Hey y'all!! Today we welcome Author Lin Stepp! She's giving away a copy of her latest novel, Daddy's Girl! Be sure to enter to win at the end of this post!
Tell us about your latest novel or writing project and
any personal inspiration behind it.
Hi everyone … I’m Lin Stepp, a native Tennessean, an
educator, businesswoman, hiker, married woman for over 40 years, mom of two …
and now a bestselling author. I write
Southern contemporary fiction with a little romance, a dash of suspense to keep
you guessing, a touch of inspiration, and a big dollop of Appalachian flavor. …
My tenth novel DADDY’S GIRL just published this month.
It is set in Bryson City, North Carolina, a charming small town on
the southern side of the Great Smoky Mountains. …Main
character Olivia Benton in this story owns a downtown florist and has always
lived in Bryson City. In her heart,
she’s never gotten over her early love for neighbor W. T. Zachery who left
Bryson City after high school, married, and made a successful new life in New
York. No one thought Weird Warner would
never amount to anything in high school, but when he returns to Bryson City
after ten years, famous and widowed, Olivia realizes as soon as she sees him
that she still loves him … And thus begins the story of these two old friends,
with a multitude of past memories and problems between them.
Besides creating Olivia and
Warner’s story, I had fun bringing in the intriguing stories of several side
characters, dealing with issues of school bullying, and adding in an ongoing
town mystery of a vandal defacing public property and upsetting the
community. I think readers will love
visiting the “real life town” of Bryson City and hiking in the Smokies with the
book characters.
My husband and I have often
visited Bryson City and hiked the trails in the Smokies nearby … so it was fun
to set my latest novel here in this cute mountain town I’ve spent many happy
days in.
Do you have any current projects you’re working on?
Care to share?
So far as an author … all my books have been set in the Smoky
Mountains of Tennessee. Each is a
stand-alone novel with its own set of characters and story, taking readers to
visit in a new place around the mountains each time. My first five books were published through an
imprint of John F. Blair Publishing of North Carolina and my next four with
Kensington Publishing of New York—DOWN BY THE RIVER, MAKIN’ MIRACLES, SAVING
LAUREL SPRINGS and WELCOME BACK. I also
wrote a novella for Kensington, set in the Smokies, too, for their Christmas
anthology WHEN THE SNOW FALLS. There will be other Smokies titles to come, and
my next novel in the mountains titled LOST INHERITANCE will come out next year.
My husband and I have also co-authored a bestselling Smoky
Mountains hiking guidebook called THE AFTERNOON HIKER. It has 110 trail
descriptions and over 300 color photos.
We had so much fun on this book that we are now working on a Tennessee
state parks guidebook titled DISCOVERING TENNESSEE STATE PARKS, which will also
publish next year.
For a change of pace … I’m currently working on a beach trilogy
set on quiet Edisto Island, where our family has vacationed since the
1980s. It’s been fun to “visit the
beach” in my head and memory while working on this new book series, and the
first title is almost two-thirds complete now. I am also trying to write a
devotional book as I can, jotting down daily devotional ideas as they come to
me.
God has been good to me … and I’ve been fortunate to see book
titles hit the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon
best seller lists … and to see many books go into large print and international
editions.
Do you have a favorite time of the day to write? What
about a favorite place?
When I first started writing before my first book came out in
2009, I was teaching eight to nine college classes a year at Tusculum College,
where I’m still on adjunct faculty now, working part-time as the educational
coordinator for Huntington Learning Center calling on schools in four counties,
and helping my husband in our sales and family publications business S & S
Communications. … So in those early years I wrote a lot at night when I didn’t
have a class going, often from seven to eleven.
I still am a very productive evening writer … But now, with my schedule
more flexible, I also write much more during the day as well. I try to write
two books a year …
I do my best work in my home office at my big MAC desktop
computer. To me when I come into the office and shut the door … it means: “work
time.” But I often get some of my best ideas when out of the office … hiking in
the mountains, working around the yard, exploring around my home area.
If you could switch genres in your writing, in
which genre would you choose to write your next novel?
I’d love to write some books for kids. It was actually my earliest writing dream to
write and illustrate children’s books and I did scribble out some stories back
when my children were younger but never went further with them to seek
publication. … So perhaps there will be time to work on this sometime in
future.
Is there anything you’d like to say to your
readers? I know they’d love a personal note.
Although my heart always yearned to be a writer, my earlier
life didn’t allow much time for it.
However, a time finally came
when the children had finally left home that there seemed to be time for it. …
Looking back, I wish I’d made more disciplined time for writing earlier in my
life. Now that I’ve walked the walk, I see that I could have done it – even
then—if I’d worked at it harder … But, on a more positive note, my time did
finally come.
One of my favorite sayings is: “it’s never too late to be what you might
have been.” And I did finally settle down diligently, with purpose and
determination, to write. And my dream of
being published finally came.
As a strong Christian, I think it’s important to seek to find
the work that God most wants you to do … then to hold to that dream and to try
to pursue it with all you have. When you
get into God’s best will and work, a great joy and peace comes into your life….
along with God’s favor. Life just finally feels right. If you have not found that right “spot” yet
in life, that true purpose and calling, then I encourage you to keep seeking
for it … It’s out there waiting for you.
I love hearing faith stories from other
Christian Authors. Would you share with us how you became a Christian (asked
Jesus to be the boss of your life) & how your faith plays into your
writing?
Seeking not only brought me, in time, into my writing … but
it brought me into a genuine and true faith.
Although raised in church by strong Christian parents and always taken
to church … I did not get truly saved or born again until I was grown and
married. I’m not saying I wasn’t a
believer in God, I just had no personal relationship with Him. Both my husband and I went to church in our
early marriage … but found ourselves discontent with it. The discontentment was probably more in us,
looking back, but we both decided together to seek for something more real and
vital, like Abraham in the Bible had with God.
The sweet thing about God is that whenever you seek after more of Him,
you will find more … and when you seek to draw close to Him, He’ll draw close
to you. We both found what our hearts
needed – and have been growing in God and walking with Him ever since.
Often, in reading Christian novels, they have not felt “real”
to me … so I made a conscious effort, with God’s help and counsel, to write
books that anyone could read and enjoy about real people living real lives …
but with seeds of faith tucked into the stories. If people love the Lord, it
shows in their lives and actions…. And that’s what I try to show through the
characters of my books.
What is your favorite scripture and why?
Two of my favorite scriptures are:
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” [II Tim 2:15]
and “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” [Ps 119:105]
God has left us His Word … so we can read it and grow from
it, so we can find the truth we need in it to guide and lead our lives from day
to day.
And one of my favorite quotes, to close, is:
“When I stand before God at the end
of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and
could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.’” – Erma Bombeck
You can read more about all my books on my website, see lots
of great pictures of the Smokies , and read my monthly blog about my writing
at: www.linstepp.com … I also
post on Facebook and Twitter every day.
If you live in the Middle Tennessee area … you can
meet Lin this Saturday, April 29th, at BARNES & NOBLE on Mallory
Drive, Cool Springs, in Brentwood, Tennessee. … She will be signing her latest
book DADDY’S GIRL and the store will also have several of her past Smoky
Mountain titles.
ENTER TO WIN A COPY OF
DADDY'S GIRL
HERE!
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I love the Smokey Mountains and all of my memories are wonderful, but the one that sticks out the most is...I was walking on the Abram Falls trail and I knew I could hear God speaking to me and just feeling the peace and serenity of this amazing place is very special to me. I will always remember that hike because of what I experienced and the beauty I was fortunate enough to see. There is nothing like the Smokies, I wish I could go there more often, it always makes you feel closer to God there.
ReplyDeleteI visited the Smoky Mountains and got to meet Lin Stepp a few weeks ago. I fell in love with the area, and she is a delightful person. Her books exhibit her passion for the mountains and compelling storytelling. It's a great combination for readers.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed learning that Lin has had a dream of illustrating children's books. There are so many sides to her, it is easy to see why her readers love to come to her signings and look forward to her next book. Great interview.
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