It’s a delight to be chatting with Melissa Jagears once again on the blog. I really enjoy her storytelling and I think you will, too. Today she chats about strawberries, Julianne Donaldson, and writing until 5am! Be sure to enter the giveaway below.
The Writer
Please describe yourself in three words (ask your best friend or family if you are struggling!)
Tired, thrifty, INTJ
What’s your favourite season, and why?
Early fall and late spring (I’m combining half seasons to make one :)) I like the temperatures of this portion of the year and that’s when you have pretty outside colours too.
What is the best part of your day?
When the people in my house go to sleep and I have some quiet, alone time so this introvert can decompress.
What do you miss most about your childhood?
No responsibilities beyond schoolwork, which was frankly pretty fun for me, so that wasn’t burdensome.
Which TV talk show host would you like to be interviewed by? Why?
Um, I haven’t had a TV for over a decade so I don’t know of hardly any!
You are at a fruit market – what do you reach for first?
Strawberries
What was the first Christian Fiction novel you read?
Whatever Tomorrow Brings by Lori Wick
What is one author and/or book you always recommend?
At one time it was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, now it might be Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson or Persuasion by Jane Austen, or . . . or . . . . or . . . totally depends on what interests the people I’m talking to have!
(Photo: You can only see a fraction of my bookshelves in my living room…..I got more elsewhere. :))
What book character has stuck in your mind from a book you have read this year?
I’ve had a very rough year last year and read a lousy 4 stories for pleasure purposes (not that they were lousy, just that 4 books/year, and only one of them full length? If that’s not a lousy year for a reader, I don’t know what is.) SO I’ll go back to the last set of books I remember thinking about the characters for literally weeks. It’s the Annal of Lystra Trilogy by Robin Hardy: Chataine’s Guardian, Stone of Help and High Lord of Lystra (Though the last one’s been renamed Liberation of Lystra). These are books from the 80s, but the author has put them back out as self published ebooks if you want to find them. They were on my bookshelf for about 20 years before I read them….my TBR pile is massive. 🙂
The Book
Evelyn Wisely has a heart for the orphans of Teaville and works at a local mansion that rescues children out of the town’s red-light district and gives them a place to live. But her desire to help isn’t limited to orphans. The owner of the mansion, Nicholas Lowe, is willing to help her try to get the women working in prostitution out of the district as well–if she can gain the cooperation and support of local businessmen to go against the rest of the community.
David Kingsman has recently arrived in Teaville from Kansas City to help with one of his father’s companies in town. While he plans on staying only long enough to prove his business merit to his father, he’s shown interest in Evelyn’s work and is intrigued enough by her to lend his support to her cause.
They begin with the best of intentions, but soon the complications pile up and Evelyn and David’s dreams look more unattainable every day. When the revelation of a long-held secret creates a seemingly insurmountable rift between them, can they trust God still has a good plan for them despite all that is stacked against them?
What was the working title?
A Love So True has always been A Love So True. This time we brainstormed titles for the whole series before I started. Sorry, totally not a fun answer!
Describe your book in 5 adjectives
(I’m so bad at this type question, so I’ll steal adjectives from the review I got from RT) –heart-warming, compelling, thought-provoking, deeper, gripping
Which character took you by surprise?
Caroline O’Conner and Henri Beauchamp’s relationship was a surprise because it morphed differently than I expected it to when I originally wrote the first full-length book of this series. You get to see the big blow up between them in this story.
What was the latest you stayed up working on this story?
Ha ha Ha ha Ha ha – I don’t know how many days I didn’t even bother to go to sleep writing many days I kept working until my husband’s alarm clock went off at 5am, talked to him a bit and then went to bed for a few hours.
Which character’s name was the hardest to choose? Why?
It was more a group of people that I had a hard time naming. My characters are ministering to the red light district of their town and the soiled doves don’t go by their real names and when I was researching red light districts in history, most women went by a nickname of sorts and most generally highlighted a physical feature and it was hard to come up with ones I could use in a novel aimed at a Christian audience that wouldn’t offend, but wouldn’t be a nickname that would go against the profession either. Pox-Scarred Patty isn’t going to get a lot of business, but naming her something that would bring in a lot of business could be offensive. So that was my difficult name story for this trilogy.
What’s something that didn’t make it into the final copy?
The fact that David played Roque (the American Version of Croquet) to a level he wanted to play in the Olympics.
Thanks Melissa!
Carol Award winning writer, Melissa Jagears, is a homeschooling mom who writes Christian Historical Romance into the wee hours of the night. She’s the author of the Unexpected Brides Series with Bethany House. The prequel ebook novella, Love by the Letter, is her ACFW Carol Award winning novella and free to try. You can learn more about her, her books, and where she hangs out online at www.melissajagears.com
Relz Reviewz Extras
All Things Jagears @ Relz Reviewz
Visit Melissa’s website
Download Melissa’s free novella, Love by the Letter, from Amazon
Buy at Amazon: A Love So True or Koorong
May 8, 2017 at 5:38 pm
The latest I have stayed up reading, is 12 midnight.
May 8, 2017 at 9:59 pm
This was a great interview, and I loved reading it!
Hmm…I haven’t stayed up late reading in a while..I share a room with my younger sister, so we try to get to bed at a decent hour…But I did stay up a bit later while reading “Pursued” by Lisa Harris. 🙂
Thanks for this giveaway!
May 8, 2017 at 10:14 pm
I have stayed up past 2 am reading. As a teenager I would often stay up that late reading, even on school nights! I do feel for Melissa. Only four books all year? that is a tragedy. Hopefully this next year is a better one.
May 9, 2017 at 12:40 am
I have stayed up reading til midnight lately but one or two times til 2:00 a.m. Great interview. I loooove the books and bookshelves in the picture!
May 9, 2017 at 1:00 am
Oh, let’s just say about that ‘late/early’ sounds about right, lol. Sounds like a great book! Thank you for the chance to win a copy.
wfnren at aol dot com
May 9, 2017 at 2:25 am
i have stayed up reading until 2am. not good LOL i had an infant and a toddler.
It was an inspirational romance. i dont remember the title now it was 30 years ago
May 9, 2017 at 2:37 am
I once stayed up reading until 11pm. I think it was a CF mystery that I couldn’t put down.
May 9, 2017 at 2:56 am
I stay up all night reading sometimes! I always regret it in the morning, but I hate putting down a good book! The last series that had me up all night was Kristy Cambron’s Hidden Masterpiece series. I stayed up all night twice in a week! Lol
May 9, 2017 at 3:55 am
I’m a night owl, so I quite regularly stay up until 1:00 a.m. or sometimes 2:00. Luckily, I’m retired and can sleep in.
I LOVE Julianne Donaldson’s books, Edenbrooke and Blackmoore! She is one of my favorite authors. Sarah M. Eden is also wonderful.
This is a fun interview, Rel and Melissa. I’ve heard so many good things about A Love So True. It’s on my wish list!
May 9, 2017 at 6:42 am
I’ve probably stayed up till around 2AM but can’t remember the last book I did that with.
May 9, 2017 at 6:53 am
Probably till 5am, but that’s when I slept in late. I can’t remember the book. I remember devouring fairy tale retellings at the time. Thanks for the giveaway.
May 9, 2017 at 9:50 am
I’ve never stayed up later than 1 am reading.
May 9, 2017 at 12:52 pm
I think I’ve stayed up past midnight reading!
May 9, 2017 at 1:05 pm
I’ve pulled several all nighters reading. Besides all of the Harry Potter books one book that stands out is A Walk To Remember. I stayed up all night and then went to school the next morning because I couldn’t put it down.
May 9, 2017 at 3:05 pm
I sometimes stay up reading until two am because the hubs is doing work from home. Lots of genres but most likely Amish.
May 9, 2017 at 9:52 pm
I am definitely a morning person so staying up until 11:00 is late for me. This happens when I am close to the end of a book. 🙂
May 9, 2017 at 10:22 pm
I have stayed up all night reading, not for pleasure, for finals in college…..many years ago. I am not a night person so probably reading for pleasure now about 11:00. Thanks for the interview, as I am looking forward to this next book in the series.
May 10, 2017 at 12:57 am
Midnight The Dressmakers dowry by meredith Jaeger.
May 10, 2017 at 5:53 am
I have stayed up late in the night reading many times. The latest book I stayed up to finish was “The Guests on South Battery” by Karen White.
May 10, 2017 at 5:53 am
Every once in a while I might stay up until midnight or 1 AM reading, but it’s very rare. Always something to do the next day and I need my beauty sleep!
May 10, 2017 at 8:26 am
I rarely stay up late to read, unless I’m near the near the end.
May 10, 2017 at 10:21 am
The last time I stayed up til early morning hours reading (2 or 3 am), I was reading one of Terri Blackstock novels. I have got to learn not to read her books late at night. 🙂 Thanks for the interview and the giveaway!
May 10, 2017 at 11:10 am
I just finished A Love So True but thankfully I didn’t have to stay up too late reading it, though it is very good. I will occasionally stay up past midnight reading, but only if it’s a suspense or mystery or I’m very close to finishing it. It’s just too hard to get up and go to work if I read too late.
May 11, 2017 at 8:28 am
I have stayed up past 2 a.m. reading a book. I have done this many times, but one was a historical fiction book called ‘Winter Passing’ by Cindy McCormick….very moving and suspenseful!
May 11, 2017 at 8:57 am
Most recently I read Rescue Me by Susan May Warren until a little after midnight.
May 11, 2017 at 9:12 pm
I have stayed up all night countless times. Usually it is because I had a migraine though, take Excedrin to help it go away, and then as a result I am wide awake. The last time this happened I think I was reading To The Farthest Shores by Elizabeth Camden.
May 13, 2017 at 11:49 am
I think the latest I’ve ever stayed up reading was… around 5:30AM. I made the mistake of starting Ted Dekker’s book “Adam” late one afternoon & I simply could not go to sleep without knowing how it would end because if I go to sleep on something like that, I will dream about possible solutions all night long. So if I wasn’t going to get any rest anyway… why even try to sleep? 😛
May 16, 2017 at 12:57 pm
3a.m. …Dream Year
May 16, 2017 at 1:10 pm
I have stayed up ALL night reading! Luckily I don`t work anymore so it didn’t interfere with TOO much! I`m not positive of the title but pretty sure it was a Mary Higgins Clark book!
May 16, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Not sure but I know it was late.
May 16, 2017 at 1:44 pm
Great giveaway. Ty