Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a Book (or two or three)

with guest Kristen Ethridge

Good morning, Seekerville! I’m not usually a morning person, but I’ve taken vacation this week to do something crazy—be a full-time writer! I’m so excited to have a whole week to do nothing but hang out with imaginary people. So, let’s get this party started! Who’s got the coffee?

One of the most fun things about being a writer—at least for me—is getting to create a community. I’ve chosen to set all my books in the fictional beach town of Port Provident, Texas. And while I love “meeting” new characters and getting to know them and tell their stories, I love writing a series because it means I get to go back and visit old friends from previous books.

In my first book, Saving Gracie, I got to tell the story of Gracie Garcia, an English as a Second Language teacher who falls in love with Jake Peoples, the developer that she first met when he handed her an eviction notice. In my second book, Second Chance Sweethearts, the story centers around Gloria Garcia Rodriguez---Gracie’s nurse-midwife sister—and her high school sweetheart, Rigo Vasquez. Gracie and Jake make a few appearances in the book, and now have a baby girl, Gabriella. One of the most fun scenes for me to write was when Jake gets to give Gloria dating advice after all the grief that Gloria gave him in the first book.

In August, I released The Doctor’s Unexpected Family. This time, my readers got to learn the backstory on City Councilwoman Angela Ruiz, who appeared briefly in both Saving Gracie and Second Chance Sweethearts. In this story, a medical emergency after a hurricane brings her to depend on Dr. Pete Shipley, a skilled doctor…who just happens to have been Gloria’s boss at the local birth center.

At the beginning of October, I’m releasing Shelter from the Storm—thestory of Becca Collins and Dr. Ross Reeder, two animal lovers who can’t stand each other. They’re thrown together because of Hurricane Hope, which is the key theme of this current Port Provident-based mini-series. In Shelter from the Storm, you’ll find out if Becca and Ross can quit arguing long enough to find common ground and save the furriest residents of Port Provident from the effects of the storm. Plus, you’ll get to see Rigo Vasquez, Angela Ruiz and more.

Visiting Port Provident is like attending a family reunion—but without all the potluck dishes. (Unless you count the fresh seafood at Porter’s or the homemade Mexican food at Huarache’s, the restaurant owned by Gracie and Gloria’s family!) And that’s just the way I planned it. I wanted to create a diverse community that reflected the one I used to live in. I wanted to feature different characters from diverse backgrounds, because I’m a big believer that we need diverse books. To me, Port Provident is a town whose strength comes from the people, community, and churches you’ll find there—in short, it’s probably a lot like where you live. (Well, just with a beach that’s only blocks away from wherever you are.) In fact, I say that the stories of Port Provident are “Inspirational Romance in a Beachside Town You’ll Want to Call Home.”

And I’m especially proud of the fact that recently, The Doctor’s Unexpected Family hit #1 on Amazon’s Hispanic-American literature chart. It means that there’s a place on bookshelves for diverse characters of faith. And I couldn’t be more excited that this milestone happened during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs through October 15. In fact, on October 2, I’m joining other Christian authors in a Facebook party to celebrate our books featuring diverse characters. I’d love to invite you to join me. RSVP here!

What about you? Do you enjoy reading characters from all walks of life? Are you like me—do you enjoy books in a series so you can go back and visit “old friends” as you read new stories? What are some of your favorite series to read? 

I’m in vacation mode, so I’m going a little crazy today. I’m going to give away a Kindle

copy of The Doctor’s Unexpected Family and a pre-order copy of Shelter from the Storm (you’ll get it when it releases in early October—but just in case you win a different book, be sure and go to my Amazon page and click the yellow “follow” button so you’ll be notified of upcoming releases in the Port Provident series—there are two more scheduled through the end of this year!) 

Plus, I’m also going to throw in FIVE copies of Storm Surge, my non-fiction book that released last month. It’s my memoir of the life lessons I learned going through Hurricane Ike and the Bible verses and stories that had special meaning to me at that time—and if you’re going through storms in your own life, I hope that they’ll inspire you to ride the waves and rise above. My time of rebuilding during Hurricane Ike inspired the Port Provident: Hurricane Hope series, so it’s also a glimpse for readers into the real-life story behind the stories. Comment below for your chance to win!

The writing bug bit Kristen Ethridge around the time she first held a pencil. A 2012 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award Finalist, Kristen was discovered by Harlequin through their 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest.

