Welcome a new author in the mist

I'm excited to introduce Peggy Trotter. I'm also happy that she's one of the Prism Book Group authors.

Here's a little about Peggy and a teaser for Year of Jubilee, coming soon. 

Peggy Trotter is a small town Hoosier native who teaches 1st and 2nd grade at a small Christian School and writes Christian Romance in her spare time. God blessed her with a wonderful husband who cooks and helps clean while supporting her crazy dreams. She has two incredible grown kids, one fabulous son-in-law, and two rays of sunshine, commonly called grandchildren.

Year of Jubilee Blurb:

Orphaned and widowed, eighteen year old JUBILEE STALLINGS clings to her southern Indiana farm as her only refuge. The wilds of Gibson County are just being tamed in the year of 1850, and Jubilee ekes a meager existence. But when RAFE TANNER, a cousin of her abusive dead husband, shows up with the deed to her property, Jubilee’s dream of her own home dissolves.

Rafe, stinging from his ex-fiancée’s rejection, offers a business marriage, throwing him and Jubilee together in an effort to make the farm successful. But scars from the past keep her in constant fear of her new husband. The pair masquerades as a love-struck couple at Rafe’s family farm, enduring the romantic notions of his family and the jealousy of his ex-fiancée.

Once home, Rafe realizes his newfound love for Jubilee, and sets out to court her. Meanwhile, Jubilee fights demons from her past as her husband reveals his interest. Can Jubilee let go of her distrust and pain to embrace God’s plan of true love and finally find a place to belong?

Tell us about your book.

Hi! My name is Peggy Trotter, and I love both Contemporary and Historical Christian Romance. My new book, Year of Jubilee, just so happens to be a Historical Romance set in Southern Indiana in 1850. But soon after I’ll be publishing a contemporary, and I’m super excited about that one, too!

But back to Year of Jubilee. It’s is about a woman who’s been through some tragic life events. As a child, Jubilee was orphaned and ended up married to an awful man-I won’t tell you how, since that gives away a bit of the book, but suffice, it to say, he is not kind. The book opens with her being abandoned by him, and the pantry is empty. Her husband ends up dead, which puts her in a precarious position. Alone, without food, and without much hope. Enter Rafe.

Rafe has his own gaggle of troubles. He’s been jilted and has pulled away from God. To remove himself from the pain of his broken engagement, he transplants himself on his cousin’s farm. Which is supposed to be empty. But when he gets there, it’s most definitely not. Jubilee realizes she’s been widowed, not only abandoned and hungry, but homeless as well. Rafe cooks up a plan to allow both of them to exist on the farm, while he nurses his emotional wounds. And that is where the trouble begins . . .

What are two things you’ve learned during writing and publishing?

Wow, it’s hard to narrow that to two things! I feel like I’ve gone through 4 years of college and maybe a few masters’ classes to get where I’m at! Well, first of all, I’d say the main thing is to be teachable. No matter how good a writer you think you are, you aren’t. There are very few natural writers out there, and even if you are blessed enough to be one, putting it in a form where people want to read it is a job in itself! So, I always look for a way to improve, which means I sometimes have to override my knee jerk reaction that wants to hold on to a bad writing habit. Second, and I can’t stress this enough, DON’T GIVE UP! That feeds into my first point. You have to take the techniques you learn which improve your writing, and apply them and try again! And try again, again and again!

How did you come up with the title?

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God instructed the Jewish people to declare a Year of Jubilee every fifty years. Leviticus 25:10 says, ’Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.’ Liberty is exactly what Jubilee is looking for. Freedom from life’s struggles and pain.

Is there a message in your novel you want people to grasp?

In every book I write I want to show people that to God, there is no such thing as a lost cause, no such thing as a person who is too broken to be fixed. God wants to bless us and see us prosper. And He often goes about it in ways we don’t understand until His plan comes to fruition. That’s when hindsight hits us like a slap in the face, and we realize that God knew what He was doing the whole time!

What are your current projects?

I’ve got one in the editing oven, one novella I just finished, and I’m working on another historical set in southeast Missouri. I haven’t hammered down the exact year, but I’m leaning towards the 1890’s. Pansy Jo is a born-again soiled dove, and Wylen’s a desperately shy, stuttering man with six motherless children. What a combo!

Where can people buy your book?

Year of Jubilee is set to be released in April, 2015. You can purchase it in e-book or print form from amazon.com, smashwords.com, allromanceebooks.com, barnesandnoble.com, or prismbookgroup.com.

Tell readers where they can connect with you online.

I’d love for you to stop by my website at peggytrotter.com. If you are up to winning some great prizes, catch up with me on my group blog, diamondsinfiction.com. Soon I’ll be among the ranks at prismbookgroup.com. Here’s some more links. I’d be honored to have you join me! https://www.facebook.com/#!/peggy.trotter.7, twitter.com@Peggy_Trotter Thanks, Mary for having me on your blog. It’s been great to introduce my coming book, Year of Jubilee!

Thank you Peggy for sharing with us. I look forward to reading Year of Jubilee    

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