Welcome Guest Allie Pleiter!

I'm glad to welcome Love Inspired author Allie Pleiter to the blog today to share some interesting trivia! Allie and I have sat beside each other at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest for the last two years. She's so fun to hang out with!


Allie has a new book out from Love Inspired Historical titled Homefront Hero. Check it out below!


So, Allie, can you tell my readers 10 random things they may not know about you?

1)  I was a theater major in college, and my career goal was to be a soap opera villainess. Turns out, six foot tall is just too darn tall to work in television.  And, I’m delighted to say, it turns out I’m not very good at acting evil.

2)  I’m an “Irish Twin.”  My poor mother had two kids in the same year at the age of 36.  I can’t imagine why she stopped after my brother and I :).

3)  I’m not very tidy.  Actually, everybody knows that about me. There’s a reason it’s in my bio.  If you could see my desk right now, you’d wonder how I ever get anything done.

4)  You couldn’t pay me to drink root beer or Dr. Pepper.  Can’t stand the stuff.  Now, coffee, on the other hand...

5)  I play three instruments--harp, guitar, and organ.  I don’t play anymore, but there was a time I could rock out on all three.  Well, as much as you can rock out on a harp (which isn’t much).

6)  I grew up on Long Island sound, a child of the Atlantic coast.  I can read a tide-table, tack a sailing boat, and cook a lobster with the best of them.

7)  I’m a Presbyterian Elder.  Unlike lots of other writers, I love administrative tasks, budgets, spreadsheets, goal charts, and leading meetings.

8)  I love to fly in airplanes but hate roller coasters.  And while I’ve parasailed, I will never, ever jump out of airplane no matter how many parachutes you strap to my back.

9)  I carried calla lilies at my wedding.  I loved the retro drama of them but my mother thought they looked like funeral flowers.  It was a tense day for everyone.

10)          I never liked history in school, but I love it now.  Writing historical fiction isn’t anything like spouting facts for a test.  Here’s proof: 

Allie Pleiter

Homefront Hero

Love Inspired Historical

May 2012

#978-0-373-82916-3

Back cover copy:

Dashing and valiantly wounded, Captain John Gallows could have stepped straight out of an army recruitment poster. Leanne Sample can't help being impressed—although the lovely Red Cross nurse tries to hide it. She knows better than to get attached to the daring captain who is only home to heal and help rally support for the war's final push. As soon as he's well enough, he'll rush back to Europe, back to war—and far away from South Carolina and Leanne. But when an epidemic strikes close to home, John comes to realize what it truly means to be a hero—Leanne's hero.

 

Author Bio:

An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction.  The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework.  Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois.  The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, fourteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing.  Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com or her knitting blog at www.DestiKNITions.blogspot.com

Remember

Let's honor those who sacrificed for us by remembering. I hope you have a blessed Memorial Day.

Popping in to Say Hi!

I'm sorry I've hardly posted lately! I'm finishing a new book, Georgia Sweethearts, due out in the spring of 2013. I hope to type The End on the first draft today!! Yay!

An old shot of me working.

The first draft is such a time of discovery. And the pace varies. In the beginning, on the first three chapters, it can go sort of slow since I'm trying to find just the right words for that oh-so-important opening that has to hook readers. Although, I usually have the chapters pretty well plotted out, so I keep a decent pace.

Then I hit chapter 4 or 5, and it's almost always like hitting a wall. The next few chapters are like pulling teeth as I feel my way around the story and try to make sure I've set up good conflict. This is the roughest area that usually needs the most revising once I finish.

Then I get really into the story and the next several chapters come pretty easily.

And then as I approach what writers call the big black moment (the big point near the end where it seems all is lost), the writing starts to fly. From there to the end is one of my favorite parts. I usually don't want to stop writing!

And that's the point I'm at now. :)

I'll check back in soon, once I finish. And next week, I look forward to having a guest on the blog. Love Inspired author Allie Pleiter will be visiting to share Ten Random Facts You May Not Know. Fun!!

Allie Pleiter

Happy Mother's Day!!

I hope you have a great Mother's Day. Please hug your mothers and/or mother figures and tell them you love them!


I wanted to share this. A poem that was read the other night at a Mother-Daughter banquet I attended with my daughter. I absolutely loved and couldn't wait to share it with you.

By the way, this has been attributed to Cindy Lange-Kubick, but I can't find it directly from the source. I hope I've correctly attributed it! Also, I found a couple of different versions and decided to just choose what looked like the most complete.


*********************

Mothers: Every Year is Their Year

This is for all the mothers who didn’t win Mother of the Year in 1999.

All the runners-up and all the wannabes. The mothers too tired to enter or too busy to care.

This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at soccer games Friday night instead of watching from cars, so that when their kids asked, “Did you see my goal?”, they could say “Of course, wouldn’t have missed it for the world,”and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer winners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, “It’s OK honey, Mommy’s here.”

This is for all the mothers of Kosovo who fled in the night and can’t find their children.

This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they’ll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and made them homes.

For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes.

And all the mothers who DON’T.

What makes a good mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips?

The ability to nurse a baby, fry a chicken, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?

Or is it heart?

Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?

The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 a.m. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?

The need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a school shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying?

I think so.

So this is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the mothers who wanted to but just couldn’t.

This is for reading “Goodnight, Moon”twice a night for a year. And then reading it again. “Just one more time.”

This is for all the mothers who mess up. Who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair and stomp their feet like a tired 2-year-old who wants ice cream before dinner.

This is for all the mothers who taught their daughters to tie their shoelaces before they started school.

And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

For all the mothers who bite their lips — sometimes until they bleed — when their 14 year olds dye their hair green. Who lock themselves in the bathroom when babies keep crying and won’t stop.

This is for the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for all the mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls “Mom?”in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home.

This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their children’s graves.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can’t find the words to reach them.

This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomachaches, assuring them they’d be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.

This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation. And mature mothers learning to let go. For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Single mothers and married mothers. Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all. So hang in there.

Better luck next year, I’ll be rooting for you.

(Cindy Lange-Kubick, Lincoln Journal Star)

Cool Manicure for Writers and Readers!

This is so fun! I just heard about it from a friend of mine, Love Inspired author Teri Wilson (whose first book, Alaskan Hearts, is coming out in June!!).

A newsprint manicure. Only Teri did it with the print from a Love Inspired book. :)

Teri Wilson's print manicure she shared on Facebook

Teri read about it on the Pretty Penny Blog website. To go see how to do this yourself, click here. I can't wait to try it!!

And don't forget to check out Teri's debut novel! You can actually read an excerpt and order it on the Harlequin site now by clicking here.

Or pre-order on Amazon by clicking here.
Or pre-order on B&N by clicking here.
Or pre-order on Christian Book by clicking here.

Georgia Event on Sunday!

I'll be taking part in an event on Sunday, April 29th, 1-3 p.m, signing copies of A House Full of Hope. There'll be a Meet & Greet and book signing sponsored by the Winder Friends of the Library. It's exciting for our Friends of the Library group because we were given a grant to fund the event by the Friends of Georgia Libraries!

Other local authors also participating:

Dana Wildsmith, my friend from church (and choir) who is an amazing poet and teacher, and who wrote "One Good Hand," and "Back to Abnormal." She was named a finalist for the 47th Georgia Author of the Year.

Dr. C.B Skelton, Poet Laureate of Barrow County, Georgia, and writer and speaker. His most recent book is "A Simple Seller of Noodles."

I hope you'll come out and support the library program!
Sunday April 29th, 1-3 pm
Winder Community Center
113 East Athens Street
Winder, GA  30680

Free e-book info!

Tyndale House Publishing is going to be offering free reads each month (e-books in formats for all readers) if you sign up for their E-Book Extra newsletter. I thought some of you might be interested! Check it out by clicking here.

They're offering three books at different times this month. First is Randy Alcorn's Heaven for Kids.