Birchardville Is Real

By Ruth Buchanan

            As a Florida-based writer accustomed to sea breezes and balmy sunsets, I couldn’t ask for a setting less like my own than that of Birchardville, Pennsylvania. Buried deep in the Endless Mountains near the upstate border with New York, Birchardville is surrounded by dense forests, rolling pastureland, and—let’s face it—more than its fair share of collapsing barns and dilapidated silos.  

            I first visited Birchardville in 2013 with my friend Alissa, a genuine Birchardville original. An introvert by nature, Alissa had done very little to prepare me for what I was about to see. I don’t remember what she’d told me or exactly how the conversation went, but I do remember my reaction being something like, “Wait, you live in a town that’s named after your family and you never told me?” Although to be fair, she might have told me. I’m not the world’s best listener. 

Upon arrival, I immediately sensed the story possibilities intrinsic to the rich, atmospheric backdrop. When Alissa took me down to the cemetery to show me her favorite headstone, I was a goner. I knew then that I’d eventually set a story in Birchardville. But it wasn’t until a subsequent visit in 2014, while taking a long twilight walk up Cobb Hill Road (gripping a can of pepper spray in case of bears), that the story began taking shape.

During 2017, I finally wrote Murder on Birchardville Hill, a heartwarming tale of holiday mayhem. Though the work is fictional, the setting—as I’m clear to point out in the book’s opening sequence—is real. 

            The good news is that you don’t have to wait for the holidays to enjoy this cozy Christmas mystery. Published in December of 2017, it’s now available at your convenience. Along with central character Morgan Scott, you too can enjoy the thrill of discovering that indeed, Birchardville is real. 

        Depressed at the prospect of spending another Christmas alone, successful crime podcaster Morgan Scott travels to the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania to research a historic murder. But in the tiny village of Birchardville, past crimes and present dangers collide, placing both Morgan and the local residents in very real peril. This Christmas, there'll be no silent night.

           Ruth Buchanan is a Christian freelance writer who holds degrees in ministry and theology. She writes fiction, non-fiction, plays, and sacred scripts. She’s an eager reader, an enthusiastic traveler, and the world’s most reluctant runner. Ruth loves Jesus, family, church, friends, and coffee. She lives and works in South Florida.

You can follow Ruth on Twitter or Instagram: @Ruthette         

For Purchase: Murder on Birchardville Hill

Bath, England

By Shirley Raye Redmond

My Christian regency, PRUDENCE PURSUED, takes place in 1806 in Bath, England.

Jane Austen fans will be familiar with the location as it was a popular vacation spot in the author’s day and is frequently a setting in her novels and those of Georgette Heyer and other Regency authors. Today’s city of Bath in Somerset is built on top of and around the ancient ruins of the Roman town of Aquae Sulis.

For centuries after the Romans vacated, the British have gone to Bath to soak in the famous hot springs and, like Jane Austen and her contemporaries, to drink the medicinal waters in the Pump Room. I did that when I visited Bath some years ago and in a way, that experience inspired my story. One of my favorite scenes in the book takes place in the Pump Room where Prudence tries (unsuccessfully) to avoid an unwanted male suitor.

Bath is nothing at all like my hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Ours is a snug little community nestled on a plateau in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. If you know anything at all about Los Alamos, you will recall that it was once a “secret city,” where scientists during WWII were frantically working to develop the atom bomb before the Germans did so. Today, Los Alamos is the home of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where scientists from around the world pursue advances in everything from nuclear energy to biotechnology. You can get a tasty green chile cheeseburger here that’s out of this world.

However, Bath and Los Alamos are both great towns for history buffs. While UNESCO named the city of Bath a World Heritage Site in 1987, the U.S. Congress is establishing the Manhattan Project National Park here in Los Alamos. We already have a wonderful history museum and a science museum. 

Shirley Raye Redmond is an award-winning nonfiction writer and former columnist forThe Santa Fe New Mexican. 

Shirley Raye Redmond has sold 27 books and over 450 articles to a wide variety of publications, including The Pacific Stars and Stripes and Cosmopolitan as well asHighlights for Children and The Christian Standard. Two of her nonfiction children’s titles have sold more than 200,000 copies each. 

You can find her here:

www.shirleyrayeredmond.com

https://www.facebook.com/Shirley-Raye-Redmond-Author-533496973399344

Prudence Pursued

At the advanced age of twenty-seven, Prudence Pentyre is on the shelf. Content to occupy her time by attending meetings of Mr. Wilberforce’s Abolition Society, Prudence is resolved to see that her younger cousin Margaret, shy and plain, does not share her own unmarried fate. 

Despite her best efforts, all of Prudence’s matchmaking attempts fail. Margaret proves reluctant to accept Sir James Brownell’s marriage proposal, and fears being “bovinised” if she undergoes the controversial cowpox vaccination he recommends. And the dashing baronet—with his sunburned skin, eye patch, and unfashionable attire—seems more concerned about the plight of headhunters in Borneo than Margaret’s stubborn refusal of his offer.

Prudence, on the other hand, finds herself unexpectedly smitten with the man. Can she trust that God’s plan for her life is richer and more rewarding than the one she had planned for herself?

Syria, Virginia

By Erin Unger

Thanks for having me today, Tanya! I’m so excited about my novel which is releasing in the near future. Fateful Fall, A Worthington Investigators Romantic Suspense, is located deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains where communities are tight-knit and very small.

