Writing About Mental Illness -- by Christine Lindsay

I'm not much interested in reading novels that weigh me down with the darkness of mental illness. Yet, it's an issue that's risen it's confusing head in my own family. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I steer away from stories that delve deeply into the shadows of depression.

I don't like going there. It's all just too dark.

I've had to live with the affects of emotional and mental illness in many of the people I love. My own precious daughter suffers with severe depression. If it weren't for heavy duty medications from her psychiatrist, she would be unable to function in our fast-as-lighting world today. 

My mother also struggled with depression and was even misdiagnosed by her doctor and prescribed medications that actually worsened her condition. One uncle died from an overdoes of medications, and a distant cousin committed suicide.

Horrible stuff. Horrible memories I don't wish to be reminded of.

Unless, it's to share a ray of hope.

Mental illness can be defeated. People can be set free.

My daughter modeling for the
front of one of my books.

I saw this in both my mother and my daughter. Today they are vibrant women living their lives and making a contribution to the world. 

So, I suppose it was inevitable that I would one day write a novel that touches on mental illness. In this case I put what we call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome into one of my secondary characters. Just because they didn't label it that back in 1913 doesn't mean they didn't experience it.

But my latest book also dealt with a woman who suffers from addiction to a drug prescribed by her doctor. In this case, laudanum. I understood this too well as I watched my own mother slowly weaned off the wrong medication prescribed by her over-worked doctor.

Sofi's Bridge deals with these dark and difficult subjects, but I think the secret is in keeping this topic in small doses for the reader. The last thing the reader needs is pages and pages of dark depression. 

My advice in writing dark subjects such as depression and mental illness is to keep it short. Only place your reader in the mind of that tortured character for short periods of time, then whisk the reader out as quickly as possible to the point of view of a character that is propelled by hope.

We can't and shouldn't avoid stories about depression and mental illness, but we can write these stories in such a way as to give the reader hope for the people they love who struggle with these issues. 

My mum on her way to a
friend's birthday party.

That's the whole purpose behind Sofi's Bridge. I saw healing in my family from this disease, and bright hope for my loved ones' tomorrows.  

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction with complex emotional and psychological truth, who always promises a happy ending. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary romance Londonderry Dreaming and newest release Sofi’s Bridge.

A busy writer and speaker, Christine, and her husband live on the west coast of Canada. Coming August 2016 is the release of her non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads

Christine's Got a Brand New Baby

If a writer knows the subject and setting well, the story comes to life. With this new baby of mine, Sofi’s Bridge, I’d like to take you on a tour of my beautiful home close to the Cascade Mountains that bridge Washington State and British Columbia, Canada.

In my opinion I live in one of the prettiest places in the world, often compared

Wood carvings featured
in homestead of Sofi's Bridge.

to the Swiss Alps. Since I literally live only 3 miles as far as the crow flies from the US border, I used my own valley and created a fictional vale in Washington State. I did this only to give the book an American setting since those readers make up the majority of the market. But just between me and you, the story is really set in Canada. But shhhh, let’s keep that a secret.

Below are 3 scenes in which I used my province to create the fictional town of Orchard in the US.

~*~

The view from my dining room window.

Sunlight slanted from the west as they entered the valley. Farms created a velvet patchwork, and the tang of recently mown hay sweetened the air. The opposite side of the bridge met them at the entrance to town, where the hammers of steelworkers driving rivets into the trusses rang like a welcome home.

Neil stopped at the crossroads.

Sofi savored the outskirts of the town she’d spent most of her childhood summers. Already her spirits lifted. A high-wheeled freight wagon rolled toward Gronberg’s livery stable. Railway lines would make it so much easier to transports goods in and out of Orchard. But there were things she hoped would never change—the red and white awning of Helsing’s mercantile, the steeple of a white clapboard church that sought the sky. With a quiet nod, she motioned to Neil to take the road following this side of the gorge.

~*~

Sofi’s Bridge starts out though in Seattle, which I drive to a few times each year, so again I know the location well. Here’s another snipped created from my own memories driving out of Seattle and heading north.

~*~

Puget Sound

A rising sun melted the morning fog. Where the roads were good, the Cadillac ran smoothly at thirty-five miles per hour. Not so with the out-of-the-way paths

Sofi chose, taking them through cultivated farmlands that hugged the water.

Neil kept to a low speed to avoid jarring as the thin tires travelled the rutted byways. They’d come almost forty miles. Now a smattering of small islands floated on the intense blue of Puget Sound. To the northeast, rolling mountains furred with evergreens gradually molded higher and higher. Ireland wasn’t the only emerald land, but his halfhearted smile faltered when he glanced at Sofi.

~*~

A romantic scene from the book is set in one of my favorite places in all the world, taken directly from my visits to the Alpine Meadow in Manning Park BC,

just across the border from the same glorious Cascade Mountains in Washington State. In fact, each summer I look out on the US side from this location when I go to view the alpine flowers at their peak in mid-July.

~*~

At the summit they reined the Clydesdales under a shady tree. The wind, carrying a clean pine fragrance, blew unimpeded as though they’d reached the top of the world and grasses swayed in the breeze.

Neil walked with Sofi along a pathway strewn on either side with blue and purple lupine, pink phlox, yellow arnica, and red Indian paintbrush. In the distance, pale blue and turquoise ice from glaciers filled crevices between serrated granite heights. Quiet awe filled his face as he swept his gaze three hundred and sixty degrees and studied the glaciers that though they were miles away seemed close enough to touch. Above the tree line, gray peaks scraped the sky, some still capped with snow.

Sofi could only hope that up here for a while he could let go of whatever pain he was hiding from the world, and from her.

Read the first chapter of Sofi’s Bridge for free by clicking HERE.

SOFI’S BRIDGE by Christine Lindsay

Seattle Debutant Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from shock over their father’s death. Charles, the family busy-body, threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium—a whitewashed term for an

insane asylum—so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult to her own emotions? And can Neil, the gardener, continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates lies from truth and safety.

PURCHASE LINKS for Sofi’s Bridge Paper & Ebooks

AMAZON.com 

Barnes and Noble

Pelican Book Group

About Christine:

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning trilogy Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary romance Londonderry Dreaming and newest release Sofi’s Bridge. 

A busy writer and speaker, Christine and her husband live on the west coast of Canada. Coming August 2016 is the release of Christine’s non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Connect with Christine:

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads

The Real Story of St. Patrick by Christine Lindsay

Just like all holidays, St. Patrick's Day takes on some ridiculous forms of celebration from green beer to dressing up in silly clothes.

There are some fantastical legends about St. Patrick, such as him banishing all the snakes from Ireland. While it’s true there are no snakes there, it wasn’t the saint to the Irish who managed that. Ireland is like New Zealand, Hawaii, and Iceland in that regard--just no snakes.

There are certain truths though that we can rely on about St. Patrick, from some of his own writing, The 

Confession and A Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. It is true that Patrick was born around the year 389 and into a Christian family in Britain. His family were Romanized Britons and not nationals. His father Calpurnius was a magistrate and a deacon in the local church. 

Patrick was indeed kidnapped when he was around 12. 

He'd been out on his father's farm when Irish raiders captured him. He was taken to Ireland and sold as slave, spending the next 6 years as a sheep herder.

But like many of us, when bad things happen we often turn our sights toward God. It was while Patrick was a captive that his nominal Christian faith grew deeper. As a teen and a young man Patrick tried to shared his faith with his captors. Eventually Patrick did escape and made his way back to Britain to be reunited with his family. 

He was not a highly educated man, but did go to France and spent time as a monk in the Abby of Lerins in Gaul. One night Patrick dreamed that he heard a voice calling to him in the Irish language (Gaelic), “We beseech you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.”  

While Patrick was not the first missionary to Ireland, he did return to Ireland as a bishop in 432. For the next 30 years until his death, his preaching and baptisms strengthened the already growing church. Due to Patrick’s promotion of the ascetic life of worship, he boldly went into areas that were firmly pagan, teaching the Irish Druids how to worship the Creator instead of His creation.  

He died and was buried in Downpatrick in N. Ireland, and I have been to his grave. 

My aunt, me, and my daughter Lana 2006

Like many ancient cultures, Ireland has a rich oral tradition, and while there is nothing in Patrick’s writings to confirm this, he probably did use a simple shamrock to explain the Trinity. Tradition says that St. Patrick picked up a shamrock, which in the Irish Gaelic language means diminutive clover, and explained that this little piece of flora was one leaf and yet it was made up of three leaves. 

