#WednesdayWordswithFriends Welcomes Amanda Wen @AmandaWenAuthor

Good Morning,

I'm sure I don't have to tell you how good for my soul that short trip to Bandera last week was for me. I even bought a T-Shirt that says Bandera is "Good for the Soul" LOL!

Back in June we got a peek into Amanda Wen's novel, The Songs That Could have Been and today we're being treated to the story behind the story. Take it away Amanda.....

Many readers who enjoyed my debut, Roots of Wood and Stone, fell head over heels in love with Grandma Rosie, the recently-widowed octogenarian who’s still sweet as ever despite her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. As I watched my contemporary hero, Garrett, and his sister, Lauren, butt heads over how to best care for their grandmother as her disease progressed—and what to do with her century-old farmhouse—I found myself wondering about Rosie’s past. Who was she as a younger woman? What inspired her love for listening to Garrett play piano? How did she come to live in the farmhouse? And what memories did she hold deep in her heart that even Alzheimer’s couldn’t strip away?

So, even without a contract for the first book in the Sedgwick County Chronicles series, I took a leap of faith and started writing the second one, which would come to be known as The Songs That Could Have Been. A confirmed pantser, I had no clue what Rosie’s past story might be, only that I wanted to write it so I could find out! And as I wrote, I discovered her secret:

Ephraim James. 

Witty, well-bred, and a bit of a flirt, Ephraim stole my heart as quickly as he did Rosie’s. He sprang onto the page fully formed, and writing him felt not like creating a character, but getting to know a real person. His likes, his dislikes, his hopes, his dreams, his fears. He quotes Shakespeare. He dreams of being a professional musician. 

He is also black. Rosie is white. And these two exist at a time—the 1950s—when the idea of more than friendship between the two races “just wasn’t done.” 

When I was young and first dipping my toes into the waters of boys and relationships and dating, my dad gave me a gem of advice that proved far more prescient than any of us could’ve guessed at the time: “I don’t care if he’s white or black or purple or if he has two heads, if he loves Jesus and he loves you, then he’s all right by me.” A decade or so later, when I fell madly in love with (and eventually married) a man of Chinese descent, both my family and his welcomed us with open arms. Nearly seventeen years later, our racial and cultural differences have proven not an impediment, but a rich tapestry upon which we raise our three children. 

Unfortunately, as we all likely know, mixed-race couples haven’t always been accepted. In fact, a member of my own family ran into this situation in her high school days; she and a young man of Mexican descent fell in love, but both families objected and the relationship eventually ended. Though the guy married and had a family, my relative never did, and I always wondered what might have happened had their families been more open to the idea. I suppose this was what inspired me to write Rosie and Ephraim’s story. Would love truly be able to overcome objections on the parts of both families and cultures? Would it even be wise for them to pursue a relationship in a time when the odds were significantly stacked against them? 

Writing an interracial relationship was definitely intimidating, and not something I’m inclined to try again anytime soon, but I’m grateful God called me to write Rosie and Ephraim’s story. My husband and I are both grateful to all the couples who came before us, who wrote their love stories when society was against them, and who raised brave biracial children in a world that wasn’t nearly as accepting of them as our world today is. My romance—and my children—might not be here today if it weren’t for them. 

Amanda Wen’s debut novel, Roots of Wood and Stone, released to both reader and critical acclaim. The book was named a 2021 Foreword INDIES Gold Award winner and was a finalist in both the Christy and Carol Awards. In addition to her writing, Amanda is an accomplished professional cellist and pianist who frequently performs with orchestras, chamber groups, and her church’s worship team, as well as serving as a choral accompanist. A lifelong denizen of the flatlands, Amanda currently lives in Kansas with her patient, loving, and hilarious husband, their three adorable Wenlets, and a snuggly Siamese cat. She loves to connect with readers through her newsletter and share book recommendations on BookBub. Get your copy of The Songs That Could Have Been at Amazon, B&N, Christianbook(dot)com and Good Reads! Check out the Saturday Spotlight for Amada's debut novel, Roots of Wood and Stone & get the story behind the story on Here.

