Amanda Cabot’s dream of selling a book before her thirtieth birthday came true, and she’s now the author of more than thirty-five novels as well as eight novellas, four non-fiction books, and enough technical articles to cure insomnia in a medium-sized city. Her inspirational romances have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists, have garnered a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and have been nominated for the ACFW Carol, the HOLT Medallion, and the Booksellers Best awards. A popular workshop presenter, Amanda takes pleasure in helping other writers achieve their dreams of publication.
Visit Amanda Cabot online
A Tender Hope
As far as Thea Michener is concerned, it's time for a change. With her husband murdered and her much-anticipated baby stillborn, there is nothing left for her in Ladreville. Having accepted a position as Cimarron Creek's midwife, she has no intention of remarrying and trying for another child. So when a handsome Texas Ranger appears on her doorstep with an abandoned baby, Thea isn't sure her heart can take it. Ranger Jackson Guthrie isn't concerned only with the baby's welfare. He's been looking for Thea, convinced that her late husband was part of the gang that killed his brother. But it soon becomes clear that the situation is far more complicated than he anticipated--and he'll need Thea's help if he's ever to find the justice he seeks. Amanda Cabot invites readers back to Cimarron Creek for a tender story of loss, betrayal, and love in the majestic Texas Hill Country.
- ISBN: 0-8007-2758-4
- Publisher: Revell Books
Interview with Amanda Cabot
The Power of God’s Love
For a woman who spent most of her life in Information Technology and working as a director of IT, Amanda Cabot made a significant switch when she started writing historical novels. From technical programming and writing to creative writing and fictionalizing stories. There isn’t much call for authentic details of technology in the 19th century, but that hasn’t stopped Amanda from being fastidious in bringing the realities and struggles of the past to life for those of us living in present-day society.
And just because technology doesn’t make a big appearance in historical novels, that doesn’t mean Amanda hasn’t found a way to weave some of the experience of her former life in IT into her novels. In fact, she had a lot of fun giving the heroine of At Bluebonnet Lake (the first of her contemporary Texas Crossroads trilogy) some technical challenges, like dealing with dial-up connections. We all can relate to connection issues of some sort, can’t we? Especially when we’re trying to take care of things and check off items on our to-do lists.
A significant change Amanda has seen in her life as a novelist for more than fifteen years is how critical technology is to the success of an author. She might not utilize the public WiFi connections in a coffee shop, and her experience in IT might result in her backing up her files multiple times for fear of losing important documents, but she also sees the benefit technology can bring. For example, when she first started writing, she spent a lot of time doing book signings and scheduling in-person appearances to connect with her readers. Today, she utilizes social media a lot more than she ever expected. “I miss the connections I formed with readers when we met in person, but I enjoy the fact that I can now interact with people from many different states and countries.” This global connection makes the audience for receiving the message of God’s love much more widespread, providing an even greater mission field.
Although Amanda has written both contemporary and historical, the historical setting holds a special place in her heart. She thinks this might be minimally tied to her love for longer, more eloquent sentences. “You can blame that on the years I studied Latin as a junior/senior in high school.” Other authors have told her it’s because she was born in the wrong century and is a nineteenth century person at heart. “I like bringing the nineteenth century to life for modern readers. I enjoy writing about the more formal lifestyle and what seems to have been a simpler time, although it wasn’t necessarily an easier one.” Sometimes, taking the modern-day distractions out of the picture can help showcase the true struggles of life and demonstrate the parallels of the lives lived in the past with the lives many live today. We can see truth is truth, no matter the century.
One of those truths is the healing power of love, the underlying theme in all of Amanda’s books. This includes both God’s agape love as well as the love between a man and a woman. For her most recent release, A Tender Hope, she adds in a theme on the true meaning of family and the love each of the members of a family has for the others. Amanda believes if she’s done her job well, when readers finish one of her novels, they will have seen the power of God’s love in her characters’ lives. She tries not to be preachy, and many reviews of her books attest to her success in that regard. She wants readers to see how faith influences our lives, providing the strength we lack on our own, and giving us hope when life seems bleak.
Amanda also has another personal theme which applies to every one of her novels. “I agonize over each story, trying to make the characters come alive for my readers, showing how they overcome obstacles, and how they find their happily-ever-after even when it seems impossible.”
This is an easier task when writing novellas or e-shorts, but it becomes a laborious effort when writing the longer novels and trilogies for which Amanda is known. The biggest differences for her are the length and the complexity of the plots. She strives to give readers the same emotional connection to her characters as they’d find in full-length novels. Writing a novella, though, means there are fewer detours along the route to happily-ever-after and fewer secondary characters than in the longer stories.
Both full-length and novella are fun to write, but Amanda prefers the series writing most. “I love being able to create a fictional town and spend several years in it, getting to know the residents, watching the town grow, and beginning to feel as if I was part of the town. I also love giving the main characters of one book cameo roles in subsequent ones so that readers have a continuing connection to them. The only problem is I become very attached to my towns and their residents and hate to leave them when the series is finished.” As readers, don’t we all feel that way when we get immersed in the setting of a series and fall in love with the characters? We gravitate toward those books with the same level of desire we have for breathing.
Amanda does the same thing. Right now, she is reading Almost Home by Valerie Fraser Luesse, Far Side of the Sea by Kate Breslin, and Elizabeth Camden’s A Desperate Hope. But in addition to reading and writing being essential parts of her life, she also enjoys sewing her own clothes and dressing dolls for the local women’s shelter. During the week, she often takes road trips with her husband. “As often as I can, I schedule a car trip with my husband to explore parts of Wyoming and surrounding states. It’s wonderful to be able to travel when sites are less crowded.”
One of these trips will include a visit to the Greek islands. Although that goes well beyond a road trip or day trip, it’s a dream of Amanda’s to get there. She also wants to paint a portrait—even though she’s certain it will be dreadful—and learn how to make a souffle that doesn’t fall. We all have dreams and desires we want to achieve. Amanda always dreamed of being an author, even though she spent a full career in IT before that dream became a reality.
In parting, Amanda would like to speak to anyone else who has that writing dream. “For every writer out there, who has experienced rejection and is considering abandoning the dream of becoming a published author, don’t give up. Believe in yourself. Keep trying.”
Yes, believe in yourself, and believe in the power of God’s love to help you achieve your dreams. If you want to see God’s love showcased in the stories of others, pick up one of Amanda Cabot’s books today. Her latest novel, A Tender Hope, the third in her Cimarron Creek series, is linked with this article. Happy reading!
_______________________________________
Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having an active imagination and a flair for the dramatic. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning author and speaker who works in the health & wellness and personal development industries, helping others become their best from the inside out. She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, in Colorado. They have a daughter and son, and a Shiba Inu-mix named Nova. She has sold over 20 books so far, three of which have won annual reader's choice awards. She is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. www.amberstockton.com.
For a woman who spent most of her life in Information Technology and working as a director of IT, Amanda Cabot made a significant switch when she started writing historical novels. From technical programming and writing to creative writing and fictionalizing stories. There isn’t much call for authentic details of technology in the 19th century, but that hasn’t stopped Amanda from being fastidious in bringing the realities and struggles of the past to life for those of us living in present-day society.
And just because technology doesn’t make a big appearance in historical novels, that doesn’t mean Amanda hasn’t found a way to weave some of the experience of her former life in IT into her novels. In fact, she had a lot of fun giving the heroine of At Bluebonnet Lake (the first of her contemporary Texas Crossroads trilogy) some technical challenges, like dealing with dial-up connections. We all can relate to connection issues of some sort, can’t we? Especially when we’re trying to take care of things and check off items on our to-do lists.
A significant change Amanda has seen in her life as a novelist for more than fifteen years is how critical technology is to the success of an author. She might not utilize the public WiFi connections in a coffee shop, and her experience in IT might result in her backing up her files multiple times for fear of losing important documents, but she also sees the benefit technology can bring. For example, when she first started writing, she spent a lot of time doing book signings and scheduling in-person appearances to connect with her readers. Today, she utilizes social media a lot more than she ever expected. “I miss the connections I formed with readers when we met in person, but I enjoy the fact that I can now interact with people from many different states and countries.” This global connection makes the audience for receiving the message of God’s love much more widespread, providing an even greater mission field.
