CFBA Tour Valley of Dreams by Lauraine Snelling

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Valley of Dreams Bethany House (November 1, 2011) by Lauraine Snelling

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award-winning and best selling author Lauraine Snelling began living her dream to be a writer with her first published book for young adult readers, Tragedy on the Toutle, in 1982. She has since continued writing more horse books for young girls, adding historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers to her repertoire. All told, she has up to sixty books published.

Shown in her contemporary romances and women’s fiction, a hallmark of Lauraine’s style is writing about real issues of forgiveness, loss, domestic violence, and cancer within a compelling story. Her work has been translated into Norwegian, Danish, and German, and she has won the Silver Angel Award for An Untamed Land and a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart for Song of Laughter.

As a most sought after speaker, Lauraine encourages others to find their gifts and live their lives with humor and joy. Her readers clamor for more books more often, and Lauraine would like to comply ... if only her paintbrushes and easel didn’t call quite so loudly.

Lauraine and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons, and live in the Tehachapi Mountains with a cockatiel named Bidley, and a watchdog Basset named Winston. They love to travel, most especially in their forty-foot motor coach, which they affectionately deem “a work in progress”.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Addy Lockwood's mother died when she was little, so Addy traveled with her father's Wild West Show and became an amazingly skillful trick rider, likened by some to the famous Annie Oakley. When her father died, she continued to work with the show, having nowhere else to go.

Now Addy has discovered that "Uncle" Jason, the show's manager, has driven the show into debt, and he's absconded with what little money was left. Devastated, Addy decides to try to find the hidden valley where here father had dreamed of putting down roots. She has only one clue. She needs to find three huge stones that look like fingers raised in a giant hand. With Chief, a Sioux Indian who's been with the show for twenty years, and Micah, the head wrangler, she leaves both the show and a bundle of heartache behind and begins a wild and daring adventure.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Valley of Dreams, go HERE.

Christmas Focus with Lauraine Snelling

Christmas Focus with Lauraine Snelling author of One Perfect Day

Thanks Lauraine for taking the time to visit with us today. I have enjoyed reading your books for awhile now and am excited to have you on my blog.
In Australia we have one week till Christmas and although the weather is dismal for Summer It really is feeling like Christmas.

Now onto our interview with Lauraine.

1. What do I associate with Christmas where I live.

Tons of new catalogues. Plenty from ones I already shop with but others I’ve never even heard of. How many trees died for all these catalogues? How much landfill is being used up? Not very inspirational I know. Usually the decorations on Main street and the music remind me that Christmas is coming. How I love the music of Christmas. (Jenny Here I do too)

2. Special family traditions?

We used to have more. One we dearly loved was the entire family going shopping for our yearly Christmas ornament. Most of them are still in the Christmas boxes to be put up again. Great memory lane when we decorate the tree. After FINALLY agreeing on the ornament, we would all go out for dinner, not something we did so often when the children were little. Did I mention there were a few disagreements on what ornament, that older son thought someone forgot to feed him, waiting for the other two to agree, I often wondered why I ever dreamed up such an event and yet we remember those jaunts fondly.

3. A favorite Carol?

What Child is This? I have always loved this song, how could one not? One our children’s choir sang when I was in it, and now I can’t think of the title but the animals in the Bethlehem stable sing what they brought to the Christ child. (This is a Carol I also love, we have an icecream van come round in Summer and it plays this song)

4. How would I spend Christmas if I could celebrate any way I wanted?

I’ve thought about this a lot. If you mean anything is possible, I would have our daughter alive again, but healthy and without the cancer, as if that had never happened. She’d be here to celebrate, to help make cookies, to say on the phone, “hi Mom” and perhaps be married and bring grandchildren to our house, or we’d go see them and the rest of the family would come and we’d be together again. We know Marie would not cook the dinner, she didn’t like to cook but the rest of us would take care of that. Now to wipe away the tears and go on with the questions. You said anything.


5. What inspired the story for One Perfect Day?

I have two friends that had kidney transplants and one is still alive. The other’s kidney worked for twenty years or more but when it started to fail, there was no other kidney available for her. She made a lot of differences in students and friends by her life. I met a woman who works with an organ donation organization and she gave me a lot of material and encouraged me. Combine this with the drive to have a perfect Christmas, many of us have been down that road, and a story was born. I believe so strongly that everyone should mark the organ donor spot on their drivers license.


6. Was it hard to write from both mother’s point of view?

Not really because I write several viewpoints in all my novels. But I warn readers, One Perfect Day is a two boxer, meaning keep the tissue box handy. I used up plenty writing it, crying my way through scenes with both Nora and Jenna.

7. Do I have something I want readers to take away from this book?

Several things actually. I hope to help people learn about loss and grieving before they have to learn it personally. We all will have times of grief in our lives, but no one teaches us about grieving. I hope this story helps. The most important part of that is to let God hold us and guide us through the grieving. He said he would and He never breaks a promise. Even if we don’t feel like He is. All through the grief I knew one thing for sure, God loves me and would never let me go, even when I was at my most angry and trying to push Him away. Our Father never lets go. His love never ends.

8. Do I have a Christmas message for your readers?

Don’t try to have that perfect Christmas at the expense of your family, yourself and those you love. Relax and let love flow out from you and God’s love flow through you to bless all those around you. That’s the greatest gift you can give, you never run out of love, the more you understand how high, wide, long and deep God’s love is for you. You, me, He loves us no matter what. Isn’t that incredible? So rejoice, and let the peace of God rule in you richly. And sometimes you have to be quiet to let Him fill you. Take time to let His word fill you. Rejoice.

Blessings,

Lauraine Snelling