This week I’m hosting with Diane Burke with Silent Witness, Renee Ryan with Charity House Courtship, Jennifer Fromke with A Familiar Shore (if winner lives outside of US the book will be an ebook), and Cara Lynn James with A Path Toward Love. 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 (August 19th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from A Path Toward Love by Cara Lynn James:
1. Katherine Osborne, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
For the last few years I’ve managed orange groves in Hernando Country, Florida practically by myself. It was dreadfully hard work and challenging, but running a business gave me a tremendous sense of satisfaction. When my husband Charles passed on, I was tempted to sell the family orange groves, but I remembered how important these groves were to his dear father. So I persevered.
2. What do you do for fun?
That question makes me smile! I never found time for fun while I was in Florida, but now that I’m back vacationing in the Adirondack Mountains with my family, I’ve taken up swimming and boating and fishing again. My father installed an outside bowling alley (under a covered roof, of course) so I’m learning a new sport.
One of my favorite activities is trimming straw hats with bits of lace, ribbon, silk flowers and feathers. I like to give them away to my friends. I once thought I might make a few hats, sell them to my friends, and donate the proceeds to charity. But my parents stopped me before I even began. They think running even a small business is unseemly for a society woman. They don’t realize times are changing.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I’m putting off telling my mother I’m planning to return to Florida after the summer season has ended. As much as I’m enjoying spending time at Raquette Lake with family and friends, I need to secure more financing for the orange groves so I can make the business profitable.
But what I dread the most is telling Mama I don’t wish to marry Randy Clarke, her choice for my husband, not mine.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
I don’t want to ruin my friend Andrew’s chances for success. And of course I’m afraid if I’m not careful I’ll give in to my mother.
5. What do you want out of life?
When I first came to Raquette Lake, I might’ve said I wanted peace and quiet, and a stable, uneventful life. But now I’d change that to love. Love is the most important thing. I don’t want to accept the counterfeit version and have to pretend everything is fine when it isn’t. I’d like an honest relationship where my husband and I share the same faith and values.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
There were times in my life when I thought love at any cost was the most important thing. Later, business trumped everything else. Now, I’d like to balance both.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I’m afraid I have very little time to read. If I did, I’d choose light-hearted, popular novels. Dime novels, probably.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d be more cautious and far less impetuous. I always seem to land in trouble when I don’t think before I leap. But as I get older, I’m learning to consider what the consequences of my actions will be. I’d like to lead a nice, quiet life in the future, but I wonder if that’s possible for me. Perhaps if I marry the right man, it’ll happen. I’d also like to be what my mother and society expects me to be, but I know I can’t change my basic temperament. I’m learning to accept who I am. Unforgiveness is another fault I’d like to change.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No, but if I ever find enough time to devote to a pet, I’d choose a little dog. A lap dog, I think. But I also love my father’s loveable and unruly Springer spaniel.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
Hmm, good question. I might go back to colonial times when men and women worked together to start farms or businesses. Everyone worked hard for the common good of their families. Nowadays the men do the work and the women socialize. That’s not true among the middle class or working class, but for the privileged it is. Unfortunately. Women aren’t allowed to contribute much of anything. I can go on and on, but you’d probably think I was a suffragette. I am in my heart of hearts, but I don’t go around advertising that fact because my poor mother might faint.
You can find me at www.caralynnjames.com, www.seekerville.blogspot.com, and www.facebook.com/caralynnjames. You can read the first chapter of A Path toward Love at http://www.caralynnjames.com/books.html
