Thursday, July 25, 2019

Our Story BEFORE The Story ~ Waltz with Destiny - Esther Meir & Eric Edhardt

My name is Esther Meir. Insecurities haunted my every step. I wish I could feel the soft grass of my beloved Kentucky hills beneath my shoes instead of the impregnable sidewalks of Detroit. I hated school; I struggled to make good grades in high school while my brother did it easily.

My brother inherited our father’s photographic memory. That’s just about all I know of my father. He died when I was two months old. I was born in a little cabin on the prairies of Colorado. When my father was near death, Mother brought us back to her childhood home in Kentucky. Then we moved to Detroit to live with my aunt when she up and married her long-lost love. I lived there until I was ten. When the Great Depression struck, we moved back to Kentucky with my aunt, uncle, mother, and brother. Now that the Great Depression is behind us, 1941 looks promising for a girl with an education.

Brother had won a scholarship to University of Detroit, and Mother was confident that, “There was a rainbow with their name on it in Detroit.” We returned to Detroit where I work in my cousin’s hot dry cleaners alongside Mother and attend evening classes at the Detroit Business Institute.

The newsreel I saw last night at the Gala Theater showed Hitler’s Third Reich stomping their leather boots across the cobblestones of Rome. That worries me enough to not want to go to that ball Mother is so dead set on me attending. After all, I have two left feet and will spend most of my time blending into the wallpaper.

“When you meet the right man, you’ll have no trouble following, Esther,” my mother has told me countless times.

I’m not so sure I want to fall in love with any guy, not with a war looming on the horizon. I’m wasting my time looking for a guy that can weave me across the dance floor and not stumble over my feet. Besides, I have more important things on my to-do list. I need to study and get a good-paying job. I want to get Mother, my brother, and I into our own place.

I’m not planning to live out my life like my mother working in some hot cleaners. Nor can I rely on a man to lead me either, he could die. I’d be penniless, alone, and—pregnant. Or, be worst off like my mother; with a five-year-old toddler pulling on my skirt while holding a two-month-old baby in my arms, and relying on relatives to give them their next meal and a roof over their heads.

Hi, I’m Eric Erhardt. I knew Esther was different from the other girls the moment I met her. That didn’t daunt my determination to win her over. After all, I’m used to working for everything I have. During the Great Depression, I worked a paper route and sold applies to help my pa put food on the table for us five siblings. When I graduated from high school, I landed my first job being a jumper for a Detroit newspaper. Then I landed a job as a junior draftsman for Wood Industries and had enough money to entered night school at Lawrence Institute of Technology. I took more drafting and engineering courses. Pa always told me that with God on my side, I could accomplish anything I put my heart into. I hope to have my own engineering company someday. Well, maybe even a manufacturing company. Might as well dream big.

Now with Hitler and Japan knocking on our door, well, it is just a matter of time before I’ll have to fight in a war I don’t have time for. I heard that outsiders think American guys like me are soft, not much more than playboys. What’s wrong with playboys? I kind of enjoy that title.

Some people have the audacity to call my generation religious mama boys still wet behind the ears. Well, if Hitler or Japan tries to do anything to these old United States, we playboys just might have to put a few firecrackers down their pants and watch them dance the jitterbug, and it won’t be to any tune they ever heard of before! Yeah, we don’t care what you think about us; just don’t mess with the good old USA!

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Our Story Title:   Waltz with Destiny

Our Story Genre:  A historical romance; however, it took three generations of faith-in-creating the vivid characters of Waltz with Destiny

Our Story Released:  Officially released on the 75th celebration of D-Day 2019

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The Author of Our Story:    Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

Catherine Ulrich Brakefield  is an award-winning author of the inspirational historical romance Wilted Dandelions. Her faith-based Destiny series includes Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, and Waltz into Destiny, which released on June 6.
Catherine has written two pictorial history books. Images of America: The Lapeer Area, and Images of America: Eastern Lapeer County. 
Her short stories have been published in Guidepost Books True Stories of Extraordinary Answers to Prayer, Unexpected Answers and Desires of Your Heart; Baker Books, Revell, The Dog Next Door, Horse of my Heart, Second-Chance Dogs, The Horse of my Dreams (releases on September 17) CrossRiver Media Publishers, The Benefit Package and Abba’s Promise; Bethany House Publishers, Jesus Talked to Me Today. Catherine is a longtime Michigan resident and live with my husband of 45 years and our Arabian horses in the picturesque hills of Addison Township. I love traveling the byroads across America and spoiling my two handsome grandsons and two beautiful granddaughters!

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  Get Connected:

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WHERE can the book be purchased?

Amazon, CrossRiverMedia, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Faith Christian Stores in Flint

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Catherine is willing to give away Waltz with Destiny or any Destiny Saga book of your choice, e-book or a print. (Please note: for readers outside of the United States, she can only do an e-book.)

DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ July 31, 2019.

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Thursday, July 18, 2019

Our Stories BEFORE The Story ~ Love's Belief ~ Pia and Dieter

My name is Pia Hertz, and I’m from Berlin, Germany. I wanted to be a doctor and attended university, but it became apparent rather quickly that I was swimming against the tide and would never be accepted to medical school. I finished my degree in biology and went into practice with my mother Sabine. It’s been just the two of us since Vati passed away when I was a young girl. It was hard to grow up without a father, but Mutti did her best, and we are very close. I decided I would never marry after my fiancé threw me over for another girl. Mutti and I have been helping women from all walks of life deliver their babies since long before Hitler came to power. But the Nuremburg Laws were enacted requiring us to report the birth of Jewish babies and infants who are born with defects, so the authorities can take them away. We cannot let that happen, so like the midwives in the Old Testament who saved the babies from Pharaoh, we are disobeying the mandates. We can only hope we are not caught, because the punishment is death.

I’m Dieter Fertig, and despite disagreeing with Hitler and his cronies, I was drafted into the German Army in 1939. As horrifying and painful as it was to lose my arm at the Battle of Drøbak Sound in April of 1940, the injury got me out of the military. I returned home to Berlin to my wife, and we opened a small shop that carries a little bit of everything. She became pregnant, but childbirth was difficult, and I lost both her and my son. They’ve been gone just over two years now, and I didn’t think I’d ever love again, but I met the most intriguing woman, who is determined to put herself at risk for the sake of mothers and their babies. Then she asked for my help. Life is now more dangerous than when I was carrying a rifle for the Führer.

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 Our Story Title:   Love's Belief

Our Story Genre:  Christian Historical Romance

Our Story Releases:   May 15, 2019

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The Author of Our Story:    Linda Shenton Matchett



Linda Shenton Matchett is an author, speaker, and history geek. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry and has lived in historic places all her life. Linda is a member of ACFW, RWA, and Sisters in Crime. She is a volunteer docent at the Wright Museum of WWII.

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  Get Connected:

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WHERE can the book be purchased?

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Linda Matchett will gift a winner an autographed copy of
LOVE'S BELIEF

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE TO REACH YOU IF YOU WIN!
DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ July 24, 2019.

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Thursday, July 11, 2019

Our Story BEFORE The Story ~ LOST IN BEAUTY


Mina Everheart: I’m a princess. A lot of people, after they hear about the King’s generosity, think that everyone is a child of the King by default. But that isn’t true. You have to be chosen. You have to be adopted. You have to want to be adopted.

I wanted to be adopted … after all, I became an orphan at age 5. But don’t feel bad for me. Sure, it’s sad. Worse – maybe. I mean, who’s to judge really? – but, worse, my parents were murdered. In front of me.

Yeah, okay, that makes me a little sad when I think about it, so I don’t think about it too often. I think about how much my parents loved each other and Egyptian artifacts. How they hunted for the truth. I think about how the King gives everyone purpose.

So when the King came for me, I was ready to go, thank you very much. Of course, my friends from the Kingdom say that I’m always ready for my next adventure. And, perhaps I have been a bit of nag, bugging the King about sending me on a mission, but, come on, can you think of anything more exciting? Besides, I just turned 20. I’m ready. Ready for whatever the King has in mind.

