Hi everyone! Today we have with us Julie Lessman, the author of many books including A Passion Most Pure (which I finally read a little over a week ago - loved it! I can hardly wait to get started on the next ones when I have time).
Here is her bio and blurbs of her most recent books:
Julie Lessman is an
award-winning author whose tagline of “Passion With a Purpose” underscores her
intense passion for both God and romance. Winner of the 2009 ACFW Debut Author
of the Year and Holt Medallion Awards of Merit for Best First Book and Long Inspirational,
Julie is also the recipient of 14 Romance Writers of America awards and was
voted by readers as “Borders Best of 2009 So Far: Your Favorite Fiction.”
Chosen as the #1 Romance Fiction Author of the Year in the Family Fictionmagazine 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards,
Julie was also awarded #1 Historical Fiction Author of the Year in that same
poll and #3 Author of the Year, #4 Novel of the Year and #3 Series of the year.
She resides in Missouri with her husband, daughter, son, daughter-in-law and
granddaughter and is the author of “The Daughters of Boston” series—A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied. Book 1 in her “Winds of Change” series A Hope Undaunted ranked #5 on Booklist’s Top 10 Inspirational Fiction for 2010 and is
followed by A Heart Revealed and A Love Surrendered. You can contact
Julie through her website at www.julielessman.com.
He
broke her sister’s heart …
will she be next?
Orphaned in Iowa, Annie Kennedy moves to Boston to stay with her
spinster aunt, longing for romance to fill the void of her parent’s death. But
when she falls hard for Steven O’Connor, the man who broke an engagement to her
sister, Annie is worried. Will he break her heart, too, when he discovers she’s
Maggie’s sister?
One
Woman. Two Men.
One stirs her pulse and the other her faith.
But who will win her heart?
Marceline Murphy is a gentle beauty with a well-founded aversion
to rogues.
But when two of Boston's most notorious pursue her,
attraction, dreams and faith only muddle her mind.
Can the light in the window illuminate the path of true love?
Fooled
by a pretty boy once,
shame on him.
Fooled by a pretty boy twice,
shame on me.
Jilted by a fortune hunter, cowgirl Cassidy McClare is a spunky
Texas oil heiress without a fortune who just as soon hogtie a man as look at
him … until Jamie MacKenna, a handsome pauper looking to marry well lassoes her
heart. But when Jamie discovers the woman he loves is poorer than him, Cassie
finds herself bucked by love a second time, sending her back to Texas to lick
her wounds and heal her heart. In her absence, Jamie discovers money can’t buy
love, but love built on faith can set a heart free, a truth he discovers a
little too late … or is it?
Welcome to Christian Bookshelf
Reviews, Julie!! Will you tell us a little about yourself?
Sure thing, Melanie! I’m a baby boomer (how’s that
for side-stepping the age issue?) and CDQ (caffeinated drama queen) married to
a man who makes me feel like I’m living my own personal romance novel. I have a
28-year-old son married to a wonderful girl who is a doctor (and for whom I
have prayed for since my son was a baby!) and a 24-year-old daughter who just
graduated law school and would you believe it—hates to read! And, yes, it’s
true – I paid her $20 just to read the first chapter of A Passion Most Pure. I’m happy to say it hooked her, and the rest
of the book and the others didn’t cost me a dime! J My
husband of 34 years is an artist/designer and we are together 24/7 and actually
love it—working back-to-back in a tiny, little office when I’m not outside on
the deck with my laptop and hazelnut coffee or feet up in the hearth room
during winter.
What inspired your newest book, A Love Surrendered?
My two newest books—A Love Surrendered and also a Christmas
e-book entitled A Light in the Window: A
Irish Christmas Love Story—are the final two novels in the O’Connor family
saga, so I suppose I need to explain where I got the original idea for this
family epic since each book springboards off the prior one.
