Blog Tour: A Constant Heart by Suri Mitchell

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
A Constant Heart
(Bethany House October 1, 2008)
by
Siri Mitchell

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Siri Mitchell graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she has lived all over the world, including in Paris and Tokyo. Siri enjoys observing and learning from different cultures. She is fluent in French and loves sushi.

But she is also a member of a strange breed of people called novelists. When they’re listening to a sermon and taking notes, chances are, they’ve just had a great idea for a plot or a dialogue. If they nod in response to a really profound statement, they’re probably thinking, “Yes. Right. That’s exactly what my character needs to hear.” When they edit their manuscripts, they laugh at the funny parts. And cry at the sad parts. Sometimes they even talk to their characters.

Siri wrote 4 books and accumulated 153 rejections before signing with a publisher. In the process, she saw the bottoms of more pints of Ben & Jerry’s than she cares to admit. At various times she has vowed never to write another word again. Ever. She has gone on writing strikes and even stooped to threatening her manuscripts with the shredder.

A Constant Heart is her sixth novel. Two of her novels, Chateau of Echoes and The Cubicle Next Door were Christy Award finalists. She has been called one of the clearest, most original voices in the CBA.



ABOUT THE BOOK

In a world of wealth, power, and privilege...love is the only forbidden luxury.

“Trust was a valuable commodity at court. Traded by everyone, but possessed by no one. Its rarity was surpassed only by love. Love implied commitment and how could any of us commit ourselves to any but the Queen? Love implied singularity and how could any of us benefit another if our affections were bound to one in exclusivity? Love was never looked for and rarely found. When it was, it always ended badly.”

In Queen Elizabeth’s court where men and women willingly trade virtue for power, is it possible for Marget to obtain her heart’s desire or is the promise of love only an illusion?

A riveting glimpse into Queen Elizabeth's Court...

Born with the face of an angel, Marget Barnardsen is blessed. Her father is a knight, and now she is to be married to the Earl of Lytham. Her destiny is guaranteed ... at least, it would seem so. But when her introduction to court goes awry and Queen Elizabeth despises her, Marget fears she's lost her husband forever. Desperate to win him back, she'll do whatever it takes to discover how she failed and capture again the love of a man bound to the queen.

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Constant Heart, go HERE

This was a pretty good book. It was hard to get into at first and I grew very frustrated at the constant struggles Marget faced. It seemed like every time she made progress, there was one more set back right on her heels. It was a roller coaster of emotion and there were times that I had to put the book down and walk away. If I could have gotten my hands on the queen, she would have died early on in the story! Overall, a quick and easy read with a pretty good story line.

If you'd like my copy (which is an advanced reading copy), leave a comment and I'll draw a winner on Friday, October 10th.

Do Unto Others

About a month ago, our neighbor came over to recruit Logan to stain the wood fencing around her pool. We assessed that this would be a pretty simple job and well worth what the neighbor was offering to pay her. I pitched in and helped her a little but for the most part, Logan did the job in just a few days. I was pretty amazed because there was quite a bit of fencing to do. She was tickled pink to make some money to take on vacation with her and as an added perk, the neighbor told her she could jump in the pool anytime she wanted. This particular neighbor is a very nice single lady in her early 40s. We're always dog sitting for her or cutting some of her grass. We even like to bring her garbage can up for her after the trash truck is through with it. We really enjoy being a blessing to her and are always looking for more ways to be a blessing to those around us.

The neighbor on the other side of us just completed a new fence installation. She came over and assured us that she was not putting it up because she wanted privacy from us but rather she wanted to keep her outdoor dogs from invading our yard. I thought that was very sweet of her. She's a young single gal and we are trying to find more ways to be a blessing to her.

All of this got me thinking.....what could we do to be more of a blessing in our neighborhood? What do you do? Do you have good relationships with your neighbors? Got any creative ideas for us?

Grown Up Night @ the Beach

L to R: Our pastor and his wife, Eric & Lindsay, Georgia, myself, and Jeff

While we were in Corolla, the adults got together and went out for supper one night. We had a great time and I fell in love with my shrimp wellington. It was the most wonderful shrimp I've eaten to date. This restaurant was right on the ocean and the view was wonderful. It was a bit breezy and there seemed to be a family of flies that absolutely loved our table! We had a wonderful time and after supper, Jeff and I enjoyed several rounds of shuffleboard. I think he beat me every time!

Is it too soon to say that I'm ready to go back?

Got A Stain?

I am always on the look out for great products and last week, I was able to try one that is sure to become a staple in our house, all thanks to MomCentral. We have children and as most of you who have children know, there is always a mess to clean up. That goes with the territory. Our youngest daughter can't sit at the dinner table without getting half her food on the table cloth, in her chair, or on the floor. And when it comes to spilling things on the carpet, well, that is a given around here.

My normal reaction to cleaning up a carpet spill is to drag out the big old carpet cleaner. It's so much work to get it all ready to go, just to clean up one little area. A few days ago there was a chocolate stain that needed to be cleaned up. Instead of the running for the carpet cleaner, I grabbed a bottle of Spot Shot. I had never used it before but was happy to learn that it is non-toxic, biodegradable, and safe to use around our kids and our pets (and we have a lot of those). I sprayed the Spot Shot on the stain and then started to blot it with a clean rag. Instantly, the chocolate started to come up. A few more sprays and five minutes later, you couldn't even tell the chocolate was there! It even removed the chocolate smell that was in the carpet. I was pretty impressed. It's funny but I can't wait for another spill because I know what little bit of work it takes to get it up now. The best part of all of this is that there is also a product called Spot Shot Pet that is said to eliminate all those pesky pet smells. I can't wait to try it!

