Sunday, August 2, 2020

Enter, Rheumatoid Arthritis...

I had a reader message me lately asking when I would have more books out, and it made me realize how quiet I’ve been about WHY over here on my author page. So I’m going to post here what I posted to her as my reply... because I do feel bad often about how disengaged I’ve become about my books and author life. It’s just become so complicated.


So... this is where I’m at:
I cannot wait for the day I will be writing again! But I do have my hands full—not only with the little ones, but I’ve also felt pretty lousy for the last few years and just found out it’s because I have an autoimmune disease. So now I’m also trying to manage that, and I spend many of my extra hours now cooking and baking from scratch because that’s all I can eat without getting a debilitating fever and just plain feeling pretty lousy. I also have ADD which I didn’t take medication for while writing my five books. My creativity just FLOWS without it! But I take it now because parenting little ones without it is a mess and a half. So really I’m in the middle of a perfect storm, and I’ve had to give my writing to God for the time being, in hope that I will someday have it given back to me.


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Friday, December 27, 2019

The post explaining why I’m not here much.

Merry Christmas, everyone! On this day last year I decided that submitting proposals, and basically writing (finishing a book), was something that I needed to give over to God. It was a hard choice to stop, but within the same years my books were published by Whitaker House, I had two little boys. Two little babies I had prayed years for, but they hadn’t come. Until I started to focus on writing my books. But last year I came to a place where I needed to choose—my author life or my mom life. My family was suffering, and I felt like my dream of being a stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom was at odds with my dream of being a published author continually producing more and more books. 

 Mostly because I have ADD, and I cannot do both. 

 And here is why: I had taken medication for this from the time I was 17 until I got married and wanted to start trying for kids. I’ve always LOOVED writing for school and always wanted to someday write a novel, but when I started taking the medication, it completely cut off all my creativity. I got drastically better grades, and I then graduated from Taylor University, but I didn’t write. I didn’t even think about writing. When I got married a few years later, I’d been taking the medication for ten years. And at that point I stopped taking it, hoping to get pregnant. After years of not getting pregnant, my husband told me to stay home and write the book I’d always wanted to write. So I wrote The Hesitant Heiress, The Bound Heart and some of The Captive Imposter pre-pregnancy/babies... and then they were contracted and the babies came... and the chaos began. 

 I didn’t want to take the ADD meds because I still wanted to write... and I did. I wrote The Cautious Maiden while pregnant with son #2 and then Enchanting Nicholette when they were 3 and 1. But being an ADD mom of little boys and not taking the meds... was driving everyone insane. Everyone. And it wasn’t pretty. So I had to make a choice, and it was something God had been trying to get through to me for months by the time I finally gave in. I just had to be okay with not writing books for a while. These little boys needed to have all of their mom, and that meant no deadlines or proposals or finishing of manuscripts. It meant I needed to take the medication that would cut my creativity drastically. It meant that I needed to put my family first, and not my desire to create story. 

 Even a year later it’s a hard choice. Because writing story is my thing. My favorite ME thing. But I know these little days, even as crazy as they are even while taking ADD medication, are fleeting. And I want to soak them up, to enjoy every single day—and not be too distracted and tired from trying to focus so hard on my made up people. I have my real little boys, and they are so much more important. 

So... I’m sorry I’m not here very much, and that I won’t have anything new for you to enjoy for years to come. I think about how much I’m not here all the time. But I will write books again, don’t worry. I write sporadically, but at the rate I’m going my current WIP is going to take YEARS to finish. Just please sit tight, and try not to forget about me? When these boys grow up and decide they don’t need so much of me (heartbreak!), I will again have the time to throw myself into creating story. And until then, I suppose I will be perfecting the task of writing while taking these meds I need to live a sane life. If I could just lock myself in a room for days on end on a regular basis (to write, of course!), that would be great and I wouldn’t need them... but I do have to deal with people and manage a successful household... so I’m just going to have to learn what the best way to do this is when the time comes. I appreciate your prayers! Because I’ll need them so much!

