A Spot of Story | Episode 8 | Behind the Book: A Heart to Treasure with Dienece Darling

Nov 1, 2025 | Behind the Book | 2 comments

A Spot of Story | Episode 8 | Behind the Book: A Heart to Treasure with Dienece Darling

A Heart to Treasure by Dienece Darling

Episode 8

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Listen In

Below, you’ll find the full transcript of today’s episode, in case you prefer to read or want to reference something we talked about.

About A Heart to Treasure

The vicar’s son and the draper’s daughter have fought against all odds to be together, but a storm is coming. One that will shatter everything.

Life hasn’t been easy for Obadiah Howard, especially after that misstep at Oxford which nearly obliterated his chances of joining the church. Added to that, he fell in love with the draper’s daughter. But a miracle revived his dreams of having a curacy and his strict father allowed his betrothal to Miss Hill. Only, what if there was no miracle? What if all of Obadiah’s bright future is built on a lie?

Eliza Hill never expected a gentleman to pay her court, let alone ask for her hand in marriage. With their wedding day less than a fortnight away, life is an impossible dream come true. Although, it would be nice if Obadiah called her Eliza instead of the more genteel Elisabeth, and she finds the rigors of acting like a perfect lady stifling. But, surely, being married to the man she loves will be worth wearing a mask for the rest of her life.

When the fierce storms of life break over their world, the cracks in their relationship don’t just show. They shatter. Can two hearts torn apart by pride find their way back to each other?

In this Broader Regency, reverse rags-to-riches, interclass romance novella, you’ll find faith, a clean and wholesome romance, and a happy ending. While this book doesn’t feature Jane Austen, it is set the year she turned 19. Ever wonder what England was like when Austen was a teen? Read a Heart to Treasure to find out!

About Dienece Darling

Multi-Award Finalist, Dienece Darling is a former Georgia Belle and missionary’s kid who calls Australia home these days with her Aussie husband and two sons. Her first name is a variant spelling of Denise.

As a teen, Dienece would greet the dawn with a paperback in hand, but she constrains herself now to eBooks and the more respectable hour of midnight. Her eyes and pocketbook might be grateful for the invention of eBooks, but Dienece still loves a good paperback whenever possible. Libraries are one of her favourite places to visit. Who doesn’t want to be surrounded by books?

Dienece writes first-person inspirational historical romance and was a finalist in the ACFW First Impressions Contest 2023, the Florida West Coast Writers Competition 2023, and the CALEB Award 2022.

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Transcript

Danielle Grandinetti: [00:00:00] Welcome to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. Cozy up with your favorite beverage as we chat about sweet romance, thrilling suspense, and fascinating history. Perhaps you’ll find your next read in one of these stories.

On this episode of A Spot of Story, I’m chatting with Dienece Darling, a former Georgian Bell turned Aussie. Dienece Darling loves writing Christian historical fiction and reading paperbacks whenever she can.

Dienece Darling, I’m so excited to have you here today.

Dienece Darling: Thank you for having me.

Danielle Grandinetti: You’re welcome. Dienece is all the way in Australia. So the time difference between the two of us—we are actually talking on two separate days, which I think is just so cool. [00:01:00]

Dienece Darling: Yes, it gets a little bit tricky sometimes, but—

Danielle Grandinetti: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, as my blog is all about helping readers find new authors, and so it’s all about bringing readers together, I love to start with a question about you as a reader. What are you currently reading right now?

Dienece Darling: Well, I’m in between fiction books. I just finished an ebook, and I tend to have a lot of books going at once. The ebook I just finished was In the Shadows of Sacrifice by Heather Taber. When you sign up to her newsletter, you get that book. I just finished that one. The paperback I just finished was A Scheming in Parliament by Erica Vetsch [affiliate]. But what I’m currently reading right now, since I haven’t picked up another fiction, is actually nonfiction. I’m reading Defiance: The Life and Choices of Lady Anne Bernard by Steven Taylor. It’s a resource for a possibility of what I might [00:02:00] be writing next year.

Danielle Grandinetti: Ooh, that sounds fun. I love it. Well, before we get into next year’s book, let’s talk about this year’s book. Tell me about A Heart to Treasure.

Dienece Darling: So we have a clergyman’s son, and we have a draper’s daughter. They met when he needed a new change of clothes and came into the shop, and she was in the middle of trying to rescue a stray cat that had wandered in. She gets stuck because her ladder falls, and she gets stuck, and he helps her down, and then he helps rescue the cat. And that’s where they meet. And even though he gets his new change of clothes, he keeps showing up at the shop because he wants to see her. But they’ve had quite a few bumps along the road. He’s known from the day he met her that he wanted to marry her, but she’s not a lady, and his father’s very strict. So he has been trying to figure out a way to [00:03:00] convince his dad to let them get married. A Heart to Treasure [affiliate] starts less than two weeks before their wedding, but things are still not quite smooth sailing yet.

So there’s “Are we going to actually get married on the day we’re supposed to be getting married, or is something gonna happen?”

Danielle Grandinetti: Ooh—what? Well, I want to say intrigue, but intrigue sounds like suspense. But the “is it gonna happen?”

Dienece Darling: Well, this time there’s a little bit of intrigue in this book. I don’t typically write that one, but this one does actually have a little intrigue—who did it, what happened—a bit more tense.

Danielle Grandinetti: So, what does a day in the life of your characters look like?

Dienece Darling: Well, both of them are in the middle of a transition. So not only are they about to get married and things are going to change, but both of them—she used to be a draper’s, she used to work at Dad’s drapery. Now that she’s going to marry a gentleman, everybody tells her she has to stop being a common shopkeeper, and she has to start being a lady. And she doesn’t [00:04:00] like it. She hates sewing, and she hates sitting, and she hates being still. And who wants to talk to a former shopkeeper’s daughter? “Nobody does. I don’t get visitors, and I don’t have anybody to visit ’cause all of my friends are doing what I used to do.” So she’s frustrated. “I love Obadiah, but I don’t really like the fact that I’m going to be a lady.” She’s still trying to figure out her place in the world and what she’s going to do as a lady.

Both of them are in little towns just outside of Canterbury, but there’s not a lot to do there for ladies. And my particular character, Eliza, does not like the quietness. She wants to do stuff, and she loves numbers, and she misses being a part of the accounts, and she misses all the action. So she’s still trying to figure out her place in the world.

And Obadiah is also a little bit stuck. He’s just about to take orders and join the church, but he’s currently at odds with God. “I really thought God wanted me to do this, and things went bad,” and [00:05:00] so he’s frustrated. “If you asked me to do this, God, why did it all go wrong?” And so he’s not doing what he used to do, which—he used to spend a lot more time in prayer and in Bible study because he belongs to the Methodist Society, which at this point is still in the Church of England. They’re just about to split, but they haven’t split yet. But they’re still within the Church of England, and they had a lot of methods—that’s why they’re called Methodists—a lot of reading the Bible, a lot of praying. And he used to do all those things before he got mad at God.

So he is currently trying to figure out what he’s up to, because he is about to join the church, but he is kind of not talking to God, which makes things a little bit interesting. So how do you preach if you’re not so sure you’re happy with God right this present moment? But he is still trying to figure himself out.

