This week I’m hosting Jane Myers Perrine with The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek, Tina Pinson with Shadowed Dreams (ebook only), and K. Dawn Byrd with Amazing Love (ebook only). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (December 2nd) evening.
Interview with the heroine from Shadowed Dreams by Tina Pinson:
1. Rebekah, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I’m an orphan, and at twenty-three, I’ve already buried a daughter and a husband.
2. What do you do for fun?
I like to ride my horse Athena, practice throwing my knife and hunting with my bow and arrow. Right now, on the trail I don’t get much time for fun. But I try to make time to spend with my son Andrew and my new husband, Matthew and my cousin Caroline and my dear friend Elijah, as he is a former slave, and Andrew’s great uncle, I would love to see him settled into freedom with all my heart.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I am afraid to tell Matthew why my dreams are so shadowed they wake me. I am afraid to tell him that I might be pregnant with another man’s child. I’m afraid to tell him I love him, because he deserves better. And if I tell him all these things, he may leave me.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Right now, I’m afraid I can never win Matthew’s love and certain I shouldn’t even try. And this trip to Oregon unsettles me. There are so many unknowns. Will this New Eden be the place of hope and rest I seek? The place God has promised? Or… Oh see, it is a dreadful thing to let the mind wander so aimlessly. I must trust that God has a plan of wonder for my life.
5. What do you want out of life?
I would like to settle in a place where I can find some peace. I would love to settle with Matthew and start a family together, but only time will tell. I believe God wants me to go to Oregon for new life, and I am most grateful that He sent Matthew along to help me get those I love west.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Beyond my family and God, I believe it is important to be a woman of God. To help your neighbor, to be honorable and forgiving. To love as Christ would love. To leave a legacy. That is why it tears my heart out to be where I am in life, carrying this secret in me.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
On the trail I don’t have much time for reading, but I like to read the Holy Scriptures, for wisdom to face each day. I read Harpers Bazaar when I get the chance. I wished I could spend a life of leisure and pick up a book from Hawthorne or Stowe. James Fennimore Cooper is an interesting author, of course there are others. Unfortunately, I haven’t much time to read and when I have it, I don’t have the inclination to much else but rest. I do miss being able to visit Matthew’s home and avail myself of his grand library.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I do wish I could bring my parents and daughter back. Even bring back my first husband, Robert. Maybe sometimes I wished I were braver. But then I stop think and I must believe, that God has fashioned my life for a reason. And I think about the gravity of such a choice. What would change in me, if I were to change all the things that cause irritation in my life? How has God used those things I wished to abolish to forge this life of mine? And then I must consider… what would I give up now if I changed that one little thing? Were I to bring my parents back, would I have met Robert or Matthew? Would I have Andrew? Hmm. Perplexing.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
Right now I have a horse, Athena. She can do tricks and she as stubborn as the day is long. But she is loyal and useful on this long trip. I used to have a dog, Buck. He was a dear and faithful friend, a grand protector. I lost him years ago. I wouldn’t be opposed to having such another fine a creature.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
If I were to travel back, it wouldn’t be too far. Perhaps to the night of my brother’s birth. I was three, nearly four. My mother died that night, my brother died shortly after. I often wonder whether or not she would be here if I’d prayed more with my father instead of going to sleep. Strange the things that creep into our minds. I also would have loved the chance to hug her and tell her goodbye. But that comes from the woman now. Then I was just a child who didn’t really know.