Sounds like another amazing novel, Amanda! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.

See you next time, Friends for Saturday Spotlight and Wednesday Words with Friends!

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Amanda Wen @AuthorAmandaWen & The Songs That Could Have Been!

Good Morning and Welcome!

June is trucking right along. We went to a Brooks & Dunn concert Thursday night and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I'll tell you all about it in my newsletter so sign up to receive it now! Meanwhile, let's put the spotlight on our guest, Amanda Wen and her book, The Songs That Could Have Been...

Two couples in love. Two sets of impossible circumstances. One powerful God of grace.

After a tailspin in her late teens, Lauren Anderson’s life is finally back on track. Her battle with bulimia is under control, her career is taking off, and she’s surrounded by a loving family. Then a chance meeting with Carter Douglas, her first love and the man who broke her heart, leads to old feelings returning with new strength. And suddenly her well-balanced world is thrown off kilter.

Now a TV meteorologist, Carter is determined to make amends with Lauren. After all, she still owns his heart. But the reasons they broke up aren’t lost--and those old demons are forcing him toward the same decision he faced in the past. He isn’t sure he’s courageous enough to make a different choice this time around.

When Lauren’s elderly grandmother, Rosie, begins having nightmares about a man named Ephraim—a name her family has never heard before—a fascinating and forbidden past love comes to light. As Lauren and Carter work to uncover the untold stories of Rosie’s past in 1950s Wichita, they embark on a journey of forgiveness and second chances that will change their lives—and Rosie’s—forever. Along the way they’ll learn that God wastes nothing, his timing is perfect, and nothing is beyond his grace and redemption.

The Songs That Could Have Been is full of the same deftly handled, resonant writing that readers and critics alike enjoyed in Amanda Wen’s first book in the series. Fans of Lisa Wingate and Rachel Hauck will add Amanda Wen to their must-read shelves.

The Songs That Could Have Been is book 2 in the Sedgwick County Chronicles and releases on June 21st so no excerpt is available at this time, but let's hear what others are saying about the book...

“There are so many brilliant moments in The Songs That Could Have Been. Amanda Wen took risks that paid off with a treasure trove of themes which will resonate in my heart for a very long time."

– Deborah Raney, author of Bridges and the Chandler Sisters Novels series

“Amanda Wen is a fresh new voice in the Christian fiction arena! Blending well researched historical events with modern-day, relatable characters, she crafts tales within tales that are guaranteed to delight and inspire readers. I highly recommend this inspiring writer.”– Kim Vogel Sawyer, best-selling author of Freedom's Song

“Readers will be swept off their feet by Amanda Wen’s second installment of the Sedgwick County Chronicles....Past and present are deftly woven together in this dual-timeline narrative that will leave readers flying through the pages. The Songs That Could Have Been is the ‘can’t miss’ book of the year.”

– Amanda Cox, author of the 2021 Christy Book of the Year, The Edge of Belonging

"As poignant as it is intricately crafted...this is a reading experience both heartfelt and heart-tugging, a timeless exploration of young and enduring love and the grace found in second chances. Amanda Wen is a rare and remarkable storyteller and this is a novel I will not soon forget." – Amanda Barratt, Christy Award-winning author of The White Rose Resists

Amanda Wen is an award-winning writer of inspirational romance and split-time women’s fiction. She has placed first in multiple writing contests, including the 2017 Indiana Golden Opportunity, the 2017 Phoenix Rattler, and the 2016 ACFW First Impressions contests. She was also a 2018 ACFW Genesis Contest finalist.

 

Wen is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and regularly contributes author interviews for their Fiction Finder feature. She also frequently interviews authors for her blog and is a contributor to the God Is Love blog. She is the author of Roots of Wood and Stone and The Songs That Could Have Been.

