Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Downsizing by Lin Stepp, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
Title: Downsizing
Series: Mountain Home Books #2
Author: Lin Stepp
Publisher: Mountain Hill Press
Release Date: April 1, 2021
Genre: Clean/Sweet Contemporary Romance
Forced to suddenly downsize her life, and not by choice, pushes Mary Pat Latham to give up all that is familiar, to reexamine her life in every area, and to eventually open her heart to new beauty and purpose, instead of only looking back in regret.
At midlife, Mary Pat Latham has an almost perfect life—a successful husband, a beautiful home, four fine grown children, and a wealth of meaningful activities and social clubs to fill her days—so it’s a total shock when her husband walks in one day and says he wants a divorce. As if hearing a stranger talking in her own kitchen, Mary Pat listens to Russell’s reasons for wanting to abandon their long marriage and to his plans, already in place, to sell their home and move on. What will she do? Where will she go? She hasn’t worked since the children were born, her life wrapped up in home and family. Stunned, Mary Pat heads to the small mountain home she and Russell bought from her parents years ago, too shocked and humiliated to face her friends or anyone she knows right now.PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
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image credit Katie Riley
Hi Lin! Thank you for
taking the time to answer my questions and giving my readers the chance to get
to know you and your new book- Downsizing a little bit
better! I usually start these interviews the same with five random facts
about YOU, but since this is your second time here, let’s mix it up a bit!
Can you share 5 random
facts about this new book?
(1) This is my fourteenth
published novel set in the Smoky Mountains.
(2) DOWNSIZING is set in
the Glades Arts & Crafts Community east of Gatlinburg off Highway 321. The
Arts and Crafts Community offers a series of galleries, shops, stores, and
restaurants on a scenic 8-mile loop road, a great place to visit in the
Smokies.
(3) Mary Path Latham,
faces a series of hard “knock downs” at the first of this book that force her
to downsize and change her life, and not by choice.
(4) When life “knocks us
down”, we often “Look Up” for help, and you will see often in this book how God
helps Mary Pat in the transitions she faces.
(5) While forced to
downsize her life in ways she has no choice about, Mary Pat also decides to
make some positive life changes, including downsizing her weight. If this interests you there is a FREE
download book detailing Mary Pat’s diet with some inspirational tips offered at
the end of the book.
As a young girl I always
dreamed about writing and illustrating children’s books … and I did later write
some picture books with illustrations for my children to enjoy, which are still
in a drawer somewhere. … However, time slipped along with college, marriage,
children and work taking my time and energies. For pleasure and relaxation, however,
the books I read the most through high school, college, and my young adult
years were romance books, both contemporary and historical, many with a bit of
suspense and mystery tucked in….Those were always my favorites.
When my children were
grown and gone at mid life, my husband J.L. and I started hiking the trails in
the Smoky Mountains near our home. Soon we decided to work on a hiking
guidebook featuring our favorite trails, which took us much often to the
mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina as we explored trails all over the
Smokies. While out hiking we’d stop in small bookshops and
stores, and as an avid reader, I started looking for contemporary romance novels
set around the Smoky Mountains we were exploring. But I couldn’t find any. One
day I asked one of the store managers, “Don’t
you have any contemporary novels set here in the mountains—you know, a good
story with a little romance and mystery?” He shook his head. “ I wish I did. People ask for that kind of
book all the time. You’d think with the Smoky Mountains the most visited
national park in America that someone would write some.” … That seeded the
first thought in me to write books to meet that need. And one day when out on
the road, the idea for a series of romance books, with a bit of suspense tucked
in, simply dropped into my mind. I came
home and scribbled down my ideas, seeing how I could set each romance in a
different place in the Smoky Mountains, giving readers not only into a rich,
heart-warming story they would love to read but taking them to a real place in
the Smoky Mountains they might visit later. … With that idea bubbling, I began
to plot and plan my stories.
Later, with three books
completed and seeking a publisher, I connected with an imprint of Carolyn
Sakowski’s wonderful John F. Blair publishing company out of Winston Salem,
North Carolina. They were seeking a regional Appalachian romance series and
liked my books … so my publication journey began signing contract with that
imprint. My first book THE FOSTER GIRLS, set in Wears Valley, published in
2009, followed by books taking readers to Gatlinburg, Townsend, Cosby, Bryson
City, Maggie Valley, and more.
I wrote what I loved to read
and what I enjoyed reading myself, and hoped others might like my books, too—and
to my joy readers loved my Smoky Mountain stories. Even before all twelve of
the planned books were completed, fans began pushing for more, so on the advice
of my editor at Kensington at the time, Audrey LaFehr, I started a new series
of stories, The Mountain Home Books, to take readers to more places and
adventures around the mountains. HAPPY VALLEY, published last year, was the
first Mountain Home Book; DOWNSIZING is the second, and the third EIGHT AT THE
LAKE publishes next year.
In 2019, I also ventured away
from my Smoky Mountain branding … and took readers to our favorite beach
vacation spot with three books called The Edisto Trilogy…. I now have over
fifteen published romance books, a novella in one of Kensington’s Christmas
anthologies, plus three regional guidebooks co-authored with my
husband—including our hiking book The
Afternoon Hiker, that started it all.
I have a rich
imagination … and ideas just seem to flow out to me all the time for my books.
God is “the author of good ideas” and I know He helps me with every idea and
every story, too. … Reading an article in the newspaper or a magazine, hiking
up a mountain trail, exploring around the Smoky Mountains, or seeing a special
picture or scene often inspires a new idea for me. Good ideas just seem to be everywhere
waiting, and I find there are always more ideas than time!! I just finished
writing two new Mountain Home books in the last year … one set in Cherokee,
North Carolina, and the other in the charming small town of Waynesville, near
Asheville. Right now, as well, I am plotting a new beach series, too, that I’m
planning to call The Lighthouse Sisters.
