Love for All Time

posted by Donna Fletcher Crow @donnafletchercr

What a lovely thing Valentine’s Day is—a whole day set aside especially for sharing love, remembering those we love in special ways, and celebrating love. But of course, just one day isn’t nearly enough to share our love and appreciation for friends, family and all the people in our lives who mean so much to us.

Sharing love every day is one of my goals as a writer. That’s why I find that whether I’m writing mystery, romance, or history, my stories all have an element of love in them. No matter what the story is, it’s about people—and what could possibly be more important to people in any circumstance than love—both human and divine?

That’s why, of the 50-some books I’ve written, my Where There is Love series is still one of my very favorites. These are true stories of faith and love, recounting the early, formative years in the lives of men and women who went on to shape the religious life of 18^th and 19^th century England.

Where Love Begins
Can Catherine Perronet find happiness when her beloved Charles Wesley marries another?

Where Love Illumines
Mary Tudway must choose: a life of pleasure amidst London's high society or a life of faith and service with the devout Rowland Hill?

Where Love Triumphs
Charming, brilliant and lame, Sir Brandley Hilliard believes he can do very well without love of any kind in his life—until he meets the captivating Elinor Silbert and King’s College Fellow, Charles Simeon.

Where Love Restores
Granville Ryder's harsh up-bringing means he must struggle to find his place in his illustrious family, in God's work, and in Georgiana's heart.

Where Love Shines
In Scutari, the charge of the Light Brigade leaves Lt. Richard Grayson blinded and Jennifer Neville, one of Florence Nightengale's nurses, devastated—a darkness from which they must grope their way to the light.

Where Love Calls
Kynaston Studd is on fire to carry the love of God to the ends of the earth, but God seems to be calling his friends there instead; and Hilda is horrified to find herself falling in love with the man she had intended for her sister.

Times and circumstances change, but love abides.

May you have a beautiful Valentine’s Day sharing love with all around you.

https://www.donnafletchercrow.com/

Bookish Tuesday: Being Too Bookish can be Dangerous

posted by Donna Fletcher Crow

Book lover, avid reader and literature professor Elizabeth Allerton wouldn’t think there was any such thing as being “too bookish.” Reading is her hobby, her profession and her passion. That means a week at a resort high in the Rockies, enacting and solving a Dorothy L. Sayers-style mystery will be the perfect spring break.

As head of the English department at Rocky Mountain College, Elizabeth badgers the newly hired professor Richard Spencer to accompany her for this living-inside-a-book experience—the perfect event to add breadth to Richard’s reading background and depth to the course in The English Mystery Novel Elizabeth teaches.

And it becomes all the more perfect for Elizabeth when the man of her dreams enters the scene.

                                                                             (credit: Lucy Worsley “Why I Love DorothyL. Sayers”)

Until the play-acting embroils them in a real-life murder and the lines between reality and fiction blur dangerously. 

TheShadow of Reality, book 2 in my Elizabeth and Richard Literary Suspense series, has recently been re-released in an all-new edition.

The story is based on a murder weekend my husband and I attended at MohonkMountain House in the Hudson River Valley many years ago, although I have moved the setting to the Rocky Mountains.

For my fictional Eyrie House I used Glen Eyrie, home of Navigators InternationalStudent Ministry, where my husband and I also attended a conference. Glen Eyrie is tucked in the Garden of the Gods, near of the foot of the mountain; I merely moved it to the top for my story.

Although Elizabeth’s experience is a figment of my imagination, since I did experience the mystery week which serves as the background of my story, I can attest that there were moments in our role-played adventure when I felt the lines of fiction and reality blurring:

The old hotel was quiet, and the uneven floorboards creaked under her feet as Elizabeth climbed the stairs, her hand running lightly up the oak banister. On the fourth floor the hall was softly lighted, and the mellow wainscoting was warm and welcoming. Elizabeth’s mind was full of images from the movie and the roleplaying of the past days… and suddenly she was walking down the hall in a Yorkshire country house in the thirties.

