BLOGWORDS – Thursday 20 June 2019 – CHAT THURSDAY – AUTHOR INTERVIEW and GIVEAWAY – MARION UECKERMANN
CHAT THURSDAY – AUTHOR INTERVIEW and GIVEAWAY – MARION UECKERMANN
“A novel place to fall in love.”
Please join me in giving a feathered welcome to Marion Ueckermann.
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rem: Hullo Marion, and welcome to my little nest. Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
MARION: I was born in the copper belt of Zambia in a town called Mufulira. When I was six, my parents moved back to South Africa and I lived in another small town, Phalaborwa, right beside the Kruger National Park. Nearly twenty years ago, my husband and I and our two boys immigrated to Ireland and we were never coming back to South Africa. LOL, 18 months later we were home and settled in the eastern suburbs of the capital city, Pretoria. We have been in the same house since, but are starting to think about retiring to the beautiful Cape in under seven years’ time.
rem: Ah yes, best laid plans… I may or may not be jealous of your living in Ireland… (I am!) Tell us three random things about yourself no one knows.
MARION: Well, perhaps now people do know these things because I have mentioned them in other blogs, but my name is the same as the old famous movie star cowboy, John Wayne. His real name is Marion Morrison (Morrison is my maiden name), but while my second name is Clair, his is Michael. (rem; how cool is that!)
Hmmm, I have been on four continents (that includes Africa where I live), and travelled to 20 different countries (USA, Brazil, Finland, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Russia, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Australia, New Zealand) … 24 if we count Lapland, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as individual places from Finland and Wales … and 29 if we count the five countries where I’ve only spent time in a transit lounge in the airport (Turkey, Germany, Qatar, Dubai, Singapore).
Thirdly, I used to play in my husband’s treehouse at about the age of 10, never realizing that would be the man I’d marry one day.
rem: TOTALLY jealous of ALL.THE.PLACES you’ve been! Way cool, Marion! (also, I love your middle name!) Do you have a favorite Bible verse? And why is it a favorite?
MARION: Yes. Jeremiah 29 v 11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
It’s just a promise from our Heavenly Father that gives so much hope for each day. What a wonderful reminder that we really don’t have to fear what tomorrow holds.
And then I’m very partial to Psalm 139. What a powerful piece of scripture.
rem: Such a powerful promise from our heavenly Father. What is your favourite quotation and why?
MARION: Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wise and encouraging words to not be afraid to step out of the boat, as Jesus asks, and walk on water.
rem: Yes ma’am, trailblazers!! What’s the most random thing in your bag or on your desk?
MARION: I have a rubber alpaca keyring, a gift from my son. It’s kind of like a stress ball because if you squeeze it, it poops a chocolate bubble. My grandsons find it most amusing and I’m sure have almost burst it on numerous occasions.
rem: How perfectly adorable! I love the gifties from my kids, and now grand-girls!! If you could spend an evening with a fictional character, who would it be and why?
MARION: I think it would be my hero from The Other You, Armand DeBois. I’d love to be sipping that special red wine he made for his wife while enjoying the sunset over the mountains of Stellenbosch, one of my most favorite places in South Africa.
rem: And such a lovely setting, too. What do you think is significant about Christian fiction? How has being a novelist impacted your relationship with Christ?
MARION: I think it’s wonderful that Christian fiction offers readers a safer choice of reading, and hopefully stories that will feed not only their imagination, but their souls too. Three years ago, God called me to quit my day job and write full time. With every book I write, I have to depend on Him that I’m writing the story He wants. And He has never disappointed me. Deadlines I never thought I’d make, I did. Stories I wasn’t sure of, have been so meaningful to readers. It’s just a wonderful faith journey and certainly not only my means of making a living, but my ministry too.
rem: Unlike so many authors, I did not grow up dreaming of writing. But when Father called me to it—I can’t imagine doing anything else! Something so powerful about a well told story. When reading, what makes or breaks a story for you? Your fiction pet peeve?
MARION: I do struggle with stories that have too many characters (rem: ruh roh) but can’t say I’ve yet read a book that I didn’t enjoy (at least not that I can remember). Since becoming a writer, however, it’s hard not to read with an editor/writer’s cap on. LOL, I don’t like doing that, and often wonder if other writers read my books in the same way.
rem: I so agree with that, although I think I’ve probably always read with an author’s eye, just not so keen as it is now. What are you reading right now?
MARION: I’m currently reading a book by Kimberly Rae Jordan, A Change of Heart. I have to confess that I’ve been reading it for many, many weeks. Not because I’m not enjoying the story … I am … Just because I’ve had a lot of interruptions to life lately. But, I am 73% through, so the end is in sight. Surprisingly, I’m still managing to keep track of the story.
rem: Ya know, life just needs to stop interrupting our reading time!! You travel quite a lot (and I’m not a bit jealous… #liesalllies) and incorporate that into your stories. Which comes first—the story or the destination?
MARION: Probably mostly destination first, although I have written stories first and then done the destination afterward. One place I do still need to visit where I have a story written, is Norway. I think all my other books, I’ve been to the countries that I’ve set the stories in.
rem: I’ve always been fascinated with Norway—the fjords are so so gorgeous! What was your favorite destination, and which story was birthed there?
MARION: Oh golly, hard question. Every place is so unique. But I guess Lapland, the home of the REAL Santa, has to be it. The place was fascinating, and I was so glad that I could write a story (Poles Apart) set there shortly after visiting. It was good to be able to draw on what I saw and experienced.
rem: How fun is that! You are part of three multi-author sets. What’s your favorite thing about working with other authors to tell a story?
MARION: Over the years, I’ve been part of several boxed sets. Then there was A Tuscan Legacy, a seven-author series where there was quite a lot of collaboration on our stories with a mystery thread weaving through the stories, culminating in the final book. I’ve also been part of The Potter’s House multi-author series, also seven authors, where only the theme was common to each book, ie. Stories of hope, redemption, and second chances. Now Autumn Macarthur, Alexa Verde (rem: love those ladies!) and I are collaborating on our tri-author series, Chapel Cove Romances. And once we’ve written all 12 books, we have a string of other series we want to collaborate on. I love brainstorming ideas together and seeing the joint stories coming together. But the best thing about collaborating is the special friendships and relationships you form with other authors.
rem: I’ve not done it before, but it sounds so fun, to partner with someone to create stories! I loved the Tuscan Legacy! Read all of them—except I haven’t got the new one yet… How does that work? What are the logistics of creating a story world with more than one creative genius at work?
MARION: Lots of Messenger chats and notes, and then spreadsheets. Google Docs has become my favorite tool. It certainly helps everyone to keep track, especially like with Chapel Cove where our first three stories ran concurrently and we had to write certain scenes from all three heroine’s viewpoints, taking care not to give away any spoilers for the following story.
rem: Not in collaboration, but I’m running into the timeframe issue with my current series—four stories that are concurrent, and the main characters all know each other! OY! Tell us a little about your writing journey.
MARION: For years I’d had a desire to write a book. Didn’t know on what, just knew I wanted to do it. Finally I found a story and took a year to write it. It’ll probably never get published, but I look at it as my training ground. I wrote another three or four still unpublished and not quite finished stories. Then I was told by Christine Lindsay, who was part of our International Christian Fiction Writers blog, about Pelican Book Group’s “Passport to Romance” call for stories. I looked at all the places they wanted stories and chose Helsinki, because I’d been there. I wrote and submitted my story, Blueberry Eve, and they contracted it and published it as Helsinki Sunrise. I went on to write another two stories in that line. During that time, Autumn Macarthur contacted me via email (that happened to be the year I was in Finland for Christmas and had just visited Lapland). She said a group of authors led by Valerie Comer (rem: love her stories!) were putting a boxed set together called Splash!, and they wanted stories set on water and would I consider writing one set in Africa. I immediately thought of the mighty Zambesi River and the Victoria Falls and said, “Yes!” Orphaned Hearts was my first Indie publication. The second one was with the next boxed set that was formed out of that first group and published for Christmas. I wrote Poles Apart for that set and as I said before, drew heavily on my experiences from a few months before. Since then I’ve published another 16 Indie novels and novellas, one non-fiction book, and four poetry books. I love it in Indieland.
rem: Yes, me too. I’ve not ventured beyond the borders of Indieland! What are your top 3 recommendations for a new writer? What 3 things would recommend not doing?
MARION: DO: 1. Learn the craft. 2. Get a good editor. 3. Get a good cover designer. (Of course, the last one only applies if you’re indie publishing.)
DON’T: 1. Don’t be in a hurry to publish. 2. Don’t be in a hurry to publish. 3. Don’t be in a hurry to publish.
rem: So true, all of them. How do you choose your characters’ names?
MARION: Sometimes they just spring to mind. Other times I’ll scour baby name websites (LOL, or troll through friends and friends of friends’ names on Facebook).
rem: Haha! to trolling Facebook for names! I may or may not do the same thing… Do you think of the entire story before you start writing?
