Looking out the Window: LoRee Peery Talks about Her New Christmas Book, Christmas House, and Shares a Devotional Based on the Acronym F R E T. Giveaway.

 

A Warm Welcome to LoRee Peery

LoRee is offering a print copy of winner’s choice from her publication backlist. She will select the winner from comments left below. Be sure to leave your email address too. 

Hi LoRee, lots of writers loved to read as children. How about you? Were you an avid reader as a child? If so, what did you read?

I could read at age four and have devoured books ever since. Bobbsey Twins, Pollyanna, Nancy Drew, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, Zane Grey. I read every book on the shelves of our one-room country school. The year I turned ten, my family moved off the farm and into town. I wanted to live at the library.

Tell us about your latest book.

For some reason, I selected tough backstories for both my heroine and hero. Pepper Rainwater’s childhood is clear from the start. She grew up neglected in a storage unit. I don’t want to spoil the revealing of Foxx Haven’s surprise history.

What do you love about this book? And what do you hope readers will tell others about it?

It’s Christmas, what’s not to love? I hope readers see that past issues and upbringing can be overcome through the power and strength God gives us. He gives us a peace impossible to find in the world.

Do you put yourself in your books?

Since mine, and all authors, life perspective is unique, I can’t help but think self comes into the telling. For example, I love reading the love God shows for us in Psalm 139 and often have one character suggest verses to another.

What is the coolest, wackiest, most risk-taking thing you’ve ever done? 

My husband absolutely couldn’t believe it when I asked to go parasailing over Acapulco Bay. (I don’t swim.) I was strapped into a harness, unlike the “seat” common today. What an unforgettable thrill!

What would you be doing if you weren’t writing?

Number one would be piece quilting. I hope using the sewing machine is like riding a bike, and sewing comes back to me easily. I’d also do what I do in my leisure time now, read, color, read, work puzzles, read, play solitary word games, and read some more. Hubby does play one card game with me and we pass lots of hours doing that now.

 LoRee's Devotional - Fret, or Thrive?

Paul’s claim to contentment in Philippians 4:11 rears its head over and over about something that’s been going on in my life for a while now. Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

Recently, I read the acronym FRET: Fear, Resentment, Envy, Turmoil. Davalynn Spencer used it as an entry in her devotional "Always Before Me" that still resonates with me.

I have wanted to move off our acreage for six years, ever since it sunk in that we are too old to keep caring for this nature land that God blessed us with way, way back early in our marriage.

F is for fear. Fear that I will be left alone to empty out the buildings, take care of major things that have gone undone far too long.

R is for resentment. I’ve discussed this with my hubby and he says he understands. Over and over I’ve asked for forgiveness and keep falling back into old patterns.

E is for envy. Oh, my goodness, the beautiful townhomes and ranch dwellings we have toured over the past months. I have mentally planted my furnishings and seen us living in several.

T is for turmoil. Yup. And my guts, thanks to colitis, erupted in turmoil this past summer. I prefer the New American Standard Bible, which lists seven verses with the word turmoil–twice in Job, twice in Ezekiel, once in Proverbs, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.

Why do I get so worked up? Why can’t we agree on a townhome? (I would have moved right into several we’ve seen.) Why am I not seeking peace and accepting God’s timing?

My heart and head battle. I have been blessed abundantly by the nature that surrounds me. But this year I’ve barely been outside. I’ve gone out to pick up sticks after windstorms, but I’ve only weeded sporadically. My flowers have dried up due to lack of water. I still gazed at the calming blues and greens of summer, and gloried in the brilliance of fall.

I sought, and continue to seek the Psalms, such as 40:1. I waited patiently for the LORD; And He reached down to me and heard my cry. There are way too many verses that calm my soul, give me hope, and call me to thrive.

Thank you, Gail, for sharing your cyber spot with me today.

It’s my pleasure to have you.

About Christmas House

Pepper Rainwater has just bought the first real home she' s ever had, and she' s decorating and celebrating Christmas with everything she has. The neighbor' s miniature donkeys and meeting Foxx interrupt her life. Can she turn from all she' d been taught and trust strangers?

A startling discovery after his father' s death forces Foxx Haven to face an unknown past. His life has been a lie. He' s distracted from work for the first time— by his heritage and his new neighbor. Can he fight his attraction to an unbeliever and discover his new life chapter at the same time?

Miniature donkeys and learning about Christ have a profound impact on Pepper. But God has a mighty work to bring her hurting soul and Foxx' s new perspective into alignment. Can hope override hurting souls and enable a happily-ever-after?

Buy Christmas House on Amazon

Pelican Book Group

Barnes and Noble

Bookbub Christmas House (Christmas Holiday Extravaganza) by LoRee Peery - BookBub

Bio:

Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. Her Frivolities Series launched her releases, and the book based on her father’s unsolved homicide, Touches of Time, was a personal relief. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author.

Connect with LoRee  on her  Website

Facebook

Find her publications at Pelican

And Amazon