Wednesday, March 12, 2025

"Jake Rogers' Planet" by Philip Wilder -- Author Interview

About the Book

Book: Jake Rogers’ Planet

Author: Philip Wilder

Genre: Christian YA Science Fiction

Release date: February, 2025

Jake is about to embark on a perilous adventure through an alien wilderness filled with hidden wonders and hazards.

While backpacking with his father, Jake Rogers discovers a mysterious portal and accidentally plunges headfirst into an alien world. Stranded on this bizarre planet, he must evade predators, adapt to the strange elements, and navigate the ever-changing landscape to return home. However, as Jake stumbles upon technologically advanced alien ruins, a chilling question arises: Are the aliens still alive?

Even on this terrifying journey, God reminds Jake of the profound verse: “Do not fear, for I am with you.”

Click here to get your copy!

Author Interview

1. Do you consider yourself a plotter or a pantser (or a hybrid)?
I love this question. Writing helps me see life from God’s perspective. I can’t tell you the number
of times I was going through a hard situation, only to then write a scene where a character goes
through a similar situation. As he/she grits their teeth or complains I think to myself, if only you
knew what this was opening the door for. Then, I recall my situation and realize these same
thoughts are likely what God is thinking in response to my complaints.

2. What is your favorite part about writing?
I love this question. Writing helps me see life from God’s perspective. I can’t tell you the number
of times I was going through a hard situation, only to then write a scene where a character goes
through a similar situation. As he/she grits their teeth or complains I think to myself, if only you
knew what this was opening the door for. Then, I recall my situation and realize these same
thoughts are likely what God is thinking in response to my complaints.

As I create these characters, worlds, and plots, I often think of God’s grand tapestry. In all that I
do with writing, I can’t help but imitate Him as He too crafts and designs worlds, people, and
history to orchestrate his beautiful story. He knows our future and often says no to our short-
sighted prayers. He allows the right trials so we can grow and become the best version of
ourselves.

Imagine the confidence of a character who knows he’s in a book and the author is looking out
for him. Who in the story can interfere with the author’s plans? Amazingly, we as Christians can
have this exact confidence.

3. When did you become a writer?
In some ways, I feel like I was born a writer. Technically I was born a storyteller and then
became a writer when I realized the best way to share my stories was through writing. Even
around a campfire people don’t want to listen to a story that goes on longer than thirty minutes.
Because of this, writing became an essential part of my life to release the stories that sprung
from my heart. I remember thinking when I first started learning how to type at the age of ten,
that I needed to get this skill down because I was going to need it if I was going to write books.

However, if I were to nail down an exact moment. I’d say it came when I was 16 and finished my
first novel. Typing the words “the end” after that first 350-page book was euphoric, and I knew
right then that I would never be able to stop writing. This turned out to be true. In every season
of life, writing has always followed me.

4. Where do you get your ideas for your books?
I am totally dependent on God for ideas. They just hit me as I’m living life. I can’t just sit down
and think, “Okay, what should I write for my next book.” That doesn’t work for me.
I think and ponder a lot about the complexity and intricacy of God’s creation. As I do so, ideas
come. Then I let those ideas roll around in my head for a few years as I work on other books
until the concept is ready for me to plant and let it grow.

5. Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters?
All the time, it’s hard for me to get away from this. For main characters, sometimes their arc is a
process I had to go through. This helps me make it more authentic, but it also feels more raw
and vulnerable on my part. However, sometimes I put my friends and family in my books. I ask
them first, but then I try my best to replicate them in the story. Other times I just use their
names.

About the Author

Philip Wilder has been writing since the age of seven. He’s authored two nonfiction books, is a ACFW Genesis Contest finalist, and is currently a Realm Makers Aurora Contest double finalist. He’s spent two years as an undercover missionary in the Middle East, gone sky-diving, and traveled to 35 countries. Philip works with the Great Commission Alliance to train and equip believers around the world. He’s passionate about using fiction to inspire believers to live adventurous lives of faith.

