Inspirational Romance

I've been working on my novel again. A short synopsis follows:

When Faith Russell catches her fiancé having an affair, she breaks her engagement, hides her heart deeply in Christ, and vows she doesn’t need a man, until she discovers a hidden-treasure helpmate sent from God. But her ex-fiance seeks to avenge her loss, and God’s plan fully emerges. Hidden Treasures offers hope and illustrates how Jesus delivers us from a temporary life of conflict to an eternal haven when Faith collides with Matt Allen at fictitious St. Cloud World Peace Church. As berries slowly ripen on the vine, Faith and Matt’s love buds, blooms, and blossoms in small-town St. Cloud, Florida, where love finds Faith when she returns home to nurse her broken heart, write, and farm strawberries. This action-packed, suspense-filled novel turns the pages of Faith’s heart and allows readers to journey with her from St. Cloud, Florida, as the suspense mounts to climax in the busy streets of Key West, Florida.

Faith Russell suffers a broken relationship with her fiancé, hides her heart deeply in Christ, and vows she doesn’t need a man, until she discovers a hidden-treasure helpmate sent from God.

That’s the premise for my Inspirational Suspense novel HIDDEN TREASURES, a 55,000-60,000 romance that takes readers from a small strawberry farm in St. Cloud, Florida, to a Key-West, Florida, honeymoon.

I have a personal knowledge of strawberries from working in them. My educational background includes a bachelor’s in secondary education/office administration/business education, with a minor in English, journalism classes, creative-writing classes in college, student in the Christian Writers Guild, graduate of Long Ridge Writers Group, member of Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project, member of American Christian Fiction Writers, and a master’s in education. I won a creative-writing short story contest in college and was published in the university’s literary magazine, Gambit.

I've added a picture of me with my grandchildren, if you scroll down the pictures on the side. You'll also find my Florida sunshine there. I have ten grandkids, but Hunter was not available when we toured Rosedown plantation Sunday, June 29. Out of the pictures we made, my daughter has a blurry one made in the Red Room, and my husband has a blurry one taken in the upstairs foyer. Both have objects in them that were not present when we took the pictures without using a flash. I toured Rosedown in the 70's and was not allowed to take pictures. This time, we were allowed to take them without using a flash, and out of the many taken, only two were blurred and contain interesting objects. My husband's digital camera is brand new and takes nearly perfect pictures, but out of all the pictures he snapped, one looks as though it has a presence from the past, a woman lying on one of the empty benches in the upstairs foyer. My daughter's picture had a little girl looking at us behind the rope, a roped-off area in the Red Room, the only room that has roped-off areas.

I truly enjoyed getting together with my large family and many grandkids. It was a fun day. I don't get to visit them often with life's responsibilities, so I like to spend some quality time with them doing something special when we can get together.

We shot fireworks at my daughter's house and enjoyed an early Fourth. We dined at my youngest son's home. He grilled burgers, hot dogs, and chicken, and his wife made a delicious homemade potato salad. Her sister made brownies with white chocolate Hershey kisses, and they were the best brownies I've ever eaten, other than my husband's homemade ones with nuts.

I hope you find as many hidden treasures in your family as I find in mine.

Blessings,

Barb