Stepping Stones Magazine for Readers hosted by author Rita Gerlach

Host author Rita Gerlach has estabished a forum for New Book Releases and Letters to Readers from authors of Inspiration Fiction in her Stepping Stone Magazine for Readers. Rita herself is an author of Inspirational Historical Fiction with a romantic edge.

Guidelines.

Most of the authors featured in Stepping Stones Magazine for Readers write for the Christian Books marketplace. Authors must be published with a legitimate publisher, not print on demand or self-publishing, that has bookstore placement as well as Internet ordering. Authors’ submissions are welcome.

 

ABOUT RITA GERLACH

Based in Frederick, Maryland, Rita discovered a love for the area’s history that nudged her soul to write about that period when the dream to be free forged a new American nation, the United States. In her historical fiction, she bridges life between England and the new American colonies along the Catoctin Mountains, amid Civil War battlefields and Revolutionary War outposts in central Maryland. Rita has published four historical novels plus articles in Writers Gazette, Write to Inspire, Will Write 4 Food, and The Christian Communicator. She also is the editor of Stepping Stones Magazine, an online website focused on writing, marketing, and promotion for writers. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and The Western Maryland Writers Guild.

 

 

 

 

Her first book, Surrender the Wind published by Abingdon Press, debuted to great acclaim.

 

~ An inspiring romance of Revolutionary War Virginia and Georgian England ~

After a harrowing escape from the British, patriot Seth Braxton finds his father dead at Yorktown. Battle scarred and grieving, he endeavors to restore the land his father loved along the Potomac.  Thinking he will forever stay in the secluded wilderness, he receives a message that he has inherited his grandfather’s estate in faraway England. Seth is torn between the land he’s fought for and the prospect of reuniting with his sister, Caroline, who was a motherless child at the onset of the Revolution, taken to England in order to spare her the horrors of war. With no intention of making his stay at Ten Width permanent, he journeys to England to do his duty. When he arrives, he finds his sister in the throes of grief after being told her young son has died of a fever. In the midst of so much tragedy, he meets Juleah, the daughter of an eccentric landed gentleman. Her independent spirit and gentle soul steal his heart, and she becomes his wife and lady of the manor, enraging the man who once sought her hand and hoped Ten Width would be his own.From the Virginia wilderness, to the dark halls of an isolated English estate, Seth inherits more than a crumbling ancestral home. He uncovers a sinister plot that leads to murder, abduction, and betrayal — an ominous mix that threatens to destroy his new life and new love.

 

Order from Amazon, Kindle

 

New “Daughters of the Potomac” Series

Set along the peaceful shores of the Potomac and the rolling hills of Derbyshire, England, comes a series of three novels that will take readers on a journey of redemption, as three women search for love and acceptance in a world that would deny them both.

Trailer 

Now the first of her new series — Before the Scarlet Dawn – tells Eliza’s story: A young woman longs for acceptance and leaves behind all she has in order to follow her heart and the man she loves into the Maryland wilderness. But will her love and faith protect her from the trial she must face? Will she find the true meaning of companionship? And how will she face the world when she is rejected by those closest to her? 

 

In 1775, Hayward Morgan, a young gentleman destined to inherit his father’s estate in Derbyshire, England, captures the heart of the local vicar’s daughter, Eliza Bloome. Her dark beauty and spirited ways are not enough to win him, due to her station in life.  Circumstances throw Eliza in Hayward’s path, and they flee to America to escape the family conflicts. But as war looms, it’s a temporary reprieve. Hayward joins the revolutionary forces and what follows is a struggle for survival, a test of faith, and the quest to find lasting love in an unforgiving wilderness.

 

Pre-order this book from Amazon.com to be released in February 2012.

Visit Rita’s website at http://ritagerlach.blogspot.com/

Her Blog ‘Inspire’ http://inspire-writer.blogspot.com/

 

A Spark of Heavenly Fire by Pat Bertram

Washington Irving wrote: “There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.”

When I read these words, I could see her, a drab woman, defeated by life, dragging herself through her days in the normal world, but in an abnormal world of strife and danger, she would come alive and inspire others. And so Kate Cummings, the hero of my novel A Spark of Heavenly Fire was born. But born into what world?

I didn’t want to write a book about war, which is a common setting for such a character-driven story, so I created the red death, an unstoppable, bio-engineered disease that ravages Colorado. Martial law is declared, rationing is put into effect, and the entire state is quarantined. During this time when so many are dying, Kate comes alive and gradually pulls others into her sphere of kindness and generosity. First enters Dee Allenby, another woman defeated by normal life, then enter the homeless—the group hardest hit by the militated restrictions. Finally, enters Greg Pullman, a movie-star-handsome reporter who is determined to find out who created the red death and why they did it.

Kate and her friends build a new world, a new normal, to help one another survive, but other characters, such as Jeremy King, a world-class actor who gets caught in the quarantine, and Pippi O’Brian, a local weather girl, think only of their own survival, and they are determined to leave the state even if it kills them. 

The world of the red death brings out the worst in some characters while bringing out the best in others. Most of all, the prism of death and survival reflects what each values most. Kate values love. Dee values purpose. Greg values truth. Jeremy values freedom. Pippi, who values nothing, learns to value herself.

ABOUT PAT BERTRAM:

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a life-long resident (though she has had a couple of brief stays in other states). Bertram writes genre-bending novels that aren’t easily categorized. Second Wind Publishing liked her style and published four of Bertram’s books: Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.

Pat’s Books:

More Deaths Than One: Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in SE Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her new funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer? A doppelganger? Or is something more sinister going on? 

Daughter Am I: When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart inherits a farm from her recently murdered grandparents — grand-parents her father claimed had died before she was born — she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.

Light Bringer: Thirty-seven years after being abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Colorado, Becka Johnson returns to try to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? And why?

To buy Pat’s novels, go to:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLUHUY

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/patbertram

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/pat-bertram

To see more about Pat, go to: http://patbertram.com/