For years, I’ve dragged my family to Syria, Virginia for the Graves Mountain Lodge Fall Apple Festival. The food, the smells of funnel cake and hot apple preserves, and the crowds of happy attendees makes a merry escape for a day. Add fall foliage colors blowing across the mountains and it’s a writer’s paradise rife with story ideas. And this is where I just had to make a series full of murder and small-town intrigue. In Fateful Fall, A Worthington Investigators Romantic Suspense, my crew of female private investigators work to solve a grisly crime in a fictional location based on the farm where this festival takes place.

One of the coolest things about the farm which hosts the festival in this tiny town is how they own several yurts which can be rented for vacations and wedding venues. How fun would it be to stay in the mountains in a yurt? In my romantic suspense series, my gals plan to stay in one to be in the middle of the location of their murder investigation. It was great fun to plan the details of a murder around an outhouse and a yurt.

Another great thing about the farm I based my romantic suspense at is how it uses so many resources to keep it afloat. From an apple processing factory to vacation rentals, including a beautiful lodge, to tours of the farm, I had plenty of things to make the story interesting and different. This kind of a working farm means lots of different workers from all backgrounds, who help to create a diverse range of people. . .and lots of chances for things to go wrong.

You can find Erin at:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ErinUngerWrites/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/erinungerwrites

Website:  www.erinungerwrites.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinungerwrites/

Blurb From Fateful Fall releasing in the near future:

Private Investigator Ava Worthington and her partners head to the mountains to solve the death of a farmer owner’s son who was discovered murdered in an outhouse on the property. Without local cowboy Cory’s protection, Ava won’t get the chance to follow leads as the killer tries to stop her investigation. But Ava’s falling for Cory against her better judgment. She should be working and not pining after a cowboy. And Cory doesn’t want a relationship. His successful career was destroyed by a woman he trusted, and he won’t make the same mistake twice. 

One suspect after another is cleared from Ava’s list until she’s sure she has the real killer targeted in her sights, but he’s hunting her, too. How will Ava and Cory find the killer and admit their love before they are buried under a mountain of secrets?

“Whence The Italian Chronicles”

by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD, MFA

What do you think of when you think of Sicily? Do you think of pizza sold by the meter, or lush lemon groves, or the world-famous playwright, Luigi Pirandello? Do you think of horses decorated with ornamental harnesses of brightly colored plumes, or picturesque coastal villages with magnificent beaches lining emerald-blue seas, or generous people offering you a helping of delicious Sicilian cassata?  Sicily is all of this, and much, much more.

Sicily has always fascinated me because my paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from Sicily. In fact, I still have relatives in Sicily with whom I communicate regularly. When I visited Sicily and got to tour the island for myself, my fascination turned into love and admiration for the people whose steadfast tenacity and courage to dream big have deeply affected the life I live in America today.

So, my ties to this beautiful island are strong and intimate. It was those very ties that led me to write my trilogy titled The Italian Chronicles. The three novels of the trilogy—The Madonna of Pisano, A Sicilian Farewell, and Return to Bella Terra—all take place, for the most part, in Sicily. The part of the island that most inspired my novels is Agrigento, a province in the southwestern part of the island where my ancestors lived for generations and where the life of my heroine, Maria Landro, unfolds.  

Sicily’s uniqueness derives from its history and its location as a cultural crossroads. Located between the Italian mainland, from which Siciliy is separated by the Strait of Messina, and northern Africa, Sicily has, for centuries, been a melting pot of disparate cultures, ranging from Phoenician to Byzantine to Greek and Roman. The Normans ruled Sicily for a while, as did the Spaniards. In 1860, Sicily officially became part of Italy. On May 15, 1946, Sicily was given official status as an autonomous administrative region under the Italian State.

While Sicily’s physical beauty is breathtaking, what I love most about the island is its people. Warm and big-hearted, Sicilians are very caring, hospitable, and generous. One of the ways Sicilians best show their hospitality is through their cuisine. When you visit a Sicilian home, you will be offered so much food and so many varieties of food that you will feel overwhelmed. One thing is certain: You will never go hungry in Sicily.

Despite all the talk about the Mafia, Sicily is considered the safest place to visit in all of Italy and has a very low crime rate. Indeed, the Mafia forms only a very small part of the Sicilian population, and most Sicilians are opposed to this criminal organization and want to get rid of it.

Sicilians want foreigners to think of their island as a place where art, music, philosophy, and science have flourished and have made great contributions to the world. It is against this backdrop of rich historicity that I have created my stories and trust that they will bless all who read them.

____________________________________

Copyright 2018 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD, MFA.  All Rights Reserved.

Dr. MaryAnn Diorio is a widely published, award-winning  author of fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children. She is also a Certified Life Coach, a Certified Biblical Counselor, and a Certified Behavior Consultant.

You can find Dr. MaryAnn Diorio on her websites:

http://www.maryanndiorio.com

http://www.maryanndiorioministries.com

 

The Madonna of Pisano - “A young woman, a priest, and a secret that keeps them bitterly found to each other…”

A Sicilian Farewell - “A young woman, a new land, and a dream that threatens to shatter everything she holds dear…”

Return to Bella Terra - “A woman, her son, and the man who threatens to come between them…”