About the Book

Book: Persuade Me Not

Author: Joanne Markey

Genre: Christian Contemporary Romance

Release date: April 4, 2023

Forgiveness is only a prayer away… or is it?

As the oldest daughter at Kellynch Station, Elizabeth Elliot prides herself on her exemplary public image. In fact, women could learn a thing or two by following her example—her public example.

There are things Liz doesn’t want known, and she guards them closely. In fact, keeping everyone except her best friend from ever seeing the truth behind her impenetrable facade is the only thing she can control.

Enter Michael Page. Unassuming and too stubborn for his own good, Mick bucks trend by bringing sheep back to cattle country. Just a small flock at first, but their numbers are growing. There’s just one problem to deal with now. Liz Elliot.

With all her airs and fancy ways, and the unreasonable demands she makes of the town and its people, Liz is a walking antagonism. Maybe he should’ve stayed home after that first meeting, but something keeps bringing him back. If nothing else, someone has to foil her outrageous attempts to do who-knows-what with the town.

Then a carefully worded slip of the tongue hints at a mystery that might be worth digging into.

As the truth comes to light, and Liz’s carefully crafted world comes crashing down, who can either of them trust?

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Author Interview

Do you set a plot or prefer going wherever an idea takes you?
I am definitely a pantser, letting the plot take me where it wants to go. Only
once have I tried to plot the storyline from start to finish and along the way
the story kept going off script. I had to fight to keep it going the way it
needed to go, and I only did that because the book was a mashup (yes, I’m
talking about Persuade Me here!) and needed to have recognizable elements
of the original story woven throughout. It’s much easier to write if all I
need to do is find a good starting point and an end point. From there I can
let the story lead the way from one to the other.

What, according to you, is the hardest thing about writing?
Marketing. Finding new readers is hard work. It also means putting myself
out there, reaching out to people I don’t know and most likely won’t ever
meet. For an introverted introvert who really doesn’t like peopling, that can
be super hard.

What would you say is the easiest aspect of writing?
The writing part itself. The first book I read that sparked my imagination
was Anne of Green Gables. I was eleven at the time and can still remember
letting my mind wander, conjuring up stories of my own where I was the
heroine in Anne’s world. Since then, my imagination has only gotten more
vivid. It’s never a matter of thinking of a story to write, but more figuring
out which story to write.

Do you pen down revelations and ideas as you get them, right then and
there?
I should. I don’t. And because I don’t, I always forget the best parts
afterwards. I tell myself I’ll never again let a good idea go unwritten, but
the next time it happens I am certain that this is the time I’ll remember.
And I don’t. So all the best things I could add to my books are forgotten by
the time I’m done doing the dishes, or whatever I’m doing when
inspiration strikes.

Do you need to be in a specific place or room to write, or you can just sit
in the middle of a café full of people and write?
Thankfully, I can write anywhere, anytime. We have seven kids who are
homeschooled, so the house is always full and busy. Staying up half the
night isn’t possible for me, so I had to learn pretty early on that if I wanted
to write during the day, I had to tune the noise and activity out. Now I can
be doing just about anything, or be anywhere, and can pull my phone out
and start or continue working on a chapter.

About the Author

Originally from Australia, Joanne Markey now lives in Ohio with her husband and seven children. When she’s not reading or writing, you might find her wandering the property with her kids in search of whatever seasonal treasure they’re trying to find.

More from Joanne

I don’t remember exactly when it was that I first started thinking about writing Persuade Me Not. I know I was still writing Persuade Me, the first book in the Daughters of the Bush series. At the time I started writing, I only planned to write one book in that setting. However, the more I wrote, the more I thought about the other characters. And somewhere along the way, I started thinking that, if Liz ever got her happily-ever-after, it would have to be with someone unexpected.

That idea slowly took hold. It would have to be a man as unlike her father as it was possible to be. Someone humble and down-to-earth. Someone with both the integrity to dig deeper to find the truth, and the stubbornness to knock down all the walls Liz had put up.

Right about then I came across an interesting coffee table book about old shearing sheds in Australia. Being an Aussie living in the US and finding that book on the shelves in a store here meant I instantly bought it. And after flicking through the pages, another idea started to form…

At one point in time, Clermont—the town where my book is set—had a substantial wool industry. Which meant sheep. Which meant it could theoretically be possible for there to be a run-down shearing shed on one of the cattle stations in that area. And, to Walter Elliot, what could be worse than running sheep in cattle country?

As far as Walter Elliott is concerned, he is a cattleman with a long and illustrious heritage. Therefore, only those who emulated his lifestyle would be worthy of the attention of his daughter. (Obviously, no other man would rise to the heights of perfection as he, but they could try.)

I don’t know if there are any sheep in the Clermont area now, but if there are, they’re not a big thing. I don’t remember ever seeing any when I lived there as a kid. It was cattle country, and sheep were something we saw when we were driving to visit my grandparents in Victoria (south of the dingo fence, in other words).

With all of that in mind, if, for the sake of the story, one man brought sheep back… and that one man ended up being stubborn and determined to uncover the truth… we’d have a book.

And that is how Persuade Me Not came to be.