DiAne Gates Ropes the Diamond Mine! (UPDATE! Giveaway!)

Hello everyone, welcome to the Diamond Mine! As y’all know, we have a slew of new miners this year and I have the honor of welcoming a great friend to the crew, DiAne Gates. In addition, she’s an awesome author! But I won’t spoil the surprise, let’s get started with the interview!

Renee: Hi, DiAne, I’m so happy you’ve joined us at the Mine. What can you tell us about how you began writing?

DiAne: Renee, thank you for introducing me to the Diamond Mine Writers. It’s a pleasure and privilege to be included in this talented group of authors.

Even though I’m a late starter, I’ve been writing for years, like since I was a teen. I’ve written and illustrated five other children’s books and hope to find a publisher for them in the coming year. We have an Air Force Colonel son and his beautiful wife, a daughter who resides in heaven for the past almost sixteen years, and her two almost grown children.

In 2010 God led me kicking and screaming to North Texas Christian Writers and the rest is history. He always knows best and has a perfect plan. Sure would have been easier if I’d gone peacefully, but that’s another story.

Renee: Oh, boy, now that does sound like an interesting story. I’d love to hear about it someday, as would everyone else, I’m sure! But for now, I think we have ANOTHER story to talk about. What’s special or unique about your book…you know, the latest one up for all these cool awards?

DiAne: Anytime you include Texas, horses, and rodeo in the same paragraph you have the makings of a rollercoaster ride of dips, dives, and page-turning drama. Throw in a tall, handsome Texas Ranger under that Stetson, El Grande, a teenage immigrant boy from China, and a teenage competition-crazed, barrel racing, bull riding gal, and her spoiled, temperamental, red-headed diva competitor—that spells unique by any description. Confine them all in a small Texas town outside Dallas, Texas, where prejudice and family lies flourish like a crop of sandspurs, and the story writes itself!

Renee: Well, then, I’d say ROPED is deserving of its acclaim! You said the book is set in a small town outside of Dallas? Is there anything unique about this small Texas town? How did you come up with rodeo as your topic?

DiAne: This Florida girl (meaning me!) arrived in Texas and had not a clue about anything rodeo. But due to corporate downsizings, I needed to help with family income and God opened the door for me to open my own business. After trials and errors, I hired a young mom who was a barrel-racer. We became close friends and my teen daughter and I learned to love the excitement of rodeo!

We pulled on boots and jeans. Weekends on the circuit taught me the lingo, introduced me to the nuisances of competition, buckles and titles, and ROPED became a figment of my imagination. One evening, perched high atop a field judge’s seat, I commenced to photograph the events, barrel racing first then bull riding. But instead of “that super shot” of a bucking bull, a Brahma bull named Booger Daddy had other ideas. The cowboys threw the gate open, he bucked twice and his cowboy hit the ground with a thud. Then I realized BD was staring right at me. He pawed the ground. My mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out and my feet and fanny refused to move.

Did I mention there was an enormous puddle of muddy water just inside the arena fence beneath me? A pick-up man galloped toward the now charging BD. The cowboy, his paint pony, and the bull all hit the puddle at the same time from opposite directions. Mud covered me, my camera, my white eyelet blouse, and fancy jeans—and Booger Daddy became immortalized in my first book of the ROPED series.

Renee: I wish I had been there! Mud baths are so nice, aren’t they? Besides watching rodeo (just kidding!) do you have any hobbies or things you like to do when you’re not working?

DiAne: For most of my life, painting has been my pursuit. I toured while living in Florida, doing weekend art shows. My mom referred to those years as my “gypsy life-style.” And when Book Two-TWISTED is released in the Spring of 2017, I will be giving away five or six of my paintings. I’ve graduated from that mud-caked camera and still love to roam the countryside taking pictures of God’s gorgeous creations. I also love to garden and cook and have a new blog entitled The Southern Side of Flavor, at http://floridagirlturnedtexan.wordpress.com. I share family recipes and give some tips on cutting calories yet maintaining flavor…southwestern flavor!

Renee: Oh, yum! Did you here that, folks? Food! Good southern food! I may need to visit this blog. J Is there a special quote or saying which comes to your mind in times of need or adversity?

DiAne: My mom was the queen of proverbial sayings. One of her favorites that is permanently engraved on the underside of my eyelids is, “If you don’t want to get in trouble, don’t be where trouble can happen!”

And yes, all these years later there are numerous times her words still echo in my head and heart…

like the night a girlfriend and I were driving from Orlando to an art show in Marco Island, Florida.  We took a wrong turn, ended up on Alligator Alley, and ran out of gas on this notorious roadway across the Everglades where every bad four-footed and two footed varmint comes out after dark. Cecil Murphey’s book, “Heavenly Strangers, Entertaining Angels Unaware”, contains my story of that frightful night, entitled “Alligator Alley Angels.”

My barrel racing terror, Crissy Crosby, hears her mama repeat those wise words to her in TWISTED, just like I repeated them to my own children when they were teens. And sometimes I still have to repeat them to myself when I see that uber-super shot I can only capture with a trip across someone’s pasture. My husband won’t buy me a four-wheel drive saying, “At least with a regular car I can hope you’re still on the roadway.” If he only knew—

Renee: God uses life to teach us lessons. Share one of your life lessons with us.

DiAne: This would be an eanie-meanie-miney-mo choice when you’re my age. But the most dynamic number of lessons came from one tragic life event—the sudden death of our twenty-eight-year-old daughter, almost sixteen years ago.

I was convinced my life and world went to the grave with her. But God taught me about “those secret things” He proclaims in Deuteronomy 29:29. The “why” questions drove me to near insanity until I read that verse early one morning. “The secret things belong to the Lord. The things revealed belong to you and your children forever.” I read and reread the verse, never having seen it before and God whispered Do you trust Me? I would love to tell you I answered with a clear, firm, Yes Lord. I trust You. But I could barely answer back with a nod and a gulley-washer tear storm. It took months for me to understand that if He answered my why questions, our Michelle would still be gone. Her death was one of those secret things. He had numbered her days before she was born.

The subsequent months and years I’ve learned that if we clutch what and those we have with a fierce grip, God cannot and will not replenish our hands with His peace and joy. I learned that as the scripture in Revelation says, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord for they find rest” comforts my soul when I miss my daughter. I’ve learned to count the blessings her death has loosed in so many lives. At her funeral five of her friends found Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior. God has blessed me by allowing me to walk through over fourteen years of helping and being His physical arms of comfort around others who are new to the grief journey. Does her loss still hurt? Of course, it does. But grief is the price you pay for loving someone. And it’s a small price when compared with our mutual love.

Renee: God promises never to leave or forsake us. Share an instance where you have been alone but God has been by your side in the tumult.

DiAne: In the weeks, months, and year after my daugher’s death, I cared for her almost five-year-old daughter and seven-month-old son. With all those people around, I was alone. Caring for little ones gave me no time to grieve and physical and mental exhaustion became normal for me. One afternoon I had enough and collapsed on the living room floor and sobbed. Our almost five-year-old granddaughter stopped and said, “Mimi, why are you crying?” I replied, “’Cause I miss your mama.” “Why?” She asked. “Cause she was my daughter,” I sobbed.

With her blonde tussled hair, hands on her hips, and that look only a little girl can give, she scolded. “Mimi! She’s still your daughter!”  I dried my tears and accepted this new insight from a tiny girl who gained wisdom from her Jesus. God is good…even in times of great distress.

Renee: It’s amazing how complex we make life, isn’t it and through the eyes of a child, we are reminded how complete—perfect God’s plan is for us. All of us, from now to eternity. What is your life goal?

DiAne: My life verse is Hebrews 12:1-4…”Run the race that is set before you…”  God doesn’t make mistakes. He promises if we belong to Him, He will bring good for us and glory for Himself out of everything He allows in our lives. And sometimes we forget, but God doesn’t.

However long He allows me to remain on this earth my one goal is to honor and give glory to His Name and His Word, and to share that Word and those difficult life lessons He’s taught me with everyone He places in my sphere of influence. ROPED, TWISTED, UNTIED, and any other titles yet to be named, share real life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and show God is Sovereign over all things. And if we allow Him, He will indeed transform our lives and fill us with His joy, now and forever!

____________________________________________________

UPDATE!

Woohoo! The rodeo has come to the Diamond Mine!

DiAne has agreed to giveaway a digital copy of ROPED!

Leave a comment about the interview or ask a question to enter!

Don't forget to leave your email address to validate the entry.

One winner will be selected by random draw on 1/18/17.

_________________________________________________

About ROPED by DiAne Gates:

Thirteen-year-old Crissy Crosby chases a dream to live up to her parents’ rodeo legacy. But the rodeo championship is two months away and problems beyond her ability to solve stack and teeter like a game of Tumbling-Towers. Meanwhile rival Jodie Lea and her father, Ed Fairgate, contrive to swipe the silver buckles from Crissy’s grasp any way they can. Prejudice, anger, and dark secrets simmer in a pot of family feuds destined to boil over in a tragic nightmare at the rodeo. Will Crissy develop courage and faith to overcome the consequences of her temper? Will her dreams of buckles and titles become reality? Or will the character-building adversities of her life quash her dreams forever?

About DiAne Gates:

Texas writer, DiAne Gates, illustrates, photographs, and writes for children, young adults, and serious non-fiction for adults through her two Word Press blogs, Moving the Ancient Boundaries and The Southern Side of Flavor.

