This beautiful cover is the first reason to fall in love with the second book of the Crossroads series by Jenny Carlisle. Once you get to the story, you’ll discover many other reasons to fall in love with this book. Published by Scrivenings Press, it is now available for preorder on Amazon Kindle for $3.99. It will be published in paperback and delivered as a Kindle e-book on January 31.
Jenny is a friend of mine and we discussed some fun topics about writing and some personal special abilities.
What are you working on right now?
This so exciting! January is release time for my second Contemporary Christian novel, Faith Moves Mountains. I have loved living in the make-believe town of Crossroads, Arkansas, with the Caldwell and Billings families. While I was writing the first story, Hope Takes the Reins about the middle kids, Hope and O.D., I was fascinated by the oldest siblings, John K. and Faith. He was having a very hard time adjusting to life at home after his military service. Faith was impatient to leave home and begin her own new life. I felt they needed their own book to find out how to follow God’s Plan.
This book explores the image we have of ourselves. Both of my main characters feel stifled by the expectations others have of them. Only by recognizing that God knows all about them and loves them anyway can they live up to the plans He has for them.
I hope that with the help of my launch team, I can spread the word about this book. I set it in my absolute favorite part of the world, the Arkansas River Valley. I plan to bring as many readers as possible along for the ride.
What is your next writing project?
I am happy to be able to spend more time with the Billings and Caldwell clans in Crossroads. Next up will be a novella, to be released a few weeks before Christmas in 2023. Entitled Rejoicing with the Joy, it will be an adventure for Hope and Faith’s younger brother, Junior Caldwell and a new friend he meets in a neighboring town. I am so excited to be working with two other wonderful authors, Tonya Ashley and you, Ellen Withers, on this project. All three of our stories will feature the same unique nativity set and they will be published in a collection called A Gift for All Time. I hope it will reignite your Christmas spirit with the knowledge that the baby born long ago in Bethlehem is still alive today.
What is your superpower?
I tell the kids in the classes I substitute for that my superpower is mispronouncing names. Actually, I guess my superpower is an ability to communicate with people on their level. In my job as a human resources analyst, I was able to project confidence in helping people with whatever came up. This applied to new employees, retiring employees, the executives in the “C” suite, as well as the lowest paid temporaries. Of course, some folks exasperate me, but I get along pretty well with most everyone.
If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?
Could I change this up a bit? I’d like to still be me, but in a fictional location. I would love to live in Dodge City, Kansas during the time of the fictional TV series, Gunsmoke. I don’t think I would have worked in Miss Kitty’s saloon. Maybe I would have been a schoolteacher. Perhaps I would have convinced the school board I could still continue, even after marrying a handsome sod-buster and starting my own family. Although I totally had a crush on Matt Dillon as a youngster, I realize he was not the type to settle down. Surely, there would have been someone for me.
What genre would you like to consider in the future that differs from that/those you do now?
I am so fascinated by history. It intrigues me to think about how a location I am familiar with might have looked years ago. Even more than that, I love to try to imagine how people in previous times handled their struggles without modern conveniences. The faith they drew on must have been key for their survival.
I would love to write stories of their ancestors for my children and grandchildren. The problem with writing stories like that is that a “just the facts” narrative can be boring. So, using the skills I have learned as a fiction writer, I would like to write four “based on” stories. There are plenty of fascinating people to draw on in each branch of my children’s family tree.
Just a few examples: A Scottish family who emigrates to Eastern Kansas in the 1880s gravitates first to the trade they know- coal mining, but soon long for sunshine, and become cattle ranchers. A young man leaves Germany around the same time to become a successful US cavalry officer, traveling all over the old west while learning English. An Arkansas family follows the lure of California gold only to be part of a wagon train massacre in 1857. One of the few surviving children comes back to Arkansas to publicly share her incredible story. A family from the Carolinas follows the Revolutionary army in a peaceful capacity, as shoemakers. They move to Mississippi where they become non-slave owning Mennonites, then to Arkansas where their talent for building and supporting local churches continues to this day.
When I read historical novels, they usually take place during the Civil War, so if they Lord allows me to stay on earth long enough, that time period is a possibility as well.
It’s been a pleasure getting to interview you, Jenny. Do you have any final thoughts for our audience?
I would like to thank you, Ellen, for coming up with some questions that really got my wheels turning today. Being an author of fiction is a dream I’ve had since I was old enough to hold a pencil. Now that the dream has developed into a dream job, I am beyond happy to share my journey with others. I would love to hear from anyone who has questions about how I came to be published, or what experiences in my past have fed into the stories I write today. Talking about writing is one of my absolute favorite things to do! Your readers can contact me by going to my website http://jennycarlisle.com and subscribing to my monthly newsletter. There’s even a fun little gift for everyone who signs up. I hope everyone who reads this feels the love of our heavenly Father strongly today. God is Good!
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