#TuesdayTreasures Guest post by Tyndale Author, Heidi Chiavaroli

Good Morning!

Last year I introduced to you a new-to-me and our blog author, Heidi, Chiavaroli with her new (at the time) book, Freedom's Ring. Today Heidi returns with her latest release, The Hidden Side so please welcome her back!

An Unexpected Treasure in The Hidden Side

Heidi Chiavaroli

One of my favorite lines in literature is said by Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. He explains to Scout that “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”
This is what the power of story gives us, and as my latest novel, The Hidden Side, is released into the world, I can’t help but dwell on the unexpected treasure it brought me.
Truth be told, I did not at first want to go to the places this story would take me. After my editors gave me the green light to write about a family torn apart by the unspeakable actions of one of its members—a teenage son who would not only bring a gun to school but use it—I was in a bit of shock. I didn’t know how I’d get through it emotionally. How would I write from the point of view of a mother whose son faced the possibility of life in prison because of his horrific actions? If I were honest, when I viewed these stories in the news, I wrote off the parents as unfit, the children as unloved. But reading the memoirs of mothers who had gone through similar situations proved that my presumptions were not always valid.
Both the research and the writing of this story stretched my humanity, my empathy, and my faith. So often I look at a situation, or a person’s actions, and judge it. And while some things are, quite simply, plain wrong, I think it’s worth peeling back the layers of things unseen . . . things we may not even want to see . . . the hidden side, the gray area of those difficult trials and the people who are enduring them.
There lies the treasure I found in The Hidden Side. This story grew my empathy and my compassion. It expanded my view of Atticus Finch’s admonition to climb in someone else’s skin. It was hard to go here, but finding this treasure was absolutely worth it.

The Hidden Side by Heidi Chiavaroli

New York, 2016
Natalie Abbott offers answers for hurting listeners on her popular radio program. But she struggles to connect with her teenagers, with her daughter in an unhealthy relationship and her son uncommunicative and isolated. When one member of the family commits an unspeakable act, Natalie is forced to uncover who she truly is under the façade of her radio persona.

New York, 1776
Mercy Howard is shocked when her fiancé, Nathan Hale, is arrested and hanged as a spy. When she’s asked to join the revolutionary spy ring in Manhattan, she sees an opportunity to avenge Nathan’s death. But keeping her true loyalties hidden grows increasingly harder as the charming Major John Andre of the King’s Army becomes more to her than a target for intelligence.

Mercy’s journals comfort Natalie from across the centuries as both women struggle with their own secrets and shame, wondering how deep God’s mercy extends. Available at Tyndale & Amazon.


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What a lovely testimony, Heidi. It always amazes me how God uses tough situations to grow US up spiritually. Thanks for sharing. Good luck and God's blessings to you.

Heidi Chiavaroli began writing eleven years ago, just after Jesus grabbed hold of her heart. She used her two small boys’ nap times to pursue what she thought at the time was a foolish dream. Despite a long road to publication, she hasn’t stopped writing since! Heidi won the 2014 ACFW Genesis contest in the historical category. Her debut novel, Freedom’s Ring, was a 4½-star Romantic Times Top Pick and a Booklist Top Ten Romance Debut, and her latest novel, The Hidden Side, is scheduled to release in May 2018. Heidi loves exploring places that whisper of historical secrets, especially with her family. She loves running, hiking, baking, and dates with her high-school sweetheart and husband of fourteen years. Heidi makes her home in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle.

Hope you enjoyed today's guest and that you'll drop by each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

#TuesdayTreasures with Heidi Chiavaroli

Good Morning Friends,

Today's guest is new to me and out blog and brought to us by Tyndale Publishing, so please welcome Heidi Chiavaroli....

Heidi Chiavaroli is a writer, runner, and grace-clinger who could spend hours exploring Boston’s Freedom Trail. She writes women's fiction and won the 2014 ACFW Genesis contest in the historical category. Her debut novel, Freedom’s Ring, releases from Tyndale House Publishers in August 2017. Heidi makes her home in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle. Visit her online at HeidiChiavaroli.com.

A Treasure from the Past

I stood in the funeral home, staring at the painting. It was beautiful, of a young African American girl wearing a headdress. The faint lines of brushstrokes and vivid color came alive to me, and it was here—not in the photograph of my once-young great-grandmother sitting beside the painting—that I felt the remembered presence of Great-Grammy the most. Here, in her beautiful creation, did I feel the past and present come together.

I’d grown up with Great-Grammy as my neighbor. She took care of me and my sister often. And when I became interested in drawing, she encouraged my love to create. 

There was something special about Great-Grammy. Something . . . spunky. She was gorgeous and glamorous, one of the first women in Massachusetts to wear pants (gasp!) to work. And Great-Grammy was talented—she amazed me with her gift of painting.

Now, about to enter the room where I would say my final good-byes, I lingered at the painting of the young girl, imagined my grandmother bringing her to life with skilled hands. 

That was more than a year ago. Just last month, my family celebrated a wedding. Following the reception, we went to my great-aunt’s home to continue the party. My aunt prompted us to go into her finished basement and peruse Great-Grammy’s many paintings—and to take one if we wanted.

When I looked over all the lovely paintings—each a part of my grandmother—one in particular caught my eye. To me, it was obviously the best. Why hadn’t one of my cousins or aunts or uncles taken it yet? As I scooped it up, my family affirmed how the painting suited me. And as I held it, I felt the grand orchestration of the moment. Such a small thing, but God was in it. In some ways, it was as if my grandmother—in her desire to create—had made the painting for me. A small gift, a small legacy, for me to remember her by.

In my book, Freedom’s Ring, Brad gives Annie a ring to comfort her after she is injured in the Boston Marathon bombing. When they reunite two years later, they search for the history behind the heirloom. Although Brad has had the ring for years, and is attached to it because of circumstances regarding his time in Iraq, he has never looked further until Annie inspires him to do so. 

Treasures from the past are all around us. It’s why I love hanging out at antique shops, why I can’t get enough of the Freedom Trail and other local history. Though we are often caught up in the here and now, the past holds riches we won’t see unless we look. An old ring, a dusty painting, a chipped piece of furniture. Treasure—maybe that of your own family—is all around us if we just have the eyes to see.

How beautiful! Heidi's new book. Freedom's Ring can be purchased at Tyndale.com and Amazon.com

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and will join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT