Lost in the Storm
Bio:
Tamera
been married for 40 years to the love of her life, Rick, and has two married
adult children and three grandchildren. She has been a children’s pastor for over 20 years. She is the leader
of a ministry called Revival Fire for Kids where she mentors other children’s
leaders, teaches workshops, and is a children’s ministry consultant and
children’s evangelist and has written children’s church curriculum. She is a
recipient of the 2007 National Children’s Leaders Association Shepherd’s Cup
for lifetime achievement in children’s ministry.
Online
Links:
Ladies
of Oberlin Book 2
By
Tamera Lynn Kraft
Lavena,
a journalist during the Civil War, wants to become a war correspondent. She
finally gets her chance, but there’s a catch. She has to get an interview from
a war hero who has refused to tell his story to every other journalist, and she
has to accomplish this impossible task in a month or she’ll lose her job.
Captain
Cage, the war hero, has a secret that will destroy his military career and
reputation. Now, a new journalist is trying to get him to tell what he’s been
hiding. He wants to ignore her, but from the moment she came into camp, he
can’t get her out of his mind.
Leading
up to the turbulent Battles for the city of Chattanooga, will Lavena and Cage
find the courage to love and forgive, or will they be swept away by their past
mistakes that don’t want to stay buried?
Meet
the Ladies of Oberlin, the causes they're willing to fight for, and the men who
capture their hearts.
Available
in eBook and paperback at Mt Zion Ridge Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and
other online retailers.
Other
Books in the Series:
Red
Sky Over America: Ladies of Oberlin Book 1
The
Aftermath: Ladies of Oberlin Book 3 (coming
in 2021)
Forks
in the Road (to
be released in October): This novel is a Western that tells the story of what
happened to Jed and his brothers. Jed is one of the characters in Lost in
the Storm.
Soldier’s
Heart: This is
the story of a minor character in Lost in the Storm who comes home from the war
with PTSD.
Author
Interview:
Every
story I tell has a theme that shows God working throughout history. I love
researching historical events and seeing how God has weaved Himself throughout
our nation’s history. I love when someone reads one of my stories and gets
that.
My faith permeates through everything I write
because it’s a major part of who I am. Even when I don’t write something
“Christian”, my faith still shines through the pages.
What made you decide to
become a writer?
I have always loved to write. I remember writing my
first novel when I was ten years old. It was awful. I think what sparked my
love for books was my grandmother. She only had an 8th grade
education and was a coal miner’s wife, but she loved to read. I remember
sitting on her lap in her rocker and her reading great novels like Black
Beauty to me.
In high school, I took all the English and literature classes I
could to prepare for my career in writing. I even major in English in college
in preparation of being a writer.
At some point in my twenties, my writing career was put on hold
for decades. Between raising children and becoming a children’s pastor on staff
at my church, there just wasn’t time. I still couldn’t keep from writing. I
would write children’s church curriculum and puppet skits for my lessons. Some
of it even got published.
Finally about twelve years ago, I resigned as a children’s pastor
and started a ministry called Revival Fire for Kids where I travel to other
churches to do teacher training, kid’s crusades, and children’s ministry
consultations. I also am launching Revival Fire for Kids children’s church
curriculum in about a year. This keeps me very busy during the summer, but the
rest of the time, I have time to write fiction.
My writing career is back on track and moving along. I feel like
God has brought me full circle. I put Him first in raising my children and
ministering to other children, and He is fulfilling the desires of my heart by
opening up doors for me to write again.
Where do you get your ideas for your books? How did you decide to
write Lost in the Storm or the Ladies of Oberlin Series?
I get my ideas from historical events. I love studying history.
When I read about an event in history, I wonder what it would have been like
for the people living during that time.
The way the Ladies of Oberlin Series began was when I thought
about writing about strong Christian women in the 19th century. The
more I researched, the more I noticed almost every women I read about had a
connection with Oberlin College. That intrigued me enough to research Oberlin.
What I found astonished me.
Oberlin College was the first college to give degrees to men,
women, and blacks before the Civil War. Almost every missionary who went
overseas between 1860 and 1900 was a graduate of Oberlin College. Oberlin’s
president was the fiery Second Great Awakening evangelist Charles Finney.
Oberlin graduates were involved in abolition, women’s suffrage, prohibition,
education, laws protecting children, and many other causes of the late 1800s.
I knew I wanted to write stories about women who graduated from
Oberlin shortly before the Civil War. The first novel, Red Sky Over America, is
about America Leighton the year before she graduated. She went home to Kentucky
to try to convince her father to free his slaves. In the second novel, Lost in
the Storm, Lavena Falcon is a woman’s rights activist and a journalist during
the Civil War and wants to be a war correspondent. In the third novel, The
Aftermath, which will be released in 2021, Betsy Teagan fights for prohibition
after the war. Each lady has a love interest to keep things interesting.
What
advice/tips do you have for budding authors who are just starting out?
Don’t
give up too early. It takes years to get to a point where your writing is good
enough to be published. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you work hard,
continue to improve, and don’t let discouragement stop you, you’ll make it.
I’ve always believed that the published authors are not the ones who are the
greatest or who have the most potential. They’re the ones who work hard and
persevere.
What
are your future plans?
I am
currently writing the first of a series of novels about women who came to Jamestown
in 1619 to marry. The series is called Jamestown Brides, and the first
novel is The Seasoning of Elizabella.
1 comment:
Nice interview to learn more about Tamera Kraft and her writing. I've enjoyed reading her historical books.
Post a Comment