Let’s Chat! Author Catherine Brakefield

Welcome, Everyone!

Catherine Brakefield is our honored guest this week. Catherine writes faith-based historical romances. Also, she’s written short stories and pictorial histories of the area around Lapeer, Michigan. How interesting is that?

**Join our circle by commenting below, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for Catherine’s Destiny’s Whirlwind.**

Catherine Brakefield’s Background

The eldest of five siblings, I grew up in a little Cape Cod home on an acre of land on the outskirts of Hazel Park. My parents brought to their humble abode a three-gated saddlebred mare named Black Magic. She began my love for horses.

Love of Reading

My love for reading came during my puberty years. I grew up with limited technical apparatuses: black and white television sets, no computers, no internet, and, would you believe—no cell phones. If I wanted three dimensional characters, I read a book. The rhyming sonnet of words and flowing musical notes of the written language captivated me. My imagination knew no boundaries.

Love of Written Word

Although love for reading was instantaneous, my love affair with the written word arrived later in life. In college I focused on business, minoring in journalism. I acquired a secretarial job and worked my way up the corporate ladder to purchasing director.

Meanwhile, I wrote stories. 

God’s Guiding Hand

First, when I was pregnant with my first child in 1976, I wrote a poem that won a contest. My prize was attending Decision School of Christian Writers at the Billy Graham headquarters, which at the time was in Minnesota.  

Then, two months after my daughter’s birth, my grandmother came to live with us. So writing detoured into the inner recesses of my file cabinet. Bottles, diapers, and doctor visits replaced it. Little did I know I was enrolled in God’s School of Christian Learning. The inspiration for my present Destiny series evolved from the twelve years Gran lived with us.

Catherine Brakefield’s Author Debut

When I left my job to be a stay-at-home mom and my grandmother came to live with me, the idea for a faith-based historical romance formed. After my grandmother’s death, I sat down and put my thoughts and love for words on paper. A traditional publishing house published The Wind of Destiny in 2005.

While freelancing for a local newspaper, the idea of writing a history about the region materialized. So I wrote two pictorial histories for Arcadia Publishing: Images of America, The Lapeer Area, and Images of America, Eastern Lapeer Area.

Insight from Catherine

Rejection letters have discouraging effects! I needed sound advice. So I joined the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). I presently serve as the president of our local Great Lakes Chapter (GLC). I continued to write my inspirational historical romances while I gleaned more information on how to create a winning proposal, synopsis, and how to talk to agents and publishers. My efforts paid off. At a HACWN conference I met my publisher, CrossRiver Media Group, and acquired Cyle Young of Hartline Literary Agency as my agent.

What’s Up With Catherine Brakefield Now?

Presently, I am writing my dream of over a decade, the Destiny series:

Destiny Series

Swept into Destiny, the first book of a four-book series, released in 2017. It takes place in Tennessee, during the Antebellum Era. Maggie Gatlan secretly educates the slaves at Spirit Wind Manor. She meets Ben McConnell, an Irish immigrant who was hired to dredge out their snake-infested swampland. Civil War erupts, and Maggie must choose. Conscience and consequence—did she care more for Ben or for her beloved South?

Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny series, Book 2, released on April 17. Collina McConnell promises her dying father to uphold the Shushan legacy of their Kentucky estate. Rough Rider Franklin Long becomes her gallant ally. Then a vindictive lawyer places the family into peril. Esther 8:6 holds new insight for her: “How can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people?” Had her father known this would happen? Had Franklin survived San Juan Hill, and would he return in time?

Wilted Dandelions

CrossRiver Media Group published Wilted Dandelions in 2015. The story unfolds during the Second Great Awakening in 1837. High-spirited Rachael Rothburn doesn’t need a husband. She wants to travel out west as a missionary to Native Americans. Jonathan Wheaton desires the same. So they agree on a marriage of convenience. In the process of co-existing, they discover God doesn’t create coincidences—He designs possibilities.

How to Find Catherine

Go to my web page, you will find my book signings and my e-mail:  www.catherineulrichbrakefield.com 

Visit www.CrossRiverMedia.com , Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, or Christianbook.com to purchase books.
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Giveaway

I’m excited about sharing my newest book with you and will supply a copy of Destiny’s Whirlwind. I hope you will check out Swept into Destiny! You will not be disappointed.

Lord of Heaven and Earth, we worship You alone. As readers and writers, we acknowledge You as the Word who was from the beginning. Catherine served her beloved grandmother and devoted herself to her children while You worked out Your chosen plan for her to write. Bless each word she writes for You.
~ For Jesus’ sake ~ 

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