Traveling Companions with JOURNEYS OF THE HEART

~By Winnie Griggs

Hi. Winnie Griggs here, back with more on what’s new and intriguing on the Inspirational Romance front.

Today I’m doing something a little different. Authors Erica Vetsch, Camille Elliott and I are celebrating the release of our novella collection, JOURNEYS OF THE HEART. This is a fun collection of historical stories with a unifying theme of travel to a new destination. But this time, rather than interviewing the authors involved, I thought it might be fun to hear from the characters in each of the stories. I asked each set of characters to tell us why they set out on their journey – I hope you’ll enjoy reading their responses as much as I did.

But before we get to that, I asked Redbud editor and publisher Lacy Williams to tell us a little about how this collection came about:

"The Redbud Press editors knew we wanted to publish a historical anthology during 2015. During an early editorial meeting, we brainstormed ideas for what could tie the anthology together and the one that stuck was that each love story would take place on a journey. Every single time I'm in an airport, I start thinking about stories involving people stuck together while they travel. Isn't there just something to love about a mail-order bride story or one set along the Oregon Trail? Once we had the theme in place, we started brainstorming authors to invite. And the collection was born! Redbud Press is really excited to bring these three stories to our readers."

Now, on to our character interviews!

First up we’ll talk to Christopher Creager and Honoria Dunbar from Camille Elliot’s THE GENTLEMAN'S QUEST

Mr. Christopher Creager, heir to the Viscount Heathcliffe

There is not much more disagreeable ways to begin my day than finding a dead man in my father’s stables—unless it is discovering that the unfortunate soul was killed with my own hunting knife. What is even more curious is that he had a puzzle box belonging to the sister of a childhood friend, which held a secret treasure map. Now I must find her and unravel the mystery of the dead man and the map.

Miss Honoria Dunbar

Imagine my surprise to enter the drawing room and find Christopher, whom I hadn’t seen since my impoverished family moved away. If the map in the puzzle box leads to a treasure, it could save my mother and myself from an intolerable existence under my abusive uncle’s roof. But I must guard my heart, for Christopher has always been the one man I could not fall in love with.

Next up are Wyatt Murdoch and Anisha Hayes from my own THE ROAD HOME

Dr. Wyatt Murdoch

The purpose of my trip is to deliver two children who were recently orphaned to their only living relative, a great uncle they’ve never met. But to be honest, the real reason I agreed to make this trip was to get away from home, away from all the pitying looks, away from all the reminders of how terribly my life has changed. But I certainly should have given this a little more thought—I’m just not cut out to take care of two kids, especially two determined mischief-makers. But they latched onto a fellow traveler at one of our stops and she somehow got them to not only stop misbehaving but to actually be polite. Although the woman is a bit unconventional for my taste, I wasn’t in a position to be picky and hired her on the spot to be their nanny for the rest of the trip.

Anisha Hayes

With my mother deceased these past twelve years and my father off sailing the seven seas for most of that time, I feel like my life has been on hold ever since I moved to America and was placed in my aunt’s keeping at age ten. Now that I’m twenty-two years old, I’ve decided it’s high time I stop waiting and start living, so I’ve set out, with only my parrot Sundar for company, to explore something of this country. But before I’d gotten very far along in this quest I happened upon a trio who needed help, even if they didn’t realize it. So now I’m taking a short detour to accompany them on the last leg of their journey before I continue on with mine.

Next up are Steve Ketchum and Kitty Fareholm from Erica Vetsch’s THE TRAIL BOSS'S BRIDE

Steve Ketchum

Howdy, my name is Steve Ketchum. I'm headed to Dodge City with twenty-five hundred longhorns, a rowdy crew, and my cranky younger brother who seems mad at the world. Oh, and did I mention we have a female cook...who also happens to have a brand-new baby girl along for the ride? I'm on a deadline, and I sure don't have time for nurse-maiding a woman and her baby on the cattle trail, but I also can't just dump them in the dust and ride away. And I have a serious suspicion that both those little gals are working their way right onto my heart.

Kitty Fareholm

Hello, I'm Kitty Fareholm. There I was, stranded on the open prairie, a mean- tempered husband fresh in his grave, and my birthing time upon me. I prayed and prayed for someone to help me, but I sure didn't expect a rough-and-tumble trail boss to come to my aid. I'm the new camp cook, even though most of the men don't want me along. Steve has promised to help me return home to my people in Tennessee, but the longer I'm on this trail, the more I'd like him to ask me to stay.

There you have it, straight from our hero and heroine’s mouths. I hope you enjoyed these interviews and now here is a little about the authors

About Camille Elliot

Camy writes Regency romance as USA Today bestselling author Camille Elliot and Christian romantic suspense as Camy Tang. She grew up in Hawaii, where she started reading Regency romances when she was thirteen years old. Now she lives in northern California with her engineer husband and rambunctious dog.

She graduated from Stanford University in psychology with a focus on biology, and for nine years she worked as a biologist researcher. Then God guided her path in a completely different direction and now she’s writing full time, using her original psychology degree as she creates the characters in her novels.

In her free time, she’s a staff worker for her church youth group and leads one of her church’s Sunday worship teams. She also loves to knit Victorian and vintage patterns, spin wool into yarn, and is training to (very slowly) run a marathon.

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About Erica Vetsch

Erica Vetsch is a transplanted Kansan now residing in Minnesota. She loves history and reading, and is blessed to be able to combine the two by writing historical fiction set in the American West. Whenever she’s not following flights of fancy in her fictional world, she’s the company bookkeeper for the family lumber business, mother of two terrific teens, wife to a man who is her total opposite and soul- mate, and avid museum patron.

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About Winnie Griggs

Winnie Griggs grew up in south Louisiana in an undeveloped area her friends thought of as the back of beyond. She and her two younger siblings spent many an hour exploring the overgrown land around her home, cutting jungle trails, building forts and frontier camps, and looking for pirate ships on the nearby bayou. Once she ‘grew up' she found other outlets for dealing with all those wonderful, adventurous imaginary friends by filling notebooks with their stories.

Eventually she found her own Prince Charming, a rancher whose white steed takes the form of a tractor and whose kingdom is situated in a small rural community that she loves to call home, and together they've built their own storybook happily–ever–after that includes four now grown children, two of whom are twins.

Now a multi–published, award winning author, Winnie feels blessed to be able to share her stories with readers through her writings for Love Inspired Historical books.

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About JOURNEYS OF THE HEART

From merry old England to the wilds of Texas, take a delightful journey into adventure and romance alongside a feisty spinster, an English lord, a trail boss, a determined widow, and an unusual train companion—a parrot.

THE GENTLEMAN'S QUEST by USA Today bestselling author Camille Elliot
When a man's body is found in the stables of Heathcliffe Manor, all evidence points to Christopher Creager as the culprit. The only one who can help him is the woman he hasn’t let himself go near: Honoria Dunbar. But when he enlists her help he discovers Honoria is facing a life-sentence of her own…

THE ROAD HOME by Winnie Griggs
Anisha's life is just beginning, and Wyatt feels like his is over. How can a displaced, exotic beauty and former surgeon help two grieving orphans find a forever home?

THE TRAIL BOSS'S BRIDE by New York Times bestselling author Erica Vetsch
Trail boss Steve Ketchum hates river crossings, but before he can get his cattle started across he's got to move an abandoned wagon out of the ford. He goes to haul it away- -and discovers the last thing he ever expected. The wagon contains a newly-minted widow—and she’s expecting, too.