Interview and Giveaway with Lena Nelson Dooley!!

Today we welcome prolific author Lena Nelson Dooley to The Diamond Mine!!!

Her new book is called: A Heart's Forever Home. It's book number three in her Love's Road Home series!

After the interview, please leave a comment, and your email, to be entered in the drawing for a free copy of Lena's book!

Hi Lena!! Please share a little about your series: Love’s Road Home, and your newest addition: A Heart’s Forever Home.

These 5 books are all standalone stories, but there are characters in each book that appear in at least one of the other books.

 

In A Heart’s Forever Home, the heroine came to Fort Worth, Texas, on an orphan train. When her new grandmother dies, her world is turned upside down. The hero is her grandmother’s lawyer.

Here’s the back cover copy for the book:

A single lawyer whose clients think he needs a wife. A woman who needs a forever home...or a forever family...or a forever love.

Although Theresa Killdare is a grown woman now, the discovery that her adoption wasn’t finalized sends her reeling. Especially when her beloved grandmother dies and the only siblings she’s ever known exile her from the family property without a penny to her name.

 Wilson Pollard works hard for the best interest of his law clients, even those who think a marriage would make him more “suitable” in his career. And when the beloved granddaughter of a recently deceased client comes to him for help, he knows he must do whatever necessary to make her situation better.

 As each of their circumstances worsen, a marriage of convenience seems the only answer for both. Theresa can’t help but fall for her new husband—the man who’s given her both his home and his name. But what will it take for Wilson to realize he loves her? Will a not-so-natural disaster open his eyes and heart?

 

This sounds wonderful!! How did you get the idea for the series?

Most of these stories have been percolating in my head for a few years. I do believe that God drops the ideas there, and they take time to develop. When I write historical novels, only my characters and their stories are fiction. I do a lot of research to make everything in the book authentic to the time period. I also try to have one or more major historical events in the story. In this one, it was a seriously bad idea that didn’t work out well.

 

I love doing research for historical stories! 

I'm curious. Are any of your characters a lot like you?

I do think that most books have some things from the author in them. My heroine is Irish, and I have Irish in my ancestry.

 

Which do you find easier to write: plot, or characters?

I write character driven stories, and the plot fits in with that.

 

I love stories like that! 

Do you have a central theme for your books?

I have a few that often appear in my stories: forgiveness and God’s plan for lives are two of them.

 

Those are really important themes to address.

Do you write for a set amount of time every day, or do you write in random bursts of inspiration?

I try to write for a set amount of time, but sometimes life gets in the way. This year it was covid. James and I both got covid in January. My case was mild. I wasn’t hospitalized, and I was well in 10 days. James’s was he opposite. He was in and out of hospitals and rehab for two months, then came home in bad shape. We learned later that the rehab center and their doctor thought he came there to die, so they didn’t do much with him. We almost lost him twice during all this time, but literally thousands of people both here and around the world were praying for him. He’s a walking miracle. I was unable to write until June.

 

I'm sorry you had to go through all that. But what a wonderful outcome!

So, what made you decide to be a writer?

God told me to become a professional writer in 1984. You can read the testimony of how that happened by going to my website, http://www.lenanelsondooley.com and read the About Me page.

 

I'll do that! 

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

Knowing I’m doing what God created me to do.

 

Amen to that!

Do you have a favorite among your characters?

Usually, when anyone asks me that, I say it’s the characters I’m writing about at that time.

Good Answer!  :) 

What are you working on now?

Book 4 in the series – A Heart’s Redemption set in Grape Vine, Texas, in 1899. The hero and heroine are older than my usual books, and they have a history that isn’t good. He’s now a successful rancher, and she owns a boardinghouse, and they haven’t seen each other for 19 years.

 

That sounds really interesting! Thanks so much for your visit today, Lena! It's been an honor to interview you!

Okay, readers! Here's more info about Lena and where you can connect with her, and her books

 

Bio: Multi-published author Lena Nelson Dooley has had more than 950,000 copies of her 54 books sold. She is a member of ACFW and the local chapter, ACFW - DFW. She’s a member of Christian Authors’ Network and Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas.

She has been on the ECPA and CBA Bestseller lists, Publisher’s Weekly bestseller list, and several Amazon Bestseller lists as well as a reviewer’s Top Ten Books of 2011. She has won over a dozen major awards.

 

Social Media Links:

Website: www.lenanelsondooley.com

Blog: Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lenandooley/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lena.nelson.dooley

Official Fan Page: www.facebook.com/pages/Lena-Nelson-Dooley/42960748768?ref=ts

Twitter: www.twitter.com/lenandooley 

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmMImXr00OS8bO4FnT-yhVw?view_as=subscriber

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/333031.Lena_Nelson_Dooley

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenanelsondooley/ 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/lenanelsondooley

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPAIDE

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lena-nelson-dooley

 

Buy Links:

Amazon - http://ow.ly/7tpB50GbrE6

Also Available on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple iBooks