The Blessing!

The Blessing

Now available exclusively through Amazon!

I'm delighted to announce that my latest book-baby, The Blessing, is now available on Amazon!!! Here!  

Yes, it's earlier than I'd anticipated, but this baby's been in my heart for years. The Blessing is a fictional study inspired by my family's history, nineteenth century news-clippings, and by my studies of the Bible's book of Job. (Yes, Job, so be ready. My poor characters don't have an easy time of things for much of the book.) Here's a blurb:

May Somerville has suffered a year worthy of the Bible's Job, and the man who unknowingly prompted all her troubles has fallen in love with her.

Isolated in Colorado's rugged mountains, her beloved family shattered by tragedy and loss, May Somerville questions her Creator amid her struggles to survive. Beset by unexpected storms, both physical and spiritual, May seeks blessings--reasons for hope as she works to restore her family.

Separated from May by unforeseen circumstances and the expectations of others, Alex Whittier is determined to reverse injustices suffered by the Somervilles. But is it too late to redeem himself for the sake of the courageous young woman he's been unable to forget?








Published in connection with Hartline Literary Agency, serving the Christian book community. 
Visit us at www.hartlineliterary.com

Thank you, dear everyone! Celebrate my new book baby's arrival with me! 

 

Coming in Spring 2018!

Hi, everyone! I've deliberately delayed writing this post while waiting on details for my next project. At last--news! My latest book as Kacy Barnett-Gramckow, The Blessing, will be available this spring!!!

The Blessing is a departure from my Biblical fiction--it's set in 1890's New York and Colorado. However, it was inspired by a few snippets of my own family's lore, and ... might serve as a quiet meditation on the Book of Job. Quiet? Well, not entirely quiet. It is inspired by my own family's lore, after all. (More on that part later.) Rifles, gamblers, runaways, food, and quite a few wrenching scenes are involved.


Here's the back cover copy:

May Somerville has suffered a year worthy of the Bible’s Job, and the man who unknowingly prompted all her troubles has fallen in love with her. 

Isolated in Colorado’s rugged mountains, her beloved family shattered by tragedy and loss, May Somerville questions her Creator amid her struggles to survive. Beset by unexpected storms, both physical and spiritual, May seeks blessings—reasons for hope as she works to restore her family. 

Separated from May by unforeseen circumstances and the expectations of others, Alex Whittier is determined to reverse injustices suffered by the Somervilles. But is it too late to redeem himself for the sake of the courageous young woman he’s been unable to forget? 

Published in connection with Hartline Literary Agency, serving the Christian book community. Visit us at www.hartlineliterary.com.

Blessed by Inspiration

Vintage Inspiration

I'm often asked, "Where do you find ideas for your books?"
I'd like to say that ideas strike my authorly imagination routinely and easily, leading to stories that practically write themselves. But that wouldn't be true. Recently, I finished a manuscript currently titled The Blessing. I drew inspiration for The Blessing from the old photograph inside this vintage locket. But inspiration didn't strike me during my first glance at this photo. Nor at the second, third, fourth, or fifth glance.

It's not that I wasn't interested in this old photo--I was and am. After all, that small shadowed face in the lower right corner is an image of my great-grandfather as a little boy, sitting for a rather solemn picture with his siblings. But I didn't sense a story brewing until I paused in front of my parents' piano to study the image for the umpteenth time, and Mama said, "Isn't that a sweet picture? This was taken not long before their parents died."

Wait. What? I stared at the picture again, at the serious brown-eyed baby in his white gown, with my equally serious great-grandfather seated just to his right. Obviously they'd been heartbreakingly young when they became orphans, and their older brother and sisters were teenagers. How did these five siblings cope with such tragedy? And what had happened to their parents?

While The Blessing isn't my great-grandfather's actual life story, this image, combined with my mother's comment, was enough to send my imagination down numerous paths and into the era that became the setting for The Blessing.

Sometimes inspiration takes more than a glance. It takes an emotional tug to pull an author's imagination into a new plotline, to cheer on beloved characters as their story unfolds.

I'm eager to share this story with you!

Blessings,

Kacy

Creating New Kingdoms Takes Time

This past summer, I've been working on The Blessing~~a historical I've been longing to finish since 2010. Wow. Where did the time go? I'm SO grateful to finish this cherished "Book-Baby" at last. Six years! In retrospect, it sounds like a formidable amount of time for an author to finally finish a story, never mind that The Blessing was interrupted by the equally cherished storyline that became the Infinite series.

However, six years is a tiny dot on my writing radar. Would you believe that I've been waiting for more than thirty years to rewrite the core storyline of Legends of the Forsaken Empire?

It's true. About thirty years ago, in my early twenties, I wrote the first two volumes as medieval fiction, set in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the third volume is biding its time in an extensively detailed synopsis and chapter-by-chapter outline. The first two volumes alone are almost 400,000 words combined, and I'm eager to dig into them again, to revisit beloved characters and introduce them to their new realm--a fantasy world this time, while building upon thirty years of pondering my characters' historically inspired and intensively researched plights. 

I'm eager, nervous about reweaving these massive storylines in a fantasy realm, but looking forward to the reunion with those characters. Thirty swift-flying years are about to vanish. Soon!

Deadline and Tortoise Syndrome

I'm within the last ten chapters or so of finishing The Blessing--a story that I've loved and looked forward to writing ever since 2010.

Blessing Bunny Trail

I should be sprinting toward that finish line at a record-breaking pace, right?

Not so.

I'm plodding along like Aesop's proverbial Tortoise, mulling over each scene, leafing through research and idling at odd moments to check out all the bunny trails along the way. In other words, I'm procrastinating. Why?

I could plead "Spring fever". Today was a gorgeous day, offering fresh green grass, cerulean blue skies and cotton-puff clouds that enticed me to stare out the window at the end of each sentence. But I didn't walk outside to soak in all that beauty, so I can't blame the glorious spring weather. I dawdled today over cooking, making chicken curry stew and a coconut pie--my family does have to eat. True. However, the fridge is packed with leftovers. I could declare a weeklong cook's vacation and we wouldn't starve.

Social networking, answering emails, the day job, and household tasks are contributing to my Tortoisian slothfulness, but none of these are overwhelming tasks. Oh, and LOOKEE, I decided to blog this evening, rather than open Chapter 31 and dig in.

I can't blame The Blessing, because I struggle with this syndrome at the end of each story. As the characters in my imagination are cheering and chanting because the finish line is in sight, I linger and loiter through the last few chapters of each book.

Once the story is finished, it's essentially done.

Finis.

I can't like that, because it means bidding beloved characters farewell.

Conclusion: I stink at saying "Goodbye."

But like the proverbial tortoise, I will reach that finish line and savor the victory. Soon.

After I watch another cooking show. Hehehe!

Blessings, Dear Everyone.

While I Was Away

Six weeks is much too long in between blog posts--I apologize.

Unfortunately, four weeks ago, I was hit with a case of pneumonia that would NOT leave despite three rounds of antibiotics. I feared the pneumonia bugs had decided they loved me and wanted to stay forever.

This week, however, I finally feel that life will continue, and I have energy to write to you!

What was I thinking of while dragging myself from my sickbed to work and back for the past four weeks? My current manuscript, among other things. The Blessing is coming along nicely despite my endless bunny trails in the name of research. Because I am a visual person, I wanted some imagery to study while finishing May Somerville's story, so I raided Shutterstock's endless files and pieced together this rough little (first draft) mockup.

It's not a cover. 

Not even close.

However, this IS close to what I see when I think of May Somerville standing in the beautiful Colorado mountains near the story's end, finally coming to terms with life's harsh realities.

Don't worry. She's not as tranquil as she seems--this image is missing a rifle. After all, my post-pneumonia creative energy still has its limits! *Sickly author sipping herbal tea.*