Give a lovely welcome to Kate on the Index!! Do you not want to steal this cover model’s ensemble for yourself? I do. I’m sure the story is as lovely as the outfit. Check out Kate’s answers to what you’ll find inside!

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Questions about Kate’s Story

What inspired this story?

During the WWI historical research for my last three novels, I read stories about women who stepped into jobs previously assigned to the men now fighting overseas, in order to keep the country running during the war. In particular, the courageous women working in the munitions industry, making shells, packing them with TNT, and making propellant for ammunition. Extremely dangerous work, but most of the women were patriots and their work literally changed the direction of the war for Britain toward victory. I’ve wanted to write about them, and As Dawn Breaks gave me that chance.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I wrote this novel during the outbreak of Covid-19, and the sudden quarantine that most of us experienced. My own family lives on the other side of the country and I wasn’t able to see them during this time, so writing about the fictional Baird family in my story and my heroine’s longing for a real home made it special for me. As if I had my family near me.

Did you include a real historical character or incident in your story?

I did include a real historical incident with a real British munitions factory in 1918, an event that changed the course of my heroine’s life.

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Questions about Kate’s Reading

	What was the last Christian Historical Novel you read, and what was your favorite thing about it? In Pieces by Rhonda Ortiz. So well-written and a beautiful love story. I read it this past July and I still think of it. I definitely recommend it!
	What Christian Historical Novel in your To Be Read pile is begging you to make time to plop down with it right now? A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano. I’ve read such great reviews about this book and I’m eager to start!

Kate is giving away  a signed paperback (USA Only). Enter the Rafflecopter below!

**If you don’t want to enter the Rafflecopter, tell me in a comment below: “I’m not entering the Rafflecopter, but please throw me in the hat” so I can manually put you in there for a chance.**

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Does this cover not lure you into the opulence of the Roaring Twenties and mystery? Though this is Patricia’s first novel, she’s not a stranger to being an author, and her use of Sherlock Holmes quotes has me intrigued! Welcome, Patricia, to the Index!

Colorado , Denver , Rocky Mountains , 1920s , 1900-1930 (US Early American), Roaring Twenties , Clergy, Teacher , Amateur Detective, Non-White Main Characters, Orphan/Loner , Mystery, Returning to Hometown, Upstairs/Downstairs , Racial Discrimination, Secrets , Raybon-Patricia

All That is Secret From award-winning author Patricia Raybon comes a compelling new historical mystery series, a riveting puzzle about a young Black theologian–and Sherlock fan–trying to solve her father’s cold-case murder in a city ruled by the KKK. It’s the winter of 1923 and Professor Annalee Spain―a clever but overworked theologian at a small Chicago Bible college–receives a cryptic telegram calling her home to Denver to solve the murder of her beloved but estranged father. For a young Black woman, searching for answers in a city ruled by the KKK could mean real danger. Still, with her literary hero Sherlock Holmes as inspiration, Annalee launches her hunt for clues, attracting two surprising allies: Eddie, a relentless young orphan boy searching for his missing father, and Jack, a handsome young pastor who loves nightclub dancing and fast cars–awakening Annalee’s heart to the surprising highs and lows of romance and love. With their help, Annalee follows clues that land her among Denver’s powerful elite. But when her sleuthing unravels sinister motives and long-buried lies, will clever Annalee become a victim, too?

Patricia’s Website

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Questions about Patricia’s Story

What inspired this story?

First, I love clergy mysteries—Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton, Grantchester, and the like. My hope was to introduce a faith character in Colorado—a beautiful “sunshine” place, and my home state, but during one of its darkest times, the 1920s. Good fiction needs a threat element, even if it’s only hovering in the background. So that’s how I used the Klan in my mystery. The story’s foreground centers not on the Klan, but on my lead character—a young Black theologian who’s a fan of Sherlock Holmes—whose amateur sleuthing to solve her father’s murder is impacted at every turn by the threat of the Klan. I hope it makes for good tension.

Which scene is your favorite, the one you never tired of working with? Give us a reason to look forward to it.

My lead character—the young theologian—has a love interest, a handsome young pastor. I loved writing their scenes together: their meet-cute, their facing danger together (as he teaches her to drive his car while they’re being shot at), their first kiss, big blowup argument, his coming to her rescue, their hopeful reconnection for the future (book 2). As I learned, the love archetype in a novel isn’t just for romance. The love archetype is a helping character—the person who cares more than anyone else about the well-being of the lead character, so he bends over backward to try to help her in ordinary life and in their adventure together. As it turns out, helping is a powerfully romantic thing to do.

In my real life, the day after I met a young man, he came over to my apartment to help repair the manifold on my car. A few months later, we were married—and we’ve been married now for forty-plus years. So I loved finding ways for my novel’s love interest to show help and concern—and I loved writing those scenes.

Were there any historical facts that you discovered in your research that made you change something in your story?

With regard to the Colorado Klan of the 1920s, the big surprise was how many white citizens actively resisted it. For research, I scoured countless historical newspapers from the Colorado Historic Newspapers site and listened to hours of oral histories available digitally from the Denver Public Library’s Digital Collections, both true treasures. Both shed light on “the story behind the story” of the Klan—that while it became a powerful political bloc in Colorado, with the state having the second-largest Klan membership per capita than any state in the US, with leaders from the Colorado governor to county sheriffs as dues-paying members, many ordinary Klan members felt pressure to join, ditching the organization the second it started to fall out of favor.

