Welcome to the Blog Tour for With Me in the Storm by Karen E. Ingle, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
Title: With Me in the Storm If she escapes her past, can she survive the storm to come?
Maddie's California dream-turned-nightmare is a perfect storm of abuse, trafficking, and unwanted pregnancy. She sees only one way out, until a network of strangers offers a solution that could save her life and her baby's.About the Author
Karen Ingle admires women’s resilience and courage that emerge when faced with a pregnancy that rocks their world. As a freelance writer, she has interviewed such women, met them, and served them. She’s also rubbed elbows with the gutsy people who care deeply enough to support women in their journeys out of dark despair into bright hope. Now Karen is weaving those true stories into the compelling novel, With Me in the Storm, and others still to come in her Rumors of Light series.
Connect with Karen by visiting kareningleauthor.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.Author Interview
Q: What was the inspiration behind With Me in the Storm?
Karen: Among many stories I’ve heard in the course of my work, I learned the true story of a woman like Maddie—caught in trafficking and seeking an abortion at the demand of her trafficker. The way her life changed when she discovered a different solution was so beautiful it made me cry. I wanted to tell a story like that, but without compromising the real woman’s safety or her new beginnings. So, I wrote a novel with her story woven together with other true stories I know.
Q: How long did it take you to write this story?
Karen: All told, about four years. Some of that time was spent on the actual writing and re-writing. Some was spent fact-checking with my awesome friends who work in the fields of law enforcement, domestic violence, pregnancy help, and trauma-informed care. I also work three other jobs, so I had to squeeze authoring time in where I could.
Q: Do you have a favorite quote from this book?
Karen: “Safe isn’t about what you hold onto. It’s about who holds you.”
Q: What do you hope readers take away from With Me in the Storm?
Karen: I hope they come away with the assurance that even in very dark and complex situations, we have hope because of the God who cares about us and acts powerfully on our behalf. I would love to see some readers go on to be ambassadors of that hope, serving their communities. I would love to hear others say (as some have told me already), “This story brought me a whole new level of healing from the trauma of my past.” Or maybe some will say, “I’ve never trusted God to love me like this before. Now I do.”
Q: Would you share something about yourself that most readers would not know?
Karen: I’ve always loved writing. Yet I majored in chemistry. I started out teaching high school science, then elementary school, then I homeschooled my own kids. It wasn’t until my last children finished high school and left for college that I started a whole new career in freelance writing and authoring.
Q: What are you reading now?
Karen: In addition to reading fellow writers’ works in progress (as they did for me), here are the titles from the pile nearest my bedside table today:
Nonfiction—
· No Small Thing by Daniel J Mellish with Jan C. Johnson
· Embodied Hope by Kelly M. Kapic
· Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey
Fiction—
· The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin
· A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Q: How many bookcases are in your home?
Karen:Not enough! When we moved into our house over a decade ago, we gave away ten—yes, 10!—big boxes of books to a local library sale. I often mourn the loss of those books. It’s like dear old friends have moved away. The same titles at the library appear to be my books’ distant cousins, with different covers and none of the familiar dog-eared pages marking my favorite passages.
Q: What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Karen:My husband recently introduced me to canoeing and camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area with our family. I’d do that again! On a more regular basis, I garden and raise chickens. (Technically, I am the weeder and feeder. My husband is the brains behind both endeavors.)
All on my own, I love creating “mysteries” for my grandchildren: a series of clues hidden around the house for them to find, until the last one reveals the location of a missing treasure. At bedtime, we lay on our backs watching the stars from their nightlight rotate on the ceiling and we make up stories together. (Bedtime with Grandma Karen can stretch late into the night…)
Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a signed paperback copy of With Me in the Storm, $10 Amazon gift card, notecard, sticker, handmade bookmark, and a packet of "Maddie's favorite hot cocoa mix"!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight February 20, 2023 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on February 27, 2023. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
I enjoyed the interview.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview.
ReplyDeletei love the fave quote she shared!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this interview!
ReplyDeleteJolene, this was a fun interview! After I replied, I actually went and counted: there are 5 bookshelves in my house. :) Congrats on reading so many books in one year! I hope With Me in the Storm made for an enjoyable step toward achieving your 2023 Goodreads Challenge badge.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great book. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete