ROSEMARY OPENS HER HEARTby Naomi King
New American Library, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-451-23797-2
Christian Fiction
ABOUT THE BOOK
Another spring reminds the Amish of Cedar Creek, Missouri, that for everything there is a season.
Zanna
Lambright is finally marrying Jonny Ropp, and friends and family have
come from far and wide to celebrate. Among them is young widow Rosemary
Yutzy, mother of toddler Katie, whose husband was tragically killed last
fall. With a willing heart Rosemary has taken over care of her in-law’s
family and continued to run a baked goods business from home, but
privately she still mourns her lost Joe…and is unprepared for the
changes that are coming…
Rosemary’s
father-in-law wants to merge his lamb-raising business with Matt
Lambright’s—a move that will require the Yutzys to relocate from their
nearby town to Cedar Creek. Moreoever, it will bring Rosemary into
constant contact with Matt, who is making no secret of his romantic
interest in her. The challenges of contemplating a future unlike any she
expected are overwhelming for Rosemary. And although Matt is strong and
kind, his courtship is so persistent, she often wants to run the other
way. As Rosemary struggles to see beyond her immediate joys and sorrows,
will she embrace the outpouring of welcome and support from the people
of Cedar Creek…and accept this new chance to open her heart to a more
abundant life?
See here for my review of the book.
I’ve
called Missouri home for most of my life, and most folks don’t realize
that several Old Older Amish and Mennonite communities make their home
here, as well. The rolling pastureland, woods, and small towns along
county highways make a wonderful setting for Plain populations—and for
stories about them, too! While Jamesport, Missouri is the largest Old
Order Amish settlement west of the Mississippi River, other communities
have also found the affordable farm land ideal for raising crops,
livestock, and running the small family-owned businesses that support
their families.
Like
my heroine, Miriam Lantz, of my new Seasons of the Heart series, I love
to feed people—to share my hearth and home. I bake bread and goodies
and I love to try new recipes. I put up jars and jars of green beans,
tomatoes, beets and other veggies every summer. All my adult life, I’ve
been a deacon, a dedicated church musician and choir member, and we
hosted a potluck group in our home for more than twenty years.
Like
Abby Lambright, heroine of my new Home at Cedar Creek series, I
consider it a personal mission to be a listener and a peacemaker—to heal
broken hearts and wounded souls. Faith and family, farming and
frugality matter to me: like Abby, I sew and enjoy fabric arts—I made my
wedding dress and the one Mom wore, too, when I married into an Iowa
farm family more than thirty-five years ago! When I’m not writing, I
crochet and sew, and I love to travel.
I
recently moved to Minnesota when my husband got a wonderful new job, so
now he and I and our border collie, Ramona, are exploring our new state
and making new friends.
To find out more about Naomi, please visit her at http://www.naomikingauthor.com/.
Visit her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/NaomiC.King
On Goodreads at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5163868.Naomi_King
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is the
'story behind the story'?
The idea for ROSEMARY OPENS HER HEART
came about in an off-hand sort of way when I first saw the cover for ABBY FINDS
HER CALLING. Alongside Abby are some sheep...although sheep had nothing to do
with her, I was tickled to see the
Border collie, because I have one! The sheep belong to her nephew Matt, who is
plenty old enough to be looking for a wife. And because my editor had nixed the
plot for book #2 in my original proposal, it seemed like an opportune time to find
Matt a girlfriend for this new story.
He's just not crazy about Emma Graber across the road, even though
she has her heart set on marrying him. So once Matt meets Rosemary Yutzy at
Zanna's wedding—taking up
right where ABBY FINDS HER CALLING leaves off—the
heartbreak with Emma begins. Rosemary wants nothing to do with Matt, either.
Thank goodness for those Border collies who watch over Matt's sheep attract
little Katie Yutzy over to play, because then Rosemary has to come chasing
after her toddler,
who is both entranced by Matt and effortlessly wrapping him
around her little finger.
Kids and dogs. An unbeatable
combination! So that picture on ABBY FINDS HER CALLING was worth more than a
thousand words!
What do you
enjoy the most about writing?
Even though I write out a fairly
detailed synopsis for each book before I write it (partly because I work better
with a roadmap, and partly because my editors require one) I still have about
330 pages to fill, and the words don't necessarily flow from God's lips to my
fingers. What makes the slower writing days worthwhile, however, are those
sparkly ideas that come at me out of nowhere—or,
in this book, it was the way three-year-old Katie just reached out of the page
and grabbed me, and then took over her scenes. Soon as that kid opened her
mouth (or stuck her finger in it to gaze up at Matt) she was telling her story
her way. It made my job a lot easier because she brought Rosemary and Matt
together whether they wanted to be or not!
Where do
you like to do your writing? Do you have a particular schedule you like to
follow?
My office is in the third bedroom of
our home, where I have a nice desk with a Mac on it, my library of research
books, and two windows looking out over the back yard. Quite often, however, I
get a lot of pages written out on the deck in summer, or in the kitchen when
it's colder, using my iPad and the wireless, full-size keyboard it hooks into. I
like to work in the kitchen while I’m
making soup or have something in the oven, so I don’t
forget about what’s cooking! When
I compose on the iPad, I can then email the pages to my Mac and edit them there
to copy/paste into the main manuscript.
Ideally, I do my day's writing right
after breakfast and walking the dog—otherwise,
it's waaayy too easy to get caught up in email, social media, errands, you name
it, and the day gets past me before I get my pages written. Writing two
different Amish series for two different publishers means I have a deadline
about every four months, so I can't afford to get behind on a book. I don't
write very fast, so I have to keep at it nearly every day, sometimes even on
weekends if I'm behind after a planned vacation—or
an unplanned family situation, etc. I keep a week-by-week schedule of how many
pages I need to write so I can tick each week's section off as I complete it.
While I'm writing the main draft of
one book, I almost always have to do copy edits on a book for the other
publisher. Right now I have three books in the pipeline: two books in my
Charlotte Hubbard series are on my Kensington editor's desk, and I'm writing
the #3 book for my Naomi King NAL series—and
yes, because I'm doing this Virtual Tour for ROSEMARY OPENS HER HEART (#2 of
Naomi's series) I have these interviews and blog posts to keep up with, as well.
Add in the time for both of my Facebook pages (you can Friend me as Charlotte
Hubbard and LIKE my Naomi C. King author page), a newsletter, the occasional
speaking gig/bookstore signing, and I don't have time to get bored. Or behind!
What is the
best thing that has happened to you since being published?
Gee, I have to think about that one,
as we're spanning a 22-year period since my first book came out—and
2013 will mark the 30th year since I first sold stories to mags like True
Confessions! It's gratifying indeed to have survived that long in this crazy,
unpredictable publishing business, even though I've never hit any of the major
bestseller lists.
I will say, however, that it's a wonderful
thing when not one but two major
publishing houses invited me to write these Amish series for them. Usually,
when you're not a big name, you have to write up proposals on spec and submit
them, hoping an editor somewhere will be interested. This wave of fascination
with the Amish culture has created quite a demand for stories about them, and
for once, I was in the right time and place with the right writing style.
While I understand the advantages of
all the self-publishing that can be done now, I feel truly honored to be
writing these books for two of the most respected editors in the business, and
to be working with an agent who has been such a compassionate, hard-working
partner in my career.
What's your
favorite flavor of ice cream?
You know, I never met an ice cream I
didn't like...but sometimes it depends on the brand! When we lived in Jefferson
City, MO, Central Dairy (local dairy, that makes the best ice cream and has an ice cream parlor in town) flavors like
cinnamon, peppermint stick, and bear claw (dark chocolate ice cream studded
with chocolate-covered cashews) were my choices. If I'm buying it in the store,
here in Minna-Soda, I choose Blue Bunny's "Homemade" vanilla flavor.
Otherwise, when brand isn't an issue, I go with
cookies and cream or chocolate brownie. This is more than you wanted to know about
my taste in ice cream, isn't it?
If you
could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Dad worked for TWA, so the travel bug
bit me early and often! These days I really to love to cruise—you
unpack just once, yet you can visit a bunch of ports on the same trip (and I
love being on the water). We've been to Alaska, the Panama Canal, and other
neat places. Got one booked for Hawaii in March to celebrate my birthday. One
of these days I'd like to visit England and Italy/the Mediterranean, and I'm
sure we will! Would love to visit Australia, as well, but wish it didn't
require an 18-hour flight.
Why these places? Because they’re
out there! Anymore, I don’t care
where the cruise ship’s, going…I
just want to be on it!
Tell us
something that most people don't know about you.
As research for one of my earlier
books, I bought an accordion and taught myself to play it. Got it online—a
beautiful Sofia Marie instrument, along with how-to-play books. I've played a
lot instruments over the years, so taking up the accordion wasn't all that much
of a stretch, musically. It was, however, a weight-bearing exercise because I
unknowingly bought one that was too big for me! (Ok, I'm short.) So before we
moved to MN, I sold it. This summer I bought a nice classical guitar and am
taking lessons, building on the chords
and stuff I learned when I got a guitar for Christmas in junior high. Gets me
away from the computer and out of the house to take the lessons, and gives my
brain something non-verbal to work on.
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