Wearing Her Author's Hat

by Ruth Dell

Helsinki Sunrise, a Passport to Romance, blog tour follows on from yesterday’s hero interview and book review with Heidi McCahan.

Today we welcome Marion Ueckermann to our blog. She’s a regular blogger here, but today she is wearing her author's hat. We will be chatting about her debut novelette, Helsinki Sunrise. 

Marion Ueckermann’s passion for writing was sparked in 2001 when she moved to Ireland with her husband and two sons. Since then she has published devotional articles and stories in Winners, The One Year Devotional of Joy and Laughter (Tyndale House Publishers), and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miraculous Messages from Heaven, and her debut novelette, Helsinki Sunrise (White Rose Publishing, a Pelican Book Group imprint, Passport to Romance series).

Marion blogs for International Christian Fiction Writers and Beauty for Ashes. She belongs to Christian Writers of South Africa and American Christian Fiction Writers. She lives in Pretoria East, South Africa in an empty nest with her husband and their crazy black Scottie, Wally.

Marion, welcome and congratulations on the release of Helsinki Sunrise.

Thanks, Ruth. It’s great to be here today, this time as a published author. Can I just say, “Whoo-hoo!”

A few months ago I visited Marion and one of the highlights of the day was enjoying her homemade blueberry pie. It was, in fact, the first blueberry pie that she had ever made. It was delicious and definitely “moreish”. Marion, what was the significance of that pie?

Firstly, Ruth, it really was a flop-proof recipe. For anyone interested, my heroine, Eveliina’s blueberry pie recipe is available in Pelican Book Group’s free recipe book, Cooking with Grace. And I just noticed that the crockery I used that day was lined with a blueberry pattern.

In the summer, the forests of Finland are filled with berry-bearing blueberry bushes. This was important to the book, originally titled Blueberry Eve. When Eveliina is faced with the prospect of having to share her grandparents’ summer cottage with a fasting missionary from the other side of the world, she’s adamant he has to go. And she knows exactly how to make Adam Carter want to leave—her grandmother’s blueberry pie. Here’s a little teaser excerpt:

Eveliina held her breath as tightly as she held the spoon, waiting for Adam to succumb. If he did, she was certain he’d leave the island a defeated man, unable to live up to his goals and ideals, his God and his Christianity.

But if he resisted…

How many blueberry recipes did she have?

Finland is an unusual setting for a book. How did you research that county? Do you have any anecdotes or interesting experiences arising from your research which you would like to share with our readers? Have any of these found their way into your book?

It certainly is, Ruth, and that’s why I was so excited to see it on Pelican Book Group’s list of stories required for their Passport to Romance series—I had visited Finland for my son’s wedding seven months before. What better research could I have had than living with Finnish people, immersing myself in their culture?

One thing I never expected in Finland was the infestation of mosquitos in the summer. I always thought they were unique to Africa. But then again, with all that water, something close on 190,000 lakes, what else could one expect. And those tiny buzzing bugs were far more vicious than African mosquitos. My feet definitely took the brunt of their attacks. For some it was their faces, others their backs or arms.

Interesting experiences during our time in Finland involved taking a sauna, gently beating myself with a vasta or vihta which are leafy, fragrant boughs of silver birch used to massage and stimulate the skin, and to calm the effects of mosquito bites—pity I didn’t know that then—and thereafter running and jumping into the lake…several times in succession. Hot, cold, hot, cold.

Another cultural experience we enjoyed was roasting makkara (a Finnish sausage), stuck at the end of a long two-pronged fork, over an open fire.

And what fun we had blueberry picking. It was unforgettable.

The sauna and lake experience definitely made it into Helsinki Sunrise in a really fun way, along with the mosquitoes and blueberries. Vasta and makkara didn’t make it into my story.

Did you have any particular Bible verses running through your mind as you wrote?

One verse defined Helsinki Sunrise—Luke 15:6, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” I chose this verse because Eveliina had become the black sheep of her family. She desperately needed to be found and returned to the fold and Adam was determined to do just that through prayer and fasting.

There were several other verses from Isaiah that I used toward the end of the story but I’ll keep those a secret as I don’t want to give away anything of the story and spoil the read.

How did you weave a spiritual thread through Helsinki Sunrise without being preachy?

Adam’s vocation as a missionary definitely lends itself to a preachy hero, but his character fortunately did not allow it. It’s not without a struggle that Adam manages to hold fast to his integrity and beliefs as Eveliina tries her best to tempt Adam who’s fasting. Between Eveliina’s shortcrust pastry and shorts, Adam has a difficult time. I believe it is this humanness of Adam that will draw readers in so that they will listen to his subtle messages.

Even when Adam has the golden opportunity to present the gospel to Eveliina, he does so by drawing her in gently, raising challenging questions only she can answer.

The salvation message is conveyed to the reader subtly through Eveliina’s thoughts as she reads the scriptures from Isaiah I alluded to in the previous question when she’s placed in a situation where she struggles with her own fears and doubts.

Here’s an excerpt of one of the ways the scarlet thread is gently woven into the story:

Adam’s thoughts drifted to his favorite parable. Doesn’t a good shepherd go seeking after the stray sheep? Doesn’t he leave the safe open country, venturing into dangerous territory until he finds the one that is lost?

Heaven will rejoice more the day you show Eveliina the way back to Jesus, than at your teaching the Finnish church to pray. The thought struck Adam like the cold water splashing across his back as the oar skimmed the water instead of sinking deep.

Both took his breath away. 

What do you want your readers to take away from your book?

I want my readers to not only feel like they are falling in love all over again, but also to know that God will pursue the lost sheep relentlessly to bring them back home.

What are you currently working on and what are your future writing plans?

At the end of July, I signed my second publishing contract with Pelican Book Group for another Passport to Romance novelette. This story is set in Oslo, Norway, and my hero and heroine have the exciting occupations of being professional wingsuiters.

I've just completed a submission for Pelican Book Group for their Easter Lilies series. The story is set in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Currently, I'm completing a third Passport to Romance story, this time set in Glasgow, Scotland. I definitely plan to write more Passport to Romance novelettes. Maybe one day soon I'll get to polish some of those completed novels, or finish writing one of the four semi-complete ones.

Thank you, Marion. I'm looking forward to reading more of your books.

Thank you for hosting me, Ruth. It’s been fun to sit on the other side of the interviewing table.

Marion has kindly offered to give away an e-Copy* of Helsinki Sunrise. To enter the draw for her book, please leave a comment before September 19th telling us which country you would like Marion to use for a setting in her next novel. Please include your email address to be eligible for the draw. The winner will be announced on the blog on September 21st. International readers are welcome to enter.

This blog tour will remain at International Christian Fiction Writers tomorrow where I will share a book review of Helsinki Sunrise.

Numerous eBooks of Helsinki Sunrise will be given away on the blog tour, so take a journey to each of the stops and leave a comment. Don’t forget to include your email address.

Helsinki Sunrise is available to purchase from Pelican Book Group, Christianbook.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble

Watch the Helsinki Sunrise book trailer on YouTube.

Watch the Passport to Romance book trailer on YouTube.

Connect with Marion Ueckermann:

Website / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

Blogs: A Pebble in my Pocket / Foreign Affaire

* Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

Permission to use images obtained.

Ruth Ann Dell writes children's stories and international Christian fiction from her home in a sunny South African suburb. She is a member of several writing groups including the American Christian Fiction Writers and Writer's Ink. Her desire is to craft gripping stories which draw her readers into a closer relationship with God.

Ruth Ann and her husband have lived in several countries and are renovating a cottage in the heart of Ireland.

Shirley's Writing Process--blog tour relay

This post is part of a blog post relay for which I received batons from two different authors. You wouldn't think I was running a relay here as I sat in the sun working on my laptop! Great for inspiration. Not so good for the eyes!

The first baton came from Marion Ueckermann, a South African writer whose debut novelette, Helsinki Sunrise, will be released 22 August 2014 by Pelican Book Group (White Rose Publishing) as part of the Passport to Romance series.

Marion blogs for International Christian Fiction Writers and Beauty for Ashes. She belongs to Christian Writers of South Africa and American Christian Fiction Writers. Marion lives in Pretoria East, South Africa in an empty nest with her husband and their crazy black Scottie, Wally. You can read about herwriting process at the ICFW blog, or visit her at her website, http://apebbleinmypocket.com/

The second baton came from LeAnne Hardy, an author who has lived in six countries on four continents as a writer and missionary librarian. Her plots and settings are inspired by these diverse locations. She currently writes and does freelance editing from a lake in the Northwoods of Wisconsin where she and her husband enjoy visitors, especially grandchildren. You can read about LeAnne's writing process here and you can also visit her at her website, www.leannehardy.net.

Thank you both of you for this fun blog relay!

In order to participate in this blog tour, I have to answer four specific questions, then pass on the baton to a further three writers whom you can read about at the end.

So here goes:

1) WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

I have two works in progress. The working title of the main project is Out of the Shadows: Reflections of Lesser-known Women in the Bible.

What was it like to be the first and only woman? How did it feel to live on a giant boat with every type of living creature? Who was the first Christian evangelist recorded in history, and how thrilled was the old lady? And yes, I said old lady!

Have you ever thought of how it was to be the first woman to ever be pregnant? No other woman to assist you? No diapers? No books to read about dealing with two-year-olds? I am really enjoying the research as I look at the rarely-spoken-of characters behind some well-known names,like Sarai who was later called Sarah. Or Eve. Then there are the women whom we rarely hear mentioned in a sermon, such as Huldah, Jael, Anna and Elizabeth, not to mention the ladies who don’t have a name in Scripture—the Phoenician woman, the prostitute of Luke 7, the woman with the gynaecological problem, and others.

What can we learn about these women and what they went through? And more importantly, what do their lives say to us today? As I studied these ladies who appear in Scripture in the shadow of their famous husbands or other person, I was thrilled to learn how much their lives have to say to women who live today, perhaps under the shadow of an important husband or child, or an abusive relationship. Sometimes the shadow is even caused by the church they attend, or even the very fact that they are women. God created us all in His image, and He has so many exciting lessons for us, even if we think we live in the shadows.

My second project is Naomi's Long Road Home: Living with Heartbreak and Shattered Dreams. There are many books about Ruth. This is the story of Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law. What can we learn from the life of this brave woman of faith that will help us deal with our own times of heartache and shattered dreams? It would appear that this book would have come out of the previous one, but it actually worked the other way round. I had almost finished drafting this book, which I intend to release as an e-book, when I realised there were a whole lot more lesser-known women in Scripture with stories to tell. 

 
2) HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

I have a problem deciding on my genre. All my published work is non-fiction, although I love writing novels for fun. (Seven times through NaNoWriMo proves that!) So the closest I can get is to say I write to inspire and encourage.

Where most Bible-based inspirational books stick with what is obvious in the Scripture passage, my goal is to enable readers to identify with the character’s emotions and behavior. I use anecdotes from modern situations where applicable, to bring the character to life in the minds of the readers, without departing from the truth as revealed in the Bible. In my current works I include background material taken from historical material and other parts of Scripture.

In Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer (Revell/Baker 2012) I take the reader on a typical cancer journey, linking it with true-life anecdotes and relevant Scriptures. My desire is to encourage those facing this life-threatening disease as they see that God is with them all the way, even during the darkest times. This book truly was a miracle in progress all the way along the line. If you are interested in reading more of how it came about, you can follow this link.

I do not want people to see me as a wonderful writer of a true book, but to see a true book about a wonderful God.

3) WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

I love God’s Word and have a passion for helping others to apply it to their lives. Scripture tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Sometimes it is difficult to associate what we’re going through with the Word of God. I see my writing as an opportunity to help people bring the two together. I also enjoy looking for God at work in every day life, and I love to turn those events into story form. 

4) HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

I do have a desk in an office which I share with my retired-pastor husband. However, I tend to write in different locations, one of my favourite being outside with my laptop as you can see above, or first thing in the morning before getting up. I do this particularly when I get inspiration for a devotional message during my Quiet Time.

Because I write mainly non-fiction, I start off with an idea of what I want the final work to be like. However, I am very much a seat-of-the-pants writer in that once I know where I’m headed I just go. I am also an inveterate note-taker. I jot down ideas in note-books, on the back of envelopes, on scraps of paper, on the back of important documents (!), and if all else fails on the palm of my hand. When I open my Bible in Church I have to be careful not to scatter pieces of paper in all directions.

Out of the Shadows, came out of my daily Quiet Time with the Lord. I noticed how many women there were in the Bible whom I really knew very little about. For example, Noah had a wife three sons and three daughters-in-law. That’s virtually all I knew about the women. They existed, and they went on a boat trip. A very long boat trip. I started thinking about Noah’s wife and all she must have gone through. I realised how much we could figure out about her from the Scriptures and from what we know about the culture of the time, and I knew I had to write about her. I then drew up a list of just about all the women in the Bible that we didn’t know much about. In some cases, the names were quite well known, but not the personalities.

It was nearly November, and I wanted to enter NaNoWriMo once last time. (This is the third time I've done it for the last time.) So I created two characters, Carey and Ross, and set one of them (Carey) to work to write the book. Ross, a fledgling Christian kept asking questions or disagreeing, which gave Carey opportunity to explain more about the character of the day. So I could honestly say I was writing a novel, although I had no intention of that being the final outcome.

Commencing on November 1, I wrote and researched flat out, completing the initial draft in three weeks. I then left it for two months partly because of Christmas and other deadlines, but also because I felt I needed to step back from it for a period. Where I had originally intended it to be a book of devotions, I realised it had turned out to be more of a book of reflections based on these women. The theme changed to be more of an encouraging meditation on their lives and the encouragement for us to stand tall, out of the shadows, and be the women God ordained us to be.

And so in February with a clearer picture of what the finished book should be like, I started a rewrite of the book. I am feeding the chapters to my critique group as I go, and once I’ve finished the rewrite I will start the editing and polishing process.

Because I live in S.Africa, publication is an even bigger challenge that for many other writers. My last book, Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, was published as a result of contacts made when I attended a Christian Writers Conference in America. I don’t see that happening again, so I’m hoping to find an interested agent.

And so now it gives me great pleasure to pass three batons on to the following gifted writers and cyber friends:

Ray Hawkins is a retired Churches of Christ (Australia) minister. Married to Mary, a multi-published Christian Romance author, their three children and six grandchildren are their pride and joy. Ray still preaches, and he writes themed devotionals printed by Even Before Publishing. He assists at his son’s Seahorse World tourist business in Tasmania. Ray and Mary have been on three short-term mission trips to Africa. You can read about Ray's writing process on his blog on May 19th.


LeAnn Campbell is a retired special education teacher in SW Missouri, wife, mother, and grandmother. She is the author of a four-book Century Farm mystery series for kids (book #5, Secret Wall Mystery, to be released soon), published by OakTara. Book #6, Abandoned Schoolhouse Mystery, is her latest Work-in-Progress. The books are Christian, and she takes them into public and private school classrooms, where the students eagerly contribute ideas for the stories. You can read more about LeAnn's writing process on her blog on May 19th.


Heidi M. Thomas grew up on a working ranch in eastern Montana. She had parents who taught her a love of books and a grandmother who rode bucking stock in rodeos. Describing herself as “born with ink in her veins,” Heidi followed her dream of writing with a journalism degree from the University of Montana and later turned to her first love, fiction, to write her grandmother’s story.

Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, has won an EPIC Award and the USA Book News Best Book Finalist award. Follow the Dream, a WILLA Award winner, is the second book in the “Cowgirl Dreams" series about strong, independent Montana women. Dare to Dream completes the trilogy.

Heidi is a member of Women Writing the West and Professional Writers of Prescott. She is an avid reader of all kinds of books, enjoys the sunshine and hiking in north-central Arizona, where she writes, edits, and teaches memoir and fiction writing classes. Read more about Heidi's writing process on May 19th.