Book Giveaway and Author Interview! 


Join me as I welcome Christian fiction writer Louise M. Gouge, and her newest book,  A Proper Companion,  to Woman of Faith. Louise has graciously offered to award a free book to one reader. This book is especially sweet for me to feature here since, as most of you know, I write regencies myself. And here's good news: To enter the giveaway you merely have to do the following: (US or Canada residents only.)

1. If you're NOT already a subscriber to this blog, please subscribe through an option to your right. ----->

2. Leave a comment after this post letting me know you're a new subscriber

IF You're Already a Subscriber:

1. Forward this email  to a woman of faith (or any woman who loves to read good, clean fiction) in your circle of family, friends, or church acquaintances. If you're not seeing this post via an email, just forward this blog link (the URL) to the friend(s), letting her know it's a blog she may enjoy.

2. Leave a comment letting me know you forwarded to a friend.

Also, if you're leaving a comment anyway, by all means feel free to say something to Louise or something about her book. She'll be reading the comments, too. 

[In case you wondered: This should have been a Fiction Friday post, but I fell behind last week after my computer crashed for a day. Thanks to my technical-genius husband, we were able to  retrieve nearly all of my data!]   

 About the Book:

 She has nothing left but faith…
With her father’s death, Anna Newfield loses everything—her home, her inheritance, and her future. Her only piece of good fortune is a job offer from wounded major Edmond Grenville, whose mother requires a companion. The Dowager Lady Greystone is controlling and unwelcoming, but Anna can enjoy Edmond’s company, even if she knows the aristocratic war hero can never return her love. Even amid the glittering ballrooms of London, nothing glows brighter for Edmond than Anna’s gentle courage. Loving her means going against his family’s rigid command. Yet how can he walk away when his heart may have found its true companion?

Bio:
Award-winning Florida author Louise M. Gouge writes historical fiction for Harlequin's Love Inspired imprint. In addition to numerous other awards, Louise is the recipient of the prestigious Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award for her 2005 novel, Hannah Rose. With her great love of history and research, Louise has traveled to several of her locations to ensure the accuracy of her stories’ settings. When she isn't writing, she and her husband love to visit historical sites and museums. Her latest release from Harlequin is The Proper Companion, a Love Inspired Regency novel. Her 2011 novella, The Gentleman Takes a Bride, is a finalist for the prestigious Inspirational Readers Choice Award

 Can't wait to read A Proper Companion? Click the book cover above to purchase it from Amazon. It's only $5.75. Do you read with a Kindle? It's even cheaper as an ebook, only $3.82!

Thanks for visiting and do enter the giveaway, whether you purchase a copy or not. You'll have a good summer read to give as a gift or to a friend. 

Winner will be chosen on Sunday, June 24th, and announced next Monday!

Warmest Blessings,

Linore



And the winner is...

Bekaboobear!

Congratulations, Beka, for winning a copy of Karen Witemeyer's Short Straw Bride!


Thanks to everyone who entered, and don't forget to check back each Friday for the newest giveaway.
(An easier way to make sure you don't miss one is to sign up to the blog and you'll be notified right in your inbox. See box at right.)

Quick Summer Read

Coach and Four: Allisandra's Tale is only $1.49 on Amazon and it's a short story you'll love to take with you to the beach or pool, or while traveling in the car (with another person driving, of course.) OR, if you have a kindle, you can even set it to read the story aloud to you while you drive.

Historical Adventure and Romance await you....in Coach and Four: Allisandra's Tale.



And if you are traveling today or soon, remember this:


The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave your nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:8


Until next time,
Warmest Blessings,

Linore
Have you taken advantage of my FREE reader's resources, yet?
Scroll down this page and download my illustrated historical pdfs!

Beautiful Life Wednesday ( A little late!)

A Poem

It's a wonderful thing to have an infant in the house. It's also a great deal of work, but I miss having little babies now that my youngest is nine. In fact, I recently got a different kind of baby--a puppy! He's a "Shorkie"--a Yorkie and Shih Tzu mix. He's pretty cuddly and very cute and is even my new "alarm clock." (I get a lot of morning sunshine and my daily dose of vitamin D, thanks to Ruffles.)

But since I often highlight issues of LIFE on "Beautiful Life Wednesdays" I thought it would be appropriate to post this beautiful but anonymous vintage poem I came across, which celebrates the beauty of sleeping. I like to think of it as being for children, but I suppose it would be fitting for any guest room as well. It's like a lullaby without music.

Enjoy!

