Wife, mother, journalist, columnist and inspirational speaker

Contemporary romance author:~

Firefly Island, Blue Moon Bay, Larkspur Cove and more…

What did you do on/for your 13th birthday?

I am not absolutely sure, but I think that was the year my friends lured me off to the horse barn and let me think that everyone had forgotten my birthday, and then they threw a surprise birthday party for me when I came home.   Close friendships have always been an important part of my life, so that one sticks out in my mind as a very special day.

What 3 adjectives would your friends/family use to describe your personality?

I’m scared to ask, but in the interest of accurate representation, I did. Here is a representative sampling from Sunday school teenagers, the man-children in this house, and a girlfriend my own age, in that order: a pretty cool teacher, clever, tenderhearted.

Not so bad.  There are definitely worse things to be 🙂

Where did your penchant for writing fiction begin?

I have loved story for as long as I can remember. My older brother was a great writer, and he taught me to read and write before I started school.  A special first grade teacher noticed the writing desire in me and encouraged me to think of myself as a writer.  When we moved to another state she wrote on my final report card, “I expect to see your name in a magazine one day.” From then on, I believed I would be a writer, because my first grade teacher told me so.

I’ve always loved losing myself in a story. Above all, I believe that writers are noticers, and as you go through life you notice things about the people around you.  For me, writing was always a way to investigate the world, to process things I experienced, and to change things I didn’t like.  The beauty of a story is that you can take what seems almost impossible and make it possible.  At this point in my life, it seems natural to write about the lives of women, the things we experience at different stages in our lives, the search for meaning, and the importance of understanding God’s purpose for us in this world.

Describe Firefly Island in 5 adjectives

Contemplative, romantic, heartfelt, adventurous, relatable.

What creepy crawly or critter do you most fear?

Two very “Texas” ones — the same critters trouble poor Mallory mercilessly in the old ranch house in Firefly Island — scorpions and rattlesnakes!

If you could bring one character to life from your own books, who would it be and why?

Well, as an (almost) empty-nest mom, right now I think it would be little Nick, Mallory’s unexpected bonus son, when she falls in love and marries Daniel.  Becoming Nick’s stepmother draws her into the wondrous world of little boys.  So many of her experiences were based on my own experiences with my young sons when we moved far into the country to live on a ten-thousand acre ranch.  Little boys are earthy and real. They live close to the grass and soil, and discover all the tiny, hidden treasures most of us walk right past on an ordinary day.  If you’re lucky enough to be their mom, you discover those treasures, too — sometimes in the back yard, sometimes in pockets and lunch boxes, sometimes wriggling around under the quilts after bedtime.  I’d love to spend a day with four-year-old Nick and go back to that world of endless discovery.

What’s guaranteed to make you laugh?

It doesn’t take much to make me laugh. Anything from a good joke to a little kids’ T-ball game can crack me up, but if I’m really desperate for a guaranteed laugh, the hysterically laughing baby videos on YouTube are a sure thing for me. There’s just something about a great big baby belly laugh that works every time

Please share a favourite Bible verse

Acts 17:27 ~  “God has done all this so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He is never far from any one of us.”

Part of being a “noticer,” I think, is seeing God in everything —  from the lacy complexity of the dragonflies wings, to the scattering of stars in the night sky, to the people around you, to the events in your own life. This verse, for me, is the sum of all that.  God is always reaching for us, in the majestic and the ordinary, He is so much closer and more accessible to us in all situations than we realize. This verse for me is a reminder of that, and it is also one of the reasons I have such a love of creating stories. I believe that stories have a unique ability to break down the barriers and show the closeness of God to every life.

My writer links:

My website: www.Lisawingate.com

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/#!/lisawingate

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Wingate-Readers-Circle/132187520154779

Pinterest:  https://pinterest.com/lisawingatebook/

Blogging Mondays at: www.SouthernBelleView.com

Read a Three chapter excerpt of Firefly Island on Lisa’s Reader’s page here:  http://on.fb.me/Vj5q85

Author bio

Lisa Wingate is a magazine columnist, inspirational speaker, and the author of eighteen mainstream fiction novels, including the national bestseller, Tending Roses, now in its seventeenth printing.  She is a seven-time ACFW Carol award nominee, a Christy Award nominee, and a two-time Carol Award winner.  She has found success in both the Christian and general fiction markets, writing mainstream fiction for Penguin Putnam and Bethany House. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life.  More information about Lisa’s novels can be found at www.Lisawingate.com

Relz Reviewz Extras
Character spotlight on Mallory Hale
Reviews of Larkspur Cove, Talk of the Town and Word Gets Around
Visit Lisa’s website
Buy Firefly Island at Amazon or Koorong