DiAne also works as a freelance artist, photographer, edit group leader for North Texas Christian Writers, and GriefShare facilitator. A writing stent with the East Texas Rodeo Association magazine, gave birth to this western rodeo adventure series, released by Prism Book Group in August of 2015. ROPED--Available at Amazon.com and the second book, TWISTED, continues the journey of the Crosby and Fairgate families. The third book of the series, UNTIED, is her current work-in-progress.

ROPED was selected as a finalist for the Grace Awards and the Christian Literary Henry Awards in 2016.

Wife, mother, and Mimi, whose passion is still to share those hard life lessons God allows in our lives. Lessons she hopes will leap from the page into your heart.

DiAne’s Website: http://www.dianengates.webstarts.com

Word Press Blogs: http://dianegates.wordpress.com/ and http://floridagirlturnedtexan.wordpress.com features The Southern Side of Flavor

Crosswalk Christian Online Magazine: http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/grief’s ugly-step-sisters.html and several other articles

Face Book: http://www.facebook.com/dianegates.125

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Roped-DiAne-Gates-ebook/dp/B0147NL6KS

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14246715.DiAne_Gates

Lives and Legacy with Ryan Jo Summers on the Diamond Mine (Giveaway)

It’s another week at the Diamond Mine! And what a week it is! To break the election hubbub, we have a wonderful writer in our midst. We welcome Ryan Jo Summers to our corner of the fiction world. Make sure you check out the giveaway for a chance to win an amazing book after the interview! But right now, let’s get started…

About Beside Still Waters:

Top Journalist and corporate climber, McKayla Buchanan, is sent to a remote California mountain camp for inner-city, at-risk teens. Accustomed to political corruption and high-society drama assignments, she is suddenly a fish out of water. At Camp In As Much, she meets eight hostile and distrustful teens, assorted volunteers and rescued horses—and Clay.

Clay Michaels is the man who founded Camp In As Much and made it the success it is now. His hope for the highly recommended journalist is to come and write a feature to send seeds out to form other camps like his nationwide. He never considered the reporter would turn out to be a lovely woman, or for him to have such an attraction to her.

Between McKayla’s worldly experience and Clay’s strong faith, they form a partnership to help with the endless challenges of the kids. While McKayla’s assignment is supposed to be temporary, it isn’t long before she and Clay are each wishing it could last longer. A serious situation will force McKayla to decide if she can give up her worldly ways and place her faith in the same higher source that earthy and godly Clay does.

Amazon buy link: http://amzn.to/2dvkUEe

Ryan Jo Summers

A note from Ryan Jo Summers: The inspiration for this novel is rooted in a single catalogue photo. I work for a high fashion clothing retailer. A few years ago I was browsing through the latest style guide and one image caught my attention—and imagination. A handsome guy reclined comfortably in a high-back chair, modeling corduroy pants. He was holding a tome of literature, pretending to be reading, while soft light spilled out over him from the vintage lamp on the table. Literary classics are piled around him. The scene was peaceful and provocative, stirring something within me.

And the scene is replicated in “Beside Still Waters”. The hero, Clay Michaels, retreats to his den after a precarious situation with the kids at the camp. The heroine, McKayla Buchanan, finds him, and the camp dog, there. Clay is reading a copy of “Pilgrim’s Progress”, looking for insight to the circumstances. Her heart melts at the tenderness of the picture he makes. They chat a bit and then they go out to the labyrinth. With the full moon watching, they begin a walk that will bring them closer together.

Renee: Hello, Ryan! Welcome to the Diamond Mine. I’m so glad you’re here, and I want to hear all about you book. I bet everybody else does too, so…let’s dig in. What’s special about your new book, Beside Still Waters?

Ryan: Thanks for having me, Renee! Well…I’d have to say it’s the sheer number of supporting characters. The story line revolves around the hero and heroine, how their opposite lives, lifestyles and outlooks slowly work to bring them together. However, McKayla has a life back in LA when we first meet her. She reaches the camp she is assigned to report on and meets not only the hero, but eight kids, half a dozen volunteers, and even a handful of horses. Just keeping all those characters straight was fun. I tried to keep their names linked for simplicity. The three young men who stay at the camp part time and volunteer with the delinquents are Jake, Mike, and Zeke. All four letters, all ending in 'ke', and shortened forms of Biblical names. The two main volunteers are Heather and Amanda. Their initials form the word 'Ha', as in laughter. Volunteering should be fun, with lots of laughter. The teens are either one's your cheer for, want to hug or want to shake some sense into. 

Renee: I’m so glad I’m not the only writer who has a ton of characters! LOL Even animals deserve the consideration. It is a challenge when penning a story and reading one, but sometimes the story calls for it. It can’t be written any other way. Speaking of challenges, what would you say is your biggest challenge as an author?

Ryan: Oh my, finding the time to write or promote! It seems I can't do both on the same day. I work, technically, three jobs. Full time in security on a second shift for a fashion retailer. I pet sit on the side, usually before work and weekends. That means I have to use the blocks between those two for either writing my current WIP, or promoting recent releases, or working on something like edits, free-lance articles, blogging, other submissions, or whatever writing project is on my desk. Any remaining time is spent on errands, housework, pet care, yard maintenance, and 'me' time. Suffice to say, my day is packed from crack of dawn to wee hours of the middle of the night with something to do! I wish I had more hours just to push everything else away and work on my work-in-progress.

Renee: Oh, Ryan! Are you sure we aren’t the same person in two different bodies?  I can relate to everything you say. LOL Where do you write or get away from your stress of life? Do you have what I call a special, cherished spot?

Ryan: I am blessed to live near a national forest nestled in the Appalachian mountains. There is a river nearby that I love to go to. I sit by the edge, listening to the rapids rushing over the rocks, see the birds soar over the trees and watch the leaves grow green or fall in red-gold blurs. It is my corner of peace away from everything else. I might journal, I might write short stories or parts of others. I might do nothing but talk to God. We have lots of good conversations there. It's more 'our' spot. 

Renee: I would love to see your beautiful getaway. I have a spot much like it in my Wind River Mountains. I hang out next to the Popo Agie River and watch the water run over the rocks. The sound is amazing and the smell of the pine trees…I would love to experience your Appalachians, too.

To switch topics, people always plan for the future to leave things, whether physical or not, for those left behind…a legacy. Have you thought of such and what your legacy would be?

Ryan: If I could leave a legacy, it would be my house. I just bought it two years ago (October 27, 2014) It was built in 1920 and I have enjoyed this charming old place. I would like one of the area colleges to take it when I leave this earth and use it as a writer-in-residence location for authors to come, stay, and work on their craft. I've contacted the colleges, explained my broad vision and how there is insurance to cover expenses, but have not had any interested parties. If anyone has any suggestions on how to engage the English departments from colleges in a writer-in-residence program, please let me know. 

Renee: Oh, what a good question! I have no clue, but someone out there must know! Anybody??? Contact us or Ryan! What keeps you going, Ryan? Do you do or know something special or is it something else?

Ryan: God never does leave us. This I know. Like many writers, I also keep a journal. It is broken into periods of my life, that I call chapters. Something significant happens and I enter a new 'chapter'. The shortest chapter is a three month period I called 'Scattered like a Leaf in the Wind". The longest chapter is the current one, chapter 9, which has lasted two years and is called "By the Grace of God, I Made It: The Road Ahead". Prayers by the untold number go into each chapter. For chapter three, I was homeless. I'd been forced out of my rental by rain rot in the roof and black mold and a landlord who refused to make repairs. I was so sick, I had to leave. The plans to stay with family fell through and I found myself living in the back of my Jeep, traveling the highway between two states a thousand miles apart for three months. I cannot tell you how many times I felt abandoned, how I identified with Jesus as he cried out from the cross, and how I had to learn to stop depending on myself. Looking back at those pages today--about seven years later--is a strong testament to God's love, mercy, provision and how He keeps His promises in His time. It's hard to see that when you are caught in the heart of the storm. I have a quote that reads: Life is lived forward but understood backward. Nowhere is that more apparent than in reading my journals. 

A special quote I love is more of a prayer. Lord, I can't say it in words. Can You just listen through my heart? Isn't that beautiful? I think of the promised Intercession Jesus spoke about, who would make utterances on our behalf. I lean on that a lot when things get too complicated to say it in words. Another one is God's dawn of deliverance often comes when the hour of trial is darkest. Is that ever true!

Renee: Yes, more so than most people ever realize. Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t see the forest for the trees?” I think that sometimes we lose sight of the whole picture because of the mess in front of us. Whether it’s busyness, small things, or nutty, tedious things, they blind us to what’s most important…God.

Do you have something in your life which roots you or reminds you of God’s love?

Ryan: Pets-- I have seven pets, most are rescues. Five cats-- Whymzie Belle, age 12, Muldoone, age 12, Kryshnah, age 11, Aspen Kennedy, age 4, and Avery Faith, age 3. Aspen and Avery Faith are mother/daughter and I think I might be rounding their ages up a little more than they really are. Three were feral, with no home. Two were not able to stay in their homes. Now they fill my home with antics, joy and loving trust. I have a 21-year-old blue & gold Macaw named Taz. I've known him since he was an ugly, featherless chick and have lived with him since he was 4. He was raised in a pet store, boisterous and out of control and then isolated to an unlit room and lived in dark solitude for a year. Avian rescuers were trying to get him and a cockatoo out of there. I cut a deal and bought him, so the rescue group could get the cockatoo. Once I learned how to handle a big macaw, he and I have bonded and have a wonderful relationship. And yes, he does talk-- a lot! Lastly, March 22, 2015 I adopted a collie, a blue merle called Ty. He was removed from a bad hoarding situation along with eight other collies in a neighboring state. The collie rescue group in my state took all nine in. Two weeks later I met Ty. He was emotionally shut down, much like some of the characters in my book "Beside Still Waters".  He was traumatized and displayed severe PTSD. It has taken over a year to get him to what might be considered normal, however he still isn't fully settled. I started a blog for him, Travels with Ty and our journey is chronicled there. My long term hope is to one day take it and make it into a book and send the proceeds to the collie rescue group I adopted him from. I also have some freshwater fish in two big aquariums in my study. The bio-wheel filtration sounds like surround sound waterfalls. 

Renee: It’s sounds like a crazy world in your house! Fun, but crazy! LOL I like it. Well, let’s continue to explore the crazy world of Ryan Jo Summers. If you could spend a week anywhere, where would it be?

Ryan: Mmm, it would be one of two places. Either touring the New England coast in the Fall, with my dog and bird. I'd like to see Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine of course, and inland to Vermont. I want to spend time at the water, eat the local foods, tour the lighthouses, see the residents and absorb the regional flair. Bucket list trip # 2 would be a week on the North Carolina shore, again with my dog, staring at the waves, lighthouses, and boats. 

Renee: Cool trips. Okay, that’s it. We have to be sisters. I love lighthouses. I got the dog, but umm…a bird? I can see hanging out in a lighthouse with you and your bird laughing at me when a seagull poops on my head. Sorry, but I can. Can we leave the bird at home? Please!?!?

Okay, I’ll stop dreaming now. Thanks for being with us at the Diamond Mine but before you leave, can you offer a bit of wisdom for the writers out there?  

Ryan: A brief testimony? Sure, this is a true story. I experienced a sudden, unexpected separation after a 12-year marriage. Life's little surprises! I was devastated, humiliated, hurt, lost, adrift...you get the point. The courts were a terrible long story. I ended up, eleven months later, having to leave. I had no family, nowhere to go, no money, no hope and no clue. I had a map of the US on the wall in my office, and I kept staring at it. Where should I go? I have nothing but my pets and a few odds and ends. I kept hearing a quiet voice, "Asheville, North Carolina." I was always alone at the time. The voice persisted over days. I was in northern Michigan, where in the world was Asheville, North Carolina? I didn't know anyone there or where it was. I looked it up on the map...golly that was a long ways away! I relented, bought a plane ticket, and prepared to go down and check it out. The day I was due to fly in, I heard on the news the town was shut down to recent hurricane flooding. I asked out loud into the room, "Are You sure about this? It's shut down and flooded down there." I heard a distinct, soft chuckle and the whisper to go, and trust. So I went, flew in, landed in what looked like a swamp and fell in love. With the place, the people, the culture. I was catching them at their worse, just like I was at my worse. I found a place to rent and some leads on jobs. I returned home, arranged for the church van and a driver. It took time, patience, and trust, but it all fell together one day. With a tiny bit of cash, a rented van and driver, my pets and a few personal belongings, I left Michigan with my tail between my legs, my heart shattered and my faith fragile as a mustard seed. It took years-- 12 so far--to gain a foothold. It has not always been easy. I've stood on mountaintops (literally and figuratively) and fallen into the valleys of despair. My faith and trust has been stretched, shaped, pounded and flexed in some incredible ways. In my book, "Beside Still Waters", Clay explains how the prophet Jeremiah tells of the potter at the wheel, reshaping the marred clay vessel until it was how The Master wanted it to be. Clay explains that is what he's doing with the kids at the camp, letting God use him to reshape the marred kids into usable vessels. He was just The Master's potter at the wheel. 

If I couldn't write, what would I do? I can't imagine not writing. Even if not for publication, I would still have to scribble something. I use poetry to cope with life's tragedies and challenges. I would still do that to deal with life. I would still have to journal. It's a mile marker and another coping mechanism for me. I would probably still blog my thoughts and Ty's journey, sharing them in cyberspace if anyone cared to read either one. I would still pen stories, if nothing else to fulfill my heart and maybe enter in writing contests. If I were to win, great. If not, at least I wrote it down. "Emily", a short of 740 words, was a dream that came to me. It's enigmatically mysterious and leaves me full of questions, and some friends think there was an Emily at some time and she chose me to write her story down. So I share "Emily" to anyone who wants to hear it, to grant her wish if she was real and just to write. Interestingly, I suffer from some chronic auto immune issues that sometimes affect my hands/ fingers. It is painful, if not impossible to write some days. I lean on Nehemiah, in chapter 6, verse 29 where he prays to God: "Oh Lord, please strengthen my hands!" I wonder about if the time comes when I cannot physically type or hold a pen. What will I do if writing were to be taken away from me? I like to think I would still find a way to get the words out. It might alter my career, but it cannot silence the desire. 