Opponents included prominent citizens, of course, but also countless nameless citizens who simply didn’t buy into the hype.

The whole Klan trajectory in Colorado teaches us about the mundane nature of homegrown hate and how it can take root—but also how good people help it die.

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Questions about Patricia’s Reading

What Christian Historical Novel did you reread last, and why did you reread it? My favorite goes way back. It’s Cry, the Beloved Country by South African writer Alan Paton, published in 1948 and an international bestseller. More recently, Oprah Winfrey picked it for her Oprah’s Book Club. It’s described on Amazon as “the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.” I’ve read it at least twice and plan to reread it again, hopefully within the next year. It’s stunning, heartbreaking yet hopeful, and truly beautiful.

What Christian Historical Novel taught you something about the craft of writing because it was so well done? Tell us a bit about what it taught you. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger is a stunning mystery about a pastor’s family caught up in a town’s need for redemption after a daughter goes missing and is found to be murdered. One reviewer called it “pitch-perfect” in every way.   Similar to Francine Rivers’s Redeeming Love (which gets mentioned a lot), Ordinary Grace taught me about possibility in fiction—that no subject was off-limits and that Christian historical fiction doesn’t have to be safe. Redeeming Love was the first Christian novel I ever read, and I remember thinking—as a woman of color and as a believer—if this is Christian fiction, the gloves are off. Surely I can write about race and faith in a novel. Her novel helped give me that permission. Ordinary Grace showed me that Christian fiction can aim for crossover appeal. I’m grateful for both of these works and I might not have written my novel without having read them.

Patricia is giving away a paperback, US entrants only. Enter the Rafflecopter below!

**If you don’t want to enter the Rafflecopter, tell me in a comment below: “I’m not entering the Rafflecopter, but please throw me in the hat” so I can manually put you in there for a chance.**

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The conclusion to Lori’s duology is here. Aren’t these floral covers pretty. I’m sure everyone who’s read the first book are eager to see a happily ever after…will these two find it–together? IF you haven’t read the first one, you’re in luck, this giveaway if for two lucky people to win BOTH books!

Welcome to the Index, Lori!

Other Books in this Series:

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Questions about Lori’s Story

What was the hardest part of your book to write? What did you enjoy most about writing the book?

The hardest aspect of writing Shiloh was also the one I most enjoyed—moving main characters Ian Cameron and Seona, along with several others from the first Kindred book, Mountain Laurel, from North Carolina to the village of Shiloh, the setting of my debut novel, Burning Sky, on the New York frontier. By doing so I was able to revisit the characters from that earlier novel twelve years beyond the point where it ended, as well as continuing Ian and Seona’s story begun in Mountain Laurel. Weaving those two story-worlds together was painstaking work, requiring many drafts of huge chunks of the book. While Shiloh is primarily a sequel to Mountain Laurel, I wanted to do more than give a few characters from Burning Sky a cameo appearance. I wanted them to be integral to the storyline without overshadowing Ian and Seona’s continuing journey. Being as close to both sets of characters as I naturally am as their creator, I’m thankful for my editing team at Tyndale for helping me find the right balance and a satisfying conclusion to multiple story threads. I couldn’t be more pleased or proud of how we pulled this off.

Did you include a real historical character or incident in your story?

I did, and he’s a gem of a character, too. Since it was partly Last of the Mohicans (the book and latest movie version) that ignited my interest in the New York frontier years ago, I was thrilled to discover that author James Fenimore Cooper had a father who was instrumental in settling vast tracts of the New York frontier during the 1790s, the time of Shiloh’s setting. William Cooper rose from a humble wheelwright to become a successful merchant, land speculator, and a politician. He founded Cooperstown in the 1780s and spent the next decades working to entice men to take up farms across the surrounding countryside and elsewhere in New York, including some tracts north of the Mohawk River. Because of a wonderful book called William Cooper’s Town by Alan Taylor it was possible to place the elder Cooper in the path of Ian Cameron when he was on the move north, in search of a new place to settle. And of course I couldn’t resist giving his inspiring author son, James, a cameo in the story, even though he was only a little boy at the time

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Questions about Lori’s Reading

What was the last Christian Historical Novel you read, and what was your favorite thing about it? Count the Nights by Stars by Michelle Shocklee, which doesn’t release until March 2022. I was able to read an early copy for endorsement and suggest readers pre-order this split-time novel set in Nashville, Tennessee during the 1960s and 1890s. I predict you’ll find it so suspenseful you won’t be able to put it down.

What Christian Historical Novel did you last personally recommend to someone and why did you recommend that one to them? I’m always recommending Laura Frantz’s historical novels to readers of my books looking for something similar. We’re both drawn to those 18th century frontier settings and Laura’s books are always so well written. An Uncommon Woman is one of my favorites.

Lori is giving away TWO SETS of this series in paperback, US entrants only. Enter the Rafflecopter below!

**If you don’t want to enter the Rafflecopter, tell me in a comment below: “I’m not entering the Rafflecopter, but please throw me in the hat” so I can manually put you in there for a chance.**

a Rafflecopter giveaway