Marguerite Gray | Let’s Chat

Welcome to Let’s Chat, everyone!

Marguerite Martin Gray joins our circle this week. Welcome, Marguerite!

Marguerite authored Hold Me Close, Surround Me, Bring Me Near, Draw Me to Your Side, and Wait for Me—Revolutionary Faith Books One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. She enjoys studying history and writing fiction. An avid traveler and reader, she earned degrees in French, Spanish, and Journalism, and a MA in English. Presently, she teaches online High School Spanish and French. She resides in North Louisiana with her husband and three rescue pets. Her two adult children keep her young and in the know.

Join our conversation below, and you could win Marguerite’s giveaway: winner’s choice of one of her books in paperback form.

Meet Marguerite Martin Gray

My name is Marguerite Gray from the sunny state of Louisiana. Thank you for joining me on my journey to the publication of my most recent novel, Wait for Me. The journey has taken quite a few years, going back to my childhood. It all began with reading. Supplying me with enough books to read must have been a chore for my parents. Of course, wanting to keep the books from the library didn’t help my plight. Throughout my life, I have purchased as many books as possible, loving the feel of each one and their positions on my shelves. Without revealing my age, if I had kept every book, I would have needed a Beauty and the Beast library!

Combining reading with my love of research very easily segued into writing. Historical fiction captured my senses and passion with Lori Wick’s novels leading my foray into Christian fiction. My Revolutionary Faith Series had a natural birth. My parents made sure my education included travel and cultural history, carrying my sisters and me through castles, manor houses, churches, and cemeteries throughout Britain and the continent. At home my father stimulated my own ancestral history with tales from the past accompanied by heirlooms, paintings, and a detailed genealogical chart. What stories lurked within those items!

Inspired after researching in Charleston, South Carolina, I had to write the series of my heart.

It begins  in 1772 Charles Town, South Carolina with a Frenchman landing in a colony on the verge of irreversible decisions. At the time, I did not realize the series would be five novels, but my characters and pen with God’s blessings spurred me on.  

         Hold Me Close, Book One (2018)—1772-1773

         Surround Me, Book Two (2019)—1773-1774

         Bring Me Near, Book Three (2019)—1775

         Draw Me to Your Side, Book Four (2020)—1776

         Wait for Me, Book Five (2021)—1777-1782

Each installment adds another layer of consequences, danger, commitment, heartache, and fear—all with the hope of resolution. Released on February 9, 2021, the back cover blurb of Wait for Me, the final book in the series, reads: A city, under siege by the British, catapults toward surrender, while the citizens wait for deliverance. Waiting for rescue, for deliverance…the only hope is in their revolutionary faith.

While I wrote each book, questions formed about how anyone could live at that time under less than ideal or normal circumstances.

Why marry and begin a family? How do you carry on day to day without promise of supplies and basic comforts? How do you choose a side, especially the rebellious side of a Patriot? Add a siege and British occupation, I think I would be a bit insane. Except…for God’s promises and control. Basically, that is what we all have for certain. Any one reading this has gone through the pandemic and a year of few answers. Nothing stayed the same with jobs, health, finances, conveniences, social events, church, family. Nothing the same except…God. His consistent love and promise of a brighter future in His world remain.

The American Revolution contained battles, death, poverty, starvation, epidemics, loss of family members and jobs. But the believers, although challenged, waited in hope for an answer, a conclusion to their plights.

I have enjoyed the research for this series.

For the first book, I purchased, read, and studied 25 different resources. I added 20 more books for the other novels. The knowledge in those volumes made the historical background of the series authentic and reliable. What a pool of historic figures I had at my fingertips. I chose Christopher Gadsden—a leader of the Sons of Liberty and the Patriot cause in Charles Town, John and Abigail Adams, Francis Marion, and Benjamin Franklin. My characters have the awesome tasks of interacting with some of the greatest heroes of the American Revolution.

In my writing I incorporate my motto: Entertain. Educate. Encourage. I find fiction to be the best example of entertainment. I can get lost for hours in a novel. Because I am a constant student, I want to learn something. With historical novels, the education element is easy. As a Christian writer, I attempt to encourage the reader with life situations with inspirational solutions. Encounters with God’s love and grace in difficult circumstances leads to growth and purpose.

Come enjoy the spectacular journey of the Lestarjette family living in an epicenter of conflict for over a decade. Find your hope in their journey.

If you have not begun the series, you can begin with Hold Me Close. Please realize each novel can stand alone if you chose to read just one.

Thank you and enjoy the journey.

Follow Marguerite Gray on these social media sites as well as Goodreads, Amazon, Pinterest, and Instagram:

Newsletter: Sylvan Reads

Website/Blog 

BookBub

Purchase links:

Hold Me Close 

Surround Me

Bring Me Near

Draw Me to Your Side 

Wait for Me 

~ ~ ~

Dear Lord, please bless each word Marguerite writes for you.
~ For Jesus’ sake ~