In conclusion, first I thank you, Renee, for hosting me here on The Diamond Mine. It has been a great visit. I have one more quote I like: When it looks like everything is falling apart, that is when everything is falling together.  That fact has proven true so many times. It just takes the faith the size of a mustard seed. Looking back, thanks in part to my journals, I have seen so many times God was at my side, holding my hand, sometimes holding me up, and always in control as life moved around me. I write different kinds of romance fiction, but Christian is my favorite. It is easier in that it's more honest than some other genres of fiction, but it's harder because it leads me to holding a mirror up to myself, doing some soul-searching, and dwelling deep into God's character, promises and plans. My journey with God always advances in leaps and bounds when I am writing Christian fiction, and I come away from the finished story with a better knowledge of God and me.

Thank you so much for a wonderful time, Ryan! It’s been a great interview and fun chat.

Now it’s your turn, folks!

Ryan is giving away one paperback copy of her book, Glimpse Eternity. The winner will be chosen from those who sign up for her newsletter.

Glimpse Eternity

1.    Sign up for her newsletter at https://summersrye.wordpress.com/.

2.    Mention the Diamond Mine to enter the giveaway and then comment below to confirm your entry!

This book is amazing and you will absolutely love it!

About the Author, Ryan Jo Summers:

Ryan Jo Summers writes romance across the genres. Her books contain love stories blended with any combination of mystery, paranormal, time travel, shape shifting, Christian and humor elements. She comes from a family of wordsmiths. Her dad is a songwriter and his aunt wrote poetry. Ryan Jo dabbles in poetry, short stories and non-fiction articles.

In her spare time, she enjoys cooking and baking, reading, spending time with friends,

growing plants, playing chess, mah jongg, and wiggly word find puzzles and exploring the great outdoors. She lives in the heart of Appalachia in Western North Carolina in a charming old cottage with a menagerie of rescue pets

Links

Website: http://www.ryanjosummers.com/

Blog: http://www.summersrye.wordpress.com/ 

FB:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Jo-Summers-author-page/312875648810797     

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanJoSummers

The Mine Discovers More than Just a Book with Christine Lindsay (Giveaway)

Christine Lindsay

Please welcome Christine Lindsay to the Diamond Mine! She’s telling us all about her latest release, Finding Sarah, Finding Me. This is a special book for her and we’re going to find out why. I can’t wait! You can even win a copy of this great book…check out the giveaway at the end of the interview. Let’s get started!

Renee: Hello, Christine, welcome to the Diamond Mine, can you tell us how you came up with the idea for your book?

Christine: Thanks, Renee, I’m so happy to be here. I wanted to tell the true-life story of giving up my baby girl to adoption since the very day I relinquished her in 1979 and of our heart-breaking reunion 20 years later. But as time went by I wanted to tell not just my story, but other people’s adoption reunion stories as well so that the issues of adoption and reunion could be looked at from different angles. People are made up of such different emotional stuff. We can’t all be expected to feel the same in shared situations. I had to learn to respect the emotions of my daughter’s adoptive parents when their emotions were so vastly different from mine regarding the reunion. Everyone has a right to their emotions.

The Reunion

Renee: That sounds like a powerful topic and such a personal one. I can understand why you’d want to write it. How did you pick your title?

Christine: My working title for this book was originally Just Like Hannah because so many of the people in the book referred to their adoption experience—whether they were an adoptive mother or a woman who struggled with infertility, or me as a birth-mom—as “just like Hannah.”

But my publisher suggested the title Finding Sarah, Finding Me because that is the main theme of my personal story—finding my true identity in Christ while I was searching for a love relationship with the child I relinquished.

One other thing you might want to know about this book—100% of author royalties will be donated to the Mukti Mission in India. If you want to know the special reason for this, you’ll have to read the book.

Renee: Well that’s a teaser isn’t it, folks? LOL You have a very giving soul, Christine. On a more professional note, what’s easiest about writing for you?

Christine's daughter, Sarah

Christine: Strangely, I find it easy to be transparent in all I write and when I speak in public. Perhaps that’s because I had to live with a secret for so many years that I felt such freedom when that secret was revealed to the world. My secret was having a baby out of wedlock and keeping that secret for almost 20 years before I could even tell my kids that I later had with my husband. But that was the way things were done back then. I felt that I was living but people didn’t know the real me. I didn’t even know the real me.

So with that background as the inspiration for all I write, I find it easy to delve into those deep human issues and emotions that affect our lives and show us our great need for God.

Renee: Secrets can be destructive. They can cause a lot of pain. How long have you been writing and why did you start?

