Spotlight: The Gift of a Child by Donna K. Weaver
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Award-winning author, wife, mother, grandmother, Harry Potter geek, Army veteran, karate black belt, and online gamer girl.
Recently widowed Rae Cavanaugh just survived the worst birthday of her life. She and her two young children must now face a holiday season filled with so many reminders of what they've lost.
But when a coworker who’s raising his young nephew moves next door, Rae discovers that the support of a good friend, and the gift of a child, can bring back some of the joy of the season.
**A Novelette**
Q&A With the Author:
1. Describe yourself in 50 words or less.
I'm a person who loves to see the good in people and firmly believes the world should be a better place because someone has lived.
2. What do you love most in the world?
Outside of religion, my family.
3. What inspired you to become an Author?
I've always had stories running through my head since I was a little girl. I didn't try putting any of them on paper--for real anyway--until my family was raised.
4. What is your favorite Winter / Holiday tradition?
Doing things together with the kids when they were young. We'd decorate the house (a lot) one week, and the tree the next week. We'd spend time baking goodies and then taking them around to friends and neighbors while caroling to them. We also used to pick a family in need (of love as well as stuff) and do the Twelve Days of Christmas as a ding-dong-ditch.
5. What is your trick for getting past writer's block? And what advice do you have for other authors who are struggling to tell their story?
Work on something else for a while. Or, if I'm pressed for time, it can be fun to write something where the characters do something ridiculous that you'd never include in the story. It can be funny and lighten things up and free the muse.
6. Now that we've gotten to know each other, tell me a story. It can be long or short. From your childhood or last week. Funny, sad, or somewhere in between. Just make sure it's yours. What's your story?
This book, The Gift of a Child, is very much a part of me. While it's only inspired by real events, I really did:
1. Lose my first husband when I was 26
2. Have 2 young children to raise
3. Experience a dismal birthday that just happened to fall on the 2-month anniversary of my husband's death have a son who did what Preston did.
There are hints of a possible romance in this story, and there will be a full-length novel to follow. I'm working on it right now, as a matter of fact. The romance is totally fiction. For me, that happened a few years later.