Although Amanda has written both contemporary and historical, the historical setting holds a special place in her heart. She thinks this might be minimally tied to her love for longer, more eloquent sentences. “You can blame that on the years I studied Latin as a junior/senior in high school.” Other authors have told her it’s because she was born in the wrong century and is a nineteenth century person at heart. “I like bringing the nineteenth century to life for modern readers. I enjoy writing about the more formal lifestyle and what seems to have been a simpler time, although it wasn’t necessarily an easier one.” Sometimes, taking the modern-day distractions out of the picture can help showcase the true struggles of life and demonstrate the parallels of the lives lived in the past with the lives many live today. We can see truth is truth, no matter the century.
One of those truths is the healing power of love, the underlying theme in all of Amanda’s books. This includes both God’s agape love as well as the love between a man and a woman. For her most recent release, A Tender Hope, she adds in a theme on the true meaning of family and the love each of the members of a family has for the others. Amanda believes if she’s done her job well, when readers finish one of her novels, they will have seen the power of God’s love in her characters’ lives. She tries not to be preachy, and many reviews of her books attest to her success in that regard. She wants readers to see how faith influences our lives, providing the strength we lack on our own, and giving us hope when life seems bleak.
Amanda also has another personal theme which applies to every one of her novels. “I agonize over each story, trying to make the characters come alive for my readers, showing how they overcome obstacles, and how they find their happily-ever-after even when it seems impossible.”
This is an easier task when writing novellas or e-shorts, but it becomes a laborious effort when writing the longer novels and trilogies for which Amanda is known. The biggest differences for her are the length and the complexity of the plots. She strives to give readers the same emotional connection to her characters as they’d find in full-length novels. Writing a novella, though, means there are fewer detours along the route to happily-ever-after and fewer secondary characters than in the longer stories.
Both full-length and novella are fun to write, but Amanda prefers the series writing most. “I love being able to create a fictional town and spend several years in it, getting to know the residents, watching the town grow, and beginning to feel as if I was part of the town. I also love giving the main characters of one book cameo roles in subsequent ones so that readers have a continuing connection to them. The only problem is I become very attached to my towns and their residents and hate to leave them when the series is finished.” As readers, don’t we all feel that way when we get immersed in the setting of a series and fall in love with the characters? We gravitate toward those books with the same level of desire we have for breathing.
Amanda does the same thing. Right now, she is reading Almost Home by Valerie Fraser Luesse, Far Side of the Sea by Kate Breslin, and Elizabeth Camden’s A Desperate Hope. But in addition to reading and writing being essential parts of her life, she also enjoys sewing her own clothes and dressing dolls for the local women’s shelter. During the week, she often takes road trips with her husband. “As often as I can, I schedule a car trip with my husband to explore parts of Wyoming and surrounding states. It’s wonderful to be able to travel when sites are less crowded.”
One of these trips will include a visit to the Greek islands. Although that goes well beyond a road trip or day trip, it’s a dream of Amanda’s to get there. She also wants to paint a portrait—even though she’s certain it will be dreadful—and learn how to make a souffle that doesn’t fall. We all have dreams and desires we want to achieve. Amanda always dreamed of being an author, even though she spent a full career in IT before that dream became a reality.
In parting, Amanda would like to speak to anyone else who has that writing dream. “For every writer out there, who has experienced rejection and is considering abandoning the dream of becoming a published author, don’t give up. Believe in yourself. Keep trying.”
Yes, believe in yourself, and believe in the power of God’s love to help you achieve your dreams. If you want to see God’s love showcased in the stories of others, pick up one of Amanda Cabot’s books today. Her latest novel, A Tender Hope, the third in her Cimarron Creek series, is linked with this article. Happy reading!
_______________________________________
Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having an active imagination and a flair for the dramatic. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning author and speaker who works in the health & wellness and personal development industries, helping others become their best from the inside out. She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, in Colorado. They have a daughter and son, and a Shiba Inu-mix named Nova. She has sold over 20 books so far, three of which have won annual reader's choice awards. She is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. www.amberstockton.com.
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