The sensation lasted only a few seconds before reality intervened and shattered the illusion, but for that moment it had been so absolutely real, so totally authentic, that it left Elizabeth shaken and strangely buoyed. It was as if all the books she had read and the movies she had seen about time travel and visiting other dimensions were possible.

The above scene is written in my heroine’s consciousness, but it was my experience. Even as I write this I can see the old, deep red carpet and feel it under my feet.

This you-are-there experience is something I hope for in all the books I read and strive for in all that I write. But at the end of the day, it’s important to remember that literature can reflect life and teach us about life by expanding experiences beyond our own, but, as Elizabeth learned, it isn’t real life.

Have you had experiences where reality and fiction blurred for you?

Donna has loved interacting with the backgrounds of all of her books. She currently authors 3 mystery series. you can read about all of them and see photos from her research trips at DonnaFletcherCrow.com

Wandering Wednesday: Halloween Around the World

Posted by Donna Fletcher Crow

How will your family be celebrating Halloween today? In North America most children have a grand time dressing up as their favorite super hero or Disney princess and going around the neighborhood Trick-or-treating. I’ve laid in store of small candy bars to greet our young visitors and decorated my doorstep with pumpkins and gourds.

In Ireland, where many believe Halloween originated from a Celtic festival, they enjoy barmbrack, a kind of fruitcake. A muslin-wrapped treat is baked inside the cake that, it is said, can foretell the eater’s future. If a ring is found, it means that the person will soon be wed; a piece of straw means that a prosperous year is on its way. Children are also known to play tricks on their neighbors, such as “knock-a-dolly,” a prank in which children knock on the doors of their neighbors, but run away before the door is opened.

In Mexico The Day of the Dead is a national holiday. Families remember their departed with processions and with picnics in cemeteries, usually eating a favorite dish of the departed. Celebrations often include the strains of a mariachi band.

My adopted grandson who grew up as an orphan in Russia has vivid memories of running through the cemetery, eating candy from the graves left by the families of the departed.

In Italy a special bread called Pan co’ Santi, “Bread with Saints” is the seasonal treat prepared in honor of All Saint’s Day, the 1st of November. In Tuscan dialect the saints are walnuts and raisins that you can find inside this fluffy and sweet bread.

In the Church of England All Saints’ Day, November 1, is a celebratory feast marked with white and gold vestments and incense in memory of the saints. The next day, All Souls’ of the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed is dedicated to remembering all our departed loved ones. This day is marked with a somber service of black vestments, ochre colored candles and tolling for the dead, sometimes with muffled bells.

However the season is kept, it shows the fascination and deep concern that human beings have always had regarding death and what happens to the dead. This is especially appropriate to Christianity because death and questions of the world to come stand at the very heart of our faith. After all, the death of one man and his resurrection are the centerpiece of Christianity and inform our beliefs about the state of the dead and the future of all mortals.

It can also be a time to contemplate—a time to deal with the reality of death—our own, as well as the death of others. In these days we bring death and the dead into the light; to mourn, but not to despair; even more, to celebrate what needs to be celebrated. Most of all we are to see life as a gift and death as a new beginning.

For more information on the spiritual significance of All Saints’ and All Souls’Donna Fletcher Crow’s ANewly Crimsoned Reliquary draws the All Saints’ and All Souls’ observances in vivid detail. It will remain on .99 special through Nov 2.

Sally Wright’s The Outsiding: The Best is Last

Bookish Tuesday

by Donna Fletcher Crow @DonnaFletcherCr

I have often said that the best thing about being a writer is the wonderful people it brings into one’s life. Sally Wright was at the top of my list of those wonderful people. Through the years we shared our writing, our faith, our families. In recent years, updates on her health took their place alongside updates on her writing, because Sally’s passion to tell the truth through fiction never wavered. Her husband Joe told me her last instructions to him were to get her book published.

Sally couldn’t have left a more fitting memorial than The Outsiding, the final book in her Jo Grant series. Here is the blurb I was honored to give: “Sally Wright doesn’t create characters—she breeds living, breathing people right there on the page. Along with her meticulously researched and developed background and intricate plot, The Outsiding is a practically perfect book. And her historical notes at the end are almost as interesting as the novel itself.”