"Sleep Sweetly in This Quiet Room"

 

Sleep sweetly in this quiet room,

O thou, whoe'er thou art,

And let no mournful yesterdays

Disturb thy peaceful heart;

Nor let tomorrow scare thy rest

With thoughts of coming ill,

Thy Maker is thy changeless Friend,

His love surrounds thee still.

Forget thyself and all the world,

Put out each feverish light,

The stars are watching overhead--

Sleep sweetly, then. Good night. 


If you are a blessed one who has a child or children, remember that it may feel like your days are long, your work is endless and perhaps thankless, but ask any mother who's children are grown and she will tell you the years flew by. 

Enjoy those precious little ones. 

And when they rest, get a few zzz's yourself!

Hugs,

Linore



Images from: 
http://sleepzine.com/sleep-news/sleep-celebrity/lisa-loeb-sleeping-better-as-a-mother/ (motherandchild)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/78885401/quiet-please-baby-sleeping-sign
http://picture-book.com/content/sweet-dream   

Fiction Friday

Giveaway of:  The Short-Straw Bride, by Karen Witemeyer, plus a fun "Texas Bonanza" (quiz), by the author.

This brand new release by Karen Witemeyer looks like good clean fun for historical romance fans, and you can enter a drawing for a free copy simply by leaving a comment below this post.

Special thanks to Karen Witemeyer for offering a copy of her new book to Woman of Faith readers!

Karen also wrote the following interesting post, including a fun "quiz." Enjoy while you learn something new.


A Texas Bonanza!
by Karen Witemeyer
Quiz time.
What was the leading industry in Texas at the turn of the 20th century?
Oil? - No, that came later.
Cattle? Cotton?
The answer: Lumber.


Lumber? Are you kidding? I live in Texas. There are no trees. Oh, we've got some scrubby little mesquite and an occasional oak, but nothing that this California native would call a tree. So how in the world did the lumber industry out-perform cattle and cotton, two Texas staples?

Well, as anyone who has ever driven across this great state can tell you, Texas is a big place. Yes we have desert regions and prairie and grassland and hill country, but over in the southeast is a lovely section called the Piney Woods. And as the railroad worked it's way west in the 1870's and 1880's, lumber men from the Pennsylvania like Henry Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore saw the virgin forests of east Texas as a gold mine. Local boys like John Henry Kirby got in on the action, too, buying up and consolidating individual sawmills into complete lumber manufacturing plants. Kirby rose to success so quickly, he became known as the "Prince of the Pines," having become the largest lumber manufacturer in the state by combining 14 sawmills into the Kirby Lumber Company in 1901.
Not only did the railroad boom make travel to the Texas woods easier, it was also one of the biggest  sources of demand for timber. Railroads needed lumber to construct rail cars, stations, fences, and cross ties in addition to the massive amounts of wood they burned for fuel. Each year railroads needed some 73 million ties for the construction of new rail lines and the maintenance of old ones, estimated by the magazine Scientific American in 1890. From the 1870s to 1900, railroads used as much as a fourth of national timber production.
This combination of supply and demand fueled a "bonanza era" for the Texas lumber industry that lasted 50 years, from 1880 until the Great Depression. During this time, Texas became the third largest lumber-producing state in the nation.
Northern investors swooped in to buy up land, sometimes even taking advantage of "use and possession laws" to seize property from families who had owned it for generations. Corruption abounded as logging companies controlled their workers, paying them only in vouchers for the company store despite the incredibly hazardous working conditions. These "cut and get out" operations left acres of land decimated.
This is the climate in which my next book, Short-Straw Bride, is set. Travis Archer and his brothers own a prime piece of forested land that also happens to the key to connecting investor Roy Mitchell's holding to the railroad. Mitchell wants the ranch and is willing to get it any way he can. But the woman he's been courting (to get his hands on her inheritance, which just happens to be more Piney Wood real estate) overhears him plotting to take the Archers out. Meredith Hayes has secretly carried a torch for Travis since he rescued her when she was a girl of ten. When she discovers the threat, she knows she has to warn Travis. Unfortunately, her good deed goes awry and she ends up with more trouble than she bargained for. She ends up a short-straw bride.
Short-Straw Bride officially releases today. If you'd like to read the first two chapters, click here.
Spiritual themes include the battle between trusting God vs. trusting self, the power of community, and the need to foster the spiritual discipline of hospitality.

 Thanks again, Karen, for that fascinating bit of history and for holding a drawing for readers. 

Remember, leave a comment with your contact email to enter to win Karen's book!

You can get Karen's book right away through the following link. If you win a second copy, you'll have a great gift for a reader on your gift list.

 Short-Straw Bride 


Visit Karen on the web at the following sites: 
Short-Straw Bride