Take a peek – you might want to add
this one to your reading list!
With a friend like Claire, you need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel.
Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It’s impossible not to, what with Claire’s zany antics and Patsy’s self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is personal.With their marriages as much in need of restoration as the town, Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives. That is if they can convince their husbands and the town council, led by two curmudgeons who would prefer to see Chapel Springs left in the fifties and closed to traffic.
Available at Amazon
And now meet the author, Ane Mulligan!
While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, Ane has worn many different ones: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that’s a fancy name for a lobbyist), drama director, multi-published playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction (try saying that three times fast). She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups.
President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband, her chef son, and two dogs of Biblical proportion. Her debut book, Chapel Springs Revival releases Sept 8th. You can find Ane on her website, on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Let’s get to know Ane a bit….
What kinds of interesting things have you done in your life?
The most interesting was being a lobbyist for Christian Coalition. We had just moved to upstate New York, when Hubs suggested I get involved in our town’s politics to get to know people. That was odd, because I’d never been involved in the political process before, other than to vote. But I took his advice, and then somebody contacted me about Christian Coalition.
Within a month, I’d been hired as the legislative affairs director for New York. I met Ralph Reed, who later drafted me onto his dream team to lobby in Washington D.C. It was a rewarding time. My greatest accomplishment was getting a parental notification for abortion bill to the floor for a vote, breaking a 20-year cycle.
What books have influenced your life the most?
That’s easy. It was John, Son of Thunder, by Ellen Gunderson Traylor. Reading it brought Jesus and the disciples to where I felt like I was walking with them. I could see and hear everything. It’s the book that made me want to write.
Tell us about getting your mind in a creative mode? How do you begin your writing process?
I get a “what if” idea first, then I spend a long time getting to know my characters. I do an extensive character interview then write a stream of consciousness backstory where I discover all kinds of secrets. It’s in this process that I find my creativity sparked. This is where I get excited about telling this character’s story.
Where do you get constructive critiques and feedback?I have the world’s best critique partners. We all met when we were first starting out writing and grew together. We have all been serious about publishing, so we are always tough on each other. So much so, we’ve gained nicknames: Atilla the Holmes, Hannibal Dotta, Genghis Griep, and Ludwig von Frankenpen. I’m Ane of Mean Gables.
What is your book about?
It’s a romp through miscommunication in marriage. At the same time, the town needs reviving to bring the tourists back. It’s funny but at the same time, it has Biblical truths we need to be reminded of.
What motivated you to write on this topic?
A number of years ago, a young women at church told me when she married, she didn’t know she should have prayed for the husband God had picked out for her, so she was gong to get a divorce and go look for that other man.
I talked her out of it, but that stuck with me. If one person felt like that, more had to. I thought I was going to write a Bible study based on it, but God had other ideas.
Do you plan on writing a sequel to this story?
It’s already written. It’s called Chapel Springs Survival. This was a fun book to write, because it includes an episode from my son’s life. I told him as retribution for keeping a secret, it would go in a book … and it did! Here’s a sneak peek:
With the success of her Operation Marriage Revival, life is good for Claire. That is until the mayor’s brother blabs a secret: Claire’s nineteen-year-old son, Wes, has married a Brazilian mail order bride—one who is eight years older than him. When Claire tries to welcome her new daughter-in-law, she’s ridiculed, rebuffed, and rejected. Loving this girl is like hugging a prickly cactus. Will Claire and her family survive her son’s marriage?
I obviously changed a number of things, especially since I adore my daughter-in-law. She turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to my son. Quite a few other facts have been changed to add conflict, like the age factor. But it’s a fun story.
What do you want readers to take away from your book?
Through lighthearted humor, I hope readers will see when we trust our lives to God, we can trust our marriage to Him, too. He knows what’s best for us.
Now it’s time to go enjoy some fun reading!
Chapel Springs Revival at Amazon
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Angela, I'm doing a hidden giveaway today on your blog. It's hidden here. I advertised it on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. So your commenters are entered in the drawing for a print or e-book (US only for the print copy). And thank you for having me on!
This sounds like a really good read that will give a healthy dose of belly laughs. And I love the nicknames for your critique group!
The nicknames were too funny!