Kate Breslin's Blog

BeLEAF IT! We’ve got a fabulous fall Christian book giveaway featuring titles from your favorite authors! It’s your chance to win, and we’ve got a $100 Amazon gift card, books, and gifts to share, so click on the image or the button below to enter for your chance to win! (ships US only.)

1st Prize: $100.00 Amazon Gift Card & Books

2nd Place: Books & Gift Basket

3rd Place: Books

Enter Our Giveaway Here!

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Celebrating WWI Historical Fiction with a Great War Giveaway!

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE GREAT WAR?

The United States entered the First World War, known as the Great War, on April 4, 1917. This was a historical turning point for our country as well as in Europe, where fighting had already been going on for three years. Women played new key roles, not only by aiding the Allies in the war effort, but also stepping into jobs formerly held by men to keep their respective countries running smoothly for the four years their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons battled the enemy overseas. And during this time, women more than proved their exceptional capability and won the right to vote.

The Great War also ushered in a new industrial era. Department stores sold ready made goods and uniforms, while factories mass produced automobiles, trucks, ships, planes, tanks, and of course, weaponry. Espionage was prevalent as well, not only in this country prior to the war, but with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, spies became rampant across Europe.

In today’s culture, the Second World War has become highly publicized--in books, film, and the news. Yet it’s a little known fact that organizations like the Resistance Movement, Land Girls, and “Rosie the Riveter” -  women building ships, tanks, and planes, and even working as spies, like Mata Hari—all had their beginnings in the Great War.

If you’d like to learn more about WWI history, we invite you to enter our Great War Giveaway for your chance to win one of nine novels! Each story promises to transport you back to a forgotten era—one of faith, courage, and self-sacrifice, as ordinary men and women did the extraordinary to ensure our freedom. -KB

ENTER THE GREAT WAR GIVEAWAY!

CONTEST ENDS APRIL 13TH

NINE WINNERS!

Enter the Great War Giveaway Contest Here!

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katebreslin.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This in no way affects your cost for these products.FEBRUARY 14TH IS LIBRARY LOVER’S DAY! This whole month we bibliophiles can celebrate our appreciation in having free access to books in our communities. Lending libraries allow us to learn how others think and live, to discover new marvels of invention, and let our imaginations travel to distant lands through the magic of books!As a reader and author of historical fiction, I’m especially grateful to our librarians, the beloved stewards of countless tomes who introduce us daily to new titles that promise to tantalize and challenge our minds.Years ago, I spoke at a Friends of the Library event near Seattle and I shared with my kindred souls how I came not only to love writing books, but first, to love reading them.In my early years, I was extremely shy. My dad’s government work moved us from city to city every year, especially in the fall, making me the perennial “new kid” in class before each holiday season. I remember the state of Ohio and my first-grade attempts at reading. You see, I was dyslexic and the letters had a tendency to mix up in my brain, making words appear more like Greek than English. I’ll never forget sitting at the reading round table in class, all eyes on me as my teacher pressed me none too gently to read from a page of Dick and Jane. I was in torment, and oftentimes I would get nose bleeds from nervousness at having to struggle with reading in front of my classmates.I wondered then, would I always be illiterate?Thankfully, that was a resounding NO. My reading breakthrough came in the state of Washington and second grade, when my new school taught a Phonics reading program—breaking down the words into syllables and spelling them like they sounded. Eureka, I was cured! At seven years old I was finally reading!I began dogging the school library for books, but my biggest thrill was seeing the public library’s Bookmobile roll up outside in the school recess yard. Photo by:
Unbridled Transportation, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons As I clambered up into that big UPS-sized truck, my nostrils lifting with the familiar, musty scent of books, I gazed hungrily at rows upon rows of stories waiting to be explored. Being a shrinking violet, I found books to be my way of “seeing” and learning about the world from the security of my room, and one of my first “book friends” was Ribsy and his boy Henry, in Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins series. As I read about their adventures, I observed how Henry got along in his neighborhood and at school with his friends. Then in Pippi Goes on Board by Astrid Lindgren, I found Pippi Longstocking, a girl who despite being gangly and gawky with her red braids and freckles, was outspoken and comfortable in her own skin. When I was with Pippi in a story, I could be brave and adventurous, fighting swashbuckling pirates aboard ship or riding a horse with her pet monkey Mr. Nilsson on my shoulder. Pippi was the girl I wanted to be. Adolescence came and I began reading intrigue. I enjoyed solving mysteries with Nancy Drew, Nurse Cherry Ames, and Trixie Belden, then graduated on to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and gothic romance novels like Mary Stewart’s The Gabriel Hounds, and Victoria Holt’s The Shivering Sands . Wherever we lived, I made sure to get a library card once we hit town, and the librarians were my gatekeepers into those exciting worlds of adventure! My reading tastes continued to evolve into both secular and eventually inspirational romantic fiction, which is what I write today. Reading stories by authors like Francine Rivers with her Mark of the Lion trilogy and Redeeming Love inspired my writing through the years, and libraries helped to make it all possible. Having access to books enabled me to choose what I wanted to read, and where I wanted my imagination to soar. Did you know that libraries also support us authors? By purchasing our books from the publishers for the shelves, they give you the reader the chance to explore new worlds on your own. I hope you’ll join me in showing gratitude for our libraries this month, and the next time you visit yours, thank your librarian. Because I’ve learned that books and being able to read them are gifts beyond price. Happy Reading!

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Have we got THE sweetest Valentine’s Giveaway for you!!Hey wonderful readers! Fourteen authors want to share our love with you!! That’s why we’re offering you the chance to win our Valentine’s Day Giveaway! Grand Prize – a beautiful Valentine bookmark, a box of Godiva Chocolates, and one paperback copy from each author! And that’s not all–First and Second Runners Up will receive a Valentine bookmark and all fourteen new novels! (ships US) Click on the image or red button below to enter for your chance to win!Contest runs February 1-14, 2023.

Enter for a Chance to Win!Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Celebrating Valentine’s Day with a Special Giveaway February 10-15, 2022!

We love our readers! And to show it we’re offering a giveaway to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year with a chance to win six historical novels! Authors Carrie Turansky, Laura Frantz, Melanie Dobson, Cathy Gohlke, Roseanna M. White and Kate Breslin (that’s me!) would love to share our stories with you and the giveaway is open to both US and international entrants! One lucky reader will receive all six novels and the contest ends February15th, so click on the photos or enter here for your chance to win! Happy Valentine’s Day!

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CHECK OUT THIS GIVEAWAY! A fabulous "novel cornucopia" of books by some of your favorite authors, including new fall releases! Click the PHOTO to enter for your chance to win BIG! Contest ends mid-September so don't wait and multiple winners (ships US.)

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Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst of the WSPU c. 1908 (Wikipedia)

They were amazing women.

In a world harried by war, and millions of casualties, by starvation and pandemic, they “put down their posters and stopped the crusade, shucking their corsets to offer their aid.”

They were patriots who kept the country moving forward, while their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons fought and died daily on the battlefield. They did not debase themselves; they were proud to be women, knowing they were up to the task to lead a nation back along the slow and agonizing path toward peace.

They took up rakes and baling machines and fed the cavalry’s horses in France, they took up shovels and plows to feed their countrymen. They were nurses, ambulance drivers, Army Land Girls, tank builders, Lumber Jills, munitions workers, chemists, policewomen, firewomen, railroad engineers. They made glass and tires for the war and they baked bread for the soldiers and still, they cared for their children along the way and offered comfort to thousands of the wounded returning daily from the front. They didn’t cry or complain about their situation, they simply rolled up their sleeves and did what was necessary, whatever was necessary—in order to save their way of life.

And when it was all said and done and a lasting peace seemed assured, those in Congress and across the water in Parliament agreed, that it was past time the ladies take part in their own government.

Today in the United States, we honor these women as we celebrate 100 years since Congress ratified the 19th amendment. The year women finally had a vote and a voice and were given the privilege and responsibility to steer their country forward and improve the plight of women for generations to come.

In the spirit of celebrating these strong, selfless women for suffrage and their brilliant contribution to us all, I’m offering a chance to win (in the link below)--four winners will receive a digital audiobook download of Not By Sight, the story of Grace Mabry, a young, beautiful WWI suffragette and her sisterhood of women who rolled up their sleeves for a nation.

ENTER THE CONTEST HERE!

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History - Finding Our Past

“Up close and personal” is a commonly used phrase and one very meaningful for me while writing my latest historical novel, Far Side of the Sea. As with my previous novels, Not By Sight and High As The Heavens, I spent years researching the first world war. I’d memorized dates and places names of battles fought and read first-hand accounts of the soldiers living in trenches on the Western Front, facing “No Man’s Land”—stretches of battlefield so devastated by artillery that only cratered holes of soupy mud remained to serve as watery graves. Skirmishes fought, which resulted in short-won victories and losses for both sides and in the middle, civilians, enduring four years of suffering all of the hardships war has to offer and the occasional miracles that marked their incredible lives.

It was during the research for my most recent novel that my mom asked me to do some genealogical digging into the life of my great-uncle George. She’d come to possess her uncle’s Purple Heart medal after his brother—her father, my grandfather—had passed away and knew he’d served in WWI somewhere in the infantry.

With writing deadlines, I admit to working on her request at a snail’s pace, but eventually through information I found online, I discovered he’d served in the Wisconsin National Guard in 1916 and was sent to the Mexican border that same year to defend against the famous revolutionary Pancho Villa and his men, who had stormed Columbus, New Mexico, killing nearly twenty Americans. A year later the US entered WWI in April of 1917 and the president recalled the guardsmen, transferring their ranks to the infantry. Now I was getting really interested!

I decided to contact the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and was excited to learn they would send me copies of whatever service records they could find for George. When their packet arrived weeks later, I tore into it and began poring over the contents. I’d practically lived in WWI over the past few years, so to be able to recognize the places my great-uncle had fought, some which I’d written for my own fictional story character—became a personal experience for me that brought me to tears. He’d been wounded during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive near Verdun, the place of a famous battle and one which earned him the Purple Heart. I was also grateful to learn he’d survived the war to return home and live to a ripe old age, as many others were not so fortunate.

Needless to say, my mom was delighted with the information and she’s allowed me to be the steward of my great-uncle’s medal, which now sits in a place of honor. It reminds me that we are all connected to the past; and sometimes, those places and times we read about in history can leave a very personal imprint on us.

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Patmos Island, Greece

WHEN I THINK OF TRAVEL, I imagine being able to embrace new sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and textures. To come away rested, relaxed, and rewarded with a new perspective on life. To recharge, refresh, and get ready to dive back into the rapids of the real world.

A few months ago the word “vacation” might have conjured no more than a pleasurable thought in our over-taxed, over-scheduled daily lives. Taking for granted we would go when, “we had the time” or “the weather got better” or “we had the money.”

But today in our world of social distancing, even the notion of leaving the house for the grocery store has us panting for more, taking scenic routes to get there and back, and lingering in the car once we get home.

Most of us love travel, don’t we? Meeting new people and learning about new cultures. And while restrictions are slowly being lifted for many sheltering at home, we must remain vigilant about where we go and how we make contact with others, especially those older or having health issues.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, I’m reminded of just how much I love my mom. Living on opposite sides of the country I don’t see her often enough in the best of times and she is well into that “older” category (though she’s still young at heart) and the woman I admire most. My mom has also been my intrepid traveling companion for years; our “Thelma and Louise” adventures (don’t worry, we didn’t shoot anyone) have taken us to 14 different countries outside the US, and a few we visited more than once.

Mom and I in Amsterdam 1998



The two of us on the steps of the Epidaurus Amphitheatre in Greece 2006



The dynamic duo on the balcony of the Colosseum in Rome 2010

Our latest “grand tour” was a trip to Barcelona, Spain, where we enjoyed eating scrumptious tapas, drinking creamy horchatas, listening to beautiful Flamenco guitar and breathing in the old world smells of La Rambla, Barcelona’s busiest promenade. As an author of historical fiction, I loved being able to “relive” my vacation while writing scenes for my latest novel, Far Side of the Sea.    

My mom and I are also avid readers, so for Mother’s Day this year I’m sending her a book–a story set in some exotic new land. Maybe Portugal or Russia, two countries we still have on our “go-to” list. And because a lot of moms can’t travel right now, I’m also giving away a collection of all four of my novels, each story set in different locations around the world, to celebrate our mom’s special day!

So if you are, have, or know a mom or someone special who simply enjoys “virtual traveling,” please click on the graphic below to enter the contest (ships US.) The winner will be chosen and notified on…you guessed it, Mother’s Day!

In the meantime, stay healthy and safe and enjoy this marvelous time of reading! And if you’re feeling antsy (like me) take to heart the words of St. Paul, to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, (and) faithful in prayer.” (Rom. 12:12)

God bless and Happy Mother’s Day!

Kate

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Photo by Rahul Pandit

Courtesy of Rachel Fordham with Kate Breslin and friends

Life today looks very different from how it looked only
weeks ago. If you’re like me (and my author friends) you are spending more time
indoors, less time with people and on occasion you might feel a little
discouraged. Some of us aren’t working, some are physically sick or sick at
heart. This new challenge is hard and the grief so many feel is real, but there
is HOPE. It is found in the phone calls we make to our loved ones, in
the mornings when we wake up to sunshine and birds, and it can even be found in
something as simple as a book.

So, we’ve put together a list of books to inspire, cheer,
and brighten your day as you navigate this unusual time in history. Step into
the pages, learn from these fictional characters, and escape to faraway places.
And above all else enjoy the sweetness of HOPE.

Without further ado…Books featuring hope (in no particular
order):

The Printed Letter Bookshop – Katherine Reay

Three women–seemingly at the end of their
stories–find love, friendship, hope, and new beginnings at the Printed
Letter Bookshop.

One More River to Cross – Jane Kirkpatrick

When faced with adversity, these
1844 pioneers supported each other and they made it through. We will too!

The Hope of Azure Springs – Rachel Fordham

Em finds hope despite her
circumstances as she learns that life is about living, not merely surviving.

The Dating Charade – Melissa Ferguson

Laughter ends up being good
medicine for both Cassie and Jett as they navigate life’s unexpected
curveballs, ultimately leading to hope–together!

A Mosaic of Wings – Kimberly Duffy

A driven entomologist–faced with
impossible choices–discovers that love, truth, and hope are worth any
sacrifice.

Secrets and Suitors – Joanna Barker

Faced with family secrets, deceit, and
unrequited love, a young woman learns to trust her heart and find hope
in the future.

Finding Lady Enderly – Joanna Politano

Raina learns that no matter how
tangled, there is always hope for our stories to be redeemed, even in
our darkest moment.

Where the Stars Meet the Sea – Heidi Kimball

A woman deprived of freedom, a man
with a painful past—both set free by hope and a love strong enough to
heal.

An Uncommon Woman – Laura Frantz

A cord of three strands is not
easily broken…this hope is all she has.

As High as the Heavens – Kate Breslin

It’s war in 1918, and Evelyn cannot
forgive herself for sins of the past, but hope is reawakened when she
finally comes to believe God’s mercy and love are unconditional.

I’ve linked to Amazon so you can easily read more about these lovely books. But I’d also like to suggest you check with your local independent bookstore if you consider buying any of these titles. Your purchase will bring hope to someone else as well as yourself. Our small bookstore owners do us such a wonderful service and now is the time to show them some love.

What books have left you not only entertained but buoyed up
and encouraged?

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