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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

An Author’s review of A Modest Independence by Mimi Matthews

The first book I read by up-and-coming author Mimi Matthews was The Matrimonial Agreement... which I bought upon a recommendation and then absolutely loved... but never did review here. Because I have a five year old and a three year old who basically run circles around me. It’s not that I’m not reading (and writing), but there just isn’t much time to do much else concerning books. Ever. 

 Did I mention I’m now just getting into homeschooling too? Yeah, my brain is pretty much on another planet right now. 

 So... I loooved TMA and immediately hopped on Netgalley and requested the soon to release next in the series, A Modest Independence to review. 

 And then I didn’t review it. Because I didn’t know what to say. 

 Somehow, between two directly correlated books, I found myself loving one... and being kinda disappointed in the other. 

 I can say the writing is well-done, I just didn’t especially like the heroine or the hero. And the setting was everywhere between England and India.... traveling. Same people, same sort of scenes, similar conversations throughout. I never had the “I can’t wait to get into the book again!” feeling like I did reading The Matrimonial Advertisement... but then the ending. 

 The ending actually made up for everything. Although it was somewhat predictable, it had tears streaming down my face at the sweetness of it all. So I can’t say it was a bad book, though I was never very excited about it—because the ending was so good! And I was so conflicted about how to “score” this strange experience... and so I gave myself some time away. 



And now that my review is here, I can honestly still recommend A Modest Independence because it wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t my style. The hero wasn’t bad, just definitely not my style of swoon-worthy-ness. I'm still going to read all of the other books Mimi Matthews writes. Her writing is absolutely excellent. 



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Friday, November 2, 2018

A Blog Tour & Giveaway for Enchanting Nicholette


ABOUT THE BOOK

EnchantingNicholetteTitle: Enchanting Nicholette
Series: The Everstone Chronicles #5
Author: Dawn Crandall
Publisher: Whitaker House
Release Date: October 9, 2018
Genre: Historical Romance
In this captivating novella by Dawn Crandall, Nicholette Everstone is already a widow at the age of twenty-two: her husband was murdered on their wedding day. She has just returned to Boston after two years of mourning in Europe. Although her husband was loving, the marriage was an arranged one, and Nicholette would like to wed again–this time for love…and to someone safe.
As she acclimates to life in Back Bay again, Nicholette meets someone she can’t help but fall for. But when she learns of the danger and sacrifices Cal Hawthorne takes on for the safety of others, will her heart be strong enough to keep her fears of “what if” at bay?
BOOKS IN THE EVERSTONE CHRONICLES
21490837  21490844  21490845  29885744  EnchantingNicholette
enchanting nicholette blog giveaway
TOUR GIVEAWAY
(1) Winner will win:
  • A print copy of Enchanting Nicholette
  • A library card zipper bag
  • Two pairs of Jane Austen socks
  • Two hand poured candles
  • A historically accurate soap from Austen’s time
  • A Jane Austen set of playing cards
  • A set of Jane Austen notecards
  • 6 magnets with Jane Austen quotes
(US Mailing Addresses Only)
Enter via the Rafflecopter giveaway below. Giveaway will begin at midnight October 29, 2018 and lasts through 11:59pm November 12, 2018. Void where prohibited by law. US addresses only. Winners will be notified within a week of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.
Launch Page at JustRead
October 29
October 30
October 31
November 1
November 2
November 4
November 5
November 6
November 7
November 8
November 9

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Tuesday, October 23, 2018

The Narrow Path: An Author Spotlight on Dawn Crandall

I’m the featured author on the Fiction Finder ACFW website right now! Whether you’re already a fan of The Everstone Chronicles, or you haven’t read them yet, I think you’ll really enjoy this very well written article about my writing journey! ❤️
It's so completely appropriate that this article went live on the 24th anniversary of the day I decided to give my life to GOD. 


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