 

In addition to her writing, Wen is an accomplished professional cellist and pianist who frequently performs with orchestras, chamber groups, and her church’s worship team. She serves as a choral accompanist as well. A lifelong denizen of the flatlands, Wen lives in Kansas with her patient, loving, and hilarious husband, their three adorable Wenlets, and a snuggly Siamese cat.

 

To find Amanda Wen’s blog and short stories, visit www.amandawen.com. Readers can also follower her on Facebook (@AuthorAmandaWen), Twitter (@AuthorAmandaWen), and Instagram (@authoramandawen).

Wow, Amanda The Songs That Could Have Been sounds like another amazing story! Thank you for sharing with us and we wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.

Hope you're looking forward to release day for this book, friends. You can pre-order it at Amazon or ChristianBook(dot)com! Read all about Roots of Wood and Stone from Amanda's previous posts HERE.

Until next week take care and God bless.

PamT

#WednesdayWordsWithFriends Welcomes Amanda Wen!

Good Morning,

Fall is definitely in the air over here in SW Louisiana. Our area was hit with 3 tornados last week. Seems like Mother Nature will not give us a break! Prayers please for those people who'd JUST gotten back in their homes after last year's hurricanes and are facing repairs or rebuilds again.

Enough gloom and doom though. Hope you made it safely through the ghosts, goblins and other creatures haunting your home in search of candy. I miss those days but don't get trick-or-treaters where I live. Which is OK LOL!

Today's guest was in our spotlight in May to share a peek into her book, Roots of Wood and Stone so please welcome her back with some wisdom about fear standing in our way. Take it away, Amanda!

What Would You Do if Fear Weren’t Standing in Your Way?

 

What would you do if fear weren’t standing in your way?

To be honest, this question has always bugged me. As a naturally anxious person descended from a long line of naturally anxious people, fear has been a constant companion. Thanks to the aforementioned natural anxiety and my active writer’s imagination, I’m able to leap from zero to Worst Case Scenario in record time. 

But sometimes God forces you out of your comfort zone, like he did for me in 2014. That year, my brother-in-law married the girl of his dreams…in New York City. 

Now, NYC may be a dream destination for many of you, but for this lifelong denizen of smallish Midwestern cities, New York was someplace I would have been perfectly happy to never visit. Constant noise. Insane traffic. People everywhere. It’s like a different planet. And did I mention we’d be flying? With three children, ages 5, 3, and 15 months? If it weren’t for family, that trip would’ve been a hard pass.

But it was for family, so we went.

And yes, it was noisy, and stressful. None of us slept. We got claustrophobic in our tiny hotel room. Our baby was fussy most of the time, which meant I watched my sister-in-law join our family from the very back of the reception hall, frantically pushing our daughter in the stroller, hoping against hope a scream from her wouldn’t ruin the whole thing.

It was uncomfortable and hard, but we did it.

And when we got back home to Kansas, back to clean air and quiet streets and personal space, God and I spent a lot of time sorting out my fears of that trip and how, despite the hassles, He’d been with us every step of the way. It was then that I made a deal with Him: If fear was the only thing stopping me from doing something, I’d go ahead and do it anyway.

That decision led to several new-to-me experiences: running my first 5K and even a 10K (after being an avowed non-runner for my entire life), sending my kids to public school, and one decision a year and a half later that’d be the most life-changing of them all. 

I’d been writing for a while at this point, but not really letting anyone read my work except my best friend, herself a multi-published general-market historical romance author. After I got the guts to show her my work, she gently corrected my newbie writing errors, mentored me through the next couple manuscripts, and finally started suggesting/encouraging/nagging me to enter it in a contest.

I had heard horror stories about contests, though. Entries that got ripped to shreds by judges who might or might not have even read the guidelines. People who grew so discouraged by the negative feedback that they quit then and there. But another critique partner told me about the ACFW First Impressions contest, one that only required a five-page entry. I can do five pages, I told myself. If they rip apart five pages, that’s okay, because I’ve got another 300-ish they won’t see.

But to my surprise, that entry didn’t get ripped apart. I was shocked to final in the contest, even more shocked to win, and stunned literally speechless when one of the final round judges—a well-known agent in the Christian writing world—requested my full manuscript.

That agent ended up becoming my agent. 

And the book to which those first five pages belonged? It went nowhere. 

But that was okay, because the initial fear—letting someone in the industry read my work—was gone. I had an agent in my corner who believed in my talent and God’s plan for it even when I didn’t. And the next book I wrote? The one where I experimented with a totally different genre—split-time—that I’d never written before, but always loved? 

That one became my debut novel.

My seven-years-ago self would never have dreamed that the decision she made, the surrender to God’s plan regardless of her own discomfort, would have such far-reaching implications, nor that a trip to New York with three little kids would lead to becoming a published author.

So, I’ll ask again: what would you do if fear weren’t standing in your way?

***************

Amanda Wen is an award-winning writer of inspirational romance and split-time women’s fiction. She has placed first in multiple writing contests, including the 2017 Indiana Golden Opportunity, the 2017 Phoenix Rattler, and the 2016 ACFW First Impressions contests. She was also a 2018 ACFW Genesis Contest finalist.

Wen is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and regularly contributes author interviews for their Fiction Finder feature. She also frequently interviews authors for her blog and is a contributor to the God Is Love blog. Her debut novel is Roots of Wood and Stone.

In addition to her writing, Wen is an accomplished professional cellist and pianist who frequently performs with orchestras, chamber groups, and her church’s worship team. Wen lives in Kansas with her patient, loving, and hilarious husband, their three adorable Wenlets, and a snuggly Siamese cat.

To find Amanda Wen’s blog and short stories, visit www.amandawen.com. Readers can also follower her on Facebook (@AuthorAmandaWen), Twitter (@AuthorAmandaWen), and Instagram

(@authoramandawen).

Roots of Wood and Stone can be found at Amazon and where other great Christian fiction is sold.

It's amazing how God gets us out of our comfort zone, isn't it? Thank you, Amanda for sharing your story and what you learned from your trip to NY! Wishing you the best of luck and God's blessings in all things.

Hope you enjoyed today's post, friends and that you'll check back weekly for more Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless.

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Amanda Wen @AuthorAmandaWen & Roots of Wood and Stone!

Good Morning Friends!

Well, May just keeps marching on and the afternoon temps around here reflect that, although, we've been blessed with cooler nights which is a huge relief. Those Gulf waters need to stay as cool as possible for as long as they can to keep those storms off of us.

Today's guest is brand new to our blog and brought to us by Audra Jennings Publicity and Kregel Publications with her debut novel, Roots of Wood and Stone, so please give her a HUGE, SWLA       W-E-L-C-O-M-E!

Sloane Kelley was abandoned at birth, and while she wants more than anything to learn where she came from, her family roots remain a mystery. As curator of the Sedgwick County Museum of History, Sloane has dedicated her life to making sure others can connect with their history. When a donor drops off a dusty old satchel, she doesn’t expect much from the common artifact; after all, the museum has a few on display and more in storage. However, she finds real treasure inside: a nineteenth-century diary. Now, she’s on the hunt to see if there’s more where it came from. 

Garrett Anderson just wanted to clean out his grandmother’s historic but tumbledown farmhouse before selling it to fund her medical care. He’s always been the responsible one, and with her advancing Alzheimer’s, he can’t afford to be sentimental about the family home. But his carefully ordered plan runs up against two formidable obstacles after he takes a few things to the local museum: Sloane, who’s fallen in love with both the diaries and the old house, and his own heart, which is drawn to Sloane. Selling the house that holds so much history will disappoint both Sloane and his sister, Lauren, who is doing her best to care for their grandmother, but Garrett finds himself in an impossible situation.

