The author shares about her 3-in1 romance collection
Delaware Weddings (Romancing America): Witness how the love for children sparks three romances in Delaware. Can love bring these women to a place of finding forgiveness and hope?
Q: Your ‘Romancing America’ book started out as separate titles for the Heartsong Presents readers. Tell us how the individual novels are linked together into a larger picture.
The stories in Delaware Weddings are connected in two major ways. First, the hero in Finding Home (Book 1) is the brother to the heroine in For Better or For Worse (Book 2), and she is the mother to the heroine in Gaining Love (Book 3). I love stories that are connected through family ties.
Also, the books are connected as each deals with adoption and/or unplanned pregnancies. These topics are especially near and dear to my heart as I am the mother of a most precious unplanned child, and I am a big sister to two adorable adopted sisters.
Q: When you were originally writing the series, how much were you focused on each individual title — and how much were your eyes on how each piece fit into the larger story?
I was totally focused on the whole picture the entire time I wrote all three stories. Each book is able to stand alone, but together they tell a much bigger story, one in which the characters learn to depend and trust God as they are growing together.
Q: What was your inspiration for the original series? (And how much did your original plan change over the course of the arc?)
My original idea was to share a story about a young, Christian woman who makes a bad choice, gets pregnant, and then gives her baby up for adoption. As a girl who made a few bad choices (but kept my baby), I wanted to show a character who deals with her mistake and reconnects with the Lord. As I wrote the series, I stayed pretty true to the original plan. What I didn’t expect was how much I would fall in love with the characters.
Q: How does your faith influence your writing?
My faith is intricately woven throughout my writing. God is the reason for my every breath. I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning without His guidance of every step I take. I can’t imagine NOT sharing my faith in my writing.
Q: What do you most hope readers get out of your fiction?
More than anything, I want my readers to walk away from my stories with some small nugget of truth about Christ…that they can always trust Him, that He loves us, that He redeems us, that He expects our full worship…just some kind of truth about our Lord.