Kristen is the award-nominated author of the Port Provident series with Harlequin’s Love Inspired line and Laurel Lock Publishing. Her August 2015 release, The Doctor’s Unexpected Family, reached No. 1 on the Amazon Hispanic-American literature chart. Her favorite stories are filled with love, laughter, and happily ever after--and her favorite happily ever after is the story of God's love. Although she has fun creating characters, Kristen's favorite people are her family. She lives in Texas with her husband, children and a self-important poodle. Keep up with Kristen by joining her newsletter list and her author pages on Amazon and Facebook. You can also visit her online at www.kristenethridge.com. 

Wind, Waves, and Writing

with guest Kristen Ethridge. 

Hey there, Seekerville! I always love stopping by here. Where else can you get a great cup of coffee and a nice muffin straight out of the oven while you catch up with some of the nicest people in and around the book world? I’m so excited that Tina invited me back and I’m looking forward to hanging out today.

Before we get started…is there any zucchini bread? If you haven’t heard, I’m expecting Ethridge 3.0 early next year and zucchini bread is kinda my thing right now. I blame Candace Calvert—she’s been posting a lot about her bumper harvest of zucchini on Facebook lately, and well…you know how cravings go!

One of the most common adages about creative pursuits is that “life imitates art.” And with the writing I’m doing now, that is SO very true. When it came time for me to go back to Port Provident and catch up with the characters, I knew I wanted to test the citizens of Port Provident and put them in situations that would push them in both their relationships and their faith.

Because Port Provident is loosely based on my former home of Galveston, Texas, there was no question about what was brewing for the residents. 

A hurricane was on the horizon.

Hurricane Hope is headed for Provident Island, and I know hurricanes pretty well because I lived in Galveston in 2008, when Hurricane Ike rolled ashore.

Hurricane Hope is basically the fictional version of Hurricane Ike. I took my memories of before and after the hurricane (I wasn’t actually on the island for the hurricane itself—I had a six-month-old and we evacuated the day before) and layered them with experiences of my friends and other Galvestonians to create what I hoped was a very realistic look at going through a major natural disaster.

Second Chance Sweethearts, my July Love Inspired release that follows the hurricane and brings together former high school sweethearts Gloria Garcia Rodriguez and Rigo Vasquez, got four stars from RT and I think the line in the review that made me smile the most was “the scary reality and power of the hurricane is made clear in Ethridge’s writing.” Ha! Mission accomplished!

And what goes better with an actual storm than a stormy reunion? It was a lot of fun to make Gloria and Rigo’s relationship mirror the hurricane. There was a lot of sound and fury as they were forced to rely on each other during a very uncertain time, and then as the water rolled away, they struggled with the realities of rebuilding—in this case, not just the town, but their relationship.

One of the things I knew while I was writing was that Gloria and Rigo’s story was not the end of Port Provident’s story. And one of the realities of the recovery process was that a lot happened in a very short time to us as we lived it. I wanted that for my readers, to share in the experience of walking through a storm and challenges and triumphs associated with the recovery and rebuilding that happens after the wind and the waves recede.

So be looking for the following books in the series in the months to come. I’m inviting my readers to become honorary citizens of Port Provident and to get to know the characters and to walk with them as they grow and experience the rebuilding—not just of their lives, homes and businesses, but of their faith and relationships as well.

But probably the project I’m most excited about bringing out is Storm Surge, my first non-fiction book. Releasing on September 13, the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Ike’s landfall in Galveston, Storm Surge is a memoir that contains short Bible-based lessons based on the life lessons I learned from a hurricane. I wanted to write Storm Surge because I knew that not everyone would go through a hurricane, but everyone goes through storms in their lives, and I knew that the lessons I learned could help others rise above the winds that rock us all. 

So I guess you could say that I’m definitely one of those people for whom art comes from life—and I’ve never been more excited about a writing project. I would love to invite you to click the “follow” button over on my Amazon page so you will receive notifications when the next books in the series go live—there will be a pre-order in early July, so I hope that you won’t miss out!

What about you? How have you been inspired to create something based on life experiences? Do you volunteer with a group that helps cancer patients because you’re a survivor? Did you adopt a child because you went on a mission trip and fell in love with the people of the country and wanted to make a greater difference? Did you choose your career because of the impact of a person or event in your life?

 I can’t wait to hear how experiences have encouraged you to do more and create more! 
I’ve got a couple of giveaways today for two random commenters… I’m giving away a Kindle copy of Firefly Summer, Kathleen Y’Barbo’s new release. Kathleen has told me this is the book of her heart, and the character of Bonnie Sue in the book is based on her own mother. See, life and art can intersect anywhere!

I’m also giving away a Kindle copy of Isaac’s Storm, the definitive book on the Great Storm of 1900, the deadliest storm in American history and the second most financially-devastating hurricane in American history. The 1900 Storm hit Galveston, Texas 108 years and six days before Hurricane Ike came ashore. I’ve read this book and was caught up in the turn-of-the-century resilience shown as the citizens of Galveston survived and rebuilt the island with incredible determination.

This is me in September 2008—wearing my “I Don’t Like Ike” shirt—posing with one of the more unique finds from our home after the Hurricane—a 1981 can of Pepsi that had been left inside of the area behind our fireplace. We found it when we tore out all the drywall as part of the rebuilding process.

The writing bug bit Kristen Ethridge around the time she first held a pencil. A 2012 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award Finalist, Kristen was discovered by Harlequin through their 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest.

She writes contemporary inspirational romance for Harlequin's Love Inspired line, as well as sweet contemporary romance. Her favorite stories are filled with love, laughter, and happily ever after--and her favorite happily ever after is the story of God's love. Although she has fun creating characters, Kristen's favorite people are her family. She lives in Texas with her husband, children and a self-important poodle. Visit her online at www.kristenethridge.com.

Second Chance Sweethearts

Nurse-midwife Gloria Rodriguez prides herself on her independence—but right now she needs help. There's a hurricane approaching and she has one very pregnant patient on her hands. With so many people already evacuated, the only one Gloria can turn to is Rigo Vasquez, chief of the beach patrol in Port Provident. The man she holds responsible for the death of her husband. Rigo needs to make amends for his past mistakes, and Gloria's desperate phone call opens the door to make things right with his first love. Rigo is honor-bound to keep her and her patient safe, but once the storm passes, will Gloria still need him?

Make Your Chicken Cross the Road: A Reminder About the Power of Perseverance with Guest Kristen Ethridge

Thanks so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here in Seekerville with you all! I’ve been an admirer of the Seekerville community for years, and when I got the email inviting me to come hang out with you, well, it was like being nominated for a Golden Globe! (Yeah, I know, you’re wondering…why didn’t I say the Oscars? Because the Golden Globes have better dresses, and we all know that’s the really important stuff.)

My debut book, Saving Gracie, was officially released from Love Inspired last month. And having a debut book on real, actual shelves is not something that would have happened without what we’re going to talk about today—probably the single most powerful tool in your arsenal as a writer—the power of perseverance.

Why do I say perseverance is the single most powerful tool in your arsenal as a writer? You probably thought it was your voice, or your amazing ability to pull together a GMC chart, or something as technical as your laptop that you write on.
But while all those things are important, it’s your persistence that you’ll have to go back to time and time again to get it done.

Your ability to keep on keepin’ on.

Because there will come a time when you want to stand still. There will be a time when you want to throw your hands up in the air and say “that’s it, I quit” or even worse “Why did I ever think I could do this?”

And while I may not know you personally, I do know you’ll reach these times in your life. 

Because everyone does.

Work with me for bit here.

You can’t climb the mountain until you go through the ____________? Valley.

When life hands you lemons, make _________________? Lemonade.

Why did the chicken cross the road? ______________. To get to the other side.

I know, I know…what kind of writer uses this many clichés? But the reason you all were able to answer these questions instantly, the reason we all know clichés is because at their heart, there’s truth.

But did you notice something else about these clichés? There’s truth, but there’s also action.

To get to the top of the mountain, you’ve gotta go.

To take a lemon from sour to sweet, you’ve gotta make.

To get a chicken from a bad situation to a good one, he’s gotta move.

None of these things just occur organically. They are made to happen. And it’s usually more than one thing. The hiker puts one foot in front of the other to cross the valley has to keep doing the same to reach the top of the mountain. The chef both squeezes and stirs. And the poultry? He’s gotta look both ways and get to prancing.

And if a storm comes up in your life, you’ve got to get the umbrella and move to someplace dry.
And sometimes it’s literal.

