Hi Diamond Mine fans. Julie B Cosgrove here. Today I have the privilege of introducing you to a multi-published author named Shellie Arnold.  

So tell us -  Who is Shellie Arnold (inquiring readers want to know)?

Hi Julie. Thanks for having me. I’m a wife, home school mother of three, mother-in-law to Kate (whom I adore), and a lover of movies, Chili Cheese Fritos, power tools, and cuddly critters. We have one dog, two cats, and three bunnies.

Chili Cheese Fritos takes me back to hosting the snack stand as a band parent at football games. 

Good for you for homeschooling. So, tell us, with all you have on your plate, why do you write Christian fiction?

Actually, writing Christian fiction wasn’t on my radar until 2006. Prior to 2002, writing non-fiction about marriage was my goal. I hoped to share everything I was learning the hard way about marriage. From August 2002 to May 2005, I faced a near-debilitating illness that halted all my writing dreams. After God healed me, my husband and I both prayed for eleven months before I began writing anything. I tell people God healed my brain, then turned my head to fiction. I said to God, “That’s not what we were doing.” His response, “That’s what we’re doing now.” So, I write novels about the perfect storms in marriage—what happens when my weaknesses hit yours head-on, and we’re both left wondering if anything can be salvaged. Then I speak and write other non-fiction works about marriage, too.

 Do you write anything else?

I have a blog that I’m sort of re-starting now. Right now, I’m finishing my fourth novel, then I hope to buckle down to write some romances. I also hope to pursue publishing my first non-fiction work next year, as well as launching online courses for those who want to strengthen their marriage.

Tell us briefly about these three novels  you have written and if they stand alone or are sequels you have to read in order?

My first three novels are the first three books in The Barn Church series, a series that focuses on couples who attend The Barn Church in Rowe City, Alabama. Each story highlights a specific couple within that church body. 

My first novel, The Spindle Chair, is the story of Pierce and Laurie Crane. They’re a youngcouple who is desperate to have a child, but they have no idea how their marriage will be threatened when God grants that request.

 Book two is Sticks and Stones, about Rick and Julie Matthews. They’ve been married almost twenty years and have a special needs child. But coping with that unexpected blessing had some negative effects on their relationship that won’t be ignored after Julie is injured in an accident. 

Abide With Me is book three and looks at Nicholas and Angelina Rousseau, a couple who lacks no material thing, but their marriage is emotionally bankrupt. Each of these couples comes to a crossroad where choices must be made, and hopefully I’ve realistically portrayed the various challenges and struggles they face. While it’s not critical they are read in order, a reader might enjoy them better in order, simply because each consecutive book highlights a couple the reader meets in a previous story.

What do you hope your readers will take away from the third book we are featuring today?

First, that no marriage is beyond saving. I believe that with all my heart. It’s why my tagline is “Live Happily Even After.” I truly believe despite baggage, or past mistakes, any marriage can thrive if both parties obey God. God can heal, redeem, and restore anything. I’m living proof.

Second, that God is always there, always trying to speak to us, lead us, teach us, and grow us into becoming more like Jesus and stronger in His love. It’s only when we are growing in God’s love and in relationship with Him, that we can truly grow love in our marriage and our relationship with each other. It’s a win-win that so often gets overlooked when we stare at our problems.

What else is on your to-be-written list?

As I said, I’m completing my fourth novel. It’s my first stand alone. It’s not part of The Barn Church series, although I don’t think I’m finished writing the series. And my non-fiction projects include a book on sexuality in marriage. I think I have a different perspective than most, since I’m not a psychologist or pastor’s wife or even a counselor. I’m a kid from a broken home, as well as a sexual abuse survivor, as is my husband, so I approach the subject from a different place.

When you aren't writing, what do you like to do?

I wasn’t kidding that I love power tools. Home improvement projects are fun to me. Last weekend we hung new drywall in my kitchen ceiling. If I had my way, I’d be renovating and remodeling houses on a regular basis, but so far that hasn’t been God’s path. I enjoy reading and I really do LOVE watching movies. I enjoy watching sports—football, tennis, world cup soccer, the Olympics. Dates with my husband. Shopping with my youngest, my daughter. Writing or working at my desk with the dog or a cat on my lap.

Maybe I'll see you on HGTV? But for now, where can people find you? (Website, FaceBook, blog, etc).

I maintain a web site at www.shelliearnold.com and my blog is there, as well.

On Facebook I’m https://www.facebook.com/shellie.arnold.7

On Twitter I’m @ShellieArnold1

On Pinterest I’m https://www.pinterest.com/ShellieLArnold/

Thanks, Shellie, for reaching out to the Diamond Mine of Christian Fiction. Please let others know about our blog!

Catherine Ulrich Brakefield Interview

Hello, Diamond Mine readers! Catherine Ulrich Brakefield is on the Mine today to give us a sneak peak at her latest book Swept Into Destiny, a Civil War historical and the first in a series that you won't want to miss.

One brave decision leads to serious consequences. Maggie is secretly educating the slaves at Spirit Wind Manor. But the manor’s serenity is soon threatened by abolitionist John Brown. A new republic looms on the horizon and with Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, her countrymen’s anger escalates as secession spreads across the southern states. With the fires of civil war glowing on the horizon, Maggie is swept into its embers realizing she is in love with the manor’s hardworking, handsome Irishman Ben McConnell. Ben joins the Union Army and Maggie is forced to call him her enemy. An unexpected chain of events leads her into choosing where her loyalties lie. Conscience and consequence—did she care more for Ben or for her beloved South? As the battle between North and South rages, Maggie is torn. Was Ben right? Had this Irish immigrant perceived the truth of what God had predestined for America?

AMAZON LINK FOR THE BOOK: Swept Into Destiny

THE INTERVIEW:

When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

When I fell in love with books! I did dream of some day writing my own book, but that seemed impossible to me. I wasn’t good at spelling or grammar. I didn’t like school much and preferred being active. To me books were an active pursuit. My imagination was always in overdrive as I pursued my heroine through the written word. The colorful places, the leaps I took into another time period, wow, books continue to be an exciting adventure.

When I grew up we had black and white television sets, no internet, and, would you believe—no cell phones. So, if I wanted color, I read a book. I was captivated with the rhyming sonnet of words, the flowing musical notes of the written language!

But it wasn’t until my grandmother came to live with me that I actually sat down and put my thoughts and love for words on paper and began my first novel.

Yes, books! The love of story. Where it all begins. I couldn't agree with you more.

What inspired you to write about the Civil War?

My grandmother’s stories about the South, her down-home dialect captured my imagination. Gran was originally from Kentucky. Also, my husband is from Alabama. I realized that many southerners did not want to secede from the Union; they fought because of their loyalty to their beloved South. I also learned that only a small percentage of southerners owned slaves. However, Irish immigrants were often hired for ridiculously low wages to do the work normal people, even slaves, were too valuable to do.

I was amazed to learn about the sacrifices and loss of property the southerners endured. But what surprised me the most was the southerners’ strong Christian beliefs. In spite of untold hardships, instead of being bitter toward God, they embraced Him. I wanted to write the truth about the antebellum era, the political unrest, and the spiraling effect that people and events had in opening the door for a civil war.

How long did you spend researching before writing Swept into Destiny?

I feel like saying twelve years, because that is the length of time my grandmother lived with my family. But my serious research started about 2005, when my grandmother left to be with Jesus and my children were grown. I knew I wanted to write a sequel and I wanted the first book to begin during the antebellum era and for the last book of the four book series to end after World War II. 

I love how your grandmother inspired your writing. I wish I'd had more time with mine to tap into that wealth of history and truth. What a wonderful gift.

What were your goals on writing the book?

It is my prayer that people, after reading Swept into Destiny, will come away feeling uplifted and edified by the Irish immigrant’s fortitude and courage. This book is for every immigrant, every ethic group and every person who has felt the lash of inferiority. Ben McConnell’s faith was put to the test repeatedly. When Ben was slapped in the face with injustice, prejudice, hate, or with “No Irish need apply” verbiage, he responded, “We’ll show you through our attitude and work ethics that we shall persevere and with God on our side, we will become victorious.”

I loved Ben's drive and strength. Are any of your characters based on real people or just from your imagination?

The main characters, though inspired by my grandmother’s stories, are created from my imagination. I must admit, I had to stop and think about that. Maggie and Ben became so real to me, so alive in my imagination; it is hard for me to believe they are imaginary.

The secondary characters, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, John Brown, Dred Scott, and Dr. Isaac Anderson were real people, and I attempted in Swept into Destiny to re-emphasize their forthright spirit and accomplishments. 

You highlight the Irish plight in America and their contribution to the Civil War so well. Do you have Irish ancestors?

Yes, I do. My grandmother was Irish, with a bit of Scottish thrown in for flavor. My grandfather was English. It was my mother who told me about how the Irish immigrant did the work the slaves were too valuable to do. I never learned this in my history classes or books. I had to do some extensive research to dig up this information.

To show you how well kept these facts were, I happened across a gentleman in Lexington, Kentucky, and he said the same. That he didn’t learn about the Irish immigrant or their plight until he took a college course.

When I went to Gettysburg, I saw a Celtic cross dedicated to the Irish Brigade. I thought Ireland sent a brigade to the United States to fight in the Civil War? You can imagine my astonishment to learn it was Irish immigrants who formed three Union regiments and two Confederate regiments that fought in the Civil War!

Needless to say, I include in my Author Note at the back of Swept into Destiny some interesting facts about our Irish immigrants. There is also in the back of the book, Book Club Discussion Questions.

What was the most difficult part in writing this book?

Keeping my word count down! I wanted to tell my readers oh, so much. I view history as a springboard into the future. I wanted to encompass more about the history Swept into Destiny introduced. For instance, like the plight of the Irish during the Irish Rebellion against the British of 1798 and the song “The Wearin’ of the Green.” Wearing green clothing or wearing the shamrock was considered a rebellious act, punishable by death. “They were hanging men and women for the wearin’ of the green.” Much like what is happening with what ISIS is doing to Christians.

How important is it to include a spiritual emphasis in your writing?

Very! I write because of my Savior, Christ Jesus and getting His truth out to those who do not know Him is important to me.  

I don’t believe that in heaven God will segregate us into ethnic groups. We can’t determine what nationality, eye color, physical features, not even the mental capacity we will be born with. But we alone determine what we do with what we are given.

My heroine, Maggie, was right in saying that we are all slaves. Slaves to ourselves and our sins and without the blood of Christ to wash them away, our destiny on earth is hopeless. In Galatians 4:7 we read, “Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then heir of God through Christ.”

Would you like to see this book made into a movie? Who would you choose to play the hero and heroine?

One of my dreams is to have the Destiny four book sequels placed on the motion picture screen. I just finished hearing a lecture by Stanley D. Williams about how to structure your story to make it a worthy candidate for film adaptation.

Because of my love for Jane Austen’s book Pride and Prejudice, I’d probably pick Kiera Knightly for Maggie and Matthew Macfadyen for Ben. For Mrs. Gatlan, Jane Seymour and for Mr. Gatlan, Tom Selleck. He has a no-nonsense personality like my character.

YES! Love Kiera and Matthew for the leads. They would be perfect. :) And one of the reasons I thought of the above question was because the whole time I was reading the book, I kept thinking how great it would be as a movie. Hope I get to see it someday.

Could you share a few thoughts about the continuing story in your next book in the series?

Out of Kentucky’s bluegrass, debutant balls, and old-world charm, and into the burning ashes of a defeated cause sweeps … Into Destiny’s Whirlwind… Ben McConnell swears his oath before God Almighty and renames his estate Shushan. 

Upon the dawn of the Spanish American War, Collina McConnell promises she’ll uphold Shushan’s legacy… and ponders the mystery that lies beneath her father’s dying request. A dashing Rough Rider named Franklin Long steps uninvited into her world, and her heart suddenly has a will of its own…

Can't wait!

AUTHOR BIO:

Catherine is an ardent receiver of Christ's rejuvenating love, as well as a hopeless romantic and

patriot. She skillfully intertwines these elements into her writing as the author of Wilted Dandelions, published by CrossRiver Publishing, an inspirational historical romance, along with her first Christian Romance novel, "The Wind of Destiny", and her other history books,  Images of America,The Lapeer Area and The Images of America, Eastern Lapeer County. published by Arcadia Publishing.

Catherine was a former staff writer for Michigan Traveler Magazine (Breckenridge, MI), has free lanced for numerous other publications; Woods-n-Water News, Michigan History Magazine and Tri-City Times Newspaper, L. A. View Newspaper, and The Romeo Observer Newspaper.

Her short stories have been published in Guidepost Books; Extraordinary Answers to Prayers, Unexpected Answers and Desires of Your Heart; Baker Books, Revell, The Dog Next Door, and The Horse of my Heart; CrossRiver Publishing, The Benefit Package, and Abba’s Promise; and Bethany House, Jesus talked to me Today.

Catherine lives in Addison Township, MI., with her husband Edward of forty four years, and her beautiful Arabian horses. She enjoys horseback riding, swimming, camping, and traveling the byroads across America. Her children are now grown and married with families of their own. Catherine and Edward are now the blessed  recipients of two handsome grandsons and one preciously adorable granddaughter.