Shannon here: Historical romance author, Anne Baxter Campbell shares insight into her real life romance and her characters’ romance, plus a chance to win a copy of her latest release, Marcus Varitor, Centurion (Book 2 in the Truth Trilogy). Comment on this post to enter the drawing for a copy. Deadline: April 12th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Anne:
Romance isn’t just for the young folks.
I was fifty-two when God let me know in no uncertain terms He wanted me to move away from my beloved Phoenix, Arizona. I suspected for some time this might happen—my job was running out, and our office was downsizing. I didn’t want to move. I even bought a house to prove it. Besides a church full of precious friends and the Toastmaster bunch that I also loved, my sons lived in Phoenix. I wanted to stay, and I fought valiantly to do just that.
I attended a Bible study at my church, and each day’s lesson was followed by the question, “What does God want you to learn from this lesson?” Each time I would pray and ask. His answer was always the same: “Do you trust Me?”
My answer was always the same: “Of course I do.” Eventually I answered, “Yes, Lord, I will trust You.” A lot humbler and even more worried.
His next question: “Even if I ask you to move?”
I cried until I thought my eyes would run out of liquid and finally answered yes.
That week at work, my section boss came around asking if any of us would be willing to move to California. They were looking for Engineering Techs there. If so, we should fill out this form and take it to Mr. Anderson.
Obedient child of God that I am, I threw it in the trash. However, by the end of the day God had worked on me enough that I pulled it out, filled it out, and took it to Mr. Anderson. It wasn’t long before I received a phone call from my future boss, Lauren Carly. A few months later, here I was, wondering why.
I had been attending a church there for about five months when a man showed up who hadn’t been there in well over a year. Jack Campbell, a widower, hadn’t been attending since his wife’s death. Sitting there alone was way too painful for him. Eventually, though, he began to feel the strong need to come back and did. His wife’s best friend introduced us.
Not long afterward, we started sort of dating casually. Both of us were also dating others, and both of us thought the age difference (14 years) might be too much for more than friendship. We had a lot of common interests, though, and we saw a lot of each other. Shortly after Valentine’s Day things came to a head. He told me he wanted to begin dating another woman exclusively. It was okay with me too, as I had arranged to meet one of my male friends after a training I was going to in the area where he lived.
But then, Jack asked for a goodbye kiss. Oh, goodness. Fireworks! I told him that was a lot more like a “well hello there!” kiss. A couple of weeks later, we both agreed to say so long to our other friends and to date each other exclusively. Not long after that, we were engaged, and in September we were married.
We’d been married almost a year and were planning our re-honeymoon trip when he decided we should renew our vows every year. We did, and we have. Twice on cruises, once in Hawaii, several times in a rental house in the Mendocino Coast area, and three times just restating to each other that we would do it again. I love him more today than the day we were married.
Yep. Romance is for old folks too.
- Do you and your spouse have a favorite romantic restaurant?
Really, we have several. Maybe our favorite is a place called “The Restaurant” (no I’m not kidding) in Ft. Bragg, California. Then there are two other places, The Ledford House and Little River Inn, also on the MendocinoCoast. The one closest to our home we like is The Maxwell Inn in Maxwell, CA.
- Do you and your spouse have a favorite romantic vacation destination?
We’ve been talking about another cruise. Who knows—maybe a cruise to Hawaii! Hubby doesn’t like air travel anymore, so that might be the only way we’ll ever get back there.
- Who is most romantic, you or your spouse?
Wow, tough call. I write romances, but he talks the talk better than I do.
- Where did you and your spouse go for your honeymoon?
We went to Mexico—Cancun and Cosumel. We went on a lobster cruise at sunset, a snorkeling cruise (which turned out to be a rather scary event but way too long to talk about here), and visited Chichaniza, and flew via a puddle hopper between those two cities. Not sure what was going on that flight deck, but I kept hearing the stall alarm going off when we were nowhere near the landing strip. I came down with a fever a couple of days before we were supposed to go back to the states, so we canceled one leg of our trip and came home a few days early. Still—very memorable and fun and romantic!
- Where do you dream of celebrating your wedding anniversary?
In Hawaii. We did that once, and it was the most beautiful re-upping we’ve had (we renew our vows every year). I want to do that again. We were at the Sheraton on Kawaii—can’t remember the name of the place. We had made arrangements with the hotel, but when we went to the desk to meet up with the minister, apparently he had forgotten—or maybe he had something urgent come up. We will never know. At any rate we had to wait for an hour or so for the hotel to find another minister. By the time he met us on the beach, it was sunset, and a crowd had gathered. We thought they had come to watch the setting sun, but when the minister gave us permission to kiss, the gathered crowd burst out in applause.
- Who said, “I love you” first, your hero or your heroine?
The heroine, but strictly by accident.
- If your hero and heroine end up married, where will they go on their honeymoon?
They didn’t have honeymoons back in Biblical times, but I can imagine them basking on the Mediterranean Coast, a mere three day journey from Jericho.
About Anne: Anne Baxter Campbell is a Christian, wife, mother, and grandmother with a passion to write, write, write. Learn more and connect: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnneBaxterCampbellAuthor?ref=hl, Twitter: @anne_baxter_c, Google Plus: Anne Baxter Campbell, LinkedIn: Anne Baxter Campbell, Blog: http://pewperspective.blogspot.com
About the book: Anne’s most recent release is Marcus Varitor, Centurion, a first century historical romance. The second in a series (The Truth Trilogy), Marcus begins where the previous in the series (The Roman’s Quest) left off. Julius had married Miriam and set off from Jericho to Caesarea. Marcus hoped to follow them–indeed, Julius had requested that his life-long friend would join him. However, Tribune Rufus teases Marcus with a promotion if he will bring the robber and murderer Barabbas to Jerusalem. Marcus is more than willing. He finds himself longing for two things–to become a centurion and to earn the love of the beautiful Egyptian slave, Meskhanet. Two problems: instead of capturing Barabbas, Marcus is instead captured; and Meskhanet doesn’t even know he exists.
Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Baxter-Campbell/e/B00G7RTTDO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Come back April 2nd for Mary Ellis!
Hi Shannon–thank you so very much for hosting me. You are such a peach!
~Anne
Hey Anne, great to have you. I’ll take the peach compliment. I lived in Georgia for five years.
Now I have to find the books, I missed the first one, can’t imagine how, hmm. Thank you for sharing.
I love this post. You never know when love is going to bloom and that is one of the beauties of love.
melback at cebridge dot net
I have a winner! Beverly Hibdon won the drawing. I appreciate Anne for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.