Hawk: I’m the 436th pharaoh of Osaze Island. We have kept the traditions of our fathers for thousands of years. I understand duty. I understand maat. And I don’t like change. Unless it is change that gets us back to how things have been for thousands of years. Because I am willing to admit that Osaze Island isn’t what it used to be. We need rain. We need children. And this part I hate to admit, but we need a pharaoh who doesn’t question his own divinity. Is it any wonder that Aten doesn’t hear my petitions?

What I don’t need is a prophesied princess. I don’t mind that one has been foretold. That contains the Osaze women’s expectations of marrying me. But I don’t actually need a princess to appear….

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Our Story Title:   LOST IN BEAUTY

Our Story Genre:  Speculative Romance

Our Story Released: July 2018 - (Happy anniversary)

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The Author of My Story:    Gloria Clover



Gloria Clover writes speculative Christian romance in the Children of the King series about the Archipelago of Solmunus, islands that have been invisible to the rest of the world for centuries but inhabited by various people groups who have been deceived in one specific area of belief. Now is the time the King sends out his children to reclaim his lost lands.

Gloria shepherds American Heritage Girls Troop PA0031 and works in prayer ministry and teaching at Emmanuel Christian Church. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, participating in the ACFW book club and prayer groups.


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  Get Connected:

  • Website: www.gloriaclover.com

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WHERE can the book be purchased?

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Gloria will be honored to gift a winner a signed copy of
Lost In Beauty
~ Be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing ~
DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ July 17, 2019.

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Thursday, July 04, 2019

Our Story BEFORE The Story ~ Taming Petra ~ Cameo Courtships Collection

Hi everybody. I’m Petra Jayne Breaux—better known as Buckskin Pete Hollingsworth. I just bet you’re wondering how a young woman from a well-to-do Pittsburgh family came to settle in Colorado under the name of Buckskin Pete. Well, here’s the tale. My beloved Aunt Letitia and Uncle Peter invited me to go on a grand tour of the wild West with them, and I agreed. I was having the time of my life…right up until Uncle Peter fell ill. Only then did Aunt Letitia tell me he was dying. He passed away in Cambria Springs, and I was so heartbroken, I couldn’t leave. But I couldn’t support myself either. That is, until a new friend—a dime novelist—helped me. I’d tried to enter the Founders Day wood chopping contest, but they wouldn’t let women compete. (Since my grandfather was a woodsman, I learned my way around an axe as a girl.) So my friend suggested I dress up in buckskins and enter myself under an assumed name. Sure enough, I cut my long hair off, put on that buckskin suit, and entered under the name of Buckskin Pete Hollingsworth. I won the competition, the name stuck, and I’m steadily working as a scout, tracker, and other odd jobs. Oh, and thanks to my friend, I’ve got a whole series of dime novels written about me now.

And I’m Reverend Dustin Owens. I never woulda figured myself to become a preacher. Not with my upbringing. I was raised in a saloon, after all. My mother was…well, let’s be honest. She was a soiled dove, and my father…let’s just say I never had occasion to meet him. I lived in that world until I was nineteen. That’s when something terrible happened that forced me and my little sister, Josephine, to run. We wound up in Wyoming under the care of a godly man who helped us heal from our difficult pasts. As I opened my heart to the Lord, I felt Him drawing me into ministry. Can you imagine my surprise when, not all that long ago, He told me to return to this area and start a church? Almost exactly where it all began. I have to admit, I wasn’t too sure about moving back to this area until I happened to bump into a pretty, short-haired gal wearing buckskin trousers. She got my attention…and if you want to know why, well, please read our story. Taming Petra, part of Cameo Courtships.

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Our Story Title:  TAMING PETRA - Cameo Courtships Collection

Our Story Genre:  Christian Historical Western Romance

Our Story Releases:  June 1, 2019

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The Author of Our Story:   Jennifer Uhlarik


Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list numerous times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

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  Get Connected:

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WHERE can the book be purchased?

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Jennifer will be honored to gift a winner a signed copy
of the entire
CAMEO COURTSHIP COLLECTION
Be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing
DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~  July 10, 2019
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