But he also has a secret that he doesn’t think anybody knows: he has a forge out in the middle [00:06:00] of the forest. Blea—where he lives—is right near the Blea, is what it’s called. It’s a great big forest, and he loves going out there and making metal sculptures. But there are only two people that he knows of who know, but there’s actually somebody else. He just doesn’t know that they know.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, this is sounding like an interesting story.

Dienece Darling: Yes. That’s his day. He is definitely a gentleman of leisure. “There’s nothing to do because I used to talk to God, and I don’t talk to God anymore. I’m about to join the church, but I haven’t actually joined the church yet.” But what he does tend to do is make metal sculpture. So that’s about all he has to do at the present moment while he’s figuring himself out.

Danielle Grandinetti: Love it. Love that.

So, with all of these really fun little moments, what was your favorite scene to write, and why?

Dienece Darling: My favorite bit that is still mostly intact of what I first wrote down is—because, as a writer, you’ll know that they change—but this one’s pretty much close to what I originally wrote: an [00:07:00] apology letter. So, Obadiah stuffs up. He stuffs up royally, and he needs to write an apology letter. And it was just one morning during my writing sessions with my writing group—I sat, and I wrote an apology letter. Both of them—he had to write two. And, yes, those were my favorite moments. I don’t know why—it all just came right out, and I haven’t changed much of it since. It was like, “Nope, that was it.” That’s awesome. And I don’t know why—I really enjoyed writing that apology. I did.

Danielle Grandinetti: I love that. It’s awesome. It sounds like there’s just a lot of history—you’ve kind of touched on it a little bit. What was some of your favorite, unique research that you had to do for this particular story?

Dienece Darling: Well, this one’s really tricky ’cause it’s set in the 1790s, when—for context—Jane Austen is just coming into society. So they’re used to Jane Austen in Regency [00:08:00] when she was in her thirties, forties. But this is Jane Austen when she was in her teens and early twenties. So what was England like? And most people don’t write about what was England like when the Regency fashions were just being invented—where were the sleeve lengths, where were the waists? Was it the empire waist yet? Was it not the empire waist yet? And that was really tricky to try and find. I needed a lot of Georgian books, a lot of Regency books, a couple of Jane Austen’s letters. Most of those don’t start, I think, till 1796, and that’s two years after my book. But it could still give me a little bit of insight—what was the mindset, what were the fashions? ’Cause they changed like the wind. Through the 1790s, everybody was inventing this and inventing that.

And I thought, “Why not write about what it was like in England when Jane Austen was making her debut, not when she was middle-aged and, you know, an old maid [00:09:00] not gonna be able to do anything anymore? Let’s write about what it was like when it all started.” But it was very hard to find research for that.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, yes. I can imagine. I can imagine. So what was a bit of research that you didn’t get to include in the story?

Dienece Darling: That would be the jail. So—another intrigue part—someone ends up in jail. You just don’t get to find out who. But I was doing so much research, and it was so exciting. I actually found reports from the jail at Canterbury of someone from the time. I had to combine two, ’cause the first report was 1784 and the second report was 1812. And I’m like, “I’ve gotta figure out the commonalities.” You’ve gotta work on the wording of, “Okay, this just said it was only just put in, so obviously it wouldn’t be there in 1790,” but you’re working it out and figuring out and going through. Somebody did a walkthrough of the jail so I could try and see, “Okay, what does it look like in there?” And [00:10:00] the only problem was there are only two scenes in there. So, as much as you want to talk about all the stuff that you learned about the jail and what their food rations were and who they used to hire to get their food and all these fun stuff, they don’t end up in the book, because it wouldn’t make sense if they were in the book. It’s really frustrating because I’m like, “Oh, it was so cool.” I mean, the one who wrote the report in 1812—he was ranting about the conditions in the jail. And because he was ranting about it—he was really miffed about how terrible it was—there’s so much information about what it was like and the conditions and what they did and didn’t have. And I’m like, “This was so cool,” and I can only use little bits of it. So that’s what didn’t all make it in the [00:11:00] book.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, yes. That’s why I love asking that question, because so often there’s this nugget that’s so cool. And I love learning what those things are.

Dienece Darling: I’ll try and include a link somewhere. I usually put stuff on my blog to talk about the things that I don’t get to talk about in the book. So I put that at the end of my book in my author’s note: “If you want to know more about it, click on this,” and these will be all the little blogs about things I learned and things I studied.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, great idea.

Dienece Darling: You can read about it in the blog.

Danielle Grandinetti: You can still learn about it. That’s awesome. That is awesome. So, backing up a little bit—what was the inspiration behind this story? Why this story?

Dienece Darling: Yes. So initially I had planned on writing the story when the Methodists split from the Church of England. And it was because I’d gone through a church split, and it was a [00:12:00] really, really painful time, and I could see—going afterwards—I could see, “Okay, what did I do that didn’t help?”

Danielle Grandinetti: Right. We’re all humans.

Dienece Darling: We’re all human. What did I do that didn’t help? And I thought, “Well, wouldn’t it be fun if I had one person think that you ought to split from England and another person think you shouldn’t?” But as the story progressed, I realized that that wasn’t the story that God wanted me to tell. And so I do still have my characters on the opposite side of an issue, but it’s not the church split in this particular instance. But that was the original inspiration. It was a way of working out the pain that I felt when this happened. And it still talks about that pain whenever something falls apart. “What did I do? What could I have done better?” And the regret that you have for the decisions that you made.

Danielle Grandinetti: That actually kind of leads into one of our last questions: what encouragement do you hope readers [00:13:00] will take away from your story?

Dienece Darling: The theme of the book is “Honor thy father.” And so I work—there are a lot of issues in the book—but “Honor thy father” covers a couple of things. So, with Eliza, she has a good father who makes a terrible mistake. And with Obadiah, he has a bad father. And how do you honor them? So with Eliza—how do you honor a father that you’re really, really mad at at the present moment? And for Obadiah—how do you honor a father that’s not acting honorably?

And, lastly, it ties into “Honor thy heavenly Father” as well. So, in amongst all your trials and what’s going on—how do you honor Him? And remembering—for Eliza, one of her lessons is she’s so used to being comfortable with her father that she takes everything to her heavenly Father without realizing that her heavenly Father—while she [00:14:00] has freedom to go—He’s still worthy of her honor. And she needs to learn how to honor her heavenly Father instead of just rail at Him. And for Obadiah, it’s that issue that he’s still starting from the start of the book—that old issue from long before. “Why did You do that?”

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes. These sound like—the way you talk about them—the story sounds so real. The characters and the things that they deal with are such everyday things that modern people still wrestle with, even though the story is set, you know, 200 years ago.

Dienece Darling: Yeah. I’m terrible at math—sure.

Danielle Grandinetti: A while ago—way back.

Dienece Darling: That’s what I like to write about. I like to write—even though it’s escapism, you get the whole “what was it like back then”—the issues that they deal with. I prefer writing something that I’ve dealt with myself. [00:15:00] And people are people, no matter how long ago they lived. And so that’s what I like to write about—something that you can walk away with today that’s still something you need some help with today. And some encouragement to think about it.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yeah. Right, right. I love that. That’s really, really great. Really great.

Well, Dienece, thank you so much for joining me today. If my readers want to find you online—find those blog resources that you mentioned—where can they find you?

