Meet and Greet Monday: Darlene Franklin

Book Giveaway Drawing! See details, below.

Award-winning author and speaker Darlene Franklin recently returned to cowboy country—Oklahoma—to be near family. She recently signed the contract for her twelfth book. This fall she celebrates the repacking of her Rhode Island romance in Seaside Romance and her third novella anthology, Face of Mary in A Woodland Christmas.

Dear Reader,

I am so glad we can chat together together about books, reading and writing. There’s nothing better than meeting a fellow enthusiast and settling in for a good chat.

I’m delighted to be able to offer a copy of my Christmas novella, A Woodland Christmas, to one of your readers. Interwoven through four novellas, an itinerant woodcarver moves from town to town in the piney woods of East Texas, delivering “sawdust sermons.” In my story, The Face of Mary, he’s carving life-size manger figures for a church. The hero paints the finished carvings and he is looking for the right woman to be the “face of Mary.”

Both The Face of Mary and a novella I’m writing for next year (in Christmas at Barncastle Inn) are based on the biblical account of the first Christmas. My hope is that a novella with echoes of the familiar story will bring home some truths in a new way. I know it’s been good for me! Especially since Barbour Publishing contracts the novellas in time for us to write them during the Christmas season. We don’t have to get in the holiday spirit in the middle of summer.

Since I began writing full time a year ago, God has blessed me abundantly. This year I’ve written a three-book set of historical romances set in Vermont. The first volume, The Prodigal Patriot, came out in July. Next I’m working on sequels to accompany my first ever book (Romanian Rhapsody, 2005); Plainsong and Knight Music should both be published in 2011. I’m excited to see what God has next for me.

As a writer, I read all the time. Some time it’s heavy plodding through historical research books. I also usually read a “serious” Christian living book during my quiet times. Other times I’m reading books by my fellow Christian authors—I read a lot of historical romance, since that’s what I write. But for pure escapism, my default genre is mystery/suspense.

Or I could tell you my books by location. My quiet time book: Breathing Grace by Harry Strauss. My bathroom book: Rocky Mountain Match by Pamela Nissen. My purse book: Love Finds You in Calico, California by Lisa Ludwig. My mystery (which I read before bed and when I wake up and in between): I just finished Die For You by Lisa Unger.

If you would like to learn more about my life and work, check out my blog at http://darlenefranklinwrites.blogspot.com/. Monthly book giveaways feature both my books and books from guest authors. My books are available for purchase at Amazon and from Barbour Books.

Janalyn Voigt benefits when books are purchased on Amazon.com through
links from Book Readers Central.

Barbour Book Link to Purchase A Woodland Christmas

Darlene Franklin's Blogs:

http://darlenefranklinwrites.blogspot.com/ ~ http://thebookdoctorbd.blogspot.com/

Book Giveaway Drawing: Leave a comment to this post to be entered in the drawing for a free copy of M

A Woodland Christmas. Please include a way to reach you online or your entry will be ineligible. Entries will be accepted until this Wednesday at midnight (Pacific Coast time/United States). The winner will be posted Friday. A link to detailed giveaway rules is located in this blog's footer.