BookGiveaway:
Kate is offering 1 printed copy of either NOT BY SIGHT or FOR SUCH A TIME to 1 randomly chosen commenter, US only. The winner will be announced here on Friday, August 21st between 5-6 PM EST. To be entered in the Giveaway, please leave your contact information within your comment (you may choose to use the Contact Me form to privately send me your email address--the form is in the right-hand sidebar on the blog's main page, toward the bottom).
Book Jacket Blurb for NOT BY SIGHT:
In the spring of 1917, all of Britain's attention is on the WWI
war front and the thousands of young men serving their country on the front
lines. Jack Benningham, dashing heir to the Earl of Stonebrooke, is young and
able-bodied but refuses to enlist despite the contempt of his peers.
A wealthy young suffragette, Grace Mabry will do anything to assist her country's cause. Men like Jack infuriate her when she thinks of her own brother fighting in the trenches of France, so she has no reservations about handing him a white feather of cowardice at a posh masquerade ball.
But Grace could not anticipate the danger and betrayal set into motion by her actions, and soon she and Jack are forced to learn the true meaning of courage when the war raging overseas suddenly strikes much closer to home and their fervent beliefs become a matter of life and death.
A wealthy young suffragette, Grace Mabry will do anything to assist her country's cause. Men like Jack infuriate her when she thinks of her own brother fighting in the trenches of France, so she has no reservations about handing him a white feather of cowardice at a posh masquerade ball.
But Grace could not anticipate the danger and betrayal set into motion by her actions, and soon she and Jack are forced to learn the true meaning of courage when the war raging overseas suddenly strikes much closer to home and their fervent beliefs become a matter of life and death.
God’s Takeaway Bonus For Readers and Writers by Kate Breslin
Elaine, thank you so much for hosting me this week on
Everyone’s Story! And I love your tagline, “Rejoice in the Good Stuff, Ignore
any Discouragement.” Words to live by!
This week, I’d like to talk about the marvelous ways God
works in our lives, through the books we read and as
authors creating stories. Many readers I’m sure will agree they’ve read a scene
in a novel that has given them timely inspiration, or a passage from Scripture that
spoke to their hearts at just the right moment. As writers, these messages work
on a more subconscious level, but they still ring true. In my debut novel, For Such A Time, I wrote about a woman with
the courage and faith to stand up for her people, to the point of risking death.
It was also a message about love, and how that powerful Force can conquer the
worst kind of evil. In writing the story, I found my own sense of courage, just
like my heroine, along with a deeper understanding of my faith. I strengthened my
conviction to continue writing inspirational stories regardless of whether I
published a book or not.
In my second novel, Not
By Sight, the message was a bit different. The main recurring theme deals with
the peril of judging others. In the opening scene, my heroine, Grace Mabry, has
preconceived notions about our hero, Jack Benningham. She assumes he’s a coward
who refuses to enlist in the war, simply because he’s in London and not in
France fighting alongside her brother. She’s also heard the gossip at her
father’s London tea establishment, declaring the future earl of Stonebrooke to
be “a playboy and a gambler who stays out until dawn.” Grace’s opinion is
therefore already formed when she confronts him at a London costume ball and
hands him a white feather of cowardice. She has no idea he’s working undercover
for the Crown, or that her actions will set into motion events surrounded in danger
and betrayal. It’s only later in the story that she realizes her error, feeling
the sting of her own prejudiced blade when she finds her reputation maligned.
Once again, I wrote the story, aware on a subconscious
level the lessons God was putting in my path. I became attuned to those times
when I exercised my own assumptions, making rash judgments about a person or situation
without obtaining all of the facts. (I confess, while working on Not By Sight, I was surprised at how
often I caught myself.)
Making quick judgments is easy nowadays, as a barrage of media
is thrown at us, each station, newspaper, even Internet blogposts reporting the
same incident with different slants. Oftentimes the stories get blown out of
proportion in an effort to attract new followers or viewers. With our busy
lives, it’s too much trouble to “sift through the chaff to get to the wheat” of
a story, and so we take what we’re given as fact. Thankfully, we have a bit more
control when it comes to our own circle of family and friends. If not, we might
all be lambasting one another. (grinning)
A second theme that plays into the first is a Scripture
passage and part of my novel’s title: “We live by faith, and not by sight.” (2 Cor.
5:7 NIV) For our hero Jack, that means choosing to see with his heart and not things
as they appear on the surface. For Grace, it’s learning that there’s always
more than one side to a story.
For me, it’s a reminder to cling to the Truth and ignore
what the world would otherwise have me believe. These are my takeaway thoughts
as a writer; those subliminal messages God puts on my heart. Yet I also know
each person can discern something different from a book or a passage in
Scripture, so it’s my hope that readers will receive from my stories the
message God wants them to hear most.
KATE's Ah-hahs To Tweet:
Everyone’s Story: @Kate_Breslin shares insights from
writing her novels #BookGiveaway (Tweet This)
Author @Kate_Breslin asks: does God place subliminal
messages on your heart? (Tweet This)
@Kate_Breslin: God’s takeaway bonus for #readers and #writers
#BookGiveaway (Tweet This)
Authors' Bio:
Former bookseller-turned-author
Kate Breslin enjoys life in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and family. A
writer of travel articles and award-winning poetry, Kate received
Christian Retailing's 2015 Best Award for First Time Author and her debut
novel, For Such A Time, is a Christy award, RITA award, and Carol award
finalist. Kate's second novel, Not By Sight released in August, 2015. When
she's not writing inspirational fiction, Kate enjoys reading or taking long
walks in Washington's beautiful woodlands. She also likes traveling to new
places, both within the U.S. and
abroad, having toured Greece, Rome, and much of Western Europe. New
destinations make for fresh story ideas.
Places to connect with Kate:
**It's summer and time to have a bit of fun. Please take this month's new Poll on the right-hand sidebar on your summer reading pleasure. You'll earn an extra BookGiveaway point for Kate's offer if you take the poll and comment about it within your blog comment (and yes, I'm going on the honor-system). And, if you've already took August's poll, let me know and I'm sure I can give you an extra point too (wink wink). Thanks!