Dienece Darling: Well, it helps if you know how to spell my name, ’cause as long as you can spell my name, you will find me. So my name is spelled D-I-E-N-E-C-E, then it’s “Darling” as in “sweetheart.” ’Cause I know some people always ask me—for some reason, I think I pronounce it funny—and they’re like, “What last name are you saying?” “Darling—the sweetheart.” The “darling.” That’s me. You can find me at dienecedarling.com. That’ll have all of my links [00:16:00] on it, as well as my blogs. You can also find me on Facebook, Dienece Darling, Author. I’m also on Instagram and on X as well. Okay? So that’s where I am, and you can find me and find my little bits to see what I’m up to.

Danielle Grandinetti: Wonderful. Wonderful. Yay. Thank you, Dienece.

Dienece Darling: And my newsletter, of course, has all of my extra—

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, fun.

Dienece Darling: They actually—a couple of my subscribers—named characters in my book this time, ’cause I had a—I have characters tell me what their names are going to be. So I had a whole bunch of people write in, and I went, “You know, everybody that sent a suggestion—your name is in the book somewhere.”

Danielle Grandinetti: I need to go join your newsletter because that sounds really cool. I think I’m going to have to go pick up the book, ’cause I am extremely intrigued right now. Thank you, Dienece, for joining us today.

Dienece Darling: Thank you so much for having me.

Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you for listening to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. We hope you enjoyed today’s [00:17:00] conversation. Let us know by leaving a comment below and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Discover more information about today’s book by visiting A Spot of Story online at daniellegrandinetti.com/podcast.

Happy reading.

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A Spot of Story | Episode 6 | Behind the Book: Meringue Melody with Lori Soard

Oct 4, 2025 | Behind the Book | 0 comments

A Spot of Story | Episode 6 | Behind the Book: Meringue Melody with Lori Soard

Meringue Melody

Episode 6

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Listen In

Below, you’ll find the full transcript of today’s episode, in case you prefer to read or want to reference something we talked about.

About Meringue Melody

Silent dreams, seaside hymns, and a daring choice … one Maine tea room offers a purpose far sweeter than fame.

In the waning days of the Roaring 20s, Melody Harper feels out of step with her pastor father’s stern household, where music is frivolous and dreams are foolish. She longs for a place to belong. When a letter arrives from her late mother’s sister inviting her to work at Aunt Delia’s Tea Room in Portland, Maine, Melody dares to dream of a new beginning far different than everything she’s ever known.

At the seaside tea room, Melody discovers the music of God’s love is more beautiful than any hymn or instrument. When she glimpses a handsome boatbuilder, his devotion to his crew and his dog calls to her, making her wonder what else God might have planned for her life.

With each passing day, Melody’s voice grows stronger and her heart more hopeful. She keeps her mother’s favorite hymn tucked inside her locket because it feels like a roadmap for living the kind of life she desires.

Outside of the safe bubble of her upbringing, not everyone is as welcoming as Aunt Delia. Violet Black, a high-society local beauty, has designs on Calder, and she’ll stop at nothing to get him, including offering a young outsider a deal that she surely can’t refuse. Melody has everything she ever wanted within her reach, but at a cost that could silence her very soul.

She followed the song in her heart—but to keep her voice, she’ll have to choose what truly matters.

A touch of fairy tale, a spoonful of history, and a teacup of hope.
Meringue Melody is a stand-alone novel in the Apron Strings Tea Tales multi-author series, and a 1920s historical romance retelling of “The Little Mermaid.”

About Lori Soard

Lori Soard has a PhD in Journalism and Creative Writing, but she’s hardly the stuffy professor type. She loves nothing better than a good romantic comedy and thinks the good guy should always win and the ending should always be happy.

From an early age, Lori started honing her story telling skills. As a kid she was rarely seen without a book in her hand, even walking and reading at the same time. Her first stories were about the world around her. At twenty she wrote her first novel, which she admits was horrible. At twenty-one, she sold her first article to a local newspaper. Once she got that taste of having others read her work and realizing that she could reach others and touch their hearts, there was no turning back for this natural born writer.

“If I can make someone’s day just a tiny bit better,” Lori says, “if I can make them smile even though they are sad, make them think things could be better, make them understand how much God loves them, then I have accomplished something. I write my stories, articles and books with that one person in mind who really needs the message. If I can change one person’s perspective, then I’ve succeeded.”

Lori is a life-long Hoosier and lives in southern Indiana with her high school sweetheart turned husband. They have two grown daughters and two granddaughters. She always has a her critters surrounding her, including a couple of miniature dachshunds and several rescue cats. “During the extreme low points in life, it has been my animals that have seen me through. There is nothing like the deep devotion of a dog or the unconditional love of a cat.” Lori adores animals and while some of her dear friends have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge she will always stand by her belief that animals make the world a better place.

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Transcript

Welcome to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. Cozy up with your favorite beverage as we chat about sweet romance, thrilling suspense, and fascinating history. Perhaps you’ll find your next read in one of these stories.

Danielle Grandinetti: On this episode of A Spot of Story, I’m chatting with Lori Soard about Meringue Melody, the first book in the brand new Apron Strings Tea Tale Series.

What’s fun about this one is that I’m also a fellow author in this multi-author series, so I am excited to talk with Lori today. Lori, welcome.

Lori Soard: Hey, thanks for having me.

Danielle Grandinetti: You’re welcome. So Lori Soard is a lifelong Hoosier and lives in southern Indiana with her high school sweetheart turned [00:01:00] husband. They have two grown daughters and two granddaughters.

She always has her critters surrounding her, including a couple of miniature dachshunds and several rescue cats. During the extreme low points in life, it has been her animals that have seen her through. There is nothing like the deep devotion of a dog or the unconditional love of a cat. Lori adores animals, and while some of her dear friends have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, she’ll always stand by her belief that animals make the world a better place.

I love that, Lori.

Lori Soard: I love my critters. They just make life better.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Lori, we’re gonna be talking about Meringue Melody today. But before we get started, the podcast is all about bringing readers together. So I’d love to know what you’re currently reading.

Lori Soard: So it might kind of surprise you, because I mostly write romance, but I only read a little bit of romance.

I try to support my fellow authors in the [00:02:00] multiple author series and stuff. But I’m actually reading a nonfiction book and I have to look at the title ’cause I keep forgetting what it is. But it’s basically about finding your purpose in life and finding that niche for yourself.

Like why are we here? What is the big—it’s called Nine Steps to Build a Life of Meaning.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, I like that.

Lori Soard: Yeah. And it’s by, I think, Rick Walker, but I’m not halfway into it. And it just really digs into everything from the little things you do in life—are you really using your time effectively?

You know, if you’re sitting, scrolling social media all the time, right? I mean, I think we’re all that sometimes. Are you really using your time where our time here is a wisp? I’m enjoying it, but yeah, that’s what I’m reading right now. That’s probably not what you were expecting, but…

Danielle Grandinetti: But that’s why I [00:03:00] like asking the question. Because you never know, and it helps us get to know you better.

All right, so turning to Meringue Melody, tell me a little bit about the story.

Lori Soard: Okay, so I love this story. It is based on—it’s inspired by The Little Mermaid. It’s not The Little Mermaid, there’s not a mermaid in it, but it follows the wanting to be part of a different world, longing for something different than what you have.

It’s set in 1928 in Portland, Maine, and I’ve just had so much fun researching Portland. All about it. But the story follows Melody, and she goes from her little town in Indiana with a pastor father who’s very strict on her. And she goes and stays with her aunt who owns a tea room—which is the thread that ties all the stories together.

The aunt owns a tea room [00:04:00] in Portland.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, that’s gonna be so fun. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Lori Soard: Yeah, and I think people will see elements of The Little Mermaid. Some of it comes inspired by the original fairytale, which did not have a happy ending. Mine has a happy ending.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, yes, absolutely.

So what was your favorite scene to write in the story so far, and why?

Lori Soard: Oh gosh. I think the one where she first sees the hero. He’s a boat builder, and she sees him on a boat with his dog. He loves animals. And she just sees how he’s interacting with other people, and it lights that spark.

They haven’t even met yet, but it lights that spark in her that she’s interested in what kind of person he is, and she sees something special about him.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, I love that. I love that. So you mentioned research into Portland. [00:05:00] What was a bit of the unique research that was required to write the story?

Lori Soard: I think what was so difficult—there’s tons of research out there about what Portland’s like right now, it’s a pretty big city. Tons of stuff. But what was it like in 1928? That’s really different than what it is like in 2025. It’s been almost a hundred years.

I found a book. I was so excited. It has all these old pictures of Portland through the years. A lot of them are fifties, sixties, but there were some gems in there that were from the twenties and even the thirties. So I was able to just pull out details about what buildings looked like.

This book doesn’t release until October 14th. So what I’m doing right now is going back and adding some of these little details. I left it a little general ’cause I wasn’t a hundred percent sure and I didn’t wanna write anything incorrect. And that has been so much fun.

And then the other part was, what was [00:06:00] shipbuilding like in 1928? Because that’s the hero’s profession. It was different. It was a time when the world was really starting to change. They were building more steel ships. So I had to figure out how to factor that in. Was it a smaller boat builder? Was it a larger one? A lot of those companies changed around the time my story was set.

So I worked that in a little bit—how things are changing and where’s the future gonna go with the family company. I liked it. I just found it fascinating.

Danielle Grandinetti: That’s one of my favorite questions to ask—the research that goes into these stories.

Lori Soard: And I’m sure you know what I mean, ’cause you write in the 1930s. You probably do the same thing and just start digging into those tiny little details.

Danielle Grandinetti: They’re fascinating. Which brings me to the next question. What is a piece of research that didn’t get included that you wish you could have?

Lori Soard: [00:07:00] Oh, that is a tough one. I’ve done a lot of research about the Maine coast. I have been to Maine before, but not Portland. So I did a lot of research on what it looks like.

I didn’t include a lot of that. I just kind of gave a general description to set the tone. But I could have gone on and on about how gorgeous the Maine coast is, and it’s just so different than other areas on the east coast.

Danielle Grandinetti: Maine is one of the states I have not been to yet. I’ve been to more than half, but I have not made it to Maine yet. And it is high on my bucket list.

Lori Soard: It’s been many years since I was there. I was a kid. My dad used to take us on three-week road trips every summer, all over the United States. So I have been there, it’s just been a while.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yep. Yes, indeed. So what was the inspiration behind this story?

Lori Soard: [00:08:00] Being part of the series, we each picked a fairytale. I got invited into the series kind of late. There weren’t a lot of fairytales left, and I had choices between The Little Mermaid and—I don’t remember what the other ones were.

But I’ve always loved The Little Mermaid story, so I said, sure, I can do that. That was the initial inspiration. Then I kept thinking: okay, what is the main thing about Ariel other than being a mermaid? What’s her main character trait? It’s that she wants something other than what she has. She longs for a change, something more.

So that led me to: what kind of character in the 1920s would long for something more? And it just kept morphing from there.

Danielle Grandinetti: I love that. I love that—those little seeds of an idea that build into a whole new story.

What encouragement do you hope your readers will take away from this story?

Lori Soard: I’m a [00:09:00] Christian woman, and before I ever start any book, I always say a prayer and ask God, help me reach that one person You want me to reach. Help me give them a message, a line in the book that encourages them, that maybe makes them see God differently.

If they’re not a Christian, or if they’re a Christian and they’re discouraged, may it encourage them. Let it help them take a breath through something they’re going through. So that’s what I hope. Even if just one reader walks away feeling encouraged after reading it, then I’ll feel like my job was done.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yeah. I love that. I love that. It’s that note of hope and being heard in your story.

Lori Soard: Right? I think the world needs that right now. We’re in dark times and people need that encouragement and the knowing that God has a plan. Even when things are hard, [00:10:00] He has the final say in how things turn out.

Danielle Grandinetti: I feel like the twenties and thirties are the perfect backdrop to show that because of how difficult and hard things were, and getting ready to be.

Lori Soard: Heading into the Great Depression, society was changing a lot back then. So it is a really good time period to hone in on God’s love for us. And I hope that’s the message people get from the book.

Danielle Grandinetti: I love that. I love that.

All right. Well, thank you, Lori, for joining me today. If readers want to find this book or find you online, where is the best place for them to go?

Lori Soard: Well, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I enjoyed this. So my books are on Amazon. They can find me on there. The last name’s spelled S-O-A-R-D. I also have a website, lorisoard.com, where they can learn more about the books and about me.

Danielle Grandinetti: And I will [00:11:00] link to those in the show notes on my blog post page. So if readers don’t want to Google it, they can just go to my website and I’ll link straight to you.

Lori Soard: Awesome. Awesome.

Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you, Lori. This has been such fun to talk about Meringue Melody, and I can’t wait to read it. It’ll be fun.

Lori Soard: I’m looking forward to your book, too, in this series.

Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you. Thank you. I think we’re tag-teaming—I’m number two.

Lori Soard: Oh, are we?

Danielle Grandinetti: So that’ll be fun, kicking off the series.

Well, thank you, Lori.

Lori Soard: Thank you.

Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you for listening to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. We hope you enjoyed today’s conversation. Let us know by leaving a comment below and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Discover more information about today’s book by visiting A Spot of Story online at daniellegrandinetti.com/podcast.

Happy reading.

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I’d love to hear what resonated with you about this book — feel free to leave a comment. I always reply, though if it’s your first time posting I’ll need to approve it before it appears.

And if you’d like to support my blog and help keep it free, you can always buy me a tea.

Ciao, and thanks for visiting!

Until next time, may your reading bring both light and encouragement.

Happy reading!
~ Danielle.

A Spot of Story | Episode 4 | Beyond the Book: The Sweetheart Deal by Lenora Worth

Sep 6, 2025 | Behind the Book | 0 comments

A Spot of Story | Episode 4 | Beyond the Book: The Sweetheart Deal by Lenora Worth

Beyond the Book: The Sweetheart Deal

Episode 0

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Below, you’ll find the full transcript of today’s episode, in case you prefer to read or want to reference something we talked about.

About The Sweetheart Deal

“One day I’m going to marry you…”

Jake Harper had said those words to Vanessa Conroy since kindergarten, but after watching her parents’ bitter divorce and living with her mother’s devastation, Vanessa made a promise to herself—she’s never getting married. She’ll stay single and pursue her dream of being a ready-to-wear fashion designer.

In high school, Vanessa dated and broke up with every bad boy in the book, while Jake remained her consistent buddy. He was her wingman, her best friend, her go-to person for special occasions, but she held him at a distance. Why ruin a wonderful friendship?

On the night of their final prom, Jake takes a risk and kisses her. Stunned by how right it feels, Vanessa rashly blurts out a deal: if they’re still single at thirty, maybe she’ll marry him.

Now, thirteen years later, they’re back in Sweetheart Bay to be part of her sister’s wedding. And they’re both still single at thirty. Vanessa begins to see Jake in a new, more romantic light, but Jake, a successful architect living in California, hasn’t said a word about their old pact.

As family drama bubbles and old feelings resurface, Vanessa must face the one possibility she’s always run from: what if her true love has been standing beside her all along? Can she and Jake find their happily-ever-after back on Sweetheart Bay?

About Lenora Worth

A member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Honor Roll, Lenora Worth writes romance and romantic suspense for Love Inspired, sweet romance for Tule Publishing, and single-title Amish stories for Kensington Books. Three of her books finaled in the ACFW Carol Awards, and she received the Romantic Times Pioneer Award for Inspirational Fiction. Lenora is a NY Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and ECPA bestselling writer and a 2019 RWA RITA® Finalist. With one-hundred-plus books and novellas published and over 5.3 million books in print, she enjoys adventures with her retired husband and loves reading, baking, and shopping … especially shoe shopping.

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Transcript

On this episode of A Spot of Story, I am chatting with Lenora Worth. Lenora is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Honor Roll. Lenora writes romance and romantic suspense for Love Inspired, sweet romance for Tule Publishing, and single-title Amish stories for Kensington Books. Three of her books finaled in the ACFW Carol Awards and she received the Romantic Times Pioneer Award for [00:01:00] inspirational fiction.

Lenora is a New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and ECPA bestselling writer. That’s a lot of them. That’s awesome. And 2019 RWA Rita finalist. With 100 plus books and novellas published and 5.3 million books in print, she enjoys adventures with her retired husband and loves reading, baking, and shopping, especially shoe shopping.

Lenora Worth: That’s right.

Danielle Grandinetti: And this particular podcast is gonna talk about a book that will add to that bio, your first independently published book.

Lenora Worth: That’s right.

Danielle Grandinetti: All right. What is the title of this independently published book?

Lenora Worth: It is The Sweetheart Deal.

Danielle Grandinetti: The Sweetheart Deal. Before we start talking about The Sweetheart Deal, though, I love to ask a question because at the end of the day, books is what brings us all together, and like you said, reading is just as much fun as writing these [00:02:00] books.

So what are you currently reading?

Lenora Worth: Well, I’m currently reading, I, I’ve got one in every room, but I got a lot going on. I’m reading The Island Bookshop (affiliate) by Roseanna White because I admire her work. I’m reading a Charles Martin (affiliate) book because I admire his work. And I think I just finished, oh, a Laura Blount (affiliate). One of her wonderful Love Inspired stories. But right now I’m trying to stick to Roseanna’s and just read hers because it’s really good.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, I just got that one in the mail, so I’m excited to read that one too.

Lenora Worth: Yes. I love it. And it’s a real book. It’s not on my Kindle, so that’s even more fun.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, yes. And it has that beachy cover.

Lenora Worth: Yes.

Danielle Grandinetti: Which kind of brings us to your book then, because yours is also the end-of-summer sweet romance read. I’m excited about it.

Lenora Worth: I am too.

Danielle Grandinetti: All [00:03:00] right, so The Sweetheart Deal. What does a day in the life of your main character look like? First tell us her name and then.

Lenora Worth: Well, Jake and Vanessa, they grew up on Sweetheart Bay in Florida, which is where I live. And so it’s based loosely around Destin, and I had so much fun with that. And they have known each other since kindergarten, but they come home for a wedding as adults, so they’ve got a lot of wedding duties.

She’s a maid of honor. He’s the best man, and they’re forced back together. And they realize that as adults, they’re a little shy about how they feel about each other, because he’s always been her best buddy. But she wouldn’t let it go any further for various reasons that we’ll get into later. But anyway, that’s what they’re doing right now in the book.

They’re trying to take care of her sister’s wedding. Her sister’s younger than [00:04:00] her and she’s aware that everybody knows that and her sister’s getting married before she does. So it’s, you know, they’re a little awkward around each other, but they have a whole week or so to get to know each other again.

And promises have been made that they might have to keep.

Danielle Grandinetti: Ooh, that’s always fun. What is your favorite scene in the book, and why was it your favorite to write?

Lenora Worth: I had several favorite scenes, but the one I loved the most was when they finally see each other again as adults because they’ve kind of made a pact that if they’re still single when they’re 30, she will marry him because he has wanted her to marry him since kindergarten, and he has made that very clear.

But now that she’s interested, he’s kind of backed off because he doesn’t want to scare her. And as an adult, he’s matured enough to know that he shouldn’t have pushed her so much when they were [00:05:00] younger. Her parents got a horrible divorce and she never quite got over that, so she doesn’t believe in marriage anymore.

And just when she sees him, they act, they bump into each other and she feels kind of a jolt and like, oh. He looks great. Oh, now that she’s kind of interested, he’s trying to back off and it was a cute moment where they were both kind of awkward and I loved how we all reacted to it.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, yes, yes.

Oh, those are fun. What is some unique research that you had to do for this particular book?

Lenora Worth: There were two unique things. First of all, I had to research wedding etiquette, which is—oh my goodness. I’m glad I eloped. But that was fun. I had to come up with the perfect wedding cake because it wanted to be a beachy cake.

[00:06:00] And I had a lot of help with that, just researching and I got hungry.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yeah, seriously.

Lenora Worth: And there’s a really funny scene about the wedding cake. Well, two. One’s funny, one’s not so funny. And then her father becomes ill. And I had to do a lot of research. I won’t say what happens, but I had to do a lot of research on, in the medical system, you know, what would happen if this happened.

And so I preferred the cake scenes more than the medical scenes, but that was fun.

Danielle Grandinetti: Good. Awesome. So what is one piece of research that didn’t end up making it in the book?

Lenora Worth: You know, I think it all ended up there. I got a little, you know, I had to be a little technical with the medical stuff and I didn’t go into all the graphics of what would happen if this happened, but most of the cake scenes went in there too.

So yeah, they really, they really came in handy and I did a lot of research on both of them.

Danielle Grandinetti: That’s awesome. I know research, you can sometimes go down a rabbit hole and find something really fun. So getting to use it all.

Lenora Worth: They were used.

Danielle Grandinetti: That’s awesome.

Lenora Worth: Put in the book.

Danielle Grandinetti: So. This is gonna be a twofold question.

Lenora Worth: Okay.

Danielle Grandinetti: What was the inspiration behind the book and the inspiration behind making this one your first independently published book?

Lenora Worth: Well, the book, the idea came to me when I had joined up for this big indie promo thing on Facebook. And I realized after signing up that it was supposed to be a novella and I wanted it to be a beach book.

And I came up with this idea because I live in Florida, and I thought, well, if it’s gonna be a beach book, you know, I’ll just put [00:08:00] it in this novella collection. But I realized at the time I had too many deadlines and we were getting prepared to move again, and I just couldn’t go through with it. So I dropped out of that.

