Shannon here: Christine Lindsay shares how she met her husband plus an excerpt from her latest contemporary romance, Londonderry Dreaming. Comment on any post dated Feb 24 – 28 to win an e-book copy. Deadline: March 8th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Christine:
Christine Lindsay Meets Her Husband to be & Excerpt from Londonderry Dreaming
Come back with me to January 1981. I was twenty-two, and the two years previous, I had been pregnant out of wedlock, gone through the painful experience of relinquishing my first child to adoption, and was now trying to get on with my life.
I’d learned the hard way that life wasn’t worth living unless it was lived for the Lord. So, still suffering from the heartache of giving up my baby, I thought it would be a good idea to learn more from the Bible. I signed up for an evening course at a local Bible College.
Friends thought I would find this course on the Book of Acts a bore. Apparently the professor was a bit dry. But I was desperate for fresh encounters with God.
After finishing my workday at my secretarial position downtown, I took the bus to the college. Feeling lonely and a fish out of water among all the fulltime students, I bought my supper in the cafeteria.
It was a rush to get to class on time, but I hurried from the cafeteria building to where the class was being held. I dashed up the steps and had my hand on the door when I heard the sound of footsteps sprinting up behind me. The young man below, turned the corner of the staircase, joined me on the landing, and reached for the door handle to open the door for me.
It all happened so fast. But my gaze snagged on the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. Sky blue on a warm summer’s day. A dark, silky fringe of hair hung over his brows which his hand raked aside as he smiled.
The year before had devastated me. In the cafeteria I had felt years older than twenty-two. Now, I stood before a young man that made my heart trip over itself with just one look.
By the end of that semester we were engaged. David and I have been married for more than thirty-three years, and he is the inspiration behind every romantic character I write.
Romantic Excerpt from Londonderry Dreaming
Blowing wind and the keening of puffins and other seabirds were the only sounds.
At the bottom of the cliff the ground grew rough where the inlet opened up. Forty thousand, interlocking, basalt columns—the result of ancient volcanic eruptions—stood up from the crashing sea. A handful of tourists scampered from column to column that in all created a small hill.
Keith had eyes only for Naomi, standing with her hands tucked into her jacket pockets, her slender shape in faded jeans, her blond, chin-length hair kissing her cheeks. Without a word, he took her hand to help her climb over the columns to stand on one of the highest and closest to the ocean. Waves spewed upward as the surf surged and swirled around the causeway, and she released his hand to grab hold of him around the waist.
Laughter rippled from her as each wave hissed and lapped at the column.
“You remember the legend?” He wrapped his arms around her, clasping his hands at her back to hold her close.
“About Finn McCool’s fight with the Scottish giant across the sea who hurled an insult at the great Irish warrior?”
“Yeah, that’s the guy. Good old Finn McCool. Then the two giants picked up pieces of rock and started to pelt each other with great hunks of land. Thereby creating this fine piece of landscape we’re standing on. Nothing at all to do with any geological phenomenon.”
She laughed up at him, setting his heart to swell. “No of course not.”
He drew her closer so that his chin grazed her cheek, his voice going husky. He was going to take this moment no matter what. “Who cares about logical, scientific explanations when there’s a romantic legend instead?”
Her hands at the base of his spine opened up and flattened against his back. “There are times when logic should simply be ignored,” she whispered while lowering her lashes. Her eyes fluttered open. “Don’t you think?”
If he moved, lowered his head two inches, their lips would touch. This was what he wanted with all his heart.
Christine Lindsay was born in Ireland, and is proud of the fact that she was once patted on the head by Prince Philip when she was a baby. Her great grandfather, and her grandfather—yes father and son—were both riveters on the building of the Titanic. Tongue in cheek, Christine states that as a family they accept no responsibility for the sinking of that great ship.
It was stories of her ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India that inspired her multi-award-winning historical series Twilight of the British Raj—Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and soon to be released, Book 3 Veiled at Midnight.
Christine makes her home on the west coast of Canada with her husband and their grown up family. Her cat Scottie is chief editor on all Christine’s books.
Please drop by Christine’s blog site www.christinelindsay.org or follow her on Twitter and be her friend on Pinterest and Facebook
About the book – Londonderry Dreaming:
Acclaimed New York artist, Naomi Boyd, and music therapist, Keith Wilson, loved one another five years ago, until her grandfather with his influence over Naomi separated them.
That root of bitterness keeps them apart until a letter from Keith’s grandmother, Ruth, draws Naomi to Londonderry to find she’s too late. Ruth has passed on. After the death of his beloved grandmother, Keith has also come to Londonderry only to open the door to his past…Naomi…beautiful as ever, the girl who broke his heart.
A mysterious painting in Ruth’s attic brings up questions about their grandparents’ entwined past and their own broken romance. But more comfortable with the unspoken languages of art and music, Naomi and Keith find it difficult to share their old hurts and true feelings.
Will the majestic coastline of Northern Ireland inspire them to speak the words to bring peace to their grandparents’ memory and to rekindle love?
Purchase Links:
Londonderry Dreaming on Amazon
Captured by Moonlight on Amazon
Come back Feb 26th for Christine’s funny wedding story!
would love to win.
would love to win your book!
I loved hearing Christine’s story. I know her book would be wonderful.
thanks for the chance to read this novel 😉