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A Writer's Review of “Rebellious Heart" by Jody Hedlund

 {My Review}

I love that Jody Hedlund can write just about any era in history and still manages to do it flawlessly. Rebellious Heart is her fifth novel and takes place in 1763 off the coast of Massachusetts near Boston. I'm not new to Jody's ways. I know she adores history and loves to find the most interesting tails from the lives of our ancestors to help guide her in her quest for her next fabulous story. This one is loosely based on the friendship and great love between President John Quincy Adams, and his wife Abigail.

Rebellious Heart is the story of long-known acquaintances, Susanna Smith and Benjamin Ross, who are from very different upbringings. I loved that from the first moment we meet them, they are in the midst of watching a terribly unfair murder trial--or from Ben's seat as defending attorney, basically in the midst of losing the trial. But that horrendous first scene is Susanna's first glimpse of Ben in a long time. He's now a self-made man having studied at a prestigious university and rising above his father's low status of simple farmer. But it isn't this fact that grips Susanna's heart--it's "his heartfelt passion for his client and his appeal for compassion" that catches her attention.

From there, Ben and Susanna are thrown into a multitude of situations--including trapdoors to hidden passages in taverns and midnight treks through snowy rain to rescue someone in dire need of saving--that grow their strength and character in a world full of gray areas concerning freedom and justice. Every scene in which they are thrown together simply oozes tension, no matter the fact that for half the book Ben is set on proposing to Susanna's cousin for the sake of bettering his social status. 

The lessons the characters learn throughout Rebellious Heart are so true to their struggles, I can see how Jody's Social Work degree has been put to work in her newest role as author. She knows how people work, why they behave the way they do, and what they need to learn to change for the better. She has an amazingly talented way of bringing these changes out through her fictional characters and the stories she creates around them.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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{About Rebellious Heart}

[Blurb from Goodreads] In 1763 Massachusetts, Susanna Smith has grown up with everything she's ever wanted, except one thing: an education. Because she's a female, higher learning has been closed to her, but her quick mind and quicker tongue never back down from a challenge. She's determined to put her status to good use, reaching out to the poor and deprived. And she knows when she marries well, she will be able to continue her work with the less fortunate.
 
Ben Ross grew up a farmer's son and has nothing to his name but his Harvard education. A poor country lawyer, he doesn't see how he'll be able to fulfill his promise to make his father proud of him. When family friends introduce him to the Smith family, he's drawn to quick-witted Susanna but knows her family expects her to marry well. When Susanna's decision to help an innocent woman no matter the cost crosses with Ben's growing disillusionment with their British rulers, the two find themselves bound together in what quickly becomes a very dangerous fight for justice.

Rebellious Heart currently has a rating of 4.15 out of 5 stars (from 172 ratings) on Goodreads. I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.         

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{More About Jody Hedlund}

Jody has written novels for the last 20 years (with a hiatus when her children were young). After many years of writing and honing her skills, she finally garnered national attention with her double final in the Genesis Contest, a fiction-writing contest for unpublished writers through ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers).
 
Her first published book, The Preacher’s Bride (2010 Bethany House Publishers), became a best seller and has won multiple awards.
 
Since then she’s gone on to publish numerous best-selling and award-winning books. To read more about her writing journey on her popular blog, click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

~Dawn

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Read all of Jody’s amazing and BEAUTIFUL books!

 [You can click on the pictures to read my review of each].

 

 
 

Getting to Know Fay Lamb, Author of 'Because of Me'

I am beginning something new on my blog now that it's been up for about a year. Since joining American Christian Fiction Writers last July, I have come in contact with so many talented writers out there in the world! I've had a few chances to be interviewed by a few of them over the last year, and now it's my turn to return the favor. My very first interview is with Fay Lamb, an author I know through participating in the ACFW Scribes email loop (which you will learn more about later in this interview).

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Fay Lamb works as an acquisition/copy-editor for Pelican Book Group (White Rose Publishing and Harbourlight Books), offers her services as a freelance editor, and is an author of Christian romance and romantic suspense. Her emotionally charged stories remind the reader that God is always in the details. Because of Me, her debut romantic suspense novel is soon to be released by Treble Heart Books/Mountainview Publishing.

Fay has a passion for working with and encouraging fellow writers. As a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), she co-moderates the large Scribes’ Critique Group and manages the smaller Scribes’ critique groups. For her efforts, she was the recipient of the ACFW Members Service Award in 2010. 

In 2012, Fay was also elected to serve as secretary on ACFW’s Operating Board. Fay and her husband, Marc, reside in Titusville, Florida, where multi-generations of their families have lived. The legacy continues with their two married sons and five grandchildren.

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Fay, what made you want to start writing in the first place?

I can’t remember a conscious decision to write. I was always a storyteller as a kid—in a good way, although, I bet I stretched the truth a time or two just to get out of trouble. Before I could write, I held plays in the backyards of friends around my neighborhood, directing them in little stories that I’d made up. I suppose writing was a natural progression from there.

What makes you want to write the kind of stories you do?

I love twists and turns and a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat worried over the individuals contained within the pages. I like to read them, and I love to write them.

How do you choose your settings for each story?

I love to take real places and give them a little different twist and rename them. For my Serenity Key series, Cedar Key, a small fishing village on Florida’s West Coast, is the model. For my novel, Because of Me and other stories set in Western North Carolina, those are modeled after towns and their surrounding areas:  Waynesville and Highlands, North Carolina. For my contemporary romance series, I decided to look in my immediate area and those stories are set in Orlando, Florida (minus the mention of our famous mouse trap—I mean tourist traps).

What is your current work in progress?

Which one? I have one story I’m polishing up to resubmit to an editor. It’s a contemporary romance entitled, Charisse. I’m also working on a contemporary fiction, Storms in Serenity. This is a modern-day retelling of the sword that God wielded over David’s family after David’s sin with Bathsheba.  Along with those two stories which are complete except for some final editing, I’m preparing to delve into the world of professional surfing with my novel, Resurrection, which is currently in its third draft and heading for a fourth.

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Lately, it has been finding the time to put words on paper. My life has been rather hectic of late, but I’m still managing to fit in a little time to write here and there in anticipation of an upcoming extended trip to North Carolina where I’ll put aside much of everything else that I do and concentrate on my latest works in progress.

How did you land your book deal? Do you have an agent?

I do not have an agent. I usually do everything backward. I have not seriously pursued an agent. I’ve submitted a few proposals, and I haven’t found a fit for me. So, instead, I found an editor who “got” me, and I moved forward from there. But I’m still looking.

I know you manage the ACFW Scribes Email Loop—can you tell us more about it?

Scribes is my passion. I love working with writers, and I feel that more than anything in my writing career, critique has pushed me to levels I never would have obtained. 

Scribes is a large critique group of approximately 275 Christian writers. Sounds complicated with just that bit of information, but I promise you, it’s the most organized group of fun people you’ll ever meet. We submit up to two chapter or chapter portions per week of 2,500 words or less. Then we are responsible for critique two chapter or chapter portions for each submittal. Our members love to critique, and many of them critique much more than the requirement.

Scribes is a place where the sting of growing tough skin is lessened by the caring nature of the members. Everyone has the same goal: to help each other reach publication. In my humble opinion, if all you received for your American Christian Fiction Writers’ dues was the critique group, you’re getting a lot for your money. However, we know that ACFW has much to offer: online courses, Fiction Finder, a way to connect with other Christian writers, prayer groups, genre loops, and so much more.

What are you reading right now (besides about a hundred different submissions to Scribes)?

The Other Side of Darkness by Linda Rondeau, and I’m loving the story, its quirky little town, and equally quirky residents.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I love to tat. I was taught by a ninety-year-old dear woman who made it her goal in life to teach this dying art of making lace. Basically it’s a formation of knots made by a shuttle and thread that makes the most beautiful motifs which are then joined together to make a variety of objects, from jackets, to bonnets, to Christmas ornaments. The possibilities are endless. I’ve been asked to bring shuttle and thread to the ACFW Conference this year and teach. We’ll see how that goes.

I also consider myself an amateur photographer of still life. Put people in the pic, and I don’t do too well. But I take a lot of photographs in the mountains. In fact, the photograph of the barn on the cover of Because of Me—that’s one of mine. A special thank you to my publisher for allowing me to use it.

I know every writer's journey is different and I think it's interesting to know little details about that journey. I'll end this interview by asking the one thing I always like to ask any published and unpublished author alike: How many manuscripts have you written?

I have six written manuscripts looking for homes and a number of other stories are in various stages of completion.

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Because of Me

Not your typical Christian fiction.

Michael’s fiancée, Issie Putnam, was brutally attacked and Michael was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s home to set things right.

Two people stand in his way: Issie’s son, Cole, and a madman.

