know how to respond. Most faded into obscurity. Some called and asked after her once or twice a year. Few interacted with her often and witnessed her decline.

Forgotten was written when my brain was trying to wrap around her experience. What would it be like to believe all these things happened, only to be told they never did? What would it be like for someone to tell you they know you well, when you don’t recognize their face? What if you couldn’t remember anything about your life and had only the people around you to guide you through? How would you react to their fear? Their anger? Their sadness? Their apparent moving on with life?

On November 27, 2017, my mother, Judith LeFebvre Gosvener, was called Home. Although I’m mourning, I know she is waiting for me to rejoin her one day. She is no longer with us in presence. She is no longer suffering. She remembers everything.

So it begins…

Proudly announcing that my website is up! I’m getting closer to being all set up as an author and my first book is completely ready to be published. When all this is underway, I’ll be ready to begin work on an untitled spin-off series!

I’d like to take a quick moment to thank my husband, Nick, who has been super supportive over the last couple years. He has encouraged me and helped guide me with setting up my website and working with Photoshop.

Also, my friend, Lynnette Bonner, has been instrumental in the editing process for my book. Being my first, I didn’t come into it with a lot of capital and she really helped me out with her expertise. Blaine Bradshaw also took a first look at my book and gave a valuable editorial critique.

Finally, my beta readers, Julie Hauenstein, Philip Gosvener, Becky Luna, Steve Mathisen, Courtney Evans, Sheri Mast, Deborah Wyatt, Cara Koch, Allison Grindley, and Kei Jager. Your opinions matter and your excitement for the series really helped keep me going.

You’ll all be thanked in the books, as well.

Oooo! Look below! There are shiny icons that will link you to my Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!