The New Baby

Please welcome Autumn's Break to the Second Chance family! Autumn's Break is book #4.

For the last seven months--minus my theatrical time--I've been living in the story with Autumn and Gar, facing their difficulties and trials, and deepening their characters. These two. Boy, oh, boy, do they get to me.

Meet Autumn! For years, she longed to have children. After going through testing and much disappointment, she finally accepts she'll never have kids of her own. Her heart is broken. She pulls deeply into herself, keeping Gar at arms' length. She eats comfort food. In truth, I can't fully imagine the pain she's going through. But I tried really hard. For the first two years of our marriage, I wasn't able to conceive, and I was fearful I wouldn't be able to have children. I tapped into those feelings to reach into Autumn's heart. In her story, there are things that help draw her out of her hurts. And I enjoyed walking that journey with her. Autumn and I have something else in common--a love for chocolate! Mmmm. She's learning how to make specialty fudge. And I was thrilled to do research on that important topic. 

Meet Gar: Gar loves youth theater and finds much of his self-worth in his onstage efforts and in his career as a teacher. I can relate! I worked for 18 years in Christian education, and I've directed 27 full-stage productions. There's nothing like the rush of Opening Night! And I'm always disappointed when the show is over. When the school board shuts down Gar's arts program, he struggles to make sense of it. Can't they see the good he's done? Gar's response to the principal is dramatic and unkind, but it was easy for me to imagine how the ending of his dreams--on top of the guilt he was already carrying over a flirtation that went too far--could bring him to the point of doing something stupid. Gar leaves his marriage. But he has much to ponder in the coming weeks as he faces his own shortcomings--and God's conviction.

The Lord is so good to put people in our lives at just the right time. While Gar is staying in Coeur d'Alene helping in his cousin Kyle's mechanics shop, he meets Ty Williams.

Ty is determined not to be pushy about discussing marriage and reconciliation with Gar. But if he gets the chance, he's going to share about his own journey back to God and his wife. Ty and Winter are going through struggles of their own. In this fourth installment, a past employee, Randi Simmons, is bent on revenge when she shows up at a women's conference in Bend, Oregon.

Themes: Marriage, teaching, directing, canoeing, fudge making, ministry.

Settings: Everett and Edmonds, Washington; Coeur d'Alene, ID, and Spokane, Washington. Bend, Oregon. Also, there's an episode outside of Moses Lake, Washington.

This series is dear to my heart because I believe that God can do amazing things in our broken relationships and bring about a beautiful healing. Beauty for ashes. Hurt and pride exchanged for His presence and peace. I look forward to the months ahead as I write the final installment to the Second Chance series: Season's Joy. 

For a full description of Autumn's Break or to purchase it on Kindle click: 

AUTUMN'S BREAK

Launch Day!

Announcing . . . Summer's Dream (Book 3 in the 2nd Chance Series). I'm excited to share what I've been working on for the last nine months. In the spring, I questioned whether I could write a book and launch it within nine months of another book's release. I know some writers come out with new books every few months. But it was two years between Books 1 and 2 in this series. So, it was an experimental journey for me. I put myself on a schedule that included the book being in the hands of a first reader, a pro-editor, beta readers, and my husband--all at different times, other than the beta readers. And I'm happy to say, it worked! Hallelujah!

Here's a little bit about Summer's Dream:

Summer dreamed of becoming an artist and painting natural beauty on canvas. But all that changed when she married Joshua Hart, a man carrying a powerful dream of his own. With a temper to match his wild-boy good looks, he stormed out of their marriage to pursue a life as a musician, leaving her alone and, unbeknown to him, pregnant.

Five years later, Summer is busy raising her daughter and managing the family's camp and retreat center in the woods of Eastern Washington. With her artistic dreams all but forgotten, her world turns upside down the day Josh shows up with an offer to help her get the camp ready--and plans for divorce.

Only Josh didn't expect to find a blue-eyed darling who calls him "Daddy" living at Hart's Camp. Not to mention his surprise over the attraction he still feels for Summer Day. Can he make amends for the past? Or is it too late?

My heart is for reconciliation and healing in marriage, and God has inspired me to write about that in books. He is so beautiful to heal our hearts and change us, isn't He? Sometimes the very situation we would consider beyond help, He touches and transforms.

Joy Calkins said this in her endorsement for Summer's Dream:

"As a pastor's wife, I've seen the grace of God work miracles in the lives of many marriages, including my own. Many, if not most of us need 2nd chances, a do over, a mulligan as my husband calls it in golf terms."

Have you ever needed a 2nd chance? A do over? I sure have.
 Can God bring life to a dead marriage?

Read what happens to Josh and Summer Day Hart in 

Summer's Dream

99 cents for a limited time!!

Here's My Baby!!

Today is Celebration Day!!!

I get to show you my baby.

For the first time on this blog, let me introduce . . .

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is Launch Day for April's Storm, the second book in my 2nd Chance Series! It's a very exciting day for me. It kind of reminds me of having a baby. Finally, my friends and family get to see (read) the story that's been living and growing in my heart for over a year.

As I release this book into the vast world, I'm saying good-bye to my time spent with Chad and April, characters who have become dear to me, and, in many ways, real. While April's Storm isn't my personal story, to read my work is to know my heart. I want to thank you for doing that, and for joining with me in cheering for Chad's and April's second chance at love.

For a limited time, April's Storm is 99 cents on Kindle!!

Get your Kindle copy today: Kindle copy of April's Storm 

Like to hold a paperback? Paperback of April's Storm

Sometimes our paths cross for a reason.

April Gray is fed up with lectures on how to become the perfect pastor's wife, and her husband's around-the-clock vigilance to the church is driving her crazy. Has he fallen out of love with her? Is he having an affair? After months of parsonage warfare, April is sure there's only one thing left to do—leave!

Being a pastor means everything to Chad. He thought April knew that when he married her. Why can't she see he's doing the work of ten men? He doesn't have time for romance when he barely has time to eat.

As a last ditch attempt to rescue their marriage, April and Chad attend a marriage seminar where Ty and Winter Williams, second-time-around newlyweds, are sharing their journey of forgiveness and second chances. Reconciliation sounds fine to Chad, but what price will he have to pay?

“In April’s Storm, Mary Hanks follows up Winter’s Past with another stellar read and gives us a front row seat to witness God mending broken hearts, restoring shattered dreams, and reviving a crumbling marriage.” Paula McGrew

Here's the main setting for April's Storm: Ketchikan, Alaska. 

The mountain in this photo is Deer Mountain, where April and Chad hike.

I've been to the top a couple of times myself.