Author Guest Post - Donna VanLiere (& a Giveaway - closed)

CONGRATS TO LUCKY WINNERS – DARCY & DAVID!

 

Readers, please join me in once again welcoming Donna VanLiere, author of The Christmas Secret who’s guest blogging here today! You can read a previous Q&A with Donna here.

The Christmas Secret (304p, St.Martins Press), introduces readers to Christine Eisley, a hard-working single mother of two young children. With a difficult ex-husband, a stressful waitressing job and an ever growing mound of bills to pay, Christine is at her wit’s end. After saving the life of an elderly employee of Wilson’s department store, she sets into motion a series of events that will test her strength, loyalty and determination — all the while setting her on the path to finding true love….

I have three children (8, 6 and 3) but I am not a single mother. I have a husband who helps me juggle the busyness. During that week here or there when he goes out of town and I’m left to make breakfast, pack lunches, drive the kids to school, work, buy groceries, do laundry, mow the yard, pick the kids up from school, make dinner, clean up, drive to piano lesson, help with homework and get them all in bed without losing my mind or driving them out of theirs I wonder how a single mother juggles everything in a given day! I ended up in the ER late one night this week (my first visit in ten years so I’m not a regular.) My husband stayed home as the children slept and I thought of those single mothers—what happens when they get so sick that they have to go the ER in the middle of the night? Who takes care of their kids? What happens when they have a migraine or the flu and just need to stay in bed for the day? I’m convinced there are no easy answers for those mothers.

The Christmas Secret, the fifth novel in The Christmas Hope series, is my tribute to single moms. I have close friends who are single mothers as well as my sister. They are able to juggle children, work, and even night classes without spousal support. There’s no reality show that focuses on their lives but I believe single mothers have the hardest job on earth. It is thankless, frustrating, challenging, difficult, and exhausting but according to my friend who is raising two boys alone, the most rewarding job on earth. In The Christmas Secret Christine Eisley works hard to keep her kids fed and her ex-husband off her back. I’ve already heard from early readers of the book who have said, “That guy is just like my ex-husband!” Christine waits tables to pay the bills and keep her children fed but always feels inadequate. She doesn’t realize that she is everything they need but is the first to point out that she’s nothing without them. It’s a fine emotional line she walks and her moods range from joy to frustration in one breath (I know from experience that these are the same moods for married mothers, too!) When Christine helps an elderly woman in distress she jeopardizes her job and is soon threatened with another round of custody tug-of-war by the ex. She encounters one roadblock after another and learns that sometimes we need help moving those boulders in the road. Hers is a journey that’s probably much like yours because every life is made up of summer and winter days, right?

For the remainder of this day I need to volunteer at the kids’ school, take my youngest for his flu shot, grocery shop, call the insurance company, call the tree guy to come remove the dead oak, make dinner, clean up, finish the laundry, help with homework and get all three of them bathed and in bed. Unlike a single mother, I’m not doing all that alone. I have help. I don’t know how single moms do it all and keep their sanity but hope I’ve brought some portion of their world to life in the pages of The Christmas Secret.

I so know what you mean, Donna. I’ve often thought that myself, and wondered how those courageous single parents manage when it so hard to manage with both parents present. They’re truly worthy of praise!

GIVEAWAY

The Prize

A copy of this book will go to TWO lucky readers. 

To Enter
Leave your recommendation of any book about a single parent which has touched your heart. [Other than Donna VanLiere’s books, that is!]

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Deadline   Midnight CST of January 9, 2009.

Eligibility  US & Canada only.

Please read the Disclaimer. Good luck!

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