Christine: That’s a long-held secret for sure. That and my desperate need to tell others that I had another child. I wanted so badly to write that book about my reunion with my birth-daughter shortly after the reunion in 1999, and I completed that manuscript, but no doors to the publishing world opened at that time. That was when I felt the Lord urge me to put the spiritual and emotional healing I had received from my birth-mother experience into Christian fiction to hopefully help others.

That was the beginning of my Christian Fiction career. Then 16 years later, and after the publication of 6 successful novels, my publisher wanted to release my non-fiction book. Finding Sarah, Finding Me is a very different book from the one I wrote all those years earlier though. There was so much to learn, mostly about who I was in Christ and how He used my heartache to draw me to himself in a deeper love relationship.

Renee: How has your life changed over the years in other respects? Do you have any fun hobbies or activities you like to do?

Christine: I’m a grandmother of 5 grandsons, and just two days ago my first granddaughter was born. So I love to spend time entertaining my grown kids and their children. I love to make our home an oasis for our kids to come and relax, so I work on my garden and outside living area as well as making the house as cozy as I can. Cooking large family meals around the holidays and decorating too are what inspire me.

We know you’re a Christian, so I have a couple of quiz questions for you. If you were at a party, what would you do?

I like to meet new people and make them feel welcome. So I’ll go up to strangers and start a conversation, get them to tell me about themselves and their lives. It’s great to see people’s faces light up when someone takes an interest in them.

Oh, you’re bolder than me. I’m not as shy as I used to be, but it’s still hard for me to approach strangers. LOL Has God ever told you NOT to do something you wanted to do?

For sure. He definitely told me back in 2000 that I was not to publish my birth-mother story in a non-fiction format. He wanted me to wait on that book until He had taught me all the deep things of the heart about my daughter being someone else’s daughter. He wanted me to see the situation from their point of view, and that took time. It took time for the heartache to be healed so that I could see things from the Lord’s perspective, and thereby write that story the way He wanted it written.

Thanks for joining us at the Diamond Mine, Christine. It’s been a pleasure and I know your book will be a success!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know more about Christine Lindsay! She’s also offering a digital copy of her new book, Finding Sarah, Finding Me.

To Enter, simply ask her a question about the interview or leave a comment on the following:

Who taught you the love of God?

(Leave your name and email address with your comment or question to validate your entry. Minimum of five comments required. One winner will be selected by random draw on 9/21/2016)

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About Finding Sarah, Finding Me:

Sometimes it is only through giving up our hearts that we learn to trust the Lord.

Adoption. It’s something that touches one in three people today, a word that will conjure different emotions in those people touched by it. A word that might represent the greatest hope…the greatest question…the greatest sacrifice. But most of all, it’s a word that represents God’s immense love for his people.

Join birth mother Christine Lindsay as she shares the heartaches, hopes, and epiphanies of her journey to reunion with the daughter she gave up...and to understanding her true identity in Christ along the way.

Through her story and glimpses into the lives of other families in the adoption triad, readers will see the beauty of our broken families, broken hearts, and broken dreams when we entrust them to our loving God.

Amazon (Paper and Kindle)

Barnes and Noble

About Christine Lindsay:

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction with complex emotional and psychological truth, who always promises a happy ending. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary and historical romances Londonderry Dreaming and Sofi’s Bridge.

A busy writer and speaker, Christine, and her husband live on the west coast of Canada. Coming August 2016 is the release of her non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads

Miner Tracey Lyons Talks It Up on the Diamond Mine

Hey everybody, guess what? This week we have our very own Tracey Lyons on the Diamond Mine. She gets to sit in the hot seat this time! Her new release, A Changed Agent is out and about and is quite the read so stay tuned at the end of the interview to find out how you can win a copy. But right now, let's get this show on the road!

Renee: Hi, Tracey! Welcome to the Diamond Mine. :) I love interviewing fellow Miners. It's fun to dig out the "nitty gritty" for the world to see. Just kidding... I won't do that to you. LOL I will explore a bit though, if you don't mind. How about we start with something easy? Well, sort of...writing stuff anyway...what's your biggest challenge as an author?

Tracey: Thanks for having me, Renee. My biggest challenge? Keeping my butt in the chair! I like to work on little house projects when I’m developing new plots! And keeping my writing fresh. My biggest fear is that I’m recycling past storylines. So I work hard to bring fresh characters and plots to my books.

Renee: I can relate to that. Distractions! Mine is my job. It takes a lot of my time. As for the writing, yeah, you can start repeating stuff and not even realize it. Not good! What about your setting? Is it unique and how did you select it?

Tracey: I think the setting for A Changed Agent is unique. The book is set in one of my favorite places to visit, the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. One of our family’s dreams has always been owning property in the park. Did you know the Adirondack Park is the largest national park in the country? Greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined and it’s only a few hours from my front door.

