Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Diane Stringam Tolley - Carving Angels - Author Interview

My thanks to Diane Stringam Tolley for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for her book, Carving Angels.

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
That would be tough. I love Papa Adam. But there are so many other sweet characters peopling the North Pole community. I guess I would have to pick little Amy. She of the steadfast belief and undaunted spirit. And she's cute, too.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
I love that she loves her Grandfather and her family. I love that she is sweet and good and kind. And faithful. And I love her enthusiasm and her wonder. She is as I wish I was.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I needed eyes for blind Papa Adam. But I didn't want anyone whom someone would normally turn to for help. I wanted someone who was equally handicapped and marginalized, but in a different way. It occurred to me that my best choice would be a child. A young child.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
Papa Adam was sitting on his porch, feeling old and useless. Amy startled both of us when she spoke her first word, "Grandpa?"

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Amy joined her Grandpa within a few lines. Papa Adam had only just begun to gel. Amy was just a step behind. I realized that I would need someone who could do for Papa Adam what he simply could not do for himself. From encouraging and supporting him to sneaking him into the wood sheds at night.

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I love that she is perky and unafraid. Outspoken but obedient. Unfailingly cheerful. Loving. The only thing I don't like is the fact that she can't be 'seen'.

The North Pole is described by Papa Adam, who cannot see. Thus we, too, fail to see the flaming red hair and braids. The saucy, upturned nose and bright, blue eyes. The little red mouth. I would so love the reader to see her!

About the Book
Carving Angels

Book Details:
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: September 2011
Genre: Children, ages 9-12
Format: hardcover
Price: $12.99
Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes&Noble.com

Blurb:
Papa Adam, an elderly elf and former chief carver for Santa, has given up. Blind, frail and useless, he counts the minutes in every day as he waits to die.

But a challenge to carve, given by his youngest granddaughter, reawakens Papa Adam. Helps him to realize that he is not finished. And definitely not useless.

The two of them, the 'marginal' oldest and youngest members of North Pole society, begin a remarkable project that will change their community forever. Prove that the most paralyzing thing you can do is underestimate or undervalue anyone, especially yourself.

And that with the right love and encouragement, anything is possible.

About the Author
Diane Stringam Tolley

Diane Stringam Tolley was born and raised on a ranch in Southern Alberta, Canada. Educated in Journalism, she is the author of countless articles and short stories and 4 e-books including a novel for young adults, Essence. She and her husband, Grant are the parents of six children and live in Beaumont, Alberta, Canada.

Connect With Diane:
Blog
Author Web Site

About the Tour

Cedar Fort Blog Tours

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Susan Dean Elzey - Miracle of the Christmas Star - Guest Post

My thanks to Susan Dean Elzey for stopping by The Character Connection for a guest post during the blog tour for her book, Miracle of the Christmas Star.

Guest Post

My favorite character in my novel Miracle of the Christmas Star would have to be Sariah, the mother in the story who is the main character. She lives during the time Jesus lived on the earth and has a baby the same night He is born. Her baby, Hannah, is born dead, however, until the light of the Star of Bethlehem shines into the window and onto Hannah, bringing her to life. She is left crippled, however, to use the vernacular of the day, but after Sariah hears reports that it is the long-awaited Savior whose light shone on her baby, she begins to look for Him and believe that He can help her daughter.

Sariah is my favorite character because we have a lot in common. I also have a daughter with cerebral palsy, upon whom the character of Hannah was based. Sariah is the mother I strive to be—loving, patient, full of faith, courageous, and always, always devoted to her daughter.
I have often been impressed by the stories of the brave and loving families who brought their family members to Jesus to be healed, especially the courageous people who actually took a roof apart and lowered a crippled man down into the house where Jesus was so that he might be healed. I wanted to tell a story of the hardship, love, and faith of family members during the life of Christ who dared to hope that He would help the one they loved and then did whatever was necessary to bring that to pass.

I have always believed that had I lived during that time and heard there was someone who could heal my daughter, I would carry her on my back, crawling if I must, to take her to the Savior to be healed. Those thoughts played around in my mind for several years until one day I was inspired to create a mother like the one I hoped I would be. The story line crystallized rather quickly in my mind, and I just had to commit Sariah’s story to paper. It was out there; I just had to capture it in words.

I wanted her to be strong, so I created her as a character with a skill, which she used throughout the book. I wanted her to be full of faith, but to occasionally falter to be more human and to give others the opportunity to help her. She loves and is loved and is kind and patient—much more so than I am! As the story progresses, she must be stripped of everything besides her faith so that when she needs it, it’s all she has left and it is enough.

What I like most about her is that she is so totally selfless and wants only to do what is best for her Hannah. She doesn’t see what pure-hearted person she is, though, so I created a friend for her to point that out to her when her faith in herself fails. There isn’t really anything I dislike about her, except that maybe she doubts her faith, but I don’t really dislike that because that humanizes her so that she doesn’t become unrealistic and within the story, gives her opportunities to grow in her faith and trust in God.

About the Book
Miracle of the Christmas Star

Book Details:
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: September 2011
Genre: Holiday Christian Historical Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Price: $12.99
Buy Links: Amazon

Blurb:
Hannah died the night she was born. The new star's light brought her back to life, but left her stricken with palsy. Sariah, Hannah's mother, believes Hannah can be healed, if only she can find the Savior. Miracle of the Christmas Star is a tender story of love, faith and endurance that will touch your heart and remind you why miracles happen.