So fast forward and I decided, you know, I’m gonna try indie and I thought what would be a good book to start? And I remembered The Sweetheart Deal, the little novella that I had started. So I pulled it out. I worked on the first three chapters for about three months. And I’d just gotten that perfected to put in Atticus and somehow I lost it before I saved it. And I couldn’t—we, we, nobody could find it. I couldn’t, Atticus couldn’t. And because I deleted it before I saved it. So, but I had a copy, you know, saved on my computer. So got that fixed and got over the agony of that. I started rewriting it in January [00:09:00] and it took me till probably May to finish it. And I just really, the more I got into it, it was a time when I was struggling with just writing every day anyway. So by the time I got into it really deeply, I really had fallen in love with the book and I was determined I was going to finish it, whether it never saw the light of day or just.

But then I thought, you know, this is perfect for my first indie book, because I have two other quirky ideas like this that I think I can turn it into a series in the same community that’s on the bay and near the beach and near the Gulf. And have fun with that too.

Danielle Grandinetti: Ooh, exciting. Yeah, I love that. It’s so fun.

Lenora Worth: Well, you know, that is a good question. When I first started out, I thought it was gonna be a rom-com type, you know, just fun book. And the more I wrote, the more it [00:10:00] got kind of serious and I thought, okay, this is classic.

What I’ve written all my life is sweet, cozy romance, and that’s what I’ve written for Love Inspired for 30 years and for Tule and, and you know, even with my Amish books, they’re just sweet romance. And so I thought, you know, I’m just gonna go with it and we’ll turn it into a—it’s got funny moments and it’s got sad moments and.

Them reuniting with each other was such a joy that I hope first it will encourage people to never give up on their faith. Keep the faith because it does have a little bit of a faith thread. And then second, don’t—you can fall in love without losing control of yourself and your life.

If you find the right person to love you, that person will let you be yourself. And [00:11:00] I think that’s the important takeaways. Never give up hope or faith and never think that if you do this thing, you’re gonna lose control of that thing. You have to compromise and make life work and you can be happy.

And have a happily ever after.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, I love that. I love that. And happily ever afters are just the best.

Lenora Worth: Oh, yes. That’s a given, you know?

Danielle Grandinetti: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Well, Lenora, thank you so much for joining me today. It was so fun and I’m so excited about this book. I have gotten to hear the progress along the way, so I am, I’m excited.

Lenora Worth: More than you wanna hear.

Danielle Grandinetti: No, not at all. It’s been fun. I can’t wait to actually hold it in my hands now though.

Lenora Worth: Me too. I’m so excited.

Danielle Grandinetti: Which means where can other readers find this book (affiliate)?

Lenora Worth: Well, whenever it gets out there, which we hope it will—it will be in [00:12:00] Amazon for a while and I hope to have print copies available.

And we might go wide with it a little later, but Kindle and hopefully print copies I hope to have by, you know, the fall, the end of summer. So, if all goes well and I don’t mess everything up.

Danielle Grandinetti: Yes, I’m sure it’ll be great.

Lenora Worth: We’ll see. And I’m really excited and I really hope that my readers are very loyal and I hope they’ll buy this one and give it a chance.

Danielle Grandinetti: Absolutely. I’m excited about it.

Lenora Worth: I am too. And thank you for having me. Lemme talk about it.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, absolutely. So, if they want to find your other books, all a hundred plus of them, where can they find you online?

Lenora Worth: Well, we just redid my website so they can find them in all their glorious color and titles. And on my new website, which it’ll be still lenoraworth.com. And it’ll be in the same location, but all they gotta do is Google or look for lenoraworth.com. But we’re moving it this week, setting it up. So yes, new start there too. New and fresh. And I hope this book by the end of summer will be right up front.

Danielle Grandinetti: Perfect. Perfect.

Thank you so much, Lenora. This has been so much fun.

Lenora Worth: Thank you, Danielle. You’re a sweetie and I appreciate you thinking of me.

Danielle Grandinetti: Thank you for listening to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. We hope you enjoy today’s conversation. Let us know by leaving a comment below and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Discover more information about today’s book by visiting A Spot of Story online at daniellegrandinetti.com/podcast.

Happy reading.

Visit A Spot of Story Podcast Home Page

Share the Tea

I’d love to hear what resonated with you about this book — feel free to leave a comment. I always reply, though if it’s your first time posting I’ll need to approve it before it appears.

And if you’d like to support my blog and help keep it free, you can always buy me a tea.

Ciao, and thanks for visiting!

Until next time, may your reading bring both light and encouragement.

Happy reading!
~ Danielle.

Episode 1 | Behind the Book | The Lady’s Companion by Anna Jensen

Aug 2, 2025 | Behind the Book | 0 comments

Episode 1 | Behind the Book | The Lady’s Companion by Anna Jensen

Behind the Book: The Lady’s Companion by Anna Jensen

Episode 1

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Below, you’ll find the full transcript of today’s episode, in case you prefer to read or want to reference something we talked about.

About The Lady's Companion

Welcome to Heather Wynd!

She has dreams for her future. What happens when secrets of the past intrude on her present?

If you love historical drama with a hint of adventure and intrigue, you’ll be sure to enjoy The Lady’s Companion
Cardiff, April 1873: Gwenllian Powys dreams of academic achievements, possibly even one of the few coveted places for women at the University of London. However, her family considers such ideals unsuitable for a lady of her status, arranging instead a position as companion to the widowed Lady Campbell.

When Lady Campbell decides to return to her childhood home in Scotland, Gwenllian is excited at the prospect of new adventures. The one dampener to her enthusiasm is the muted response of her beloved godparents, yearly visitors to Wales from their village on the Suffolk coastline.

Bidding farewell to David, her childhood friend and now the estate’s groom, only adds to her trepidation.

Far from the restrictions and protection of her family, Gwenllian uncovers secrets to a past she would never have guessed. Will her discovery derail her present? And how will it shape her future?

About Anna Jensen

Anna Jensen is a British-born author living in South Africa. She writes Christian historical and contemporary fiction along with devotions and inspirational poetry.

Her stories are all about identity and purpose with faith gently woven through it all. Anna’s passion about showing how an ordinary life lived with an extraordinary God can change the world.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to a Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. Cozy up with your favorite beverage as we chat about sweet romance, thrilling suspense and fascinating history.

Perhaps you’ll find your next read in one of these stories.

On this episode of A Spot of Story, I’m chatting with Anna Jensen about the Lady’s Companion. Anna Jensen is a British-born author living in South Africa. She writes Christian historical and contemporary fiction along with devotions and inspirational poetry.

Her stories are all about identity and purpose with faith gently woven through it all. Anna’s passion about showing how an ordinary life lived with an extraordinary God can change the world.

Anna, welcome.

[00:00:57] Anna Jensen: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. Podcast number one.

[00:01:00] Danielle Grandientti: Yes. You’re my debut author.

[00:01:03] Anna: Yay.

[00:01:06] Danielle: All right, well, my first question is one because we’re all readers here and our this podcast unites us over a love of story. What are you currently reading?

[00:01:18] Anna, I have to confess it’s not Christian fiction, but I am reading John Le Carre’s last George Smiley book, which he wrote just before he died.

