This week Vickie McDonough, Stephanie Grace Whitson, and K. Dawn Byrd

Congratulations to Karen for winning Mae Nunn’s Her Forever Family, to Diane for winning Nicole O’Dell’s young adult book (Magna or Making Waves), and Wendy for winning Robin Shope’s The Easter Edition.

This week I’m hosting Vickie McDonough with Anonymous Bride, Stephanie Grace Whitson with Sixteen Brides and K. Dawn Byrd with Queen of Hearts. If you want to enter the drawing for Sarah’s book, 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 (April 18th) evening.

Bio for Vickie McDonough:

Award-winning author Vickie McDonough believes God is the ultimate designer of romance. She loves writing stories where the characters find their true love and grow in their faith. Vickie has had 18 books published. She is an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers, and is currently serving as ACFW treasurer. Vickie has also been a book reviewer for nine years. She is a wife of thirty-five years, mother of four sons, and grandmother to a feisty four-year-old girl. When not writing, she enjoys reading, watching movies, and traveling. Visit Vickie’s website at www.vickiemcdonough.com.

Blurb for Anonymous Bride:

Three mail-orders brides arrive in Lookout, Texas, each expecting to marry the local marshal. But—he didn’t order a bride. When a contest ensues to discover which bride will make him the best wife, there is a surprise fourth entry–an anonymous one. Mayhem occurs as the whole town tries to figure out who the anonymous bride is, and the mayor pressures the marshal to pick a bride or lose his job. Will Marshal Davis tuck tail and run for the hills? Or will he lose his heart and his bachelorhood?

Bio for Stephanie Grace Whitson:

She writes historical fiction. . . and rides a motorcycle. She writes contemporary fiction. . . and loves tromping around old cemeteries. Wife, homemaker, mother, and grandmother, Stephanie Grace Whitson has made a career out of playing with imaginary friends, and it all started in an abandoned pioneer cemetery. This one’s graves are scattered on a tiny corner of land near where the Whitson family lived in the 1990’s–mostly providing comic relief for the real country folk in the area. That cemetery provided not only a hands-on history lesson for Stephanie’s home schooled children but also a topic of personal study as she began to read about and be encouraged by the pioneer women who settled the American West. Since writing had always been a favorite hobby, it was only natural for Stephanie to begin jotting down scenes in the life of a nameless woman crossing Nebraska on the Oregon Trail. Eventually that story took on a life of its own and Stephanie sent off a query letter–expecting instant rejection.

God had a different plan. He blessed Stephanie’s beginnings, putting two of her three first books on the ECPA best-seller list and making two of her first nine books finalists for the Christy Award. Other awards have followed, but Stephanie considers her most precious “award” the reader letters that share how God has used Whitson-authored novels to bless lives. “It’s astonishing, humbling, and encouraging. I can’t really put it into words–and I can usually find words for just about everything!”

With the spring 2010 release of Sixteen Brides (Bethany House Publishers), she will have eighteen novels and a non-fiction book on “how to help a grieving friend” to her credit. She’s also working on a quilt documentation project to be released as a book about pioneer women and sod house homemaking in 2011. Along with antique quilts and pioneer women’s history, French, Italian, and Hawaiian language and culture remain passionate interests.

“The flip side of writing,” Stephanie says, “is being asked to teach writing or to speak at various events.” She has developed a menu of lectures and workshops that “provide opportunities for me to travel and get to know not only other writers and history lovers, but also students and quilters. I love sequestering myself in a library to do research, but the speaking part of my career has provided some unique and wonderful memories.”

And then there’s Kitty. . . her motorcycle. “In some ways I’m 57,” she says, “in others I’m probably about 17. It all depends on the day.” On days when her virtual age leans towards the younger side of that equation, she’s been known to wake up in the morning and decide to ride Kitty to Canada that day.

In addition to keeping up with her five grown children and two grandchildren, Stephanie enjoys motorcycle trips with her blended family (she was widowed in 2001 and remarried in 2003) and church friends as well as volunteering at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. She is currently in graduate school pursuing a Master of Historical Studies degree.
www.stephaniewhitson.com
stephanie@stephaniewhitson.com

Blurb for Sixteen Brides:

With the promise of prime homesteads and fresh starts, sixteen Civil War widows uproot and move out West. But they soon find that more than land is awaiting their arrival. When the women finally stumble off the train, they are greeted by local bachelors eager for marriage. As the true motive behind the offered land is revealed, the women muster all the faith, courage, and cunning they can to survive their new circumstances.

Bio for K. Dawn Byrd:

K. Dawn Byrd is an author of inspirational romance. She holds a masters degree in professional counseling from Liberty University that she believes gives her better insight into the minds, feelings and emotions of individuals, which helps her to better understand her characters and develop them more fully. Queen of Hearts, a WWII romantic suspense will release April 1 and Killing Time, a contemporary romantic suspense will release August 1, both with Desert Breeze Publishing.

K. Dawn Byrd is an avid blogger and gives away several books per week on her blog at www.kdawnbyrd.blogspot.com, most of which are signed by the authors. Her blog spotlights not only the books, but the authors also because we all want to know more about our favorite authors.

When not reading or writing, K. Dawn Byrd enjoys spending time with her husband of 14 years, walking their dogs beside a gorgeous lake near her home, and plotting the next story waiting to be told.

Blurb for Queen of Hearts:

Daphne Dean is proud to be serving her country stateside during WWII as a reporter and an Office of Strategic Services operative. When the photograph she takes of the crowd at a murder scene places her on the mob’s hit list, she’s forced into hiding in a vacant mental asylum in the middle of nowhere with terrifying secrets of its own.

Daphne believed herself to still be in love with her ex-fiancée, Kenneth, until she spends several days locked away in the asylum with Vito, the mob boss’ son. Can she put the terrifying events that occurred there behind her and allow herself to pursue a relationship with Vito? Or, will she return to Kenneth who has turned his back on his country by becoming a draft dodger and a black market racketeer? One thing’s for sure, it won’t matter if she can’t escape the mental institution alive.