It's Raining Books: A Mother's Gift by Charlotte Hubbard

Friday, April 27, 2018

A Mother's Gift by Charlotte Hubbard

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

When she was a kid, my mom had imaginary friends, Pill and Jake, that were such a part of her imagination she named a couple of little garden statues after them when she was in her 40s. Although I grew up as an only child, I never made up friends, that I can recall—but I imagined going places and doing things with my real friends (or by myself or with just my dog) back then. Today I call that sort of imagination WRITING!

Do you have any phobias?

I used to pass out when I had to have blood drawn or got I cut and saw the blood coming out. I seem to have outgrown that. I don’t much like snakes, either.

Do you listen to music when you're writing?

Yes, most of the time I have a playlist of instrumental hymn tunes, or Christmas songs, or a classical playlist going when I work.

Do you ever read your stories out loud?
,br> Reading a story aloud is the BEST way to catch sentences that are too long, or have a repeated word, or other problems. Also, when we lived in Missouri, we were in the same town as the Library for the Blind, and I spent many a Tuesday afternoon there reading and recording my Angels of Mercy books and a few others in the sound booth. Before I was a writer I was a school librarian, so I’ve had lots of practice at reading stories aloud. I enjoy doing it.

Tell us about your main character and who inspired him/her.

Leah is a lot like me, because she’s sometimes better with animals than with people, and she grew up doing “boy stuff” rather than learning wifely skills—and she admits that she’s so inept around babies that she might well put the diaper on the wrong end. I created Jude Shetler, Leah’s idol, to be a sensitive, romantic, handsome husband I would marry myself. But then, I already have a wonderful husband—who’s nothing like Jude—so what would I do with two of them?)

For Leah Otto, marrying Jude Shetler is a long-held dream come true. As a young girl, she was captivated by his good looks and talent as an auctioneer. When Jude, now a widower with three children, begins to court her, Leah doesn’t hesitate. Other men may not appreciate her tomboy ways, but Jude values Leah’s practical nature and her skill with the animals she tends, and both enter the marriage with joy and optimism.

Three months later, Leah feels as if her world is coming down around her. Her twin teenage step-daughters, Alice and Adeline, are pushing boundaries and taking far too many risks, while five-year-old Stevie deeply misses his mother. Leah, more at ease in a barn tending her goats and chickens than in a kitchen, struggles with her housekeeping duties.

Then a baby is abandoned on their doorstep, and Leah must search her soul. Caring for little Betsy fills her with renewed purpose and the strength to begin pulling her family together. With Jude’s steadfast support, Leah finds that what she once thought of as a happy ending may be something even better—the beginning of a life rich in love, faith, and unexpected blessings.

Read an excerpt:

Jeremiah Shetler leaned his elbows on his kitchen table, gazing earnestly at his younger brother—who, at thirty-three, was surely old enough to know better about what he was getting into. “Last chance to see reason, Jude,” he stated bluntly. “If you go through with this wedding tomorrow, you’ll be signing on for a lifetime of sorrow and regret.”

Jude’s dark eyes flashed with resentment. “Sounds more like my marriage to Frieda—God rest her soul,” he added quickly. “Why can’t you let me find my happiness with a woman who won’t keep secrets? A woman who adores me and makes me laugh?”

“Leah’s a nice girl, jah,” Jeremiah said with a shake of his head, “but she’s clueless about such basic activities as putting a gut meal on the table—”

“Why are you telling me this?” Jude demanded.

Jeremiah exhaled forcefully. He’d never understood what Jude saw in Leah. He could only assume that his widowed brother was so desperate for affection and companionship that he was willing to settle for a woman who’d never progressed beyond being the tomboy daughter Raymond and Lenore Otto hadn’t taught much about a wife’s responsibilities.

“Have you ever eaten a meal Leah cooked?” he challenged. “Vernon Gingerich has told me that any time he’s visited the Otto home, Lenore’s been bustling around in the kitchen and Leah’s been in the front room chatting with him and her dat. And at our family dinners these past months, Leah’s cleaned up the dishes, but I’ve not seen any signs that she knows how to operate a stove.”

“Lenore does the cooking when Vernon visits because he’s her bishop, and she enjoys cooking for a man now that Raymond’s gone,” Jude explained impatiently. He raked his hand through his disheveled dark waves, glancing downward with an anguished sigh. “Come on, man. You know how it is to lose a wife—and you don’t even have kids to look after. Doesn’t the loneliness—the need for adult conversation—eat you alive at times?”

Jeremiah looked away, his heart pierced by the blatant reminder of Priscilla’s absence. After three years of living without her, he did indeed know how the silence of nights alone clawed at a man’s heart like a relentless beast. But he needed to pursue his present purpose before Jude made the biggest mistake of his life.

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