As most of my readers already know, I
started writing the first book in this saga, A Passion Most Pure, at the age of twelve after reading Margaret
Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. I
immediately knew I wanted an Irish family coping with a war (like GWTW), but
didn’t have the audacity to try another Civil War epic like Margaret, so I
settled on WWI instead.
As the 12th child in a
dysfunctional family of 13 kids, I also knew I wanted to portray a family the
way God intended a family to be—flawed but steeped in faith. The result is the
saga of the O’Connors, a passionate but imperfect family of six children who
love God and each other in the best way they know how, all interwoven with a
secondary love story between their parents. The first three books in The
Daughters of Boston series highlight the love stories of each of the three
oldest daughters, and the second series, Winds of Change, focuses on the
youngest daughter and two sons. Oh, and the Christmas e-book? Ah … that’s the prequel I’ve been longing to
write and finally did, which details the tumultuous love story of the saga’s
happily married parents, Marcy and Patrick O’Connor.
What is something the average
reader wouldn't know about you?
Mmmm … well, I’m not a girly-girl,
meaning I’m not big on diamonds and flowers and shopping, contrary to my
daughter! In fact, about 20 years ago, the diamond in my engagement ring fell
out of its setting while I was cleaning, and I never did find it. Told my
husband I didn’t want another one because a diamond on your hand just gets
caught on fabric and things like that, a real annoyance to a dirt-practical
bottom-liner like me. But oh, boy, cheap costume jewelry, especially dangle
earrings?? To die for!! J
What would you say is your most
interesting writing quirk?
HA! My family jokes that I am an “Ambiance
Queen” because dim lighting with candles are a mainstay for my winter writing,
along with a constant cup of hazelnut decaf with Half ‘n Half or peach iced
tea, Kleenex (for the soggy scenes I write), and a mirror handy for those
facial expressions I’m trying to capture on paper. Oh, and definitely lip
gloss—lots and lots of lip gloss!!
Where do you like to write?
During
the summer months (basically May through October), I sit outside on my lower
deck that runs the length of the house, overlooking a lush, green wooded area
that has sunlight dappling through the trees. I have my feet up on this cushy
lawn furniture we have (like now!), and a fan gently blowing while I sit with
my laptop. In the winter I’m in the hearth room with a crackling fire, all the
essentials mentioned above and a picture of my husband on the table beside me
for the ultimate inspiration.
What is the best and/or worst part
about being a writer?
Oh, hands-down, the best are the reader
friends I’ve made, some of which have become dear friends. And then, of course,
writing dramatic, breathless and compelling love scenes is certainly no
snoozer!! Sigh.
The worst? Without question, the
emotional roller-coaster one goes through AFTER getting published. Like a lot
of unpublished writers, I thought all the anxiety and self-doubt would
dissipate after I signed on the dotted line. I mean that would validate me,
right? Give me confidence as a writer? But I discovered (AGAIN!) that true
confidence is not in accolades from your editor or a really good review, but
instead in where your heart is with God. HE is my confidence when my sales
rankings on Amazon.com are high or low or that nasty review tries to take me
down.
Do you have a favorite Bible
verse?
Gosh, I have so many, but
one of my favorites (which I used to pray everyday) is the last paragraph in
Psalm 139, verses 23-24. But a word of warning—don’t pray it unless you mean
business, because God will definitely nail you to the wall on a few things!
Here it is:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and
know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me
in the way everlasting.
However
… since I have become an author, I find that the push and pull of success
(vying for sales, awards, accolades) is deadly, taking me places I do NOT want
to go. So since then, my favorite Scripture has been 2 Corinthians ll:3: Do not let my mind “be led
astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Here are a few this-or-that
questions:
Snowstorms or Thunderstorms? Oh, definitely snowstorms because
my husband and I are fortunate to both work at home so we can enjoy the snow
without the worry of having to go into work.
Tea or Coffee? Uh-oh … dilemma!! For hot
beverages, GOTTA have that cup of hazelnut decaf every day and throughout the
morning, but then in the summertime I switch to peach iced tea in the
afternoons and on those frosty winter afternoons, hot peppermint tea.
Print or eBook? Oh, man—another lip nibble here!
LOVE the feel and look of print books because I have the habit of constantly
turning back to look at the cover throughout the book, which is a pain on a
Kindle. But … the dirt-practical side of me sure loves being able to read my
Kindle in the car at night or in bed when I don’t want to keep my hubby up with
the light.
Early-bird or Night-owl? Definitely night-owl! LOVE to read
in bed after hubby is snoozing, either for an extra 15 minutes or two hours,
depending on the book. And when I get close to deadline, I have been known to
stay up till 5:00 AM burning up the computer.
Cats or Dogs? As a drama queen who needs
emotion, I am definitely a dog person, but I do love cats with personality.
I’ve put dogs in all my books except for A
Heart Revealed because I felt Emma was a cat person, so I gave her a maimed
cat who was scarred a kitten, just like Emma was scarred as a young girl,
forging a gentle bond between the two. Believe it or not, from that point on,
I’ve developed a fondness for cats.
Are you currently working on any
new novels? If so, could you give us a hint?
I am
halfway through book 2 in The Heart of San Francisco series, working title Dare to Love, which
is my ninth novel. Like book 1 in the series, Love at Any Cost, which releases April 1, 2013, there is
spontaneous combustion between the two main characters right off the bat! My
spunky, hot-tempered Irish heroine goes head-to-head with my hard-as-nails,
Italian police-detective grouch of a hero in the first chapter—or maybe I
should say the first round. I have to admit, I’m having WAY too much fun at the
expense of these two in a relationship that goes from fireworks to a flaming
romance in the short lick of a fuse. Here’s the premise: A sassy socialite
burned by love twice butts heads and hearts with a jaded cop burned by the
upper class.
Oh! It sounds really good! Thank you so much for being here,
Julie! Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers and where can we find
you on the web?
Yes! Although I usually only have one
book release a year, I’m very excited to announce that I have THREE books
coming out in a six-month span. A Love
Surrendered—the final book in the O’Connor family
saga—is available via e-book now and will be released in
paperback October 1st. Then my Marcy/Patrick prequel, A Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas
Love Story releases November 9, followed by book 1 in my new Heart of San
Francisco series, Love at Any Cost,
which releases April 1st, so there’s lots of “Passion with a Purpose”—my
tagline—coming your way!
Thanks, Melanie, for allowing me to
connect with your readers, and I’m looking forward to giving one of them a
signed copy of any of my books, including A
Love Surrendered or an e-book of A
Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas Love Story. Just leave a comment
telling me WHICH is your favorite O’Connor book and why. And if you haven’t
read any, that’s okay too—just let me know, and if you win, I will make sure
you get the first book in the series. GOOD LUCK!!
Of course, I LOVE to hear from reader
friends, so they can feel free to contact me through my website at http://www.julielessman.com,
either by sending an e-mail via my site or by signing up for my newsletter at http://www.julielessman.com/sign-up-for-newsletter/.
My newsletter is chock-full of fun info on my books and there’s always a
contest featuring signed book giveaways including one right now to have a
character named after you or a loved one in my next book. Also, I have a cool
feature on my website called “Journal Jots” (http://www.julielessman.com/journal-jots1/),
which is a very laid-back, Friday journal to my reader friends that would give
your readers an idea as to my relaxed style of writing. Then finally, I can be
found daily at The Seekers blog (http://seekerville.blogspot.com/), a
group blog devoted to encouraging and helping aspiring writers on the road to
publication.
Giveaway!
As Julie mentioned above, you can enter to win a copy of one of her books (winner's choice). This giveaway is open Internationally!
Enter via the
Rafflecopter below. The
mandatory entry is to leave a comment on
this blog post letting Julie know which is your favorite O’Connor book and why (if you haven't read any, just say that). After you do that, the optional entries will become available. Happy entering and I look forward to reading your comments. :)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
