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Noteworthy

    • The Reason I Wrote Sofi’s Bridge

      Guest post By Christine Lindsay The aspiration behind all my novels is to share journey the Lord took me on through my own canyons and valleys of loss to eventual emotional healing in Him. I share different aspects of that journey in my books to encourage others in their own struggles. And there you are: The valleys and canyons of Washington State are another set of the metaphors in Sofi’s Bridge. Here is an excerpt from a favorite character of mine, Kiosho, a delightful elderly Japanese man who in his youth mined for gold with Sofi’s grandfather shortly after they both immigrated to the US in the late 1800’s. Sofi watched her sister drift from pillar to pillar on the wraparound porch, a look of perplexity stamped on her face. Kiosho dried his hands on a tea cloth while Sofi pushed out a sigh. “I don’t know anymore, Kiosho. So little improvement in Trina.” Kiosho took her elbow and shook it. “Remember, Sofi, what I used to tell you. The love of God, all around. Like these mountains that circle this valley. First, Trina and you must go through different canyons of sadness, but He will bring you out to open spaces.” I live in a valley exactly like the fictional valley in the Cascade Mountains that Sofi and Neil escape to with her sister. Except, my real valley is just across the border in Canada, but still in the same beautiful range of mountains and glaciers. One day as I was going through a personal heartache, our pastor preached on the love of God, and used the metaphor of the mountains that encircle our real-life town nestled in the Fraser Valley. I know these mountains. I know this valley. I know each change on the faces of my mountains as seasons come and go. I also know how God can use our greatest heartaches to bring forth our greatest joys. If we let Him. I leave you with this last excerpt, when Neil, on a high alpine meadow starts to feel hope for his set of trying circumstances. He’s on the journey to God and healing, and doesn’t quite recognize it yet, but only feels the comfort and love coming from his Creator in the majesty around him. At the summit Kiosho reined the Clydesdales in and settled them under a shady tree. The wind, carrying a clean pine fragrance, blew unimpeded as though they’d reached the top of the world. Trina jumped from the wagon to run along a pathway strewn on either side with blue and purple lupine, pink phlox, yellow arnica, and red Indian paintbrush. Only a few feet to Trina’s right, the path dropped to plunge into a flower-dotted meadow. Grasses swayed in the breeze. Neil stayed behind with Sofi, sweeping his gaze three hundred and sixty degrees. Above the tree line, gray peaks scraped the sky, some still capped with snow. In the distance, pale blue and turquoise ice from glaciers filled crevices between serrated granite heights. Quiet awe filled his face. As Sofi watched him, she could only hope that up here for a while he could let go of whatever pain he was hiding from the world, and from her.   About Christine: Irish born Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction and non-fiction. Readers describe her writing as gritty yet tender, realistic yet larger than life, with historical detail that collides into the heart of psychological and relationship drama. Christine's fictional novels have garnered the ACFW Genesis Award, The Grace Award, Canada’s The Word Guild Award, and was a finalist twice for Readers’ Favorite as well as 2nd place in RWA’s Faith Hope and Love contest. This author’s non-fiction memoir Finding Sarah Finding Me is the true-life story that started this award-winning career in Christian fiction and non-fiction. This book is a must for anyone whose life has been touched by adoption. Christine is currently writing a new fictional series set on the majestic coast of Ireland and loaded with her use of setting as a character that will sweep the reader away. Subscribe to her newsletter on her website www.christinelindsay.org About the Book: Seattle Debutante Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from shock over their father's death. Charles, the family busy-body, threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium—a whitewashed term for an insane asylum—so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult to her own emotions? And can Nei, the gardener continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates lies from truth and safety. Buy Now:  Amazon Barnes & Noble Visit all the stops along the tour

31 May 2011

Get Lost in Hearst Castle with Inspirational Author Julie Carobini

This week's host: Jennifer Slattery

Julie Carobini, author of Fade to Blue, is a prolific writer with five novels and over one hundred magazine articles to her credit. When she's not writing, you'll probably find her strolling the beach, hand-in-hand with her real life hero while their dog ploughs ahead. She’s a happy mom to three kiddos in three very different stages: college, high school, and middle school. Julie has been writing magazine articles for twenty years and books for five, but sometimes dreams of chucking it all to crew for one of the yachts that takes tourists to the nearby Channel Islands. Although personally, I'd expect to find her wandering through an enchanted castle, sifting through antique chests, dreaming up her next story.

Fade to Blue is centered around the magnificent Hearst Castle, built by William Hearst, a wealthy newspaper man, in the late 1800's. Impacted by a childhood of travels, Mr. Hearst determined to create the home of his dreams, regardless the expense. When builders finished, the castle contained 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways. Could Julie have chosen a more exquisite setting for her novel?

"For a long while, I've wanted to set a story with the historic Hearst Castle as its
backdrop," Julie says. "So much intrigue and mystery about that real castle on the hill overlooking the sea. Of course, novels are more than their location, so after writing the first two stand-alone books, Sweet Waters & A Shore Thing, I had an idea. Why not figure out what happens next for big-hearted Suz Mitchell from A Shore Thing? So ... Fade to Blue is Suz's story."

As a dreamer, Suz is the perfect character to renovate the castle because he lives in a world of endless possibilities. Of all her characters, Julie Carobini relates most to Suz. "I relate to Suz because I'm a dreamer too," Carobini says. "Even when things are at their darkest, and even after a bit of thrashing around, I still believe things will get better.

So how does Julie transport herself into story world? Besides lingering through the lush gardens of Hearst Castle, notebook in hand, of course. "I write in my home office, but when I can," Carobini says. "I like to take my laptop up to the Rincon Beach (made famous in the Beach Boys song) and write from there. The last time I did that, though, I left the radio running in my car and killed the battery. Lol ... still it was lovely."

She's been writing for as long as her kids can remember. Literally. "I've been writing since my oldest child was a newborn, and he'll be twenty this year," Suz says. "I wrote an essay called Baby, Cordless Phone, and Me in longhand on a legal pad and sold it to Expecting, an offshoot of Parents Magazine. Because their readership--pregnant women--changed so often, they printed that story four years in a row :)"

In many ways, she's living her dream. She's always wanted to be a writer. "My dad wrote magazine articles on the side," Carobini says. "Including interviews with actors such as Fred Astaire and Fred MacMurray. Always loved that! I wrote articles for years, but always yearned to create fiction. I wrote two novels that did not sell, but as they say, third time’s a charm, and my debut novel, Chocolate Beach, released in 2007 (re-released with recipes in 2011 as an eBook). By that time, I had a renewed faith in God as well as a redefined focus on the kinds of stories he was leading me to write. "

Upon reading Fade to Blue, Julie hopes her readers appreciate their Creator and experience His love and grace. "I hope readers get lost in the story and the beautiful setting," Carobini says. "That they revel in God’s creation as much as I did while writing it. I also hope they experience the Good Shepherd’s gentle leading (Psalm 23), and fall in the love with the concepts of forgiveness, sacrifice, and grace—as much as they do the breathtaking locale."

Visit Julie's website and blog to find out more about her and her writing and hop on over to Amazon to order your copy of Fade to Blue!

And don't forget, there's numerous ways to be entered into the book give-away drawing. Leave a comment, fb share this post, tweet this post or become a subscriber, then shoot us an email to let us know.

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Item Reviewed: Get Lost in Hearst Castle with Inspirational Author Julie Carobini Rating: 5 Reviewed By: Jennifer Slattery
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