It’s a Historical Scavenger Hunt!

Playing is easy. Get the list of clues at www.ChristianReviewofBooks.com. Then visit the links below to learn about the authors and their books—you’ll find the answers to the clues in the Q&A posted there! Once you have all 18 answers, send an email to review@ChristianReviewofBooks.com to be entered to win:

Six autographed books!

A Whisper of Freedom by Tricia Goyer

The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen

A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman

The Sovereign’s Daughter by Susan K. Downs & Susan May Warren

The Rogue’s Redemption by Ruth Axtell Morren

On Sparrow Hill by Maureen Lang

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My own story:

Tell us a little about your road to publication.

It was a long road! I started to write a historical romance (the kind of book I liked to read) way back in my 20s with a college friend. The writing team kind of petered out, but I kept writing and completed the manuscript. About that time, I discovered RWA and began learning the craft. Needless to say, that first manuscript was rejected, but my second placed in the 1994 Golden Heart contest. I was ecstatic, thinking this is it!

By that time, my husband I had moved overseas to Holland and begun a family. I felt really out of the loop, not being able to join writers’ groups or have critique partners. But I kept plugging away, between having babies, and managed to complete 3 manuscripts. Which kept getting rejected!

Six years after we’d moved to Holland, we decided to move back to the U.S. The Lord also started dealing with me then on a spiritual level. I began developing a deeper hunger for Him and gradually began receiving a conviction to write Christian romances.

We moved to Maine, and I wrote my first full-length inspirational historical romance. In the meantime, however, the Lord was asking something of me far more difficult than just writing Christian fiction.

Was I willing to put my writing on the “altar,” and hand this desire of mine completely over to Him, even if it meant never pursuing publication again? I received a clear answer to put aside all writing, even researching ideas, for two years.

At the end of those two years, though, I woke up with a dream, which became the inspiration for my first published book, Winter Is Past. After researching and writing that historical romance, which took another 2 years, and entering it in a couple of contests, I got a call from the conference coordinator of the second contest, telling me Melissa Endlich, the judge, was interested in seeing the entire manuscript because she thought it might fit the new line of women’s fiction they were starting up.

A few weeks later, I was offered a 3-book contract, and the rest is history!

Where did you get the idea for this book?

While I was writing the book before it, Dawn in my Heart, I had a bad guy. In one of the last scenes of the book, I suddenly realized this guy, Garrit, whom I hadn’t paid much attention to beforehand, other than making him a schmuck, was redeemable. I suddenly wanted to tell his story.

Visit these sites for the rest of the clues!

www.triciagoyer.blogspot.com
www.novelinspirations.com/blog
www.julielessman.com
http://sovereignsdaughter.blogspot.com
http://ruthaxtellmorren.blogspot.com
www.maureenlang.com