Gail Kittleson is an author on the move! Her contribution of “The Shepherd” in Little CAB Press’s Christmas Story Collection was the kind of story which brings a lump in your throat and a tear to your eye!
We loved working with Gail on our Christmas Collection and recently, we caught up with Gail to see what she’s been up to since Christmas and found she’s published another novel- In Times Like These! Congratulations to Gail!
What Gail has to say about the publication of her new novel:
It’s fun that my latest novel released in spring, just as Iowa’s frigid April gave way to a more pleasant May. For several weeks, my husband and I watched a little cardinal couple in our back yard await their hatchlings in our back yard. And then all of a sudden, three little mouths searched for sustenance.
A day or so later, actually on our thirty-eighth wedding anniversary, my first boxes of books arrived. LIke a birth in many ways–my heroine, a World War II young Iowa farm wife, awaits peace in her home like the mama cardinal looked forward to her baby chicks.
But with her husband’s fury at the draft board’s rejection and his natural sullen nature, finding that peace may take longer than World War II. The letters she receives from London see her through a bitter cold winter, and when her father-in-law dies, her mother-in-law emerges from grief with a taste for joy. Addie’s down the road neighbor Jane shares her pithy philosophy of life along with flower starts for Addie’s garden, and every day brings new blossoms to cheer her.
Many women face a long, uphill climb to find their voices, believe in themselves, and claim their God-given place in this world. I’m so glad to send Addie out to readers–may you enjoy her love of life, cheer her on in her challenges, and resonate to her growth in understanding and faith.
A little about In Times Like These:
Pearl Harbor attacked! The United States is at war.
But Addie fights her own battles on the Iowa home front. Her controlling husband Harold vents his rage on her when his father’s stoke prevents him from joining the military. He degrades Addie, ridicules her productive victory garden, and even labels her childlessness as God’s punishment.
When he manipulates his way into a military unit bound for Normandy, Addie learns that her best friend Kate’s pilot husband has died on a mission, leaving her stranded in London in desperate straits.
Will Addie find a way to help Kate, and courage to trust God with her future?
An excerpt from In Times Like These:
The lamb, pink-nosed and healthy looking, snuggled into the crook of his arm. Not far away lay a motionless wooly gray mound—the mother. Addie bit her top lip. This loss would trouble Harold, but at least he saved the orphan.
Sleep mellowed the harsh lines of his face. In this quiet moment, he seemed like a little boy, and Addie imagined away the years.
“Oh, Harold . . . this is who you really are.” On a crossbeam, a barn swallow’s forked tail flicked in its cup-shaped mud nest.
“You’re as headstrong as Orville and as tight-lipped as Berthea, but I know you’re hurting for Joe, somewhere out there in the Pacific.”
A bitter draught razed the dusky alleyway, stirring the tight scent of oats in feeding troughs, a tinge of blood and water from the birthing, and the warm, acrid aroma of fresh manure. So far, the cold restrained the dead ewe’s rancid smell, but by morning, the stench would permeate the building. Harold shifted against the bale and snored, so Addie set the thermos near him and backed away.
“He might not hold me like he does that lamb, but he’s consumed by the war. He can’t think of anything else but Joe going down on the Arizona.” Her bulky chore coat caught on a splinter, so she wrestled it loose. “In time, he’s bound to change. Doesn’t love believe the best and never give up?”
Her whisper bounced back at her. She wanted to help him to bed, but knew better. No, until the old Harold returned, she’d bide her time and practice her own kind of loyalty.
Purchase In Times Like These-
A little about Gail:
Gail Kittleson taught college expository writing and ESL. She now writes women’s fiction and facilitates writing workshops and women’s retreats. She and her husband enjoy family in northern Iowa, and the Arizona Ponderosa forest in winter.
WhiteFire Publishing released Gail’s memoir, Catching Up With Daylight, in 2013, and her debut women’s historical fiction, In This Together (Wild Rose Press/Vintage Imprint) released in 2015. She also contributed to the Little Cab Press 2015 Christmas Anthology,
The first novel of her World War II series released recently (In Times Like These), and Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas will release the sequel in February, 2017. You can count on Gail’s heroines to make do with what life hands them, and to overcome great odds.
Gail’s links:
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