Charles Todd, bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries and the Bess Crawford Series said: “Wright gives us a story of Kentucky horse country that’s articulate and frighteningly possible, a setting that is pitch perfect, and characters who step right off the page; a bittersweet look at people you care about and want to win, a novel you won’t soon forget.”

And Peggy S. Brown, Equestrian instructor and clinician gave a good summary of the plot: “With her characteristic mastery of words, Sally Wright engages her reader with the last of her Jo Grant mystery series, located deep in the heart of horse country, Lexington, Kentucky.  Set in the 1960’s, the thoroughbred breeding industry is undermined by a cunning and highly disreputable veterinarian’s ingenious money-making schemes. The reader is treated to a skillfully woven plot and a cleverly constructed cast of characters who lead us into the darker side of the horse racing and breeding world as well as into the inevitable pitfalls of family business and interpersonal interactions.  A mystery sure to absorb horse enthusiasts as well as those who savor this popular author’s mastery of words and intrigue.  Saddle up for a captivating read.”

The wonderful thing about the written word is that it goes on forever. Sally’s death has left a hole in my life but the wonderful characters she created in her six Ben Reese Mysteries and the three Jo Grant novels she leaves behind are still with us telling their powerful stories in Sally’s inimitable style.

Donna Fletcher Crow is the author of some 50 novels of British history, including Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England, and 3 mystery series. You can see more about them here and read my tribute to Sally Wright here.

Adventures of the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne

by Donna Fletcher Crow @donnafletchercr                                                                                   

I am delighted to have as my guest today the award-winning English children's author Anne Booth to tell us about her new book. I was immediately attracted to this book because of it's wonderful setting. Lindisfarne is one of my favorite places in the world, one I have enjoyed visiting as a pilgrim and as research for A Very Private Grave, the first of my Monastery Murders.

Now, here's Anne to tell us about herself, her new book and her time on Lindisfarne:

My name is Anne Booth and I am a Christian wife and mother of four.  My first published children’s book came out in 2014, a book for 9-12 year olds called Girl with a White Dog, which went on to be shortlisted for The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, The Little Rebels Award and nominated for The Carnegie.

Since 2014 I have had 4 picture books, 4 books for 5-8 year olds, one book for 7-9 year olds and 3 books for 9-12 year olds published, and I have a definite further 4 picture books, 5 books for 7-9 year olds and 1 book for 5-8 year olds being published in the next two years, so I feel very blessed. It feels like when you are waiting at a bus stop for ages and then lots turn up at once!

Across the Divide, which has just been published, is my first book for 9-12 year olds which specifically has praying Christian characters in it and so it is appropriate it is mostly set on Lindisfarne or Holy Island, off the coast of North East England, which is so important for the history of Christianity.

I wanted to write a mainstream children’s book where modern children who pray could find themselves, but also where modern children who know little or nothing about religion, and maybe fear it, could learn to understand a little more about Christian spirituality and how it has motivated people in the past and still does in the present. This book is about respecting other’s opinions and decisions, and in particular those who choose Pacifism and those who choose to join the army.

The cover of my book references the fact that Lindisfarne is an island, cut off from the mainland by the tides.

I visited on my own as part of a research trip for the book last year, and took this photo in the taxi as we started across the causeway. In my book I have Olivia, the narrator, driving along the causeway with her dad, and remembering Moses parting the Red Sea.

If you are lucky enough to be staying on the island, there is a particular enchantment to being there when the last visitors have gone and the tide has come in and you can no longer drive along the road. It is so easy to imagine Lindisfarne in the past, and that you are watching and hearing the same sea birds hovering over the same sea that the first monks and later the Vikings knew. There is a timeless quality to the island, and it has been described as a ‘thin’ place, a place where heaven and earth are close.