The shamrock helped the Irish, including me as an Irish child, to understand an amazing aspect to God’s person: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Three in One.

Click on this link Londonderry Dreaming to hear some toe-tapping Irish music.

Irish-born Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction. She is currently writing her eighth book. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, why not read some of Christine's books set in Ireland or that feature an Irish hero, check our Londonderry Dreaming and Sofi's Bridge coming May 2016.

Londonderry Dreaming available as an ebook, and Sofi's Bridge coming out in ebook and print May 2016.

Three sleeps till this book arrives!

Today's slot was meant to be Marion Ueckermann's. For a number of reasons, we traded places and I'm delighted to be able spotlight her latest offering in her absence. Marion is a hard-working writer who churns out words regardless of what life throws at her. She is supportive and helpful and a joy to be friends with.

I'm excited to bring you a sneak peak of a new release from Pelican's White Rose / Passport to Travel series. It is hovering in the wings, waiting to take centrestage on Friday, the 14th of August. I loved her previous Pelican release, Helsinki Sunrise, and am looking forward to reading this one. Marion creates characters who are full of spunk, humour and charm.

Oslo Overtures - The Blurb

“If women were meant to fly, the skies would be pink.” 

Those were the first words Anjelica Joergensen heard from renowned wingsuiter, Kyle Sheppard, when they joined an international team in Oslo to break the formation flying Guinness World Record. This wouldn’t be the last blunder Kyle would make around the beautiful Norwegian.

The more Anjelica tries to avoid Kyle, the more the universe pushes them together. Despite their awkward start, she finds herself reluctantly attracted to the handsome New Zealander. But beneath his saintly exterior, is Kyle just a daredevil looking for the next big thrill? 

Falling for another wingsuiter would only be another love doomed.

When a childhood sweetheart comes between them, Kyle makes a foolish agreement which jeopardizes the event and endangers his life, forcing Angelica to make a hard choice.

Is she the one who’ll clip his wings?

Can he be the wind beneath hers?

You can find Marion and all her other published works at www.marionueckermann.com or her Amazon author page.

Marion - we are praying for you and yours at this time. May His peace be around you like a soft warm blanket, and may the Holy Spirit comfort you in the way that only He can.

Vegas Vacation (& eBook Giveaway)

Lies and deceit, murder and mayhem…what else can you expect in Sin City?

Former protective services officer, Sgt. Martin Ames, is five weeks short of medical retirement from the Vegas PD when he lands one last case: spoiled English heiress, Lady Tamlyn Bradshaw, whose bodyguard is hospitalized with suspected food poisoning.

Tamlyn is on holiday, her first without her father and his ever present bodyguards. She wants to have fun, not spend the time stuck in a hotel room with a disabled cop, even if he is tall, dark and disturbingly handsome.

When food poisoning becomes murder, passions and tempers flare as Martin attempts to keep Tamlyn safe from the assailant who gains everything on her death.


Clare Revell, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to International Christian Fiction Writers today.

CLARE: Thank you. It’s lovely to be here on yet another side of a different pond :)

Please tell us how long you’ve been writing.

CLARE: Since I was five. I used to rewrite fairy stories – usually Red Riding Hood, so my penchant with real villains began a long time ago. Then I turned to fanfic, Blake’s Seven, Star Trek, Stargate SG1. Then I added my own characters to those stories and from there launched into my own plots.

You have an amazing publishing career with Pelican Book Group. How many books have you published with them?

CLARE: My first book was published in 2010. Since then I have 20 published with another 18 contracted and 3 with them in hope (wow… I hadn’t actually added them up until now…)

That is a huge accomplishment! Well done!

Now, you’ve been known to work on more than one manuscript at a time. How do you manage that and not get your characters muddled?

CLARE: I cast each book and print off a photo of hero and heroine. So it’s really like watching several different TV shows and not getting them muddled up. EG Eastenders, The Bill, Casualty, Star Trek. 

Earlier this year, you published the final book in a seven book series of the Monday to Sunday’s Child offering readers a romantic suspense for every day of the week. Currently you’re writing on a twelve book contract for 2015. You are one ‘series’ of a lady :)

Please tell us a briefly about these series, and any others you are working on.