You can buy Spot Shot in a spray, which is what I used, or an aerosol can. You can find it at most major stores, in the cleaning supply aisle. If you'd like more information before buying this product, check them out at the Spot Shot website. It's well worth trying!

Where Has My Mind Gone?

You know you're loosing it when:

~ You go out to pick up pizza and when you get home you realize you have your pants on inside out.

That's exactly what I did tonight! Can you believe it? We ran out and got the pizza so that we could watch some football. As I sat on the couch, I happened to look down and realized something looked strange about my pants. Upon further investigation, I did have them turned inside out. And I wore them into the pizza joint that way! And there were people sitting inside eating!

I think I'm loosing it!

Ten On Tuesday: Things That Scare/Freak Me Out

Most of these are things that freak me out rather than scare me.

In no particular order:

1. Serial killers/rapists/child molesters (scary)
2. Watching horror movies at night (freaks me out)
3. Our government (both)
4. Snakes and spiders ~ don't like them, don't want them around.....I don't care how small they are! (freaks me out)
5. The thought of drowning (scary)
6. Not being able to see what's in lake water or the ocean ~ it's probably good that I can't see what's down there but the thought of what's down there freaks me out!
7. Medical emergencies ~ I watched our youngest almost choke on hard candy when she was 3 or 4. I was also in my MIL's house while she was having a heart attack. I totally freeze and do not respond well. (scary)
8. Tight spaces (freaks me out)
9. Someone sneaking up behind me ~ especially if I'm listening to music or vacuuming. (freaks me out most of the time but sometimes the person scares the life out of me!)
10. People who do not close their mouths when they chew ~ totally gross and freaks me out!

Check out YANO for more TOT's.

Monday Medley

Last week was a hodgepodge of activity. It seems that we have several things going on and several more things that need to happen. Hopefully I can keep a pretty detailed to do list this week and get a lot of little things done.

We are finally busy putting our master bathroom back together. After many months of fixing broken plumbing, the drywall has been patched and we've started on the floor. We decided to lay porcelain tile, which is great, but we've never done anything like this before. Jeff worked on it half the day on Saturday and when he came up for air, he had the adhesive down and most of the tile put down. Since the adhesive had to dry for 24 hours, we left it and will go back this week to lay the tile around the baseboards and cut what needs to be cut. I will be so excited to get it finished.

Our garden is still producing tomatoes and jalapenos. We've made salsa all summer and really enjoyed it. I'm glad we'll have a few more batches to make before our tomato plants expire. Next year we plan to revise our current square foot garden in order to make some improvements. I've had to deal with more weeds than I care to mention this year.

I'm happy to say that I haven't decided to turn to weight loss pills yet! Jeff and I have both been sticking loosely to our diet and have maintained very well. I need to giddy up and get this last five or six pounds off but Jeff is having no problem keeping his off. It's pretty amazing how much our eating habits have changed. We're on a salad kick right now. If you are fortunate enough to have an O'Charleys around, you must try their California Chicken Salad. It is probably one of the yummiest salads I've ever eaten. In fact, we love it so much that we've learned to duplicate it at home. We made it last night and I candied some pecans to go in it. If you've never had this salad at O'Charleys, I'll tell you that the candied pecans are the secret to making it so yummy. Very, very good.

We're enjoying lots of college and NFL football. Our UT Vols are having one of their worst seasons right now so we're a bit disappointed. However, there are plenty of other college teams we love and are pulling for. My Dallas Cowboys lost last night but I have high hopes for them still. My Colts are doing pretty well so I'm a happy gal! I'm looking forward to another upcoming weekend of games.

What have you been into?

Catching Up

Jeff & I (Summer 2008)

After having my quiet morning alone on Monday, things are getting back to normal around here. Having half the day to myself was very nice and refreshing. I had hoped to sleep in but my biological clock just will not let me sleep much later than 7:30 on most mornings. I did get several things done around the house and I finally have a handle on our homeschool schedule. Logan is enjoying her co-op classes and is balancing those pretty well with her additional studies at home. One of her friends told me that all she did while at co-op was study. That's my girl! I've been able to help with Spanish a lot and that's been really fun for me. I love languages so being able to help her study is icing on the cake.

I've loaded Caroline down with language arts material this year. She loves to write and is constantly asking me if she can get a new notebook for her "stories." It's quiet amusing and I want to encourage her to develop her writing skills. Now, if I could just get her to work on her organizational skills! We are constantly having to search high and low for her pencil or her pencil sharpener. And shoes.....the child can rarely ever find her shoes! It's good to have a child who is nothing like me as far as organization goes. I'm not the neatest person in the world but I have ordered chaos. I put things in piles and usually know where everything is. I'll find Caroline's stuff under beds, couches, outside, or somewhere that you'd never think to look.

She's very eager for me to teach her to cook certain things. The problem is, she's so scared of the stove. She's afraid of being burned and because of that, it makes it hard to really teach her to make things. I'm going to try a few easy recipes next week and see how she does. I'm not sure why she's so scared of being burned. Maybe it's because we taught her that it was hot when she was small. I hope she'll overcome that quickly though because I would love to have more help preparing meals. Ok, I'll just fess up. I'd love to have someone else cooking the meals a few nights a week!

Not much else going on around here. Last weekend a girlfriend and I did get a night out. We went to Red Lobster and ate the most wonderful shrimp! We were kind of celebrating the weight we had lost since February. After supper we went to see The Women. The movie kept us laughing although it did have more language than I would have liked. The movie theater was packed and there were only seven men in the show. Yep, I counted. I wondered how many dedicated hubbies would accompany their wives to see this one. It's an all gal movie and it was fun.

I'm hoping that my blogging slump is over and that I'll start to write more each day. It seems like this happens to everyone at some point in their blogging life. I'm reading a good book right now and I've seen several pretty good movies lately so I'll be back with reviews real soon!

Until next time......