Lisa is offering both SHENANDOAH NIGHTS and SHENANDOAH CROSSING, Books 1 and 2 of the WINDS OF CHANGE series (great reads!) to one randomly chosen commenter. The winner will be announced here on Friday, March 14th, between 5-6 PM EST. For convenience, please leave your contact information within your comment. Thanks!
SHENANDOAH NIGHTS by Lisa Belcastro
Rebecca
turned to face the captain. “Ready. How do I look?”
When
she heard his sharp intake of breath, her fears evaporated like drops of water
on hot pavement in the summer sun. His eyes roamed over her body. She fought
the impulse to cover herself. She suddenly felt naked under two hundred pounds
of cloth. She raised her head and met his gaze. Her heart plunged to her
stomach. He was devouring her with his eyes.
“The
dress does not do you justice, Mrs. O’Neill.”
“Mrs.
Reed,” Rebecca corrected, hoping desperately to divert his attention from the
dress.
“I
stand corrected Mrs. Reed. Now turn about so I may fasten the laces.”
Rebecca
felt Ben’s hands moving up her spine, his knuckles resting on her back as he
stretched and pulled the laces together. Why
in blazes does the barest touch, through cloth nonetheless, send my heart
racing?
Rebecca
lost all focus when Ben’s fingers reached the top of the dress and brushed
across the base of her neck. Before she had time to recover, Ben drew his thumb
over her skin along the edge of the dress. She struggled to catch her breath.
“Relax,
Mrs. Reed.” His words caressed her skin as he spoke. “Lift your hair so I may
tie these off.”
He is
torturing me and surely knows. If I live through this day, I’m going to kill him.
Rebecca’s silent vow brought a small amount of satisfaction.
Ben
spent an eternity tying the bow, and then lazily, ever so softly, dragged a
finger up her neck to the base of her hairline. Rebecca sucked in her breath
and dropped her hair. She thought she heard him stifle a chuckle. He leaned
closer and whispered, “You have beautiful hair. I can’t get the smell of it out
of my mind.”
As he
eased back, he ran his fingers through her hair and turned her around to face
him. Rebecca was certain every emotion she felt would be reflected in her eyes.
“Ben?”
she asked softly.
He
grazed his thumb over her cheek, never taking his eyes off of hers. There was
such tenderness in his touch. Rebecca wanted. She didn’t know what she wanted.
Something. Something to. To what? She felt Ben take her left hand, running his
fingers over hers and turning her grandmother’s ring around her finger. She
thought of her parents and her grandparents, how happy their marriages had
been, and she wondered for just a moment if she could be as happy with Ben. Her
eyes misted over and she reached up with her right hand to brush away a tear.
Ben practically threw her hand from his.
“I’m
sorry,” he said while moving away from her. “I did not think.”
Rebecca
had no clue what he was talking about, but she felt the chill whip through the
cabin as Ben changed once again into her warden/captain. She held back the sobs
pressing to be released. She searched his eyes and saw remorse and, maybe,
shame. What had happened?
Why I
Seek God’s Will by Lisa Belcastro
Have
you ever had a great idea for a book, started the story, and then had life
interrupt your progress? I mean the kind of interruption that stops you in your
tracks, knocks you off your feet, and makes you want to hide under the covers for
the rest of your life? Me, too!
A
few years ago, I had signed my first book contract with OakTara Publishing.
They bought one book, Shenandoah Nights,
and asked if I could write a couple more to have a trilogy. Like most aspiring
writers, I’d agreed wholeheartedly and set out to complete the task. I was on chapter four of book two, going
along with my life, thinking I had everything fairly under control, when I
found myself on my knees at the foot of the cross.
My
past, the pain from childhood, and the many poor decisions I’d made since then
all merged to crush me at the same time. My pastor suggested I go away on a
spiritual retreat. Go away? I didn’t have time to go away! I had children to
care for, bills to pay, school and church activities I’d volunteered for, and a
couple of books to write. I couldn’t afford to take time for myself.