CLARE: The Monday’s Child series is summed up in the poem I wrote, with help. Each line is the tag line for that particular book. They cover witness protection, serial killers, and several exciting rescues with the RNLI. The latter I had a blast researching. Saturday’s Child is based on real life events and was incredibly difficult to write.

Monday’s Child must hide for protection,

Tuesday’s Child tenders direction

Wednesday’s Child grieves for his soul

Thursday’s Child chases the whole

Friday's Child is a man obsessed

Saturday’s Child might be possessed

And Sunday’s Child on life’s seas is tossed

Awaiting the Lifeboat that rescues the lost.

The new series also has a poem that sums up each one:

Carnations in January shake the foundations

Violets in February are an aid to salvation

Daffodils in March bring betrayal and loss

Sweet peas in April consume all the dross

Lily of the Valley in May brings danger untold

Roses in June show hope in a heart filled with gold

Water lilies in July a town will submerge

Gladioli in August love from the ash will emerge

Forget-me-nots in September are on the front line of fear

Marigolds in October will test her career 

Chrysanthemums in November show the burden of choice

Holly in December lets a broken family rejoice

These I’m having fun with. Not all villains are men with guns as my tsunami and erupting volcano show. Nicola did an amazing job with the covers – and used my cast list to perfection.

It all sounds very exciting and a lot of hard work. But there’s another series from Pelican Book Group that has me, and readers, excited—that’s the Passport to Romance series released earlier this year from White Rose Publishing, a Pelican Book Group imprint. Your book, Vegas Vacation, releases tomorrow. Having just released Helsinki Sunrise myself, I know how excited you must be.

What inspired Martin and Tamlyn’s story and the location of Las Vegas?

CLARE: My visit to Vegas to stay with a friend in 2005 had a lot to do with it. We did the trip around the Vegas monopoly board that Tamlyn wants to do. We went to Mount Charleston, the Bellagio. It’s an amazing city. It just got me thinking it’d be fun to base a story there and this was the result. It sat on my hard drive for several years after completion and was rewritten several times. I told Lisa, my editor, about a sword fighting scene I’d written set in Vegas and sent it to her. She suggested a passport to romance submission but there wasn’t a prompt for it. She gave me three prompts – funnily enough all in the book anyway. That sword fight ended up being edited out but it’s been saved for another story.

Before we say goodbye, do you have any plans to take your readers to more exotic locations with Passport to Romance?

CLARE: I submitted one set in Wales back in August, so we’ll just have to see what happens.

Clare, thank you so much for being my guest today. It has been really interesting getting to know more about you and your new release.


Vegas Vacation can be purchased from tomorrow at Pelican Book Group (half price release day special), Amazon, Christianbook.com, and Barnes & Noble.

View the Passport to Romance Book Trailer.

For one lucky reader, Clare is giving away a copy of Vegas Vacation (in eBook format only). All you have to do to be eligible for the draw is leave a comment with your email address before October 24. Winners will be announced in the Sunday Edition of October 26.

And just to tempt you to purchase Vegas Vacation, here’s a small extract:

“Martin, you’re the only person in the department with the security clearances and the experience to do this.”

“I haven’t worked protective services for over three years and for good reason. I’m five weeks from early retirement, and I don’t want to spend them running around after a spoiled heiress.”

“Did I ask what you wanted? This woman’s father is royalty and I just got off the phone with him—”

Tamlyn cringed in her seat, her cheeks burning. This was a bad idea. She’d go back to the hotel and trust God to protect her. No one knew who she was; she was just one more tourist in a city of thousands.

The angry voice continued its tirade in the office. “Royalty? In that case, I’m sure she can afford a replacement bodyguard. Even better…ask the British Embassy to provide one. My days of babysitting people are over.”

“Unless you want to be fired five weeks before your retirement date, your assignment for the next three weeks is to be Lady Bradshaw’s bodyguard. There’s the door. She’s by your desk waiting for you.”

The door flung open, and Tamlyn glanced down. She focused her gaze on her fingernails. Maybe she could just pretend she hadn’t heard.

Heavy steps crossed the room as muted conversations started up again. They stopped by the desk. “Lady Bradshaw, I presume?”

