KATHLEEN Y'BARBO TALKS ABOUT MAKING MISTAKES

As we continue to celebrate the release month of The Mail-Order Brides Collection, I'm happy to welcome Kathleen Y'Barbo to my blog. The title of her contribution to the Collection is "The Mail-Order Mistake."


    Have you heard the joke about the guy who thought he made a mistake? Well, turns out he was wrong.
    We laugh at that joke, but the truth of it is sobering. We've all made mistakes, whether we acknowledge that fact or not. Maybe you put your trust in the wrong person.  Or perhaps you made a choice that you were certain would fix all your problems only to have the situation end in disaster.
    What then? Do you wonder where God was and how He allowed that to happen? To those of us who believe He controls everything, such a mistake can cause us to ask hard questions of Him.
    When May Conrad moved in with her kindly neighbor after fire destroyed her home, she certainly didn't expect to be thrown into the center of a Pinkerton investigation and be considered a prime suspect in a string of mail fraud crimes involving mail-order brides. After all, she felt God was taking care of her, but was He? May certainly doesn't think so when an infuriating Pinkerton detective insists her next choice is between helping him capture that kindly neighbor or be tossed into jail.
    Can you think of a time when you were forced into a situation where none of the options were good? Maybe you had an idea of what your life was going to be like, and then God came in and did something totally different.  Something unexpected. Something uncomfortable. I know I've been there. And while you're in the middle of that something unexpected and uncomfortable, you might be wondering where God is and why He's allowing this to happen. You may even wonder if God has turned away and forgotten about you.
    Good news! He hasn't forgotten. In fact, He is absolutely and certainly using this unexpected and uncomfortable thing. What's He using it for? Sometimes looking back that answer is obvious. Other times there may never be an answer this side of heaven as to why He has allowed something into your life.
    Through it all, there is one thing that never changes and is always true: God never makes mistakes. He's never wrong. And he never leaves you when you do. If you get nothing else from "The Mail Order Mistake," please do not miss that.
    I know May didn't. I hope you won't.


Here's a teaser:
1855, Texas
Pinkerton detective Jeremiah Bingham is investigating a mail-order bride scam bankrupting potential grooms. When unsuspecting orphan May Conrad answers his false ad, she becomes the prime suspect in the case.

Bestselling author Kathleen Y'Barbo is a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee with than ninety novels, novellas, and nonfiction books to her credit, and over two million copies of these books in print in the US and abroad. A tenth-generation Texan and certified paralegal, she is the winner of the Inspirational Romance of the Year by Romantic Times magazine and a number of Reader's Choice awards as well as a nominee for an RT Career Achievement Award. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Novelists Inc. Kathleen loves interacting with her fans and with book clubs. To connect with her through social media or send her an email, check out the links on her website at www.kathleenybarbo.com.  And don't miss signing up for her newsletter so you’ll be the first to know about new books. She's got five coming out in 2017!

NOELLE MARCHAND'S "THE OUTLAW'S INCONVENIENT BRIDE"

Noelle Marchand is visiting me today as we continue celebrating the February release of The Mail-Order Brides Collection. Noelle will be sharing how she decided on the secondary characters in her novella, "The Outlaw's Inconvenient Bride."


Imagine the sound of a single cello playing a melody--deep, rich, vibrant. Now, imagine two violins and a viola joining in. Suddenly, what was once simple becomes complex with each instrument bringing out a new quality in the others. This is exactly what secondary characters do for main characters.  I always try to create well-rounded characters to interact with hero and heroine.
However, in writing "The Outlaw's Inconvenient Bride," I gained a better understanding of the importance of secondary characters within a novel. Never before had I tasked these characters with so much responsibility. With a huge portion of the story taking place in an outlaw gang's secluded hideout, the six outlaws who lived there needed to provide external conflict, help set the tone of the story, and make the time period seem believable.
It was also paramount, due to the short nature of a novella, that these characters be immediately distinct from each other. I ensured this by researching accounts of real outlaws who lived during the old west. Inspired, my imagination went into overdrive. I created six characters complete with a list of their past crimes, endowed with a weapon of choice, unique character traits, motives for mayhem, and outlaw monikers. Meet all six members of the Renegade gang in "The Outlaw's Inconvenient Bride."

Here's a hint of the plot: After a gang of outlaws uses a mail-order bride advertisement to trick an innocent woman into servitude, an undercover lawman must claim the bride--even if it puts his mission in jeopardy.

http://www.noellemarchand.com/books

Noelle Marchand is an award-winning author and a proud Texas native. She enjoys spending time with family, dancing, and going on daytrips.

LIZ TOLSMA'S "A FAIRY-TALE BRIDE"

Liz Tolsma is visiting my blog today to share her inspiration for writing "A Fairy-Tale Bride," which appears in The Mail-Order Brides Collection. The Collection released this month and is filled with great stories--each one highlighting a different woman's reason for choosing to be
a mail-order bride.



Here's Liz's story behind the story: "A Fairy-Tale Bride," is set just after the Civil War in the make-believe town of Cuento, Texas. Nora, the main character, is a Southern war widow who has lost her husband, her home, and her land. She is impoverished and has no means to support herself. The only respectable option she has is to become
a mail-order bride.

As I researched the story I wanted to write for this collection, I found it was very common for war widows, especially those from the South, to enter into such marriages of convenience. Most of them had lost everything during the conflict. Some of the surviving Confederate soldiers left the Southeast to begin new lives in the cotton fields of Texas. This air of familiarity helped with their transition back into civilian life.
The Texas cotton industry boomed around this time. With their former homes and crops razed and slaves gone, many men turned to Texas as a place to start fresh. The land was fertile, crops were good, and they were able to tap into the now-freed slaves as a work force familiar with growing cotton. Texas quickly became one of the leading producers of cotton in the nation. With the new plantation owners thriving, it was natural for the Southern war widows to go to Texas to enter into new marriages and to start new families.
While I considered not having the sharecroppers appear in the story because of the oftentimes unsavory aspects of the institution, in the end, I decided to show them because sharecropping was a way of life in the South after the war. The hero and his friend would not have been able to sustain their large plantations without this means of getting workers. Neither of the characters is unkind to the sharecroppers, and I don't dwell on it because the characters wouldn't have. It was part of daily life.
As I researched this book, I learned so much about what life was like for some Southerners following the Civil War. When you read it, I hope you learn a little something too.

Here's a link to order the book from Amazon.  https://tinyurl.com/yctnsgwb

The Mail-Order Brides Collection is also available from Barnes & Noble and Christian Book Distributors, as well as your local bookstore.

Liz Tolsma is a popular speaker and an editor and the owner of the Write Direction Editing. An almost-native Wisconsinite, she resides in a quiet corner of the state with her husband and their two daughters. Her son proudly serves as a U.S. Marine. They adopted all of their children internationally, and one has special needs. When she gets a few spare minutes, she enjoys reading, relaxing on the front porch, walking, working in the large perennial garden, and camping with her family.