MARION: Ha, no! I’m a total pantser. I usually know where I want to start, what I want to happen in the middle, and how I want it to end. But what goes between there, my characters take the lead.
rem: Yup! Me too! Pantzer all the way. Tell us a little about your latest book? What is your current project?
MARION: Currently I’m writing Choose Me, book 4 in the Chapel Cove Romances. Writing has been slow on this one due to a lot of interruptions in my life at the moment, but hey, I’m getting there … one word at a time. I don’t have a blurb yet, but I do have a tagline: The one thing he wants most in the world, she can’t give him.
rem: Sorry about the disturbances. And yes, one word at a time… What is YOUR favorite part about the book or why do you love this book? Why should we read it?
MARION: This is a story I’ve been wanting to write for years. I’ve loosely based it on some of the life-happenings of an ex-colleague of mine.
rem: Please give us the first page of the book.
MARION:
TODAY OF all days, Julia Delpont needed to forget about the world. Searching for the latest crime novel to devour might just help. In little over an hour she’d be meeting a new client, and she could not afford to be distracted by thoughts of her past.
She paused in front of the moss-green, two-story Victorian house. Ivy’s on Spruce. Since moving south to Chapel Cove nearly eighteen months ago, she’d come to love the quirky bookshop. It would be good to see the gray-haired owner, Ivy Macnamara, again. It had been two weeks since Julia’s last visit to the bookstore. She only hoped she could avoid seeing Ivy’s meddlesome shop assistant—always trying to push some castles-in-the-air romance novel into her hands.
Romance? She didn’t need it. Didn’t want it.
The doorbell jangled as Julia entered Ivy’s. She headed straight for her favorite section, noticing two things on her way there: the store looked different—cleaner, more organized—and never before had she seen the tall woman with long, dark hair who’d straightened up from behind the counter. Who was she?
And where was Ivy?
The woman pushed her wide-rimmed glasses up her nose and offered a smile.
Julia barely returned the gesture as she flicked her hair over her shoulder. She wasn’t here to make friends; she was here to buy a book. The more distracting, the better.
But even the blood-splattered knife that filled the cover of the paperback she soon held in her hands couldn’t tear her thoughts from the distressing memories. If anything, it made her think about what she’d still like to do to James Miller.
Forgive me, Lord. I know Your Word says “Thou shalt not kill.” And truthfully, I don’t really want to kill him. I know that You require us to forgive if we want to be forgiven, but it’s still so hard to do that after what James put me though. Raising my hopes for a happy ever after, just to smash them into a million little pieces.
It was difficult to comprehend that in just four days, two years would have passed since her most humiliating and most painful moment.
Even more painful than the doctor’s diagnosis.
And time had not yet healed the wounds caused by her ex-fiancé.
Would it ever?
She released a heavy sigh. Somehow, the days leading up to the anniversary were harder to get through than the actual anniversary itself. At least, it had been that way last year, and this year looked to be heading in the same direction.
“I… I do.” James’s deep voice slithered into her memory as everything blurred, the books around her morphing into the quaint, white chapel on Echo Bay with its large windows at the altar that overlooked the Pugent Sound waters of Hale Passage. Eight miles north had been home for thirty-two years. Gig Harbor—how she’d loved that small town. Never wanted to leave. But she did. She had to.
At James’s hesitation, she should’ve realized something was wrong. And yet, when the minister asked, “And do you, Julia Rose Delpont, take James Alexander Miller as your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?”, she had hurtled ahead with her own “I do.”
How could James have made that very same pledge, only to take it back moments later?
rem: Oh, my! Poor Julia. What is one take-away from your book(s) that you hope readers identify with?
MARION: That often life doesn’t give us what we most desire, but God is faithful and can still fill those empty places in the most miraculous ways.
rem: Such a profound—and much needed—truth! Anything you’d like to add?
MARION: Just that Choose Me will be releasing sometime in July, so keep a look out for it. Thanks for reading! And thank you for having me on your blog today, Robin.
rem: Marion, thank you so much for chatting with us at my little nest today!
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A Time for Everything
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes Chapter 3
GIVEAWAY
Marion is giving away an e-copy of Remember Me, book 1 of our new Chapel Cove Romances.
Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
Giveaway will begin at 12:oo A.M. on Thursday 20 June and end at 12:oo A.M on Thursday 27 June. Giveaway is subject to the policies found on Robin’s Nest.
RAFFLECOPTER
“Some relationships are like this pot of Gloop—the color fades and they’re just one sticky mess. And some are a sticky mess even when they’re bright and new.”
#Blogwords, Chat Thursday, Author Interview and Giveaway, Marion Ueckermann
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