Thank you, Kathy, for sharing a bit about yourself and your new release, Scandals and Mercies. Please tell us something about yourself.
Hi Janet, thank you for having me on your blog today. Number one, I’m a child of the King, by God’s grace. I’m also a wife and mom to three grown children and I have one granddaughter.
I homeschooled my kids for over twenty years. When I was done with that, I went back to school twice and worked as a dental assistant for a while before God called me home to focus more on my writing and Bible study.
I’m very involved in our local Community Bible Study and love to work with the kids when I get the chance. I also enjoy designing and making jewelry and date nights with my husband. I also love the company of my two cats, Opal and Ruby, five-year-old litter mates. That is when they aren’t hiding under a piece of furniture or in a closet. As a sign in our vet’s office says: “Life without cats? I don’t think so!”
What sparked your interest in writing?
My mom’s faithfulness in reading books to me when I was a small child. Since the age of four I wanted to write books and even illustrate them! But my writing talents were greater than my art skills. I also was encouraged by a couple of my teachers in grade school, as well as my writing professor in college.
And I loved to read from the time that I learned how, so books and the idea of story and how each one I read affected me and gave me a desire to create stories of my own.
Here is the blurb from the back of Scandals and Mercies:
“Taken from her family’s farm to be raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle, Nora Armstrong has accepted that not only will she never realize her dream of becoming a teacher, but she’d also rather be a spinster than submit to her cruel aunt’s society selection of a suitable husband. The one man who caught her eye betrayed her best friend. And she’s got enough on her hands, hiding her sister’s shameful secret from her aunt.
When the local home for unwed mothers burns down, the arson investigation brings big-city reporter James Cooper back to Stone Creek—and back into Nora’s life. James also has a meddling aunt who raises more questions than she answers about his past. Not to mention, he can’t figure out why Nora constantly rebuffs him. When his reporting casts aspersions on the local church and lays the blame for the fire and a series of robberies at the wrong feet, he risks losing his new position at the paper.
As they seek to unravel the town’s mystery, rescue endangered mothers and children, and navigate their own family secrets forced to light, James and Nora increasingly turn to each other for help. But can they overcome James’s lack of faith and the disapproval of Nora’s guardians to find a second chance at love?”
Scandals and Mercies is the third book in your Stone Creek Brides series. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Some of those who have reviewed the book have mentioned they saw forgiveness and redemption in the story, and while those are certainly a part of it, both Nora and James had situations that challenged who they believed they really were.
The theme or message of Scandals and Mercies has to do with understanding our identity in Christ and truly finding out what that means. To quote Paul from Ephesians 1:17-18 as he mentioned what he prayed for the Ephesian church – “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…” WEB
It’s really a lifelong journey, but if we can grasp some depth of what it means to live in and for Him, we have a start.
God often teaches us something through our writing. What did you learn about life, faith, or yourself in the process of writing Scandals and Mercies?
Though I’d been a believer for nearly forty years when I began writing, I was—and still am—going through some difficult trials that forced me to really think about what my identity in Christ is. Who am I in Him? Will I depend on Jesus through one of the worst trials of my life? Or will I become bitter? I think of when Jesus said some hard things and many of His disciples deserted Him. He said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” And Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Jesus is truly the only One who has the answers, the words of eternal life. Where else would I turn? And when He doesn’t directly answer, especially the way I want, it’s for me to trust in Him.
And it’s also about sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings, not that we can add anything to our salvation, but that trials and suffering are a part of the Christian life, meant to mold us and grow us in our faith. And if we allow it, to be changed more closely into someone who projects the image of Christ to others. My husband likes to say we are “Jesus with skin on” for each other.
Working through all of that while writing how Nora went through her own crisis took a lot of emotional energy, but God strengthened me and I finished her story, while He is still writing mine!
Are you planning on writing any more in the Stone Creek Bride series? Can you tell us anything about your current work in process?
I’m not planning on it at the moment, but it’s not completely off the table. I’d be interested in knowing whose stories from the series that my readers would like to see told. J In the meantime, I’m praying about writing a series in another historical era.
Thank you so much, Kathy, for being my guest.
Thank you again, Janet, for having me as a guest on your blog.
Where can readers find your books?
On Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Readers can receive a free novella when they subscribe to my newsletter HERE.
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Bio: Kathleen Rouser is a multi-published, award-winning author of historical and contemporary Christian romance. She is a longtime member of American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of Faith, Hope and Love Christian Writers. She resides in southeast Michigan, a location which she often uses in her novels, with her hero and husband of forty-some years and two sweet cats who found a home in their empty nest.