She looked up into the most intense, glittering pair of blue eyes she’d ever seen. His hair was pulled back in a long black ponytail, and he leaned on a cane. They had to be kidding. A disabled cop? His navy blue shirt and tie at least gave an appearance of professionalism. Although the gun holster on his shoulder made her shiver.

She stood, grateful he couldn’t read her mind, because she was already regretting that first thought about his gorgeous eyes. She held out a hand. “I am. You must be Sgt. Ames.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Clare writes inspirational romance, usually of a suspenseful nature. Her books are available through her publisher Pelican Book Group and Amazon. She is married with three kids and lives in the UK. She loves watching sci-fi, crime drama, cross stitching, reading and baking.




Connect with Clare:
Website
Blog

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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), 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). Her second Passport to Romance, Oslo Overtures, will be published in 2015.

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.

Connect with Marion Ueckermann:

Website / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

Blogs: A Pebble in my Pocket / Foreign Affaire

Watch the Helsinki Sunrise book trailer on YouTube

* 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.

What's in a Name?

Months before my grandson was born, my son, Ryan, and his wife, Amy, had a name picked out for their new baby. Nate. I liked the name, especially as it was a derivative of the name I’d originally chosen for Ryan nearly twenty-seven years ago—Nathaniel. 

But as you can see, names change once a baby arrives. Ryan just wasn’t a Nathaniel, and neither was my new grandson a Nate, or a Blake, or a Zak, the subsequent names that had followed. I was pretty glad though—although I liked Nate, I wasn’t overly fond of Blake or Zak. However, this wasn’t my baby; he wasn’t mine to name.

Fortunately, big brother, Phoenix, didn’t get a vote on the name either. He wanted to call his baby brother, Batman.

Another contender in the naming game was Griffin—a mythical creature to complement his big brother’s name. We loved this name but Amy wasn’t biting. She didn’t want people to think she’d named her children after the romance movie, Griffin and Phoenix.

The day my grandson was born, Ryan and Amy stared at him as he lay in the bed beside his mommy. “He isn’t a Nate, is he? Or a Blake? Or a Zak?” they said. We all shook our heads.

Later that day I had to run an urgent errand to the bank. Fearful my grandchild would remain nameless, I purchased a baby name book whilst at the mall. Not the one with 10,000 names, or 7,000. I chose the book with 6,000 names—I wanted them to have choices, but not so many they’d be overwhelmed (smiley face icon).

Unbeknown to me though, they’d stumbled across choosing my grandson’s name while I was away. The name book was not utterly wasted though, as it cemented their choice once they read the meaning of his name.

Currently, Coca Cola is running a “Share a Coke with …” campaign in South Africa (perhaps it’s global?). My husband was thirsty and had gone to the hospital cafeteria to buy a drink. He came back to the ward with a can of coke that read: “Share a Coke with Liam.” By the time I got back to the hospital, the name was starting to grow on them. Everyone who visited that day told Ryan and Amy how much they liked the name Liam. And so, two days later, my grandson was registered as Liam Ueckermann—strong-willed warrior, determined protector.

Last year, I too was pregnant…pregnant with a story that took nine months from the time the idea was conceived, till it was offered a chance at life with a publishing contract. My baby wasn’t a stork delivery, however. It came with a Pelican—Pelican Book Group.

But my grandson wasn’t to be the only newborn destined to have a change of name. My own baby, Blueberry Eve, also had a name change. It didn’t come as a surprise to me though. When I saw the titles of the contracted Passport to Romance books—Bogota Blessings, Londonderry Dreaming, Vegas Vacation and Echoes of Edinburgh, I knew my novelette was about to get renamed. It took a little while to adjust to the change, and although I’ll always love Blueberry Eve, Helsinki Sunrise has really grown on me.

Last week I received the galley proofs. Hopefully I’ll have a publication date soon. Now I need to think about planning a blog tour to show off my new baby. If anyone is interested in doing a book review, or interview, featuring this fun story set in Helsinki, Finland, I’d love to hear from you. You can comment here or email me: marion.ueckermann@gmail.com.  Of course, there will be e-book giveaways of Helsinki Sunrise up for grabs.

To end off...a little praise from one of my proofreaders for Helsinki Sunrise: “May I congratulate you on a beautiful love story of faith, hope, and love. And a gentle reminder that if God is in control, He can change the course of your life for the better, no matter how impossible that may seem. Just wonderfully uplifting. I feel honored to have had the chance to read it before it's officially released.”

And finally, to whet your appetite, here’s my working blurb:

HELSINKI SUNRISE

He needed the island to himself. So did she.

Three weeks alone at a friend’s summer cottage on a Finnish lake to fast and pray. That was Adam Carter's plan. But sometimes plans go awry.

On an impromptu trip to her family's secluded summer cottage, the last thing Eveliina Mikkola expected to find was a missionary from the other side of the world—in her sauna.

Determined to stay, Eveliina will do whatever it takes—from shortcrust pastry to shorts—to send the man of God packing. This island’s too small for them both.

Adam Carter, however, is not about to leave.

Will he be able to resist her temptations?

Can she withstand his prayers?

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 (2009), The One Year Devotional of Joy and Laughter (published August 2011 by Tyndale House Publishers) and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miraculous Messages from Heaven (published 15 October 2013). She has recently signed a publishing contract with Pelican Book Group (White Rose Publishing) for Helsinki Sunrise, Passport to Romance series. Marion blogs for International Christian Fiction Writers and belongs to Christian Writers of South Africa and American Christian Fiction Writers. She now lives in Pretoria East, South Africa in an empty nest with her husband and their crazy black Scottie, Wally.

THE PERFECT GIFT

We all get them—those annoying gifts that fail to please. Around this time of the year, most of you would probably have already taken your unsuitable Christmas gifts back to the store they came from and swapped them for something suitable, something that fits, something that works. Perhaps you’ve passed them along to someone else or just packed them away—maybe one day you’ll find a use for them.

The week after Christmas already saw me back at the mall, exchanging the hotbrush my husband bought me. I’d been anxiously waiting for this gift I suspected I’d be getting. Far too many bad hair days had passed since my current hotbrush finally refused to work. I was told not to buy a new one yet, to just wait. Imagine my disappointment when the well-known brand hubby bought was a bad design. No locking mechanism to hold the brush onto the handle resulted in the brush falling off the handle every time I curled my hair around the bristles. It only took a few tries to realize this would not work. And so, a few days after receiving this gift, back it went. I promptly bought the familiar brand that had served me well for many years.

But I did receive a perfect gift this Christmas, although it wasn’t actually a Christmas gift. When we opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, my son pulled a fairly large wrapped box from under the tree. It had been placed there along with a myriad of other brightly wrapped boxes and gift bags. He handed it to me, and told me it was from his in-laws in Finland. I initially thought it was a Christmas gift. But when I began to unwrap it a little later while wading through my mound of gifts, my daughter-in-law painted an entirely different picture about this gift.

“That’s a ‘congratulations on being published’ gift from my mother and father,” Tiia said. I unwrapped the box and held my breath as I opened the lid. What was inside?

The box housed the perfect gift from my new Finnish family. But before I tell you what it is, I need to give you a quick insight as to why this gift was so perfect.

My novelette that has just been contracted by Pelican Book Group (White Rose Publishing), is set in Helsinki, Finland. It’s titled, Blueberry Eve, and of course, just like Finland, there’s loads of blueberries in the offering.

So, back to the gift. Inside the box lay a beautiful porcelain bowl molded in the shape of Finland. It was filled with blueberry chocolates.

The paper map beneath the chocolates pinpointed major cities and gave some interesting statistics about Finland.

Now isn’t that a perfect gift for this special occasion?

Once Blueberry Eve is published, it’s my hope that readers will savor every word of this fun, romance novelette, just like I’m savoring every chocolate inside my new, special bowl. And, of course, that my words will be just as sweet.

What about you? What perfect gifts have you received? It would be fun to hear about those disastrous ones, too.

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 (2009), The One Year Devotional of Joy and Laughter (published August 2011 by Tyndale House Publishers) and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miraculous Messages from Heaven (published 15 October 2013). She has just signed a publishing contract with Pelican Group Publishers (White Rose Publishing) for her novelette, Blueberry Eve. Marion blogs for International Christian Fiction Writers and belongs to Christian Writers of South Africa and American Christian Fiction Writers. She now lives in Pretoria East, South Africa in an empty nest with her husband and their crazy black Scottie, Wally.