Today we welcome Elaine Stock to my blog. Elaine is very graciously offering one copy of Christmas Love Year Round (kindle version) to one commenter. Please include contact information.
Elaine, good to have you stop by. Tell us about the
book – a brief blurb:
The Kindred Lake Series is about rediscovering the beauty of
love especially in unexpected places, strengthening faith and family ties, and
finding harmony in the small town of Kindred Lake.
Book 1, Christmas Love Year Round, is Cami and
Gavin’s story of love and forgiveness that gives new meaning to the “boy next
door” when he becomes neighbors to the woman who bullied him during their
childhood.
Blurb:
Cami
Richardson is good at chasing away
the men in her life: first Gavin
Kinkaid, a former classmate she’d helped to bully, and later, her husband who
left her widowed and a single mom. Now all she wants is to bring a smile back
to her eight-year-old son. What she doesn’t expect is for Gavin to become her
new neighbor.
Gavin
wants to settle down after serving in the Air Force and mend the separation
between him and his dad. What he never counts on is his changing feelings when
he sees Cami as a kind woman instead of his former adversary.
When
Cami’s son blindsides them both during the Christmas season, is their reunion
at risk or will it grow stronger?
Do you create
playlists for each book, write to the same music all the time, don’t listen to
anything?
I am a 100% seat-of-the-pants writer and when I write fresh
I need to totally become absorbed into my characters’ world so I can experience
life as they do. To me that means to feel, smell, see, touch and hear what they
do so no music for me at this stage. However, my favorite music is classical,
especially Bach and Beethoven and listening to the local classical music
station first thing in the morning before I write inspires me. Sometimes when I
edit I also listen to music, though softly.
Where is your
favorite place to write? Pictures?
I have 3 bad discs in my neck, which makes sitting upright
at a desk quite uncomfortable. For me, it’s have-laptop-will-travel. Mainly, I
park myself on the living room sofa so I can lean back with my feet elevated on
a hassock…not bad considering I can look out of three large windows, plus in
the winter I’m only three feet from the woodstove.
Will complete this
opening? “It was a dark and stormy night…”
Interesting question for me because I don’t do nights
well—it’s the time when all the bogeymen from my past, and present concerns
grow to monstrous shapes. As for storms, I’m like a cat that wants to hide
under the sofa at the first clap of thunder—LOL.
So…
It was a dark and stormy night when Elaine opens a novel to
escape for a while then hugs her husband goodnight, jumps into bed and opens
her devotional to be reminded of how much God loves her. After lights are out,
she falls asleep thanking God for her blessings and praying for others.
What book that you
admire do you wish you’d written?
Two:
The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd, a gorgeously written novel of a slice of American history
that should be required reading in school.
The Nightingale by
Kristin Hannah. I read it when it first came out 3 years ago and am still
thinking about the haunting ending, let alone what the characters endured.
How do you find the
balance of writing time and family time?
For me, it’s juggling time with my husband, writing, and
working a day job 32 hours a week. Plus, I have a weekly blog, Everyone’s Story,
that I host guests. Sometimes, I
admit, it gets a bit overwhelming, but I tamp down on my faith that God will
get me through all this and take it one step at a time. I just do it! Plus, I’m
kind of an adrenaline junkie—I function much better when I have more to do than
less…as long as I have my morning coffee!!
Share your bio and
links for social media and to buy:
Elaine Stock--Fusing Romance, Family Drama, and Faith in a Clean Fiction Style.
Elaine Stock is the author of
the novels Her Good Girl,
winner of the 2018 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal in Christian Fiction and the 2018
American Fiction Awards in the Christian Inspirational category. Her debut
novel, Always With You, won the 2017 Christian Small Publishers
Association Book of the Year Award in fiction. She has since published a
romance novella, And You Came Along,
and Christmas Love Year Round, Book 1
of the Kindred Lake Series.
Elaine is a member of American
Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, and Women’s Fiction
Writers Association. In addition to Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, she hangs
out on her active blog, Everyone’s Story, dedicated to uplifting and
encouraging all readers through the power of story and hope.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Elaine has
now been living in upstate, rural New York with her husband for more years than
her stint as a NYC gal. She enjoys long walks down country roads, visiting New
England towns, and of course, a good book.
Links:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ElaineStock