Can Michael learn to love the child Issie holds so close to her heart and protect him from the man who took everything from Michael so long ago.

 Available through all fine book retailers, Amazon.com, and Mountainview Publishing, a division of Treble Heart Books.

Purchase the book at Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Because-of-Me-ebook/dp/B00722KIME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327670357&sr=8-1

Or at Treble Heart Books at: www.trebleheartbooks.com/MVLamb.html

Go Ahead, Spread the Word: You're a Writer

What transforms a person from someone who WANTS to write into a person who DOES write?

For me, it was first of all, my husband. And then after I opened myself to the possibility, the realization that this was what God had created me for. You see, I don’t see myself—I’ve NEVER EVER seen myself as someone who was good at any specific job. Perhaps I wasn’t listening to God as closely as I should have all those years... or I might have come to the revelation earlier that the job HE had created me for was right under my nose—at my laptop computer.

But at best, my attitude about my writing a book would have been more in the category involving “wishful thinking” than “following my calling.” But still, I trucked away. I literally had to figure out HOW to write a book all on my own. So I did.

Okay, jump ahead a year or so. I’d finally made it to the point where I was comfortable enough to let my friends read what I was writing (after my husband so gallantly announced, (at our new small group at a new church on a new side of town) “Dawn’s writing a book!” (Yeah. Great. Thanks, Jon). Even at that point, I was in denial. I was not a writer. I was only someone trying to write a book.

So I let each of “my smallies” read through what I had of my rough draft (it wasn’t even finished yet!). I really didn’t expect them to tell me it was horrible, BECAUSE they were my friends. But I could tell they were actually pleasantly surprised when they said things like, “Wow, it is just like a real (published) book!” (Amy Spallinger), or “I couldn’t help but sit up and read it late into the night even though I knew I had to wake up early the next day,” (Beth Butler) and were texting me things like, “You HAVE to tell me if this guy is for real or if he’s going to break her heart!” (Narissa Roth), and “Dawn, you HAVE to have this book published!” (Lisa Lomicka).

So what transforms a person from someone who WANTS to write into a person who DOES write?

Friends.

Reader-friends and Writer-friends, all the same. That’s what makes a giant difference in a writer’s life. If it weren’t for mine, whether they’re from Church, Small Group, Summit City Scribes, or ACFW... if it wasn’t for all of them, I would still be holed away writing a book for only myself... instead of for my agent.

So if you're a writer—or at least want to be—I suggest telling everyone you know about it. I know that completely goes against what most writers FEEL like doing, but without others spurring us on, where will we go? What will we accomplish? Probably, not much. 

  
P.S.  I put it in the mail (to my agent) this morning.

The ACFW Great Lakes Chapter

~ Fall 2011 Conference ~

Author Jill Eileen Smith, Agent/Author Linda Glaz (who works for Hartline Literary Agency), Author Sharlene MacLaren and Author Jody Hedlund.  

A few of us discussing writerly things during the lunch break.

Before the conference, it was nice to meet other writers and learn what kinds of things they LOVE to write.

 One of my new favorite authors, Jody Hedlund, was the keynote speaker.

Debbie Kennedy and I sat together during the conference.

I placed my business card in the raffle and won the last prize of the day! It included chocolate, movies, a journal and candle and more!

The next Great Lakes Chapter Writer's Conference will be at the same location, Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jackson, Michigan, on Saturday, April 21st, 2012.

My Experience at the ACFW Conference

Yes, I went to the ACFW Conference last week. Which is the reason I haven't been blogging very often in the last few months. I was busy freaking out.I know. Bad Dawn. Oh well. Actually, I didn't stop freaking out until I'd been there for a whole day. Seriously.I wasn't going to pitch. I thought my book was crap and my writing was even worse. I was reworking my novel in my head, thinking of ways I could make it better -- because the way it was wasn't good enough.

And then I had my Critique Appointment with a published author at 10:00 on Friday morning. And I heard things like:

"You (Dawn Crandall!) write exceptionally well."

"Your writing (Dawn Crandall!) is better than that of some authors who are already published."

"You (Dawn Crandall!) have an amazing voice for writing first person POV."

"Don't stop writing (Dawn Crandall)." 

So, that afternoon I pitched my novel. Twice. First to the literary agent I had an appointment with and then I went so far as to set up another appointment with an agent who had some openings. They both liked it and each asked me to submit a proposal.  

Which is freaking me out.

Dawn Crandall