Renee: Wow, what a place. I'd love to visit. Not sure it will ever happen...that's a long way from Wyoming, but I love the mountains. I've been to Glacier, the Grand Canyon, the Canadian Rockies, the Smokies, the Ozarks, Big Bend so yeah, I'd love to see the Adirondacks. I think your setting sounds absolutely awesome. I know this sounds terrible, Tracey, but what would you do if you couldn't write anymore?

Tracey: If I couldn’t write anymore I would go back to full-time charity work. I worked as an outreach worker at Catholic Charities years ago and even though it was for a short eighteen months I still think about the clients who came to me for the food pantry and for help with rent and other living expenses. It was a tough job that had many, many rewards.

Renee: It does sound like a rewarding position. Most jobs like that are hard but very gratifying. You can't help everyone, but the lives you impact make it all worthwhile. Back to the books...do you have a favorite one you like to read and where is your reading retreat? Mine is usually the bathtub. LOL

Tracey: My favorite book is surprisingly non-fiction, but I love the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It is just a fabulous recounting of a famous murder case in Savannah, Georgia that reads like a work of fiction. And I love to read in bed. There is nothing more comforting than lying in bed with a stack of pillows under my head and good book in my hands.

Renee: We just moved into a new house and I really haven't found my "spot" yet, but I'm partial to a shady place beneath in our backyard where I can relax with our dogs. It's quiet and cool. My second favorite is my recliner. LOL Do you have favorite "spot"?

Tracey: We have a fabulous front porch. It’s the kind that wraps around the front of the house and has a white porch swing and rocking chairs. All winter long I look forward to spending time there. We even have a little dining area.  So basically we live out there in the warm spring and summer months. When the realtor showed me the house, almost nine years ago, I told him I was going to buy the house because I knew my family would love to hang out on that porch. And you know what? When they come to visit it’s the first place they head to! So many great family memories have already been made there, and I know there are so many more yet to come.

Renee: That does sound fabulous! I want one. I guess that would mean I would have to buy a house? We'll get there... It's been great having you here, Tracey on the receiving end of the questions this time. I have one more for you before I let you return to your writing and relaxing. Is there a special quote or saying which comes to your mind in times of adversity or need which you can share with us?

Tracey: Be not dismayed whate’re betide, God will take care of you,” from the hymn, Be not dismayed whate’er betide. I truly believe that no matter what comes my way, God will always be there for me.

Renee: Yes, He is and will. He promises never to leave or forsake us. Thank you for being here and and being a Miner! 


Tracey is offering one copy of her book, A Changed Agent in the giveaway below...winner's choice of print (US entrants only), digital, or audio format. Comment or ask a question about the interview and you're entered for the contest! Make sure you leave your email address to validate your entry.

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GIVEAWAY!

Comment on blog to enter contest.

Entries must leave current email address.

One winner shall be chosen from validated comments in one week from post-date of blog.

Prize shall be winner's choice of the following formats: print (US entrant only), digital, or audio of A Changed Agent by Tracey J. Lyons.

Five blog comments required to validate contest.

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About the Book:

When schoolteacher Elsie Mitchell meets rugged William Benton on a train platform in Albany, it appears they have nothing in common. He isn’t the sort of fellow a proper young woman of the 1890s would ever speak to, much less become involved with. But when she arrives at her small town in the Adirondack Mountains, Elsie is offered a job as caregiver for this mysterious out-of-towner’s niece and nephew, who’ve been tragically orphaned. Heartbroken for them, she accepts.
Unknown to her, William is an undercover Pinkerton agent posing as a lumber-company foreman. He’s never wanted family—his work is too dangerous. Yet as Elsie transforms his house into a home and he spends time with the children, he feels drawn to family life—and to Elsie.
As a good Christian, Elsie is troubled by William’s secrets…though she does find him intriguing. And when a sinister figure from her past arrives, Elsie and William will have to trust in faith and newfound love to protect their unlikely family from danger.


Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Changed-Agent-Tracey-J-Lyons-ebook/dp/B01AI1UUIM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1466437236&sr=8-1

About the Author:

An Amazon Top Ten bestselling historical romance author of the Women of Surprise series, Tracey sold her first book on 9/9/99! Her books have been translated into several languages and are available in print, digital and audio formats. Tracey lives with her husband in New York’s Hudson Valley region. She has appeared on the award winning Cox Cable Television show, Page One and on the stage of Lady Jane’s reading salon in New York City. She holds membership in Romance Writers of America, American Fiction Christian Writers and Novelists Inc. A true upstate New Yorker, Tracey believes you should write what you know. Her historical romances are all set in the New York State area. Tracey considers herself a small town gal who writes small town romances. You can learn more about Tracey and her books by visiting her website at www.traceylyons.com.

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