Meet and Greet Monday: Shawna K. Williams

Book Giveaway Drawing! Win a pearl bracelet!

Read the Details Later in this Post.

Thank you for hosting me today Janalyn.

I'd like to tell your followers a little about myself and my new book. My name is Shawna Williams. I'm a Christian, rancher's wife, homeschooling mother of three, and a writer. I currently have two inspirational historical novels published by Desert Breeze Publishing, and a third due to release next month.

My latest release, In All Things, is the sequel to my debut novel, No Other. Both books were originally inspired by a dream I had over eight years ago. Before that dream I had never intended to be a writer. The dream was a story, though, told in bits and pieces, and I obsessed over it for six months as I tried to fill in all the details until I finally had to write it down. At first it was to satisfy my own curiosity, but over the course of years (yes years) as I pulled it out and put it away, I fell so in love with the characters and their journey that I felt I owed it to them to at least try to get their story published. The two books, No Other and In All Things, have gone through multiple critiques and rewrites, and have changed in many ways from the original, but the core story that originated with that dream remains the same.

In All Things picks up ten years after No Other, in the late 1950s. Jakob and Meri have both thrown themselves into achieving success for different reasons, and they've both succeeded. What they've found, though, is that the dreams they once believed would heal old wounds have fallen short. The strain of disillusion sets in, and when they return to their hometown for the holidays they are forced to reface old issues they both had attempted to bury.

My hope is that readers will take away the message of God's sovereignty in our lives, and that we are never beyond His sight or His Grace. I know that in my own life stories of Grace have had a tremendous impact. Francine Rivers is my favorite author for this reason. I had a hard time connecting with a lot of Christian fiction before I encountered her books. There are people, like me, who need to be reminded that God's Grace is for them too. I want my books to do that.

If you enjoy No Other and In All Things, I have a Christmas story coming out on Dec 1^st with the same publisher, Desert Breeze. It's called Orphaned Hearts, and it's inspired by my grandparents. My grandfather was raised in an orphanage, and my grandmother's father ran the orphanage's dairy. This was how my grandparents met. Their own experiences motivated them to become foster parents, and over the course of many years they touched many lives through their love and their faith.

If you'd like to know a little more about me and my books, you can visit my website, http://shawnakwilliams.com/, or my blog, My Father's Oldsmobile, at http://shawnawilliams-oldsmobile.blogspot.com/. You can follow me on twitter, http://twitter.com/shawnakwilliams, or like my fb fanpage, Shawna K. Williams.

I have free sample pdf files of the first three chapters of No Other, my debut novel, and its sequel, In All Things. If you'd like these contact me at shawnawilliams@allegiance.tv.

Here's the blurb to In All Things, and a link to a short excerpt on the publisher's site:

Jakob and Meri's story continues...

Meredith Louis's Hollywood career is at a point of transition. No longer under Majestic Studios' control, Meri is free to broaden her appeal as an actress and finally earn the recognition she desires. 

Meri and Jakob return to their hometown for the holidays where Meri hopes to reconcile with her parents after a decade of silence. But after a disastrous encounter, Meri is plunged into turmoil as old fears resurface in unexpected ways. 

Jakob, already dealing with unresolved family issues of his own, is further burdened by his inability to help his wife. Can he learn to step aside and trust God's plan. Will Meri recognize what she already has? 

In All Things is a story of faith and restoration, cemented in the belief, "...that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Purchase at Desert Breeze Publishing

Also available at the Amazon Kindle Store, B&N Nook, and iPad through iBookstore. Soon to be available at Christianbooks.com.

Book Giveaway Drawing: Shawna K. Williams will give away a free ebook copy of  In All Things to a reader of this blog. To tie into the theme of grace within her book, Shawna will also mail a freshwater pearl bracelet to the winner of the drawing. To enter, leave a comment to this post. Please include a way to reach you or your entry will become invalid. Entries will be accepted until this Wednesday at midnight (Pacific Time/US). The winner will be announced on Book Readers Central on Friday. If a winners fails to respond within a week of notification, the winner will be reassigned. Detailed rules of giveaways on Book Reader's Central on this blog are located in the footer of this blog.


**Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when books are purchased through links from Book Readers Central.