I am thrilled that Mona has so graciously shared this character interview with us. You will get to know Elsa Brantenberg through this delightful interview and you will love this special woman in The Quilted Heart!
Welcome, ELSA BRANTENBERG!
1. How would you describe yourself to others?
A busy widow and Oma to my granddaughter, with no time to fuss over what was or could’ve have been.
2. Do you have any favorite pastimes or special skills?
I’ve got lots of experience at running a farm and tending an apple orchard. Some say I’m a fine quilter. Talked me into starting a quilting circle and teaching quilting in my home.
3. How would the women in your quilting circle describe you?
I’m a hugger. No woman gets past my porch, either direction, without a hug.
4. What is most important to you?
That my sweet little Gabi girl, my granddaughter, grows up knowing she is loved. The assurance that you’re loved and cared for can carry you a long ways.
5. How do you face disappointments in life?
I grit my teeth. Probably stomp my foot. Whisper or shout a prayer. Then I embroider a tea towel, make apple crisp, for finish a quilt and take it to someone who needs the encouragement even more than I do.
6. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Explaining to Gabi that the war has been over for several months, and that if her papa hasn’t returned by now, he is dead, or alive without any intention of returning.
7. You buried your husband then your daughter, and lost your son-in-law to grief, how did you keep going?
I had a farm to run and a precious granddaughter to raise, and I knew the good Lord was at my side. Always is. It was after I buried Gretchen that I started the quilting circle out here on the farm. Many of those dear women are like daughters to me. A couple of them like sisters.
8. What is the thing you love most about the Quilting Circle or Quilting Circle Thursday?
The laughter and the tears. The smiles and the sighs. Hearing the other women grow in their confidence to share the Scripture with one another and their commitment to pray for one another.
9. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My emotions can swing like the pendulum on that fancy clock at the bank. If I could change, I would not be so passionate. I’d rather my emotions be steady, unwavering. At least, slower so my brain can catch up.
10. Do you have a life verse, a passage of Scripture that holds special significance to you?
Yes, from Psalm 119:104. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” I may not always be able to trust my feelings and emotions, or anyone else’s for that matter, but the Word of the Lord is completely and consistently trustworthy.
The Quilted Heart Omnibus
Like a beautiful patchwork quilt, the three novellas in The Quilted Heart tell stories of lives stitched together with love and God’s unending grace.
Once a week, Elsa Brantenberg hosts the Saint Charles Quilting Circle at her farmhouse on the outskirts of the riverside town of St. Charles, Missouri. The ladies who gather there have all experienced heartache related to the intense hardships of the Civil War, and together, they are facing their painful circumstances with friendship and prayer. Can the tattered pieces of their hearts be stitched together by God’s grace?
Click here to purchase your paperback or eBook copy of The Quilted Heart. http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?work=220625
Biography:
Mona Hodgson is the author of nearly 40 books, historical novels for adults and children’s books, including her popular Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series, The Quilted Heart novellas, and Prairie Song, Book 1 in her Hearts Seeking Home Series. Her children’s books include bestseller, Bedtime in the Southwest, six desert and princess Zonderkidz I Can Read books, Real Girls of the Bible: A 31-Day Devotional, and her six I Wonder books.
Mona’s writing credits also include several hundred articles, poems and short stories, which have appeared in 50 different publications. Mona is a speaker for women’s groups, Christian women’s retreats, book clubs and reading groups, schools, and conferences for writers and librarians.
Connect with Mona:
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Mona
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/602227.Mona_Hodgson
http://www.pinterest.com/monahodgson/
http://www.novelcrossing.com/author/3004/monahodgson
https://twitter.com/MonaHodgson
I am giving away one copy of The Quilted Heart here on my blog. See Monday’s post for details and comment to win.
Leave a comment here, then comment on Mona Hodgson Author Page before Friday, January 31st to enter the BLOG TOUR DRAWING for one of three signed copies of The Quilted Heart. Tell Mona which blog you visited (Buzzing About Books) and commented on! You can enter once for each Participating Blog you visit and comment on.
Don’t miss Mona’s Facebook Release Party for THE QUILTED HEART!
The Book Release Party on Facebook is TODAY! Join Mona in the Notes Section on her “Mona Hodgson Author Page” from 4 pm to 6 pm (Mountain Time). To calculate what time this is for you, click here: http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com.
Mona will answer questions, give away prizes, and share photos and behind-the-scenes stories about the three novellas included in The Quilted Heart omnibus, set in Saint Charles, Missouri.
The celebration continues! The Quilted Heart by Mona Hodgson released yesterday and I am thrilled to share Mona’s interview, as well as several giveaway opportunities. I hope you enjoy this delightful author interview and will join us again Friday for a special character interview with Elsa Brantenberg. Also, don’t miss the giveaway details given at the bottom of the post!
Welcome, Mona! Thank you so much for joining us!
Hi, Everyone! Britney, thanks so much for the opportunity to join you all here. I appreciate your interest in my Historical Fiction.
Mona, please share with us the inspiration for The Quilted Heart novellas.
Intersections inspired the concept of The Quilted Heart novellas. First, a visit to Historic Saint Charles, Missouri, in 1999 and the desire to write a story set there. Then, the idea to use quilting and a quilted heart as a metaphor for a transformed heart in a series of talks for Christian Women’s Retreats. Next, a heightened awareness of the effects of Retinitis Pigmentosa on my extended family and a desire to tell the story of a women struggling with blindness. When I had an opportunity to write a grouping of novellas as a prequel to Prairie Song, Book 1 in Hearts Seeking Home, a wagon train series, all of the above factors intersected to create The Quilted Heart omnibus–Dandelions on the Wind, Bending Toward the Sun, and Ripples Along the Shore.
I am drawn to book titles and each of these novella titles has such special meaning, as does the title of the omnibus, The Quilted Heart. How did you choose your titles?
The poet in me loves imagery and metaphor. I mingled that with my appreciation for God’s creation and the characters’ situations for the titles to the novellas. Dandelions on the Wind, Bending Toward the Sun, and Ripples Along the Shore. The Quilted Heart is a transformed heart, again, a metaphor for the way God’s transforming love makes us into a new creation.
The Quilted Heart is full of historical details and descriptions. How did you research the various aspects of life in Saint Charles, Missouri, following the Civil War?
I perused websites and books about Saint Charles and the Civil War, but, at heart, I am a hands-on researcher. In March 2012, I returned to St. Charles. I toured the area with someone from the tourism bureau, met with the archivist at the St. Charles County Historical Society, wandered through several museums in the area, and strolled the cobblestone streets and along the river.
One of my favorite things about these novellas is the spiritual wisdom that is shared when the women of the St. Charles quilting circle gather together. Who are some of the special women in your life who have shared their spiritual wisdom with you?
June Adams, after whom I fashioned the character of Hattie Adams—Miss Hattie–in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series. Patsy Clairmont, a National Conference Speaker, who said things like “Normal is only a setting on your dryer.” She wrote a book by that title.
Quilts are so special and each one tells a story. Are you a quilter and/or do you have any quilts that are special to you?
It was the imagery and metaphor that led me to first speak at women’s retreats about The Quilted Heart and then write these stories. I’m not a quilter, but I had two grandmothers who were and my Sis Linda is a quilter. I have the first quilt Linda made to commemorate the birth of my first daughter, Amy.
Rather than being three individual stories, the characters in The Quilted Heart can found throughout the novellas as well as in the Hearts Seeking Home series. How did you decide to write these stories this way?
I love exploring community, which leads me to write ensemble casts. I like to “live” in community with my characters from story to story (even series to series). In my first series, The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek, the four novels feature four sisters and a sister-in-law whose journeys take place in the backdrop of a boardinghouse and mining community. In The Quilted Heart, it’s the farming and riverside community of St. Charles, Missouri. In Prairie Song, the story that follows The Quilted Heart, the members of The Boone’s Lick Wagon Train Company, journeying west, provides the ensemble cast of characters.
The Quilted Heart is a prequel to the Hearts Seeking Home series. Prairie Song is the first book in this series and was released in August. After reading The Quilted Heart, I felt like I was catching up with old friends in Prairie Song and I can’t wait to continue their stories! What can you share with us about Book 2? Do you have a release date?
Mountain Whispers is the sequel to Prairie Song and the conclusion to the wagon train company’s journey west. Unfortunately, I don’t have a release date yet for Mountain Whispers but as I do, you’ll be able to find it on my blog and Facebook Mona Hodgson Author Page, https://www.facebook.com/Author.Mona
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions! How can readers connect with you online?
It was my pleasure to join you all here, Britney. Here’s where you can find me online:
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Mona
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/602227.Mona_Hodgson
http://www.pinterest.com/monahodgson/
http://www.novelcrossing.com/author/3004/monahodgson
https://twitter.com/MonaHodgson
I am giving away one copy of The Quilted Heart here on my blog. See Monday’s post for details and comment to win.
Leave a comment here, then comment on Mona Hodgson Author Page before Friday, January 31st to enter the BLOG TOUR DRAWING for one of three signed copies of The Quilted Heart. Tell Mona which blog you visited (Buzzing About Books) and commented on! You can enter once for each Participating Blog you visit and comment on.
