Welcome to the Blog Tour & Giveaway for Where I Was Planted by Heather Norman Smith, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
Title: Where I Was PlantedAuthor: Heather Norman Smith
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Ambassador International
Release Date
In the spring of 1961, ten-year-old Nate "Weenie" Dooley has a revelation-his father is not a good one.
Inspired by National Geographic, his favorite thing next to the Bible storybook his mother gave him before she died, Nate plans to leave his father and their home in the Smokies to set out on an adventure.
When he discovers that his father has left him first, it will take the help of a stray dog, some kind neighbors, a one-man-band, letters from a long-lost-aunt, and a new understanding of God to figure out he isn't really alone.
Will he find that Copper Creek is where he's always belonged? Or will his wanderlust keep him from ever coming back?
In her second novel, Heather Norman Smith demonstrates that love makes a family, and that while fathers may leave, our Heavenly Father is faithful, and He has a plan for all of us.
PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Christianbook
CONNECT WITH HEATHER: Website | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter
Hi Heather! First of all, I want to thank you
for taking the time to answer these questions and allowing my readers the
chance to get to know you and your latest book-Where I Was Planted- a
little bit better. I always like to start these interviews with something fun…
tell us 5 random facts about yourself that we WON’T find in your bio!
I have never been out of the country or even west
of the Mississippi.
I despise math yet have a strange obsession for
even numbers and patterns in dates.
I play the alto saxophone and have owned the same
one since sixth grade.
My favorite toy as a child was a blue water
pistol, and I got into lots of trouble with it.
One of my favorite things is leading the
invitational hymn each week during our prayer time near the close of Sunday
morning services.
Let’s talk writing! Have you always known that
you were meant to be a writer or was that a passion that came about
later?
I knew it when I was a
little girl, but through my teens, twenties, and early thirties, I forgot all
about the dream my younger self had. God graciously and miraculously reminded
me by handing me a story in summer of 2017 that I had to write down, and I haven’t
stopped writing since then.
As a writer of historical fiction, what type of
research goes into creating your stories? Do you try to keep everything
historically accurate, or do you feel a little creative liberty is okay to
better tell the story?
I’ve written contemporary and historical, and
historical definitely required more research. It was really important for me to
make it historically accurate. The book is set in 1961, so I did a lot of
internet searches to make sure certain things had been invented then—like
gas-powered lawnmowers and Kool-aid. There are references to musicians of the
time, like Patsy Cline. One fun thing I did was subscribe to the National
Geographic online archive, so I could actually read the articles my character,
who loves the magazine, would have read and make references to them. I also did
a lot of research on the region of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Where I Was Planted is a beautiful story full of inspiration. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
Where I Was Planted is a beautiful story full of inspiration. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
All my writing centers around a Romans 8:28
theme—“all things work together for good…”
This particular story should also remind us of the faithfulness of our
Heavenly Father.
I loved the unique cast of characters found in this book, are any of these based upon real people in your life?
While I was writing, I
actually met two of the characters. When I met Susan and Chester David at my
training class to become a foster parent, I very quickly realized they were the
embodiment of Opal and Dell Nelson, my main character’s kind neighbors. So, as
I continued writing the book, the fictional and real people became more and
more intertwined. What was really crazy was later learning of similarities
between my fictional characters and my friends that I didn’t even know about
before I finished the book.
I have found that writers are so often some of
the best readers too. If we were to take a look at your ‘to read’ pile, what
might we find there?
I have pretty varied
tastes. Right now, I’m reading two great books—The Man He Never Was by
James Rubart in paperback and Landmark by Pamela Poole on ebook.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my
questions. Before we go, I know I cannot wait to see what’s coming up from you! Any projects
you are currently working on that you can share?
Thank you for having me! I am in
the process of making decisions about the publication of my third novel. I feel
pretty confident that I will be able to share it with the world in 2020. I’m
also working on two new novels concurrently, and I just published a devotional
called Timeout for Jesus: Thirty Appointments with the Savior.
(2) winners will receive a paperback copy of Where I Was Planted by Heather Norman Smith!
Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule shown below. Giveaway will begin at midnight December 2, 2019 and last through 11:59 PM EST on December 9, 2019. US only. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize.
Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
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Thank you so much for sharing!!! - JustRead Tours
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