Romantic Reads: Borrowed Lives

Book Spotlight on Borrowed Lives by Carol McClain:

Today, we're shining the spotlight on a book about issues that people may struggle with in real life. This will be a short post filled with food for thought!

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Book blurb for Borrowed Lives:

Distraught from recent tragedy, Meredith Jaynes takes pity on a young girl who steals from her. 

 

Meredith discovers “Bean” lives in a hovel mothering her two younger sisters. The three appear to have been abandoned. With no other homes available, Social Services will separate the siblings. To keep them together, Meredith agrees to foster them on a temporary basis.

Balancing life as a soap maker raising goats in rural Tennessee proved difficult enough before the siblings came into her care. Without Bean’s help, she’d never be able to nurture these children warped by drugs and neglect—let alone manage her goats that possess the talents of Houdini. Harder still is keeping her eccentric family at bay.

Social worker Parker Snow struggles to overcome the breakup with his fiancée. Burdened by his inability to find stable homes for so many children who need love, he believes placing the abandoned girls with Meredith Jaynes is the right decision. 

Though his world doesn’t promise tomorrow, he hopes Meredith’s does. But she knows she’s too broken.

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Author Bio:

Carol McClain writes novels about the redemption of the unredeemable. Even her most serious works are laced with humor.

 

She is a consummate encourager, and no matter what your faith might look like, you will find compassion, humor, and wisdom in her complexly layered, but ultimately readable work.

She is a past president of ACFW Knoxville and its current treasurer/secretary. She facilitates Postmark Writers, an offshoot of the LaFollette Art Group. She teaches online courses and is a clinical supervisor for WGU.

In addition to the above, she’s served on the Board of Connections To Recovery, an organization dedicated to keeping addicts sober. She’s mentored recovering addicts, and at one time, had been a foster mother–the complexity and difficulty of that calling proved she was better off writing about it than performing it.

Aside from writing, she’s a skilled stained glass artist and a budding potter.

Carol lives in Tennessee with her husband, kitties, and Springer spaniel, and soon will own a passel of Nigerian Dwarf goats.

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Buy Carol's book, Borrowed Lives, on Amazon

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Connect with Carol:

Website: https://carolmcclain.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.Carol.McClain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carol_mcclain
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/vansgo/

True Love Stories: Love Online

Here it is, the very first guest post in my true love stories series taking place every day this month of February! Are you excited? I know I am! :) 

Featured on my blog today is Carol McClain, a woman of faith and words. She met her husband on the Internet. Sometimes online dating works for you in a wonderful way, such is the story of Carol and the man she married. 

Curious to know how it worked out for Carol? Read on...

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Love Online

Carol McClain's True Love Story

Living in the northern reaches of New York where even New Yorkers don’t believe anything exists, men are scarce. Couple that with a tiny church populated by two types of people,

1. Happily married

2. Good reason not married (there existed a good reason I remained a single mom for so long).

Then, along came the Internet, and I took my chances. And what was the chance of finding a devout Christian, single, my age, living in my teensy town?

Actually, very good.

I met a man. He wasn’t computer savvy and didn’t realize his profile had gone through on this particular match-making site. After filling out the fifty pages of questions, getting it notarized, signing it in blood, he had gotten a notice that an error had occurred, and his profile could not be posted. He gave up.

Not me. Being computer savvy, I sniffed out that profile, emailed him, chatted, and we decided to meet in real time.

However, being foolish, I violated every principal of online mating. Not only did I have him pick me up at my house for our first date, I invited him in after dinner, as well. After all, he had told me he was a minister, and a quick check of his church proved he didn’t lie. If I couldn’t trust a preacher-boy, life would be grim. Of course, if he murdered me, my life would have been grimmer than a Grimm’s fairy tale.

But—God is merciful.

When he knocked on my door for that first date, I opened it not knowing what to expect—a hideous creature with halitosis or a Prince Charming to salivate over.

I got the latter.

And apparently, he got the woman of his dreams because he flashed me the most enchanting smile I’d ever seen—white, even teeth framed by a distinguished beard and mustache. Topping off that smile were warm, brown eyes, a shock of white hair sporting no baldness at all. I could go on this date and not be ashamed of being seen in public.

We further confirmed our suitability during dinner. We received our menus and forgot to look at them. Our entrée came before we remembered the salad bar. When asked if we wanted dessert, we remembered we were supposed to eat our now cold meal.

At my house after dinner, our conversation continued…and we talked well into the evening. At last, he got up to go since I had to leave for family obligations early the next morning. I walked him to the door. His eyes sparkled with the dawning of love, more than likely reflecting my own. He opened the door. Turned to me. Here it came. I closed my eyes, held my breath, leaned in.

Shook my hand!

Now it’d been ages since I had dated, but shaking the hand was not how a date was supposed to end, even if you were a Christian.

The next morning as I packed my car, I got a phone call. Neil.

“I forgot something last night. Can I stop by? I’ll only keep you a minute.”

“Of course.” What else could a smitten lady say?

Within ten minutes he knocked at my door. Diffidently, he stepped into my living room. “I was so stupid last night. I meant to give you this.” He leaned in, took me in his arms and gave me the first of a million kisses that were to follow.

Almost one year from the day we met, we married. 

Carol's note to blog readers: Have a blessed and romantic Valentine’s Day. As for me—will cuddle with a silver-haired man who has the best teeth in the United States.

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Carol's *new* personalized blurb for her book, DWF: Divorced White Female:

Only Neil’s teeth and the manner we met made it into my debut novel DWF: Divorced White Female. My protagonist meets her date at Porta Bella’s—her town’s swankiest restaurant. They met online, never saw a picture of each other, and she’s smitten with his intellect. When Cheryl meets Carlton, she’s also dazzled by his teeth.

But could those choppers possibly be real? How does one find out if a potential spouse has false teeth? Hmmm.

I’m ashamed to say, that thought plagued me. I had to wait many months to find out. And I’ll let you know: Neil’s teeth are as real and original as our love—even ten years after we’ve been married.

You can read the antics of Cheryl Chandler and her quest to tame her children, her hair and hook a man in DWF: Divorced White Female, a romantic comedy. The e-books can be found wherever e-books are sold. The print copy currently appears only on Amazon.

Buy Carol's book:

Amazon.com - http://amzn.to/1zJmaeo

BarnesandNoble.com- http://bit.ly/1DjwZ4e