Giveaway! Love's Awakening by Laura Frantz!

Welcome back to Writing for Christ, I am excited to have you here for a second time. :-)

Casey, HUGE thanks to you. You’ve been with me from the first!

What has changed in your writing life since you were last here?

I’d like to say I’m a little closer to the things that really matter, namely the Lord and all He’s teaching me. I never thought my refining would come through publishing but it certainly has. I once believed that having a book published would be the ultimate experience. But to borrow the words of Beth Moore, “There’s no high like The Most High.” I’m glad to have learned that life after publication isn’t what I thought it would be. It’s good but it doesn’t satisfy those soul-deep longings He’s reserved for Himself.

What recent read stood out to you as truly spectacular?

Oh, such a great question. I have been reading Charles Martin. A Mountain Between Us is really something – my husband even loved it. And I love Susanna Kearsley’s novels and am about to dive into Kate Morton. I’m leaning more toward the ABA these days if the books are clean and well-written.

Do you have favorite authors?

I do! But I always am reluctant to name them for fear I’ll forget someone. So I just stick with the biggies like Liz Curtis Higgs and Francine Rivers :-).

What do you find the most enjoyable part of writing or connecting with readers?

Without a doubt, meeting readers from ALL OVER. Recently a woman contacted me who’d just finished The Colonel’s Lady. Beata is in the middle of Siberia with her Russian husband and 6 children! She is the most precious person and we’ve struck a lively correspondence. And then there’s Judith who is from an African tribe in Ghana  and now lives in England with her American husband and their 3 daughters. She’d originally sent me my first and only unhappy email over something I’d done in The Frontiersman’s Daughter. I wrote her back and we’ve been e-pals since, having discovered a lot of common ground. I treasure every reader contact, whether near or far away. Knowing someone takes time to buy or read my books and is touched by them in some way means more than I can ever say. It reminds me that writing is, first and foremost, a ministry.

What do you find the most ideal atmosphere for writing? Do you ever get those surroundings? 

Oh my word! That would be no noise. No interruptions. Maid service. A personal trainer and chef. Being unmarried and childless :-)! I do have about 6 hours a day when my boys are in school to call my own. But when I look back at the 40 years I spent writing on buses and during college classes and babysitting then nursing and sleepless nights and SpongeBob blaring, etc. I see the Lord was preparing me to write wherever and whenever. All I need is pen and paper.

Okay, something fun for those writers out there: In what point of your writing career did you surprise yourself by writing the most words ever in the shortest amount of time?

That would have been in the middle of writing The Colonel’s Lady. I didn’t have a clue where that story was going and at one point I looked at my smoking pen and wondered what on earth (or heaven :-) was happening. Seven thousand words in one day! That’s a record for me. I don’t usually do a word count but did that day. I was so smitten with my hero I’ll blame it on that rascal, Colonel McLinn!

Thanks for being here again! It has been a joy and we wish the very best with your novels.

Being here is always a joy, Casey. Thanks so much. I need your prayers and appreciate your encouragement more than I can say! And I wish you every blessing in your own writing and all else, readers here, too!

Readers, here is your chance to enter to win Laura's book!

Please leave an email address! If I draw your name and there is no email, you will not win.

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Contest is only open in the U.S. and void where prohibited. Chances of winning are based on the number of entries and winner is draw from a non-biased third party- Random.org. I am not responsible for any lost or damaged items for said prize.

Thanks for coming by to enter! Contest ends on September 27th

Attn Readers! If you're struggling to leave a comment on my blog, please email your comment entries (in ONE email) and I will submit it for you. But PLEASE only do this after you've failed to leave a comment. My email is: caseym.writer(@)gmail.com