A century and a half earlier, motherless Annabelle Collins embarks with her aunt and uncle on the adventure of a lifetime: settling the prairies of Sedgwick County, Kansas. The diaries she left behind paint a portrait of life, loss, and love—and a God who faithfully carried her through it all. Paging through the diaries together takes Sloane and Garrett on a journey they never could have planned, which will change them in ways they never imagined.

And Sloane may just find her roots in a place she never would have expected.

Roots of Wood and Stone is set in the area of Kansas Wen has lived in most of her life. In fact, the story is inspired by aspects of her own family history. “One of my favorite things about split time is watching the contemporary characters dig into the past,” Wen explains. “My mother is a genealogist who’s been tracing our family history since before I was born, and her passion for uncovering our family’s stories has been an important backdrop my entire life. Her research has given me an appreciation for those who came before and a desire to pass along this appreciation to my own kids.” As an homage to her mother and all the rest of her ancestors, Wen named many of the people and places in the book after family. Parts of their stories are even woven into the historical portion of the book.

Wen not only offers readers two plotlines filled with plenty of history and romance wrapped into one story, she mixes in a healthy dose of humor and strong faith elements as well. “All my characters have deep needs that they try to fill through other means (achievement, research, hard work, planning, etc.), but throughout the story they learn that only God can fill those needs,” Wen shares. “He has a beautiful plan, one that goes far beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine, and he takes all our broken pieces and loose ends and weaves those trials into a tapestry more beautiful than we could possibly imagine. He is always there, faithfully guiding our steps, even—or perhaps especially—when we’re not aware of it. I hope my readers will trust him, his individual love and care for each of us, and his perfect plan just a little bit more after they close this book.”

Excerpt: Sloane Kelley stood in the lobby of the Sedgwick County Museum of History, the thick buffalo robe hanging warm and heavy on her arms. A line of first graders filed past to stroke the robe’s coarse brown fur. But no matter how many little hands poked and prodded that robe, it held up. It was resilient.

Just like the pioneers who’d worn it.

The last child, a girl with wide brown eyes and a riot of red curls, trailed her hand over the robe. “It’s softer than I thought it’d be.”

“That’s a great observation.” Sloane loved those light-bulb moments when history came to life.

“That is a great observation, Josie.” Mrs. McPherson, the dark-haired teacher charged with controlling the chaos, rewarded her student with a warm smile.

But Josie looked instead to a beaming, T-shirt-clad woman at the back of the room. Same brown eyes, same coppery curls.

Mother and daughter, no doubt.

Jaw tight, Sloane turned to hang the robe on its wooden rack. She scanned the placard beside it, covered with facts she’d researched. Facts to fill gaps in people’s knowledge.

A semi-successful cover for the utter lack of facts about her own past.

Amanda Wen is an award-winning writer of inspirational romance and split-time women’s fiction. She has placed first in multiple writing contests, including the 2017 Indiana Golden Opportunity, the 2017 Phoenix Rattler, and the 2016 ACFW First Impressions contests. She was also a 2018 ACFW Genesis Contest finalist.

Wen is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and regularly contributes author interviews for their Fiction Finder feature. She also frequently interviews authors for her blog and is a contributor to the God Is Love blog. Her debut novel, Roots of Wood and Stone, releases from Kregel Publications on February 2, 2021.

In addition to her writing, Wen is an accomplished professional cellist and pianist who frequently performs with orchestras, chamber groups, and her church’s worship team. She serves as a choral accompanist as well. A lifelong denizen of the flatlands, Wen lives in Kansas with her patient, loving, and hilarious husband, their three adorable Wenlets, and a snuggly Siamese cat.

To find Amanda Wen’s blog and short stories, visit www.amandawen.com. Readers can also follower her on Facebook (@AuthorAmandaWen), Twitter (@AuthorAmandaWen), and Instagram (@authoramandawen). 

Roots of Wood and Stone can be found at Amazon and where other great Christian fiction is sold.

Thank YOU, So Much, Amanda for sharing your debut novel with us! We wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.

PamT