Don’t miss Mona’s Facebook Release Party for THE QUILTED HEART!
Please save the date for a Book Release Party on Facebook, Friday, January 24th! You’ll find her in the Notes Section on her “Mona Hodgson Author Page” from 4 pm to 6 pm (Mountain Time). To calculate what time this is for you, click here: http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com.
Mona will answer questions, give away prizes, and share photos and behind-the-scenes stories about the three novellas included in The Quilted Heart omnibus, set in Saint Charles, Missouri.
The Quilted Heart by Mona Hodgson
The Quilted Heart releases tomorrow, January 21. You can order your copy from Amazon, other online retailers, or your favorite bookstore.
Synopsis:
Like a beautiful patchwork quilt, the three novellas in The Quilted Heart tell stories of lives stitched together with love and God’s unending grace.
Once a week, Elsa Brantenberg hosts the Saint Charles Quilting Circle at her farmhouse on the outskirts of the riverside town of St. Charles, Missouri. The ladies who gather there have all experienced heartache related to the intense hardships of the Civil War, and together, they are facing their painful circumstances with friendship and prayer. Can the tattered pieces of their hearts be stitched together by God’s grace?
Dandelions on the Wind
When Maren Jensen took a job on Elsa Brantenberg’s St. Charles, Missouri farm, she never expected to call the place her home. As she grows to love Mrs. Brantenberg and her granddaughter, Gabi, Maren is transformed from a lonely mail-order bride-without-a-groom to a beloved member of the Brantenberg household. But when Gabi’s father, Rutherford “Wooly” Wainwright, returns to the farm unexpectedly, everything changes for Maren, and she feels compelled to find another job. Are her choices in obedience to God, or is she running from His plan?
Bending Toward the Sun
Dedicated to her education and to helping her father in his general store, Emilie Heinrich is convinced she doesn’t have time for love. But when a childhood friend returns to St. Charles, Missouri, after serving in the Civil War, his smile and charm captures Emilie’s eye and her heart. Will she be forced to choose between honoring her father and a future with a husband and family of her own?
Ripples Along the Shore
Change is brewing in St. Charles. A group of brave souls are preparing to head west on the Boone’s Lick Wagon Train, led by the mysterious and handsome Garrett Cowlishaw, who served as a Confederate soldier in the war that killed Caroline’s husband. Despite her dislike for him, Caroline is tempted to join the wagon train and start fresh somewhere new, but when Mr. Cowlishaw forbids her—a single woman—to travel with them, will one man’s prejudice destroy Caroline’s hope for a new future? Or will the ripples of God’s love bring the answer she needs?
Thoughts:
Mona Hodgson’s wonderful characterization brings the characters of The Quilted Heart to life. Each character is special and their life stories are beautifully quilted together in this novella collection. “Like a quilt is made up of remnants…scraps, so is your life and mine.”
The Quilted Heart novellas are bursting with details and descriptions, adding richness and depth to their engaging storylines. I clearly envisioned Saint Charles, Missouri, its residents and its businesses. I delighted in learning of the goods bought and sold, foods prepared, and quilts made with loving hands.
The spiritual elements are one of the most endearing facets of The Quilted Heart. The wisdom and scriptures that are shared are a blessing to all who read this book. “God, the Divine Quilter, has the perfect patchwork pattern for our lives. Each will be different as sunshine and snowfall.”
The Quilted Heart is a book that I love having on my shelf and is one I will read and enjoy again and again! It is also a book that I want to share, so I have ordered one copy to give away. Please see the giveaway details below and enter to win!
Biography:
Mona Hodgson is the author of nearly 40 books, historical novels for adults and children’s books, including her popular Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series, The Quilted Heart novellas, and Prairie Song, Book 1 in her Hearts Seeking Home Series. Her children’s books include bestseller, Bedtime in the Southwest, six desert and princess Zonderkidz I Can Read books, Real Girls of the Bible: A 31-Day Devotional, and her six I Wonder books.
Mona’s writing credits also include several hundred articles, poems and short stories, which have appeared in 50 different publications. Mona is a speaker for women’s groups, Christian women’s retreats, book clubs and reading groups, schools, and conferences for writers and librarians.
I am excited to be giving away one copy of The Quilted Heart by Mona Hodgson.
Leave a comment, along with your email address, to be entered.
To earn additional entries, you may do the following:
Be sure and leave a comment letting me know what you have done to earn additional entries.
This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends Saturday, January 25 at midnight CST. The winner will be drawn and contacted January 26. Good luck!!
I was blessed to receive a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review, which I have given.
Buzzing About Books 