In September 2008, I was just minding my own business, living on Galveston Island, Texas, when this mess of clouds in the Gulf of Mexico started spinning faster and kept wobbling to the west. Before we had time to take it in, we had to get out of town. We had a small business on the beach and a six-month old baby at home. 

Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island on September 13, 2008 at 2:10 a.m. I’d evacuated to my parents’ house and  gone to bed the night before visualizing what I’d left behind in my house as a scene from Titanic, everything floating up and turning over at the water spilled in through windows and doors and any place else it could gain entry.

When we were finally able to return home, a week later, the water had receded and left behind a mess that pretty much confirmed my Titanic-style dream. The study in our house had once been a porch, and a previous owner had enclosed it. This meant it was less architecturally-sound than the rest of the house. In hurricane terms, it was a total loss. My computer. All my books. 

Every article or handout on writing I’d collected over the years. Every word I’d ever written.

Soggy. Mildewed. Stuck together. 

Gone.

After almost fifteen years of writing, I was completely back at square one. And in all honesty, I couldn’t even think about writing then. I had a business to rebuild, a home to put back together, and a six month old who celebrated her first birthday the week after we moved back home.
One of the worst feelings of my life was watching the things I’d treasured—I know they’re just things, but they were MY things, you know?—be taken to the curb and pushed down the street by a front end loader. When they took my Grandpa’s chair, the gift he’d been given when he retired, the one thing that symbolized all the good times we’d had together eating peanuts and watching TV before he died when I was seven—they pushed it down the street, breaking it apart as it went, treating it as though it had never mattered. I ran back into our house and out the back door and cried for what seemed like forever as Brian told the contractor out on the street in that loader that he needed to keep his comments to himself and respect people’s feelings.

Into every life, they say, comes a storm. Well, mine was named Ike, and he wasn’t satisfied with just coming into my life. He tried to destroy it.

I’m proud to say that I’m a native Galvestonian. I’m a BOI—Born on the Island—and although I didn’t grow up there, I enjoyed returning there to open our store. The one thing about Galvestonians is they possess a legacy of perseverance. Ike wasn’t the first storm to try and take out Galveston. In 1900, the largest natural disaster in American history hit Galveston Island. They call it the Great Storm, and it reduced Galveston to matchsticks. Six thousand people died. And overnight, “the Wall Street of the South,” the most prosperous city west of the Mississippi, was almost completely gone.

Fifty years before, another hurricane had hit nearby in a town called Indianola. The remaining residents abandoned Indianola and it is no more. The residents of Galveston refused to do that. They built a 15 foot Seawall. They raised every single home, every street, every inch of the habited part of the island more than eight feet. They built a monument to their ability to come back—the Hotel Galvez, the grand lady of the Seawall. 

They persevered. And that’s what we did after Ike.

And that’s what you have to do when you’re in the valley, when life hands you those lemons, when you’re stuck on the side of the street and you can see where you want to be, but you don’t know how to get there. You’ve got to persevere.

The challenges and setbacks are often very real, but you need to find a way to get around them. I often tell my five-year-old to be a problem solver. When something’s not working right for her, even now in preschool, I want her to think of a solution instead of whining to me about the problem.

I finally did finish Saving Gracie, which I’d started just before Hurricane Ike. Of course, I had to scrap it and start over. (And then start over again, actually because it needed some very serious rewriting once I finished the first draft of it.) And then I submitted it out. Thirty five times. And got a rejection every single time. Some were form rejections, some were longer and came after an editor or agent had read the full manuscript. But they were all rejections.

Finally, I told my husband I was throwing it into two more contests and if they didn’t work, I was done. I’d eventually move on to something else, but I was done with Saving Gracie.  I put it in RWA’s Golden Heart contest and Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest. And improbably, the manuscript that had received 35 rejections of all kinds became a finalist in the Golden Heart and sold to Love Inspired through So You Think You Can Write.

So, what happens when you’re there—after 35 rejections and you just want to throw your hands in the air and quit?  How do you motivate yourself to take action? Because action, as we discussed earlier, is the key to getting out of these situations.

Well, to quote Nike, you just do it. D.O.I.T.

• Delegate.

• Overcome.  

• Inspire.

• Timeline.

Delegate: What can you set aside or get help with for a set period of time in order to get this done?

Overcome: What is holding you back?

Inspire: What is waiting for you when you finish?

Timeline: If you truly commit yourself, how long do you need to just get it done?


So, it’s true confession time. And just in time for SpeedBo, I have to admit to you that I’m not quite where I want to be on the goal I set for having Gloria’s story done. I mean, hey, it’s not like I didn’t just give birth a few months ago after months of bed rest, right? But that doesn’t matter. I would like to continue my career with Love Inspired and somehow I doubt they’re going to print 270 consecutive blank pages.

A few weeks ago, I was almost beside myself thinking about it. I’ve finally climbed the mountain—I have a real book on the shelf in a store! There’s new book smell with MY name on it!—and if I look out ahead of me, there’s another freakin’ valley. I finally sell a book and then I have to go expand my family. What WAS I thinking?

And then you know what I told myself? Suck it up, buttercup. Life happens. So, I put together a new plan.

Delegate: I’m blessed to have an in-home child care provider for my baby since I work from home. So I’ve extended her schedule by a couple of hours a day. One of those hours I now spend writing is my lunch break, and I can reasonably flex my schedule to work an hour more in the evenings by checking email during bathtime and things like that so that I have a dedicated two hour block three times a week.

Overcome:  Plain and simple, time. I’m also a pantser, so I need to get rolling to really get writing. Having two hour chunks of time will help with that.

Inspire: Our family goal with my writing is to pay for both girls to attend college with cash. So it’s a long time coming, but it will be well worth it. We also plan to use a portion of the money, along with my annual bonus from the Day Job, to take a family vacation. I may have already looked at a Disney cruise in the Mediterranean next year. It stops in Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. Now THAT’S inspirational.

Timeline: I can write about 1,000 words an hour. If I get 2 hours a day, 3 days a week, that’s 6,000 words a week. I need to write 55,000 words or so total. I’m going to round down, because I know I won’t always get that second hour, but I should be able to get in a little more time here and there. But because I’m not a math person, let’s just say 5,000 words a week divided into 55,000 words total… that’s 11 weeks. So again…round number… three months. Can I commit to delegating, overcoming, and staying inspired for the next 11 weeks? Sure I can.

Can you? Let’s take a minute. Think about something in your life that you’re not where you want to be on—and it may not be writing. Write down DO IT on a piece of paper. What can you delegate or postpone to achieve your goal?  Remember, you’re only postponing for a set period of time. What do you need to overcome—what do you need to mentally psych yourself up for? What inspires you? When you achieve your goal, what can you do? And what’s your timeline—if you commit yourself and look at your priorities a little different for a period of time, what is that reasonable period of time?

 Now, Seekers, in the spirit of SpeedBo, who wants to share their DO IT goals?

Cliches are popular because they’re simple ways to express more complicated truths. And the simple truth is that we all know that some times it will be tougher to write than others. But you have to just do it. Cross the valley and climb the mountain. Squeeze the lemons and stir in some sugar so you can drink a tall, cool glass of lemonade.  


Make your chicken cross the road.


Kristen Ethridge began writing as soon as she placed a Husky pencil on a Big Chief Tablet. Saving Gracie, her debut book from Harlequin’s Love Inspired line, was a February 2013 release and is still available online.  When she’s not creating stories of Happily Ever After combined with the Greatest Happily Ever After, a relationship with Jesus, she’s creating memories in the Lone Star State with her husband, two adorable red-headed children, and two self-important poodles. A Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Finalist, Kristen talks about life lessons learned while trying to balance being a wife, mother, day job employee, and author over at Real Time Mama, her blog at www.kristenethridge.com, unless she finds herself out of Real Time…which happens, as any mama and writer can attest. She can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kristenethridgebooks and on Twitter @kristenethridge.

Saving Gracie

Running an ESL school is hard work, but helping immigrants has always been a dream of Gracie Garcia's. When her school is threatened by real-estate developer Jake Peoples, Gracie hopes that getting him to attend a class will change his mind. But a lesson in love was something neither one signed up for. Learning about Gracie's work reminds Jake what family is really about. But just as he's starting to come around, a revelation about his past threatens his future with Gracie. When things look their bleakest, can Jake save her dream...and his place in her heart?






Tina Radcliffe here. 

Thank you so much to Kristen for sharing her story. I needed tissues for this one.

Today Kristen is giving away one copy of Saving Gracie to a commenter. And to honor Kristen and her P-E-R-S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E, Seekerville is giving away a 20 page, first chapter critique to one commenter. Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.

Speedbo Prizes Listed Here