About the Author
Susan Dean Elzey

Susan Dean Elzey was raised an Army brat and moved to southern Virginia when she was a teenager. She is the mother of seven grown children, stepmother to two, and a grandmother to an ever-increasing brood of grandchildren. Her oldest daughter has cerebral palsy and is the inspiration behind the character of Hannah in her latest novel, "The Miracle of the Christmas Star."

Susan works as a writer and an adjunct English professor at a community college in a constant battle against comma mistakes and sentence fragments. For years, she has written a weekly humorous column entitled "7XMOM" (Seven Times Mom)for the "Danville Register & Bee" newspaper in which she shares the experiences of her life and of her family that, as her children say, "make us look stupid."

"Miracle of the Christmas Star" is Susan's fourth novel.

Connect With Susan:
Author Web Site

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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Carla Kelly - Marian's Christmas Wish - Author Interview

My thanks to Carla Kelly for stopping by The Character Connection for an author interview during the blog tour for her book, Marian's Christmas Wish.

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
One's favorite characters are generally the protagonists of a story, else why bother to write it? In Marian's Christmas Wish, it would be Marian, or course, and also her brother Alistair, who started out as pretty much a self-absorbed care-for-nobody, in Regency language, and turned into something much more. I won't give away the plot to explain further. It's the same with Marian. I based her character on my three daughters, who were in high school and the upper elementary grades when I wrote this book. (It was first published in 1989 by Signet-Penguin/Putnam; Cedar Fort's edition is a reprint.) Young girls sometimes seem immature and silly one day, and quite grown up the next. It's all part of the maturing process, and readers see that in Marian. By the end of the story, she is a woman, but still a woman who will always be delightfully fun.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
See above.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
Well, I thought and thought and a novel came out! I wanted a cheerful Christmas story, but there is a lot of pain in Marian's Christmas Wish. The Wynswich family is losing their estate, and Marian wants to have one good Christmas, even though everything conspires against her.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
It's all part of the writing process. I usually get a plot first, and then people it. Both seem to develop at the same time.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
Maybe I'm too literal for your blog. She was given life when I put it on the computer screen, or in Marian's case, the typewriter. Remember those?

6. What do like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
Marian is my protagonist. I liked everything about her that I wrote, but I made sure to include her foibles, which Gilbert Collinwood so clearly sees...and loves her anyway.

About the Book
Marian's Christmas Wish

Book Details:
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: September 2011
Genre: Historical Romance, Holiday
Format: Paperback, ebook
Price: $8.99 paperback, $2.99 ebook
Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle

Blurb:
Miss Marian Wynswich is a rather unconventional young lady. She plays chess, reads Greek, and is as educated as any young man. And she s certain falling in love is a ridiculous endeavor and vows never to do such a thing. But everything changes when she receives a Christmas visit from someone unexpected--- a young and handsome English lord.

This is a Christmas story about a loving, if eccentric, family that has fallen on hard times. In order to keep the mortgaged estate, one of the daughters has to marry into money, and soon. The older daughter also has a secret beau, but he is the poor-as-a-church-mouse vicar. The younger daughter has decided she doesn't want to get married. She thinks she's too smart to fall in love. Enter Gilbert Collinwood, Lord Ingraham, dashing diplomat, who is going to try to change her mind.

About the Author
Carla Kelly

Carla began to write novels in the first grade, with “The Old Mill,” written on her mother’s typewriter. The book had only two sentences, but there was a plot.

In her writing career, which began in 1984 with Daughter of Fortune (set in colonial New Mexico), Carla has written some 26 novels and umpteen short stories, as well as scholarly works about the fur trade and the Indian Wars: her “footnote projects.” Many novels have been Regency romances, simply because a long-ago editor suggested she try that genre, and because Carla has a scholar’s interest in the Napoleonic Wars. The Regencies have large international audiences, so she’s been a bit typecast, writing Regencies.

She writes mainly about ordinary people, because she believes somewhat in the dictum that an author should write about what she knows. She knows the sea, too, as well as the Indian Wars, earning a master’s degree in that subject from the University of Louisiana – Monroe.

The daughter of a naval officer, Carla has a real affinity for life on the rolling main. Her recent Channel Fleet series took on captains, surgeons, marines, a retired admiral, and finally, an American POW in Dartmoor. She is now turning her attention to the American West, specifically, the Indian Wars, which she knows well from work at historic sites with the National Park Service, and various monographs.

Carla has two Rita Awards for Best Regency of the Year from Romance Writers of America; two Spur Awards for Best Short Story of the Year from Western Writers of America; a career achievement award from Romantic Times; and good will from readers. Carla only writes books she’d like to read; she’s selfish that way.

She’s recently taken a fond look at her own religious background, with Borrowed Light, about a Mormon chef from Utah who hires out to cook for Wyoming cowboys. Poor thing. A sequel is in the production stages now. Next up is a book set at Fort Laramie due for Harlequin Historicals, and then two more works of fiction for Cedar Fort, Inc.

Martin and Carla Kelly spent the past 13 years in North Dakota, where Martin was Director of Theatre at Valley City State University, and Carla was an adjunct professor, and then a ranger at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, on the North Dakota-Montana border. After Martin retired in 2009, they moved to Wellington, Utah, in Carbon County, because they like wide open spaces and empty roads. The Kellys are the parents of five adult children.

A recent addition on their house means Carla now has her own office. It’s a step or two up from the laundry rooms and furnace rooms where she used to write. Carla volunteers at the Western Mining and Railroad Museum in Helper, where she does research and writing for the museum.

Connect With Carla:
Blog

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