After
a week of tears, screams, and agony, I signed up for a two-night, three-day
silent retreat. Driving to the Get Your Life Together Center, I listened to a
CD my brother had given me weeks earlier. Even though my brother hadn’t told me, I knew that I wasn’t
going to like what was on the CD.
Sure
enough, my estranged father’s voice boomed out over the speakers. The recording
had been done while he was speaking at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Minutes
before he had a heart attack. Seconds before he died.
I
listened to all thirty-two minutes and forty-six seconds of his talk about his
life. I didn’t hear him fall on stage. I didn’t hear anyone call 911. I didn’t
hear the words I longed for and so needed to hear. When I parked my car at the
retreat center, I was soaked in tears.
I
felt a strong nudge to write down my thoughts. After checking into my room, I
grabbed a pen and notebook, and headed out to the waterfall garden. Sitting in
the sun, water rolling gentling over rocks, flowers blooming all around me, I
wrote the words that were constricting my heart:
“I
cannot tell you the moment my father took his last breath. I can tell you, with
absolute certainty, that my father did not utter a breath about me. No memory.
No regret. No apology. If you had heard him speak that night, or if you
listened to the recording, you would not know he had a daughter. You wouldn’t know I existed. I was not
worth mentioning. In my father’s half-hour speech, he confirmed what I had
believed for the last thirty-three years: I am nothing. Not worth mentioning.
Worthless.”
Forty-eight
hours later, I left the retreat with dozens of pages written. Another “nudge”
told me to keep writing and put what I learned into a book. I heard that voice
nudging me for weeks. I did my best to ignore it. After all, I write romance
novels. I had no desire, absolutely none, to write about my past. I’d buried it
for a reason, thank you very much!
I
went back to work on book two, Shenandoah
Crossings. Only one problem, I couldn’t think of anything to write. My
story was stuck on chapter four. No matter how much I pleaded with God to give
me the words to tell a good story for Him, nothing came . . . except the voice
telling me to write my life story. I hated that voice!
After
a month of getting nowhere on Shenandoah
Crossings, I gave up. I went back to that notebook from the retreat, and
delved into my past. I journaled every thought, feeling and experience. For six months, I revisited every nook,
cranny and corner of my past. I invested another six months writing So Long, Someday: An Abandoned Daughter’s
Journey to Healing.
I
won’t tell you it was easy, but I will tell you it was the most rewarding year
of my life. There are still bumps along the road of life, but I know whose I am
now. I know without a doubt that I am a loved and cherished child of God, a
daughter of the King, a princess nonetheless. With this knowledge filling my
heart, I completed Crossings and the
third book in the trilogy. The first two books in the Winds of Change trilogy were released last year. Shenandoah Dreams is scheduled to hit
bookstores this summer.
As
for So Long, Someday, I entered the
manuscript in Thomas Nelson’s Women of Faith novel contest last year. Out of
five hundred entrants, I finished in the top ten. I’ve got one more edit to go
through, and then I’ll spend time in prayer deciding if and who to submit the
finalized copy to.
As
a writer and a believer, I learned a valuable lesson throughout the process of
drafting So Long, Someday: before I
can write any story, I must first seek God’s will for my life and then try to
follow it to the best of my ability.
Can
anyone else relate?
Lisa's Ah-hahs To Tweet:
Author
Lisa Belcastro on Everyone’s Story: what happens when life gets in the way with
writing? (Tweet This)
Lisa
Belcastro, author of historical romance with a touch of time travel, shares
uplifting words. (Tweet This)
Stories
that will whisk you away: Lisa Belcastro’s #BookGiveaway of #ChristianRomance (Tweet This)
Author's Bio:
Lisa Belcastro lives with her
family on Martha’s Vineyard. She loves
chocolate, reading, writing, running, working in her gardens, including
weeding, and almost all outdoor activities -- as long as the temperature is
above sixty degrees! Being on or near the water is pure joy for Lisa.
When she’s not at her desk working
on her next novel or writing the cuisine column for Vineyard Style Magazine, Lisa is volunteering at her daughter’s
school, serving in her church community, gardening, trying to run a marathon a
month, or walking the beach with her husband looking for sea glass.
Places to connect with Lisa:
