88 ratings | 36 reviews | avg rating:4.62

more photos (1)

Tess Hilmo’s Followers (333)

Tess’s Bookshelves

to-read (7)
currently-reading (0)
read (89)

Tess’s Friends (142)

Laura Thomas

3,747 books | 2,624 friends

Brinlie Jill

1,568 books | 117 friends

Stephanie (Bookfever)

2,310 books | 3,773 friends

Jeana

4,273 books | 310 friends

Wendy

1,569 books | 151 friends

Jo-Anne

3,051 books | 151 friends

Joanne

483 books | 589 friends

Lisa

9,235 books | 205 friends

More friends…

Tess Hilmo

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.tesshilmo.com

Twitter

TessHilmo

Genre

Children's

Member Since

October 2009

edit data

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Tess Hilmo questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

What inspired you to write a book from a pastor kids's perspective?

Tess Hilmo Thanks for the question, Lina. A few things came together to give me the idea. I love Southern literature and thought a Southern murder mystery would …moreThanks for the question, Lina. A few things came together to give me the idea. I love Southern literature and thought a Southern murder mystery would be fun to write. I set it in Arkansas because that is where my father's side of the family is from and I was able to connect to that part of myself through researching the area. Then, since I was thinking to set the novel in the South, the memory of a great-great Uncle I have came to mind. Uncle Will was on my mother's side and was an itinerant preacher in the South (though he lived in the 30's not the 50's). He was born Quaker but struck out on his own and was a general faith travelling preacher. Like Reverend Love, he also had five children. Anyway, growing up, my mother spoke of him from time to time and I would often think how hard it must have been as a child of a travelling preacher....moving around from town to town. Uncle Will's wife kept a great journal and I was able to read it as part of my research for the novel.

The name "Reverend Love" is actually a nod to my mother. I have many memories of cleaning the house on Saturday mornings. She would put on a record (are you old enough to remember record players??) and we would all clean together. One song I liked was Neil Diamond's "Hot August Nights". In the song, there is a refrain that is something like, "Love, Love, Brother Love's travelling salvation show. Grab the old ladies. Pack up your babies and everyone goes...everyone knows...Brother Love's show." So, I named my character Reverend Love as a fun play on that memory and as a nod to my great mother and our Saturday morning cleanings :)(less)

flag

5 likes · like
Comment

What inspired you to write about Roy Parker and Jade in Skies Like These? Was it a love of the Old West or Butch & Sundance? I hope that all your inspiration is as creative as With A Name Like Love! Thank you for your time, Karen Elizabath.

Tess Hilmo Karen,

Thank you for this great question! It was a couple of things coming together that inspired Skies Like These. First, my husband and I had a combi…moreKaren,

Thank you for this great question! It was a couple of things coming together that inspired Skies Like These. First, my husband and I had a combined birthday party (our birthdays are just a few weeks apart). We invited family and friends to join us for a chuckwagon dinner in the beautiful mountains by our home. It was so much fun! While we were there, one of the cowboys told us some fantastic stories about Butch Cassidy and I sat there, surrounded by friends and family, thinking "Wouldn't it be fun to write an upbeat cowboy novel that included some of these stories?"

Then, just a few months later, we took our family on vacation to Zions National Park. By chance, the house we rented for the week had a flat roof with a ladder on the side and two beach loungers up on top (just like Aunt Elise's roof!). We climbed that ladder every single night and watched the stars for hours. It was breathtaking. Western skies are like no other skies and something in me longed to pay tribute to that fact.

Finally, if you ever go to Zions National Park, you might notice a dog ranch on the main road of the town. When I saw it, I was further inspired and the story came together in my head -- right there on the road.

It's interesting to me how our normal, every day life can inspire us in directions we might never imagine. But, I guess that's the point of the novel ... we are truly guided by the by world around us :)

(less)

flag

1 like · like
Comment

See 2 answers from Tess Hilmo…

Combine Editions
Tess Hilmo’s books

Average rating: 3.96 · 1,496 ratings · 441 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	With a Name like Love 3.99 avg rating — 1,123 ratings — published 2011 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Skies Like These 3.74 avg rating — 213 ratings — published 2014 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cinnamon Moon 4.06 avg rating — 160 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

129 posts
Tess Hilmo's Blog

Adopt a Chicken!

To celebrate my new novel, Cinnamon Moon, which releases today (woot! chick-a-woot!) we are launching an Adopt a Chicken! classroom campaign

Any teacher who chooses the novel as a class selection or even as a teacher read aloud can email me and I'll send them a free...yep, totally free, author care package that includes:
1.a personalized letter to their students2. signed bookmarks for all studen Read more of this blog post »

View more on Tess Hilmo's website »

1 like · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on October 18, 2016 10:09

View all 129 posts »

Quotes by Tess Hilmo (?)

“But some people are broken. They don't know anything other than hatred... It's like their heart gets going in the wrong direction early on in life, and they can never quite manage to bring it back around to love. It's a sad thing and we should have compassion for them. Think of the joy they are missing in life.”
― Tess Hilmo, With a Name like Love

10 likes

“But some people are broken. They don't know anything other than hatred.... It's a sad thing and we should have compassion for them. Think of the joy they are missing in life.”
― Tess Hilmo, With a Name like Love

3 likes

“Ollie though how her daddy once said sometimes people do things out of ignorance more than meanness. That's what Ollie took this woman to be - ignorant of God's love more than mean-spirited towards others.”
― Tess Hilmo, With a Name like Love

3 likes

See all Tess Hilmo's quotes »

Polls

What book should we read in September?

You may write in titles, provided the book is a 2015 Newbery contender and already published.

brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

22 votes 28.6%

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm

22 votes 28.6%

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

12 votes 15.6%

Brown girl dreaming (write-in)

8 votes 10.4%

Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

7 votes 9.1%

Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins

3 votes 3.9%

Skies Like These by Tess Hilmo

1 vote 1.3%

Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord (write-in)

1 vote 1.3%

The Night Gardener

1 vote 1.3%

77 total votes

7 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2291	756	Dec 28, 2012 03:29PM
Around the World ...: Arkansas	9	182	Jan 22, 2014 03:49PM
Wild Things: YA G...: 50 State (or Country!) Challenge Reading Plan	58	224	Dec 26, 2014 09:56PM
Cozy Mysteries : Summer 2017 Challenge	146	272	Sep 25, 2017 05:56AM
The Green Jell-O ...: Middle Grade	121	75	May 23, 2019 08:09AM
Around the World ...: Wyoming	11	346	Dec 25, 2021 06:59PM
Gigi's Company: ABC	4210	607	Jul 08, 2023 03:18PM