More from Philip

Fear is a dangerous enemy.

At the age of 22, I felt God calling me to become a missionary in the Middle East—not for a week or a month, but a year (that eventually became two). Having never traveled outside the US or moved away from my home city of Denver, I was overwhelmed by fear. I’d be moving to a foreign land where I didn’t know a single person and doing work that wasn’t widely accepted there. I spent many sleepless nights wrestling with God’s gentle prompting.

Fear is inevitable in a Christian’s walk, but its power diminishes as we learn to lean into God and trust Him with the unknown. No matter where a believer is on their faith journey, God always guides us to step outside our comfort zones.

The inspiration for this novel came in 2016 while I was living in the Middle East. While watching The Martian, I realized that even if I were stranded on Mars, millions of miles from humanity, God would still call me to trust Him and not fear. That realization was life-changing: no matter what we face, God assures us nothing is worth fearing if we walk in joyful obedience.

Moving to the Middle East was terrifying and far from easy, but God was always present when I needed Him. In following God to take this step, I realized another beautiful truth: God knows what we need, love, and desire more than we do.

My firm belief is that God has wired each of us to love and enjoy different things because He wants to lead us down a unique path, where He desires to see the deepest parts of our hearts come alive. Walking this path is hard and full of fear. It requires letting go of dreams and trusting God will fulfill the right desires at the right time.

This is the journey Jake faces in Jake Rogers’ Planet. The fears he wrestles with are the same ones I had to navigate to declutter my mind and follow God.

I hope this book will help believers overcome their own fears and follow God. My prayer is that everyone reading this novel will be inspired by Jake’s story to take wild steps of faith to follow God on the wondrous adventure he has in store for them.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, March 7

Simple Harvest Reads, March 8 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, March 9

Tell Tale Book Reviews, March 10 (Author Interview)

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, March 11

Blossoms and Blessings, March 12 (Author Interview)

The Lofty Pages, March 13

Artistic Nobody, March 14 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, March 15

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 16 (Spotlight)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 16

Stories By Gina, March 17 (Author Interview)

cecereadsandsings, March 17

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 18

Guild Master, March 19 (Author Interview)

Little Homeschool on the Prairie , March 20

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Philip is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card, plus a signed hardcover copy of the book, a bookmark, and a vinyl sticker!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54168

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

"Tides of Healing" by Sandra Merville Hart

About the Book

Book: Tides of Healing

Author: Sandra Merville Hart

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: February 11, 2025

A Southern belle fights to reclaim her home, but will her spying destroy the Union officer she never meant to love?

Savannah Adair has endured the unimaginable, hiding in a cave while her beloved Vicksburg was under siege. With the city now occupied by Union soldiers, Savannah cannot stand by and do nothing. So when one of the gaunt, half-starved Confederate prisoners asks her to spy for the South, she can’t refuse the chance to take back her home.

First Lieutenant Travis Lawson takes pride in the Union army’s hard-fought victory, but he quickly realizes that the challenges of rebuilding and reconciliation are just beginning . . . and not everyone is appreciative of changes he’s making. Namely, the fiery and alluring Savannah Adair. Despite their differing loyalties and the societal divide between them, Travis cannot deny the growing feelings he has for her. When he is tasked with finding Southern spies in Vicksburg and he captures a female spy, Travis is forced to consider that the woman he’s beginning to love may be the enemy.

Click here to get your copy!

My Thoughts

This book was interesting to read and get a glimpse of what life was like in Vicksburg during the Civil War. It was sort of hard to read Savannah's hatred of the Union (being a Northerner myself) and wondered how she and Travis would reconcile their differences. I like the Civil War period and look forward to reading more books set in that time period.

About the Author

Sandra Merville Hart, award-winning and Amazon bestselling author of inspirational historical romances, loves to discover little-known yet fascinating facts from American history to include in her stories. Her desire is to transport her readers back in time. She is also a blogger, speaker, and conference teacher.

More from Sandra

As I typed away on this final book in my Spies of the Civil War Series, it felt as if I’d written the entire series to tell this story.

Previously, I had felt a similar importance of an as yet unpublished two-book contemporary series, but the sense that the whole series climaxed with the final book was as surprising as it was welcome.

Because it seemed as if everything that happened in all the earlier books culminated in Book 6 for me as an author. Its significance reverberated in my soul while still researching the events…and weeks before I sat to pen the first page, the first paragraph, the first sentence.

That sense of importance made this book difficult to begin. The early chapters took far longer to write than normal.

I believe that those who only read Tides of Healing will have a satisfying, complete story. Those who read the entire series in order—or at least Books 4-6 set in Vicksburg—will experience a deeper impact as the characters’ stories build on one another.

There is a song in Tides of Healing. As an author, the impact of the lyrics within the story preceded it, meaning that I knew a certain song would play a significant role while still in the research phase.

Let me explain.

When I’m researching a story, I read a variety of nonfiction resources including diaries, journals, and newspaper accounts. My research for Vicksburg during the Civil War led me to song lyrics written by the enslaved.

African American Spirituals, also called Negro Spirituals, were sung before and after the Civil War. These Christian songs served a variety of purposes beyond bolstering hope and faith during dark days. They told stories about Biblical characters like Moses. Some comforted the sorrowful and some rejoiced with the joyful. They were sung in churches, in camp meetings, and in the fields.

They often contained secret messages. “Home” in a song can refer to Heaven, but the secret meaning was a free country. Author Frederick Douglas had been a former slave. He wrote that the lyrics to “O Canaan, Sweet Canaan” signified more than a hope of Heaven. Repeated singing of the lyrics “I am bound for the land of Canaan” announced an intention to go North, their Canaan.

The Underground Railroad is a theme in Tides of Healing. In 1828, Reverend John Rankin built his home on a hill overlooking the Ohio River in Ripley, Ohio. As a station on the Underground Railroad, this home was easily seen from the opposite side of the river in the slave state of Kentucky. Runaways waited for a boat to take them across the river.

It surprised me to learn that the lyrics of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” are about this station. “I looked over Jordan and what did I see?” refers to the Ohio River. The band of angels are people who rowed them across the wide river to the free state of Ohio.

Neither of these songs is referenced in Tides of Healing. The tune that is in my story was a popular spiritual leading up to the war. I listened to it many times. The message took root in my heart long before it affected my characters.

My research trip to Vicksburg’s battlefield and museums inspired the writing of Streams of Courage, Book 4, River of Peril, Book 5, and Tides of Healing, Book 6.

Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1, is set in the Union capital of Washington City (Washington DC) in 1861, where a surprising number of Confederate sympathizers and spies lived. Boulevard of Confusion and Byway to Danger are set in Richmond, the Confederate capital in 1862. Actual historical spies touch the lives of our fictional family. The heroines in Books 1 – 3 are two sisters and their cousins. Another set of characters begin with Book 4, and three friends are the heroines in Books 4 -6.

Through both real and fictional characters, this series highlights activities spies were involved in and some of the motives behind their decisions.

I invite you to read the whole Spies of the Civil War Series!

Blog Stops

Bizwings Book Blog, February 26

Holly’s Book Corner, February 27

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, February 27

Locks, Hooks and Books, February 28

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 1

Pause for Tales, March 2

Texas Book-aholic, March 2

Devoted To Hope, March 3

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 4

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, March 5

Betti Mace, March 5

Life on Chickadee Lane, March 6

Cover Lover Book Review, March 7

Books You Can Feel Good About, March 8

Connie’s History Classroom, March 9

For HIm and My Family, March 10

Stories By Gina, March 11 (Author Interview)

Blossoms and Blessings, March 11

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Sandra is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54163

Sunday, March 9, 2025

"The Curator's Secret" by Denise Weimer

About the Book

Book: The Curator’s Secret

Author: Denise Weimer

Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense

Release date: March 1, 2025

It’s taken six years for Lacey Colbert to escape the heartbreak that caused her to disappear from Golden Isles Christian Camp and the life of her summer sweetheart, Trent Stevenson. Then a museum curator job at a Gilded Age resort lures her back to Georgia’s Jekyll Island. Lacey finds Trent no longer an employee in his dad’s lawn care business, but director of landscaping right in her historic district.

Winter Haven cottage’s century-old mystery of a vanished fiancé compels Lacey to settle her own past with Trent. Just one thing stands in the way … the fact that someone else likes uncovering secrets, too—Lacey’s. And her unknown foe won’t hesitate to use them against her.

Click here to get your copy!

My Thoughts

I enjoyed reading this book. I found it to be well written and easy to read. I was interested and drawn in and wanted to keep reading so I could know what was going on and how was the stalker. I look forward to reading more books by Denise Weimer.

About the Author

Denise Weimer writes historical and contemporary romance from her home in North Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A mother of two wonderful young adult daughters, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

When Secrets Lead to Suspense…
The Curator’s Secret is a bit of a departure from the historicals I’ve been releasing over the past year—not only in that it’s contemporary romantic suspense, and released independently rather than through a publishing house, but in its theme and setting.
Have you ever found yourself unable to keep a promise you made with the best intentions? This could happen due to unforeseen circumstances, mistakes, or information you didn’t have when you offered the pledge. The inability to follow through may break our heart, haunt us, and sever relationships. Secrets can do the same thing, stealing our ability to live authentically, blocking our blessings, and creating a stockpile of lies.
Broken promises and secrets choked the life from Lacey and Trent’s youthful romance six years before the hero and heroine of The Curator’s Secret are reunited when Lacey takes a job as a curator for a historical complex on Georgia’s Jekyll Island, where Trent, unbeknownst to her, is the landscape director. Rather than the restart Lacey expects with her new career, God brings her face to face with her past—not just her first love, but also her grad school stalker who has somehow followed her to the remote island. As the threat escalates, the tale Lacey uncovers in Winter Haven Cottage of a vanished fiancé seems to parallel her own tragic romance…and possibly offer answers and healing. If her past doesn’t destroy her chance of happiness first.
The Curator’s Secret was originally written as a time slip or dual time period novel. It was my mom’s favorite story and my agent’s favorite story I’ve ever written! But somehow, we couldn’t find a publishing home for it. So at last, I’m releasing it myself to my readers who enjoy stories of faith and unique Georgia history. Even though I made the decision to pull the historical backstory out so as not to slow the modern suspense story, the history of Jekyll Island is paramount to the plot. And BONUS, I also have the historical tale of William and Clara that I can share separately to anyone who emails me from my website with their Amazon receipt number for their purchase of The Curator’s Secret.
I’ll close with a fun fact. My mom and I love to take research trips when I’m gathering info for my novels. We enjoyed a beautiful stay at Jekyll for this one…until a hurricane came roaring up the coast! We had to hightail it out of there as workers boarded up the historic district. The eerie sense of impending doom sparked my idea of having a hurricane crescendo with the action in The Curator’s Secret. Imagine being trapped on an island with a storm and a stalker both bearing down on you! That’s exactly what happens to Lacey at the end of the novel. I hope you enjoy this exciting tale of redemption and romance.

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 1

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 2

Texas Book-aholic, March 3

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 4

Locks, Hooks and Books, March 5

Stories By Gina, March 6 (Author Interview)

Simple Harvest Reads, March 7 (Guest Review from Donna)

For Him and My Family, March 8

Blossoms and Blessings, March 9

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, March 10 (Author Interview)

Mary Hake, March 10

Holly’s Book Corner, March 11

Pause for Tales, March 12

Cover Lover Book Review, March 13

Fiction Book Lover, March 14 (Author Interview)

Roads to Everywhere, March 14

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Denise is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card and a print copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54175

Thursday, March 6, 2025

"Guarding the Mountain Man's Secret" b y Misty M. Beller

About the Book

Book: Guarding the Mountain Man’s Secret

Author: Misty M. Beller

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: January 28, 2025

In the wild mountains of the Montana Territory, the Coulter ranch is a place of family, second chances…and a hidden fortune.

Miles is the youngest of six brothers, and he’s spent most of his life helping guard the family’s secret: a sapphire mine hidden deep within the Montana mountains. With threats from a past enemy looming, a survey team’s arrival stirs suspicion—until he meets Clara Pendleton, whose presence captivates him.

Clara Pendleton joins her uncle on a survey team tasked with mapping the coming railroad’s path, only to find herself entangled with the enigmatic Coulter family. When her uncle’s accident leads them to find refuge in the Coulter home, Clara is irresistibly drawn to Miles Coulter and his quiet strength. This feels like the haven she craves…until a series of mysterious attacks endanger everyone on the ranch.

As Christmas approaches, a sleigh ride through a snowy wonderland fans the growing spark between Clara and Miles into a flame, but a broken runner leads Clara to discover the family’s secret. Now she’s faced with an impossible choice: betray the man she’s coming to love or risk the lives of his entire family—and her own uncle.

From a USA Today bestselling author comes a mountain saga filled with high-stakes adventure, forced proximity, a Christmas surprise, and love that heals wounded hearts.

Click here to get your copy!

My Thoughts

I enjoyed reading this book in the Brothers of Sapphire Ranch series. It is important to read the books in order as they build on previous books. I found the book well written and easy to read. It is always nice to see characters we've come to know in the earlier books. It was nice to get to know Miles better. I look forward to reading the last book in the series and find out what is going on with Sampson.

About the Author

Misty M. Beller is a USA Today bestselling author with over 1 million books old. She writes romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love.

Raised on a farm and surrounded by family, Misty developed her love for horses, history, and adventure. These days, her husband and children provide fresh adventure every day, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

Misty’s passion is to create inspiring Christian fiction infused with the grandeur of the mountains, writing historical romance that displays God’s abundant love through the twists and turns in the lives of her characters.

Sharing her stories with readers is a dream come true for Misty. She writes from her country home in South Carolina and escapes to the mountains any chance she gets.

More from Misty

Surveying the Wild West: How Surveyors Mapped the Frontier in the 1870s

One of the things I love about writing historical romance is the detail I get to research for each book. So much of my research doesn’t make it into the story, but I still love to learn it!

In Guarding the Mountain Man’s Secret, our heroine and her uncle are working with a group of surveyors to map out potential routes for the coming railroad.

Surveying back then was no walk in the park. These brave folks had to trek through some seriously rough terrain, lugging around heavy equipment like compasses, levels, and surveyor’s chains. The chains were a whopping 66 feet long, with 100 links! Surveyors would stretch them out to measure distances, and let me tell you, it was no easy feat.

One of the surveyor’s secret weapons was triangulation. By measuring angles between distant points and doing some fancy math, they could figure out exactly where landmarks were and create a grid of reference points across the land. This technique was a game-changer, allowing for more accurate maps that covered bigger areas.

In my story, the surveying was done for the railroad. But history tells us that later in 1879, the U.S. Geological Survey stepped onto the scene with a larger mission: to create detailed maps of the entire country, including the wild, wild West. Surveyors working for this agency had their work cut out for them. They battled through dense forests, climbed steep mountains, and crossed dangerous rivers, all to gather the data needed for these maps.

So the next time you look at a map of the American West, give a nod to those early surveyors. These hardworking folks played a huge role in shaping the frontier, giving settlers the information they needed to build new lives and communities. Without their dedication and skill, the West might have remained a mystery forever!

I pray you enjoy Miles and Clara’s story in Guarding the Mountain Man’s Secret!

Blessings!

Misty