I first visited Lindisfarne on a day trip with friends about thirty years ago, but since then have spent many holidays staying with my husband and four children and two dogs, for a week at a time,  in a house there, and have made more day trips there whenever we are in the area. I can’t be near Lindisfarne and not visit it! You can’t see the ruins of the Abbey, now maintained by English Heritage, and not marvel at how ancient it is and how it was so important to the spread of Christianity in our islands. It was a centre of learning for Christian medieval Europe, the Celtic monks creating The Lindisfarne Gospels and making Lindisfarne a centre of learning and pilgrimage.  People still go on pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, now.

https://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/gospels/ 

It is a place of saints, amongst them the Irish Saint Aidan, known as ‘the apostle of England’.

and St Cuthbert.

I love the bird life and nature, and there are legends in particular about St. Cuthbert and the otters and the eider duck.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/23096274

When I was there researching my book I went on a wonderful walk around the island organised by Natural England, and in Across The Divide’ I mention some of  the many birds that were pointed out to me pointed that day, which you can read about here.

Central to the book is Lindisfarne Castle, originally built in Tudor times as a garrison. It fell into disrepair, and was bought by the American editor of ‘Country Life’ Edward Hudson at the beginning of the twentieth century. He employed the famous Edwardian architect Edwin Lutyens and the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. The sheltered, walled garden is separate from the castle but the castle can be seen from it, and it from the castle, and Olivia my heroine visits it in the book.

The castle was made it into a wonderful place for many famous Edwardian friends to come and visit, including the cellist Madame Suggia and a Royal visit. The son of Hudson’s friends, a boy called Billy Congreve,  came to recover from diphtheria,  and loved the island so much Edward Hudson decide to leave the castle to him. Billy later grew up and fought and sadly died, in the First World War. The castle is now owned by the National Trust, and when I visited it I saw how they had laid out the rooms the way they looked at the time of Edward Hudson. It is now closed for restoration, but there are plans it will re-open this summer. I can’t wait to visit again!

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lindisfarne-castle/features/the-gertrude-jekyll-garden-at-lindisfarne-castle

You can see more of Anne's books here.

Posted by Donna Fletcher Crow. You can see more about her books and pictures from her research trips here.

International Christian Fiction - New Releases | June 2018

The Flame Ignites (An Elizabeth and Richard Literary Suspense Book 1) by Donna Fletcher Crow

October 1984, the New England hillsides are ablaze with redgold autumn. Elizabeth is beginning her academic career and recently widowed Richard is stuck in the family business. They should be able to help each other but their meeting strikes sparks and raises old ghosts, possibly even the ghost of Richard's dead wife. When Elizabeth finds an academic coup within her grasp for her thesis on the beloved American novelist Elswyth Thane, Richard stubbornly throws up barriers, but why? Rudyard Kipling, William Beebe, Charles Lindberg, Edna Ferber and a host of celebrities from an age past fill the pages of Elswyth Thane’s letters, but where is Elizabeth to find clues to the mystery haunting Richard?
A nostalgic return to an earlier, now-vanished time, The Flame Ignites charmingly evokes a long-distance relationship between a young woman just testing her wings and a celebrated American novelist. But what about the smoldering relationship between Elizabeth and Richard?

Available at Amazon.com

Affinity by Dianne J. Wilson

Kai was born with the ability to see brokenness and to fix it. But when a freak accident leaves him trapped in the spiritual realm, he discovers a sinister side to being gifted-- much darker than he'd ever imagined. With Affinity Recruiters hunting him down, Kai has to learn how to stay alive, use his gift to save his friends and stop the flood of evil threatening the world. Can he do it before time runs out?

Available at Amazon.com

Dolce Vita: Sweet Life (A Tuscan Legacy Book 8) by Autumn Macarthur

La dolce vita, a sweeter life of love, awaits Rachel. But can she accept it?

Rachel Golding loves her uncomplicated life in Wales. Teaching art, a close-knit group of friends, and a strong and loving bond with her mother. But the trip to Italy to meet her Italian grandmother for the first time stirs unwelcome emotions — reluctance to forgive Nonna for a lifetime of rejection, and longing to know more about the father who died before her birth. Between her cousin’s accusation she sent a series of mysterious unsigned paintings to get revenge on the family, her mother’s wedding, and her realization she feels way more than she should for her best friend Jonathan, Rachel’s carefully planned life is spiraling out of control.

Always ready for adventure, especially with the woman he loves, Jonathan Davies gladly accompanies Rach on an impulsive return journey to Tuscany. Okay, so he also hopes the time together might give him the chance to tell her how he really feels. But now she needs his friendship and support more than ever, revealing his love is a risk he dare not take. Not without some sign she wants more. A sign she may never give.

In the haze of a sunflower summer, can Rachel learn to surrender her hurts and fears to God and so embrace the life He intends for her? La dolce vita, a sweeter life of love.

Note to readers: This book uses British English spelling and grammar.

Available at Amazon.com

La Risposta: The Answer (A Tuscan Legacy Book 9) by Autumn Macarthur

One marriage ends, as another begins. Or can faith and forgiveness save Peppe and Teresa's life together?

When the harvest celebrations and a family wedding bring the eight cousins back to the the villa at summer's end, along with their new beloveds, the final secrets are revealed, along with the solution to the puzzle of the unsigned paintings.

But can these secrets be forgiven, healing old wounds and mending broken hearts, or will the mistakes of the past be repeated?

The future of a marriage about to crumble depends on the answer!

This nine-book Christian romance series from seven of your favorite authors releases weekly from April 2018. La Risposta (this book) is an entire romance in itself, as well as completing the series.

Available at Amazon.com

The Road to Magnolia Glen (A Natchez Trace Novel) by Pam Hillman

1792, Natchez Trace, MS

Bitter since his eldest brother abandoned their family in Ireland, Quinn O’Shea travels to Natchez, Mississippi, ready to shuck the weight of his duty and set off on an adventure of his own. It’s time Connor, as head of the family, took responsibility for their younger siblings. While aboard ship, a run-in with three Irish sisters lands Quinn in the role of reluctant savior. Though it may delay his plans, he cannot abandon the Young sisters, especially the tenacious yet kind Kiera.

Upon arriving in the colonies, Kiera Young prepares to meet her intended and begin her new life. But she soon discovers the marriage her brother-in-law arranged was never meant to be, and a far more sinister deal was negotiated for her and her sisters.

Quinn offers to escort his charges safely to Breeze Hill Plantation and his brother’s care, fully intending to seek his freedom elsewhere. But the longer he remains, the greater his feelings toward Kiera grow and the more he comes to realize true freedom might be found in sacrifice.

Available at Amazon.com

A Defense of Honor (Haven Manor Book #1) by Kristi Ann Hunter

When Katherine "Kit" FitzGilbert turned her back on London society more than a decade ago, she determined never to set foot in a ballroom again. But when business takes her to London and she's forced to run for her life, she stumbles upon not only a glamorous ballroom but also Graham, Lord Wharton. What should have been a chance encounter becomes much more as Graham embarks on a search for his friend's missing sister and is convinced Kit knows more about the girl than she's telling.

After meeting Graham, Kit finds herself wishing things could have been different for the first time in her life, but what she wants can't matter. Long ago, she dedicated herself to helping women escape the same scorn that drove her from London and raising the innocent children caught in the crossfire. And as much as she desperately wishes to tell Graham everything, revealing the truth isn't worth putting him and everyone she loves in danger.

Available at Amazon.com

Read Iola Goulton's review on our blog: Bookish Tuesday | A Defence of Honor by Kristi Ann Hunter

Song of Leira (The Songkeeper Chronicles Book 3) by Gillian Bronte Adams

The song bids her rise to battle

Reeling from her disastrous foray into the Pit, Birdie, the young Songkeeper, retreats into the mountains. But in the war-torn north, kneeling on bloodstained battlefields to sing the souls of the dying to rest, her resolve to accept her calling is strengthened. Such evil cannot go unchallenged.

Torn between oaths to protect the Underground runners and rescue his friend from the slave camps, Ky Huntyr enlists Birdie’s aid. Their mission to free the captives unravels the horrifying thread connecting the legendary spring, Artair’s sword, and the slave camps. But the Takhran’s schemes are already in motion. Powerful singers have arisen to lead his army—singers who can shake the earth and master the sea—and monsters rampage across the land.

As Leira falters on the verge of defeat, the Song bids her rise to battle, and the Songkeeper must answer.

Available at Amazon.com

Wandering Wednesday Rudyard Kipling in America

by Donna Fletcher Crow @donnafletchercr

One of the most things I enjoy most about writing my Elizabeth and Richard literary suspense series is exploring the lives, works and homes of the literary figures that serve as background to my literature professor sleuths’ adventures.

Rudyard Kipling is among the literary greats Elizabeth and Richard explore in my recent release The Flame Ignites. This is the first book in the series and tells of their stormy first meeting in a blazing redgold autumn in New England.

Elizabeth is researching her PhD thesis on the beloved American novelist Elswyth Thane who knew Kipling well years after he had abandoned his Vermont home and gone back to England.

But Kipling’s home Naulakha is still there, riding like “a ship a-sail on a hillside,” as Kipling himself said.

The property belonged to the Balestier family, brothers of Kipling’s wife Caroline, and one of the brothers served as Kipling’s literary agent for a while.  Kipling’s time in America was very productive. He wrote The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, most of the stories in The Day’s Work, and Captains Courageous at Naulakha. I like to think that the view from his study aided his creativity.

Unfortunately, the Kiplings left after only four years, due to a family squabble over the use of some of the land. They returned to America about three years later, but not to Naulakha. Perhaps they had it in mind to return to their home, but Kipling and their older daughter, Josephine, got terribly sick on the crossing. Josephine died, so they sold the house and the family returned to England.

Donna Fletcher Crow is passionate about English history and loves telling the stories of the men and women who have shaped the world we live in. She is the author of some 50 books including the award-winning Arthurian epic Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England. She currently authors three mystery series: Lord Danvers Investigates, The Monastery Murders, and The Elizabeth and Richard Literary Suspense.

Donna and her husband live in Boise, Idaho. They have 4 adult children and 14 grandchildren. She loves gardening and reading. Research is one of her favorite parts of writing. She tries never to set a book in a place she hasn’t visited. You can see pictures from her garden and research trips on her website and follow her on Facebook at Donna Fletcher Crow, Novelist of British History.

  

Bookish Tuesday: Travelling in Time and Space | Donna Fletcher Crow

By Donna Fletcher Crow @DonnaFletcherCr

One of my first principles in telling a story is that in order to write about a place I need to visit it first. When one lives in Idaho and sets their books in England that can be a challenge, but with careful planning, an achievable goal.

But what about the fact that the events in my newest book A Lethal Spectre, Lord Danvers Investigates #5, occurred more than 160 years ago? Much as I might wish it were possible, Tardis travel isn’t within my grasp.

So I had to settle for visiting my locations as they are today, then applying a healthy dose of imagination to picture what these scenes looked, sounded and smelled like in 1857.

In London St. James’s Palace, where Lady Danvers presents her charge at one of Queen Victoria’s Drawing Rooms, has changed little.

Likewise, the church of St. George in the East is little changed externally, although, fortunately, the area around it is greatly gentrified.

Hyde Park is still a haven of lovely green quiet—except during a Royal Salute on the Queen’s birthday.

The Docklands, however, which feature largely in this book, are radically transformed.

To get a feel of what it must have been like in Victorian times, I found photos and the Museum of the Docklands online.

Brighton is another venue in the book. Unfortunately, the Bedford Hotel is no more.

And the elegant Chain Pier was destroyed by a storm in 1896.

Fortunately, however, the Royal Pavilion is in better repair today than it was in mid-Victorian times since Queen Victoria did not care for it and sold it to the town corporation who struggled to maintain it.

Serendipitously, I was able to step fully back into the past when we discovered a group of Regency dancers preparing for an event later that evening and I was allowed to photograph them.

Donna Fletcher Crow is passionate about English history and loves telling the stories of the men and women who have shaped the world we live in. She is the author of some 50 books--all available on her website along with pictures from her research trips--something else she is passionate about. Her newest release is A Lethal Spectre, Lord Danvers Investigates