Now you’re going to ask me what the title of it is, and I think it’s called something like the Last Spy or something like that. But it’s really, I’m really enjoying it because it pulls in all of his previous stories and kind of very cleverly done. So if you know the previous stories, it makes a lot of sense. But my poor husband read it and he didn’t know the other stories so he was lost throughout the whole book.

So that’s, that’s not marvelous if you haven’t read all the other ones.

But I’ve also recently finished ARC Copy, an advanced reader copy, of Caroline Johnson’s latest release that she’ll be bringing out later this summer. It’s called Shade, not Shades of Of Autumn. That’s the one she did before.

It’s called Shadows of Summer and it is so, so good. So when people get a chance to, when she starts promoting and so on, definitely it’s one that I would recommend. Set in Scotland in the middle of summer at an outdoor pursuit center.

Really, really good. And it’s got a very not necessarily an easy to read storyline, but it has a beautiful story of hope and redemption worked through.

[00:02:46] Danielle: Oh, I love that. I love that her covers are so beautiful. I love the Shades of Autumn one with the umbrella.

[00:02:52] Anna: Isn’t it brilliant?

[00:02:53] Danielle: It is. It really is. Well, now turning to your story, The Lady’s Companion. First, tell us a little bit about it.

[00:03:05] Anna: Okay, so the latest companion is the first book in the upcoming Our House on Heather Wynd. And according to Caroline being Scottish, Wynd is pronounced wind, not wind, which is what I thought it was.

And it’s set on a little winding street called Heather Wynd, and we have 14 houses on our street.

And it’s a follow-up to the series that a few authors did last year, which was Our House on Sycamore Street.

So we’ve got some of the same authors like yourself and myself and a few others, and then we’ve got some new authors who’ve joined the series this year.

And it’s set in the Scottish Highlands, very close to Loch Ness. So there might be a few monsters in some of the stories.

Yes. Sadly, not mine, because my story set in the 1870s and nobody discovered the monster in the 1870s. Yes. So I couldn’t talk about the monster, unfortunately.

But my story is essentially … The story that I wrote last year for our house in Eden Cove was.

Our House on Sycamore Street was The Ferryman’s Light, which was about a young, young man called Walter Ferryman who has to deal with the consequences of.

Of an action that he took with his. With his beloved girlfriend, whatever you want to call her, lover.

And unfortunately, he has to face the consequences of that. And I kind of left readers hanging slightly at the end of that. I did have a couple of readers say to me they were very disappointed at my ending. So I’m hoping to satisfy some readers with this, with the Lady’s Companion, because it. It can be read standalone. You don’t have to have read the Sycamore street story, but it does tie up the loose ends from The Ferryman’s Light.

And we follow, We follow a girl called Gwendolyn Powis as she heads from Wales, which is where she’s living, and she heads off up to Scotland, where she becomes a lady’s companion in the small village of Bild Fell. And she lives at number one. Number one Heather Wynd.

[00:05:18] Danielle: Yay.

[00:05:19] Anna: Yay.

[00:05:21] Danielle: So for readers who haven’t read the Sycamore street series, my characters were the descendants of the original ferryman in Anna’s story, so it’s really fun. And then with the ladies companion, there’s a little bit of tie in with my Scotland story as well. So I’m. I’m really excited for readers to catch the little nod to each other’s books.

[00:05:50] Anna: That’s my favorite thing with the whole series is that kind of different authors have collaborated with one another and have, like, added little nuggets from each other’s stories or developed one of the other characters or … it’s actually a, it’s a lovely thing to see authors kind of creating together. I love it.

[00:06:09] Danielle: Yes, me too. Me too. Well, so what is a day in Gwendolyn’s life? Can you describe what a common day would be like?

[00:06:19] Anna: She would … She is the companion for Lady Caldwell, who was living in Wales. She’s a widow and she decides that she wanted to go back to her kind of roots up in Scotland, and she wants to take Gwendolyn with her, so she goes with her. And Gwendolyn is a daughter of landed gentry in Wales herself, so she’s not really used to kind of companioning and, you know, mating and that kind of thing. So she’s maybe not really that good at it, but she’s essentially there as.

As a companion while Lady Caldwell makes new friends in the village. So she would maybe get up in the morning. I don’t think she’d necessarily help with breakfast. They do have a cook and a housekeeper who comes in who does all of those sorts of chores. So Gwendolyn would maybe sit with Lady Campbell while she goes through her post.

She runs errands for her during the day. There is a young man on the scene. He was the groom down in Wales, but Lady Campbell decides that she’s going to train him as the butler and bring him with her. So David, our groom, comes along and is now learning to be a butler. So sometimes him and Gwenlin are sent out on little errands together by Lady Campbell, who I think is maybe.

Maybe a little bit of a matchmaker and, you know, kind of hoping that the two of them are going to get on better than just being mates with each other.

So that’s kind of Gwendolyn’s day. She attends the local church on a Sunday, the Kirk, rather than the church, as it would have been called.

And they are meeting various different neighbors in the street. They are. They hold supper parties. So they have a couple of supper parties at their place and then they go to a few supper parties. So generally her life is quite.

It’s quite relaxed. You know, there’s not too much.

She’s not. Lady Campbell’s not very demanding. She’s happy for her to just be a companion, not a servant, which. Which I think is lovely. But then in the meantime, Gwendolyn is trying to discover. She feels that there’s these sort of undercurrents in lots of conversations and letters that seem to be going backwards and forwards. And so at the same time as her just carrying out her normal life, she’s also trying to discover what’s this, what’s this kind of secret that seems to be bubbling under the surface?

Secret?

[00:08:47] Danielle: It sounds fascinating.

So what was, what was your favorite scene to write in this story and why?

[00:08:56] Anna: It’s a bit of a funny one actually, but I think there were, there’s probably a couple. There’s, you know, there’s always one or two, but one, one in particular that, that really struck, struck me when I was writing or I really wanted to include in the book was just a very coincidental event when Gwendolyn and Lady Campbell and David are traveling from, from Wales via London up to Scotland and they’re at the railway station in London and a carriage arrives and on the back of it is kind of like a. It’s like a sort of a hearse and on the back of it is a coffin which has a little bell on the top, a little sort of bell tower on the top of the coffin. And I read about this years ago in another, in another novel that I read. I think it was the Great Train Robbery. And apparently in Victorian times, because they were absolutely terrified of being buried alive, they would put these little bells on top of coffins with a kind of rope and pulley system so that if the person in the coffin suddenly woke up, they could pull on the little rope and then attract the attention of everybody outside.

[00:10:01] Danielle: Oh my goodness.

[00:10:02] Anna: When I knew that I was going to be writing a story set in Victorian era London and to do with the railway station, I thought, no, I have to somehow incorporate this little, you know, this little event and the coffin. And so I, I managed to do that and it was so fun. And then later incorporating it into Gwendolyn’s kind of panic about what it is is she going into and almost like a sense of foreboding that, you know, she just seeing a coughing is quite unnerving as it is. But then to worry, has she heard the bell ringing? Is the person actually alive?

[00:10:37] Danielle: Oh, yeah.

[00:10:39] Anna: That was just a really fun, you know, it doesn’t really add, it doesn’t add a huge amount to the actual story, but it just kind of shows where Gwenlan’s heart and where her feelings are at kind of preoccupied with the possibility of this body not actually being dead.

[00:10:58] Danielle: Oh, wow. Wow. Oh, I love that. Can’t wait for that. Read that scene.

So speaking of that, what was some unique research you needed to do for this story?

[00:11:09] Anna: Well, that one I’d had, I’d had already come across. So I did do a little bit extra research just to make sure. That that wasn’t just something from a novel that didn’t happen, but it actually did happen.

But then what I stumbled across in doing the research, that the area of our fictional village, Bildfell, is in the area of the Caledonian Canal and Fort Augustus. And I discovered that in 1873, Queen Victoria had visited Fort Augustus and had gone on her royal steamship along the Caledonian Canal.

And so that was something that I particularly wanted to research. And I found a couple of newspaper articles that kind of described the event. And it was amazing. I mean, the newspaper article I found was so.

It was so beautifully descriptive in the way that newspapers used to be in Victorian times. And so it was describing the weather and described how they came out onto the, onto the deck and waved at passersby and then how they went back inside to have a sumptuous banquet. And it was just such a rich description of the real time event that I thought, I have to include Queen Victoria’s visit to the area. And so kind of Lady Campbell’s reason for wanting to go back to her, to her roots was also because she’d heard that the Queen was coming on this visit and so she actually wanted to make sure she was there in time to be able to see Queen Victoria. And so, yeah, that, that was, that was really interesting.

[00:12:42] Danielle: Oh, that’s cool. I love when, like, real events just.

[00:12:45] Anna: Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:46] Danielle: Well, in a story. What is one bit of research you wish you could have included, but it didn’t fit.

[00:12:56] Anna: I did do a little bit of research on the building of the actual Caledonian Canal and it was really quite interesting. You know, it’s like the canals were so innovative. You know, I don’t know how many listeners kind of know the history of the canals in Britain, but it was very much a revolutionary form of transport. You know, it wasn’t just about kind of pretty rivers, which is sort of what we think of them when we see them now.

It was very much a way of transporting goods around the place, especially heavy goods like coal and things like that. And so reading the story, reading the background to the Caledonian Canal was very, very interesting. It’s one, it’s. I think it’s got the most locks in. Oh, wow. In like a three or four mile distance or something like that than any of the other canals in Britain.

And I really wanted to try and talk about that, but I didn’t really have an engineer in my story who could kind of wax lyrical about canals and things like that. Yes.

Oh, I’m gonna have to forego that. But maybe one day I’ll write a story. Story about canals and something like that.

[00:14:04] Danielle: That would be really cool.

[00:14:06] Anna: Yeah.

[00:14:08] Danielle: It’s kind of backtracks a little bit. But what is the. What was your inspiration behind writing this story?

[00:14:13] Anna: The inspiration, obviously, was the link with the Ferryman’s Light. Right. And I really wanted to explore.

So. So the basis of the Ferryman’s Light was what happens, what would happen in—And it kind of. it’s relevant to today—what happens when an upstanding young girl and an upstanding young man have a moment together that actually changes their lives and it impacts other lives later.

And so it was sort of the story of their redemption and how did they resolve the issue for themselves?

But. But of course, their decisions and their consequences actually get felt by other people. And so often we’re in that position where, you know, we can kind of feel really hard done by about something and someone else has made a decision and someone else has suffered a consequence. But I’m in that circle of consequence.

And so it’s almost like, okay, what would happen to this young girl, this young lady, who is actually in the circle of someone else’s consequence?

[00:15:25] Danielle: Yeah.

[00:15:26] Anna: How does she deal with that? And how do you deal with, you know, when people have maybe not told you the truth growing up? And maybe when people have kind of.

Maybe they’ve been secret, secretive, or maybe they’ve purposefully hidden it, or maybe it’s been malicious where people have withheld information. And what do we do with that? You know, do we.

Can we walk the road of forgiveness and reconciliation, or do we actually stand bitter and twisted? Because.

Because actually, you know, it’s just not fair that you kept it from me. And this is fundamental to who I am. And you’ve not called me.

And so that was kind of the sort of themes that I wanted to explore. And just how God actually knows us intimately, no matter what lies we’ve been told.

[00:16:11] Danielle: Yeah.

[00:16:12] Anna: And no matter who tries to frame our identity, it actually doesn’t matter because God’s the one who. Who chooses who we are.

[00:16:19] Danielle: Yeah.

[00:16:19] Anna: And so it’s kind of pursuing that of how do we find who we really are when other people are maybe telling us one thing, you know, telling us something different.

[00:16:28] Danielle: Right, right. Oh, I love that. I love that so much.

Which leads perfectly into my next question. What encouragement do you hope readers will take away from your story?

[00:16:39] Anna: I really. In all my stories, I was kind of talking through things with somebody a few days ago and was just saying, what is the. The essence of what my stories. What, what kind of is the core essence of the stories that I write. And I think it’s the thing of significance and that every person is significant and that we, you know, we can be people who are just, you know, running the kids to school. We’re hanging, I was hanging out the washing earlier, you know, and you’re cooking dinner and it’s all so mundane and it’s so just no, you know, like this is what I have to do just to get through the day. Or other people maybe have got really high powered jobs and all they’re trying to do is just keep their head above water or, you know, maybe there are impacts in communities but. But not in the way that maybe they would like to or.

And so for me it’s all about when readers read my stories and, and also, you know, talking of The Lady’s companion, I hope that that essence of you are important and you are significant and you kind of, like we said in the introduction, it’s like I can live my ordinary life with an extraordinary God and then I can change the world.

[00:17:52] Danielle: Yeah.

[00:17:52] Anna: And I think, do we, do we really look and do we, do we really believe that we’re the people who can change the world? You know, my first novel was written about a village in the UK that was affected by the plague of the mid-80s, the mid-1670s.

And they were kind of the first or one of the first communities to go into lockdown.

And, and then when we had our own pandemic a few years ago, their stories were being told in newspapers around the world and it really struck 300 years ago. They were just doing what was in front of them to do. They were just getting on with what they thought was the right thing to do. And 300 years later, people are talking about them by name.

[00:18:38] Danielle: Yeah.

[00:18:39] Anna: And wow, what if people start talking about us 300 years later? Not because we’ve done anything that seems significant to us or seems life changing to us, but actually, actually it turns out that it is. So that’s kind of what I really hope that people, the readers kind of extract for themselves as well as hopefully enjoying the story itself.

[00:19:01] Danielle: Yes, indeed, yes. Indee.

Oh, this has been such fun.

Thank you so much for joining me today, Anna, and talking about The Lady’s Companion.

If readers want to find you online, where can they do that? And I’ll put links in the description.

[00:19:18] Anna: Obviously there’s all the social media places that kind of, we hang out, Facebook and Instagram and so on.

I do have a TikTok account, but I was, as I was just saying to you, I’m not mad keen on doing videos anyway.

But probably the easiest place is my website, which is annajensen.co.uk and then that’s got all my information and you can find my social media links and newsletter and all that sort of thing.

[00:19:43] Speaker A: Wonderful, Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Anna.

Readers, thank you for joining us today.

[00:19:49] Anna: Thank you.

[00:19:55] Thank you for listening to A Spot of Story with Danielle Grandinetti. We hope you enjoy today’s conversation. Let us know by leaving a comment below and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

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