UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Our winner is Betty Tipton Chambers. Congratulations, Betty! I’ll be in touch so we can get your copies of The King’s Mercy and Ever Faithful in the mail!
This is the long-awaited release week for Lori Benton‘s novel, The King’s Mercy (Giveaway info at end). Readers have been anticipating this book for months because we know this Christy-award winning author never fails to deliver an enchanting and deeply moving story. But do you know what’s even better than diving into a new novel? Reading that novel during an epic road trip WITH the author. That’s what I got to do this last February! Are you jealous? You should be.
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry…
Considering The King’s Mercy features an indentured Scotsman, doesn’t it seem fitting to quote an 18th century Scottish poet? Actually, what Robert Burns wrote was the following:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
To a Mouse, Robert Burns 1785
We had some best-laid plans. I live in Oregon, just a couple of hours north of Lori, and both of us wanted to attend the West Coast Christian Writers Conference in Livermore, California. Since we share a passion for nature photography, the “Natural Firefall” at nearby Yosemite National Park was an extra enticement. The timing was ideal. It only happens at this specific time of year under perfect weather conditions. Another highlight for our trip would be staying with a dear friend and fellow historical fiction author, Sarah Sundin. It would be the ultimate writers’/photographers’ road trip!
That’s what we’d planned, anyway.
Here’s what we didn’t plan:
- record-breaking snows in Northern California closing I-5 during our drive south
- detouring to the coast and taking the scenic route along the ocean in order to reach the conference in time for me to teach
- freak snowstorms in Yosemite causing us to cancel that leg of the trip and lose our chance to see the natural Firefall (not to mention our hotel reservations)
- taking that scenic route on the way home again to avoid more snow hassles.
But… “promis’d joy” still reigned
Here are some of the awesome things God gave us despite the challenges.
The conference, for starters! WCCW is one of the nation’s premier writing conferences. I was elated to be asked to teach two workshops and serve as conference photographer. Keynote speakers Robin Jones Gunn and Bill Giovanetti were an incredible inspiration. We left rejuvenated.
Since we both had new novels releasing in June, Lori and I traded advance copies and spent the trip reading each other’s books! I read The King’s Mercy, Lori read Ever Faithful. What a treat! We were both debut authors back in the summer of 2013 (remember Burning Sky and Mistaken?), and we’ve followed each other’s careers since. It’s crazy for us to look back at those first days of writing and think about how much has changed (and what hasn’t!).
What should have been about six hours each way nearly doubled. No problem! That just gave us plenty of time to talk books: favorite characters, interesting settings, plot twists, inspirations, writing dreams, rants, failures, and successes. Several times I thought about turning on my phone to record these conversations. I can imagine there are a few readers who’d love to hear what inspires Lori to write such incredible novels. I’d like to think there *might be* one or two who’d like to hear my thoughts too. Maybe. 😉
To console ourselves after canceling the Yosemite leg of the trip, we stopped in the Redwoods and got out our cameras. Here are a few of the results.
Plot Twists
Just like the characters in The King’s Mercy and Ever Faithful, Lori and I found ourselves in the midst of an ever-changing plot. But also like those characters, we were reminded how God is in control and has plans for our time. I’m thankful I got to spend hours talking and dreaming with my friend. Who knows, it might lead to even more interesting novels in the future! I think you can count on it!
The Giveaway!
Let’s make this even more fun. I’m going to give away a copy of both books to one fortunate reader. It will almost be like you’re on the trip with us! Well, not quite. But maybe—if you have a really good imagination!
To enter, please answer this question in the comments section below.
If you could hit the road with an author of your choice, who would it be?
Or, if you’d prefer: Who is your “BFF” road-trip buddy?
(To enter, you must be 18 or older and have a valid US mailing address. Contest closes June 11th at 5 pm Pacific time.) If you leave an anonymous message, it will be hard to contact you. Please leave an email by writing it out (something like this: “Jane Doe AT gmail DOT com.” That way you won’t get picked up by scambots and any other annoying whatsits.).
Happy reading!