I was a professor for
twenty years at Tusculum College, teaching a variety of psychology and research
courses. So often in my classes in Developmental Psychology, Adult Development
and Aging, Social Psychology, and my counseling classes, we looked at the
“myths” our society has programmed into us about aging. In 1935 when Social
Security was enacted, the average life expectancy for men was only 58 and for
women 62. Social Security was designed as a help, after the Great Depression,
for those who lived longer than expected. Today our average life expectancy is
at nearly 80 years and rising. We are living longer and living stronger. Yet,
those old “myths” about being over the hill at a much younger age still
prevail. … And they hold people back from pursuing a whole new “second
adulthood” after their mid years.
An old quote by an ancient
philosopher Hericlitus said: “The only
constant in life is change.”
Benjamin Franklin later added to that saying: “One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in
life.” There is a lot of truth in both. Our true character and grit—as well
as the strength of our faith—often shows up the clearest not in the easy times
but in the hard times. … As a psychologist, I’ve often talked with my students
about the “midlife crises” many men and woman pass through. Often in these
sometimes restless and evaluative years at midlife, people make life changes,
which can be good or bad.
Russell Latham, Mary Pat’s husband,
made some impulsive decisions at midlife that negatively impacted his marriage,
family, and future life. As he told Mary Pat, his wife of thirty-four years, he
wanted a change and more excitement. Also in an ugly tirade he tore Mary Pat up
critically with his words. Russell’s words and actions sent Mary Pat’s life
into a downward tailspin. She lost her home, she lost many of her friendships;
her children were angry with her, and she realized she hadn’t prepared in any
way over the years for any type of satisfying career. She’d let many of her old
dreams and goals slide away, and frankly she’d let her weight pile up, too.
Suddenly, hurt and disillusioned, she had to start all over again or simply stagnate
and wallow in her sorrows.
My own personal life was more like
Mary Pat’s mother. I always worked at various jobs around raising my children,
and as my faith grew … I felt very strongly that God had things he wanted to do
with my life. I always felt the tug to reach higher as if hearing the words of
Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you
plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Pat had to meet this
moment, too, from sheer necessity – and to decide on a new direction for her
life. As an author, I wanted her choices to reflect the choices we all have to
make in difficult times … and I wanted her to rally out of sorrow to make
strong positive choices and for her life to be an inspiration to others.
Every time in my life when I pushed
ahead or outside of the norm around me to start a home business when my kids
were small, to return to school at mid life, to work in a job that seemed above
my abilities, to begin to write books, to reach for a higher faith … I rarely
received encouragement and applause for my efforts. Until I succeeded. A great
quote I saw the other day said: “People
are going to talk about you, no matter what you do, so you might as well do
whatever brings you joy and live your best life.” It’s good advice.
Can you tell us a little bit more about Downsizing?
I loved working on this book and celebrating the strength of
women, their courage and power in facing hard times, their abilities to begin
again when life knocks them down in the dirt. I celebrate the philosophy that
when we face sorrows, hurts, and problems, that like the old song, we can
always try to, ‘pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again.’
Life is full of choices, every day. So many things we do or become
in life are a result of choices we make along life’s way. I would hope in
reading DOWNSIZING, besides being entertained with a good story, that people
would take away the concept that in every day they can make new choices and
chart new and positive directions for their lives. A Robin Sharma quote I love
says: “Change is hard at first, messy in
the middle, and gorgeous in the end.” Too often we give up if problems,
habits, attitudes, or other ways we are trying to change in prove hard. But we
need to always persevere and ‘let patience have her perfect work.’
To close I’d like to share this somewhat humorous story. In one of
my earlier books DELIA’S PLACE, I needed to “make up” a fictional devotional
guide for Delia and her cousin Hallie to use as they were trying to sort out
problems in their young lives. … Off the top of my head I created a devotional
and called it A JOURNEY OF WORDS. It was referred to several times in the book.
After DELIA’S PLACE published, readers began to email us and ask us at signing
events where they could buy the book … This went on for several years. At a
festival we were attending an older lady came up wanting the name and author of
that book. … “It’s not an actual book,”
J.L. explained. “Lin made it up for the
story.” … She put her hands on her hips and frowned. …”Well, that’s just mean.
I wanted to get several copies for Christmas gifts. It needs to be a book and
you need to write it.” And she stomped off.
An author friend at the table next to us laughed out loud and said, “I
think you guys need to write that devotional. That woman is the third person
who has asked for it today.”
Driving home when the subject came up, I told J.L., “It takes a
l-o-n-g time to write 365 devotionals, each like its own little story, prayed
over and thought over carefully, but if you’ll write half of it, we’ll do it.”
This fall J.L. and I finally finished that devotional, and A JOURNEY OF WORDS
should be published sometime in the next year or two! …. I can’t wait to see
that woman’s face when she sees it!
(1) winner will receive a Tennesee gift pack including a print copy of Downsizing by Lin Stepp, The Afternoon Hiker and Discovering Tennessee State Parks by J.L. & Lin Stepp, and a Great Smoky Mountains National Park pocket guide!
Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight April 5, 2021 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on April 12, 2021. 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 the policies found here.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
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Thank you for sharing! - JustRead Tours
ReplyDeleteThank you for spotlighting me on your blog!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for spotlighting my new book on your site. I enjoyed our interview, too. Wishing you blessings and a happy spring ...
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