New Release

Rebecca DeMarino

Rebecca, it’s good to have you as my guest this week. I’m sure readers are eager to hear more about you.

Tell us about your epiphany moment when you decided you were going to seriously pursue writing and eventually publication.

When I took the SAT as a junior in high school, I scored very high on the verbal section, which I’m sure was a result of all those novels I loved to read! The counselor put me in a creative writing class for my senior year. I think that was the first time I thought I could be a writer, but it wasn’t until my ten-year reunion from high school that I ever told anyone I wanted to write and be published. And many, many years before I started writing.

Which of your books (published or upcoming) has been the most fun for you to write and which character is your favorite? Why?

This is my first novel, and it was much fun to write because it was about my ancestors. I loved all of my characters – the really did have a place in my heart!!

I can understand that. The series I’m working on now is based on my great-grandparents and their family. The research really turns up some interesting things. Which character in your new release most interested you while you wrote? Why?  

I found Barnabas very intriguing because he took off on a life of his own – which is good!  But Mary was truly the one I was interested in.  She is my ninth great-grandmother and there was so little information about her. But I got to know her and experience her a number of ways. I visited Plimoth Plantation and went on board the Mayflower II. I took a one day 17^th century cooking course at the Alice Ross Studio on Long Island, and I walked the same roads and stood on the same beach as Mary Horton and recreated in my mind her feelings and emotions.

I’ve been to some of those same places and they were fascinating. So, how did you choose the setting for your book? 

It chose me! I grew up listening to my mom’s stories about Barnabas Horton, my ninth great-grandfather and how he came across the pond from England on a ship called The Swallow. When my brother became interested in genealogy, we discovered there was a lighthouse named after Barnabas, located on Long Island. I asked my mom if she’d like to go there, and off we went. There was a lot of interesting information about Barnabas. He was a baker and a widower with two young sons when he met my ninth great-grandmother. But I could find very little about her, and I began to wonder about what dreams and motivation she had, and courage she must have possessed, when she married and then left her family behind for the wilds of Long Island. A few years later, I began writing my first novel with a desire to give Mary a voice.

That’s wonderful. A letter from my great-grandfather to my great-grandmother during the Civil War sparked my interest in their story, so I used their hometown.

What is your strangest habit?

 I cannot throw a book  away or give it away (unless it’s a duplicate) and lending is hard for me because I fear I won’t get it back. I still own many of the books I owned in high school, and now have well over a thousand books. Many are nonfiction, but I would guess most are fiction.

Oh, my, a girl after my own heart. I still have college textbooks because I can’t throw a way a book. A thousand must take up a lot of room.

 Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading. I love reading all kinds of genres, though I’m partial to historic romance. I love all of Jane Kirkpatrick’s and Nicholas Spark’s novels and own most, but not all, and they are signed copies!

Wow! You are lucky to have signed copies of their books. Are there certain foods or snacks keeps the words flowing for you?  

Homemade gorp – it’s not messy so I can pop one or two pieces in my mouth.  My recipe: Peanuts or almonds (unsalted), M&M’s, raisins or dried cranberries – or for a really decadent treat, dried cherries!

Sounds good to me. I’ll have to try that. What do you most enjoy doing in your free time?  I love to read, I love to visit with grandbabies – though the live kind of far – gardening, baking, genealogy and traveling are my hobbies.

What is something most people would not know about you?  I’m an introvert – which is really not surprising for a writer I guess.

Are there spiritual themes you like to write about?  That God is with us no matter how much we mess up – all we have to do is ask. He’s there waiting.

What lesson is the Lord teaching you right now or recently taught you?   To meet God in the morning and seek him throughout the day.

Now that’s a good lesson to learn. Thank you Rebecca for you great responses, but tell us, when will your next book be out?

Book #2 of The Southold Chronicles is due out June, 2015!  The young Horton boys are all grown up!

Where can we find you on the internet?   I can be found on the following social media sites:

 Facebook   Twitter  Google+   Pinterest            Subscribe to Rebecca’s Blog and/or Newsletter

 Blurb about the book:

A PLACE IN HIS HEART is inspirational historical romance author Rebecca DeMarino’s debut novel and book one of THE SOUTHOLD CHRONICLES!  Releases from Revell June, 2014

Anglican Mary Langton longs to marry for love. Left at the altar and disgraced in her small hamlet, she is being pressured to marry the eligible son of the London milliner. Puritan Barnabas Horton, the town baker, still grieves the loss of his beloved wife, but he knows his two young sons need a mother. 

With tender hearts, Mary and Barnabas take a leap of faith and wed. But when Barnabas’s secret plans to move his family to the New World to escape persecution come to light, Mary’s world is upended. How could she possibly leave her Papa and her dear sister? And will she ever reach the secret places of her husband’s broken heart? 

Rebecca DeMarino lives in the Pacific N.W. and enjoys travel, hiking, baking, genealogy and gardening. Her debut novel, A Place in His Heart, is a historical romance inspired by her ninth great-grandparents, Barnabas and Mary Horton, and is book one of The Southold Chronicles.

Rebecca, what question would you like to ask readers of your books or Christian fiction in general?

What is it about a novel that will make it linger in your mind, in your heart?

Thank you, and now it’s your turn, Readers. Leave a comment below for the opportunity to win a copy of this great book. Be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you in case of win.

 Also Revell is giving away a copy of the book: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/5f05632/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway