Join me today as I welcome author Kathleen Rouser, as she shares about her latest release.

While the first book in my Stone Creek Brides series, Rumors and Promises, came from a desire to write a story inspired on the woman at the well in Chapter Four of the Gospel of John, the idea for writing Secrets and Wishes sprang from getting to know one of my secondary characters in Rumors and Promises. Reverend Ian McCormick’s outspoken older sister and housekeeper, Maggie, needed to have her story told too.

Bringing in Thomas Harper, a turn-of-the-century pharmacist and widower with four children, seemed the perfect challenge to Maggie and her well-ordered life. A widow, herself, she has one son and isn’t used to the raucous the Harper children create. When seven-year-olds Zeke Harper and Philip Galloway wind up in a fistfight, the parents meet and the sparks fly.

It was such a fun story to write about attraction between opposites, filled with family and humor. But how to get these two “frenemies” to admit their attraction? One situation they find themselves in is having to rescue Stone Creek from the potentially lethal potions of a traveling medicine man.

I’ve always found the areas of medicine and wellness fascinating so searching for the history of medical treatments, medications, and pharmacy intrigued me. At one point I had the opportunity to visit the Soderlund Pharmacy Museum in St. Peter, Minnesota when visiting relatives near Minneapolis. The experience included a penny root beer from the old-fashioned soda fountain. It was fun soaking the historical atmosphere. I took lots of pictures and spent time looking up the different medications represented to see whether they fit the time period. Finding an appropriate remedy for an accidental opioid overdose appropriate to 1901 became a challenge. Sadly, the museum has since closed and is only available online.

While we can’t travel back in time to see exactly how people behaved (well, I guess that’s the great thing about historical fiction as a vehicle to give us a sense of time travel in our imaginations) I hope that I have represented life in small-town Michigan and possible medical dilemmas in a realistic way. I’ll leave it there so I don’t give too much of Secrets and Wishes away, but I will say it has been my favorite story to write so far.

Here’s the first page of Secrets and Wishes:

Chapter 1

STONE CREEK, MICHIGAN

April 1901

Maggie Galloway hiked up the front of her skirt as she raced across the schoolyard when she first spied the commotion. She held tight to her hat with her free hand.

“Yeah, get him, Philip!” A tall boy from the group of children surrounding the scuffle thrust a fist into the air.

A girl gasped. “I’m telling Miss Oliver!” She marched toward the schoolhouse.

A full red head of hair bobbed in the center, a definite sign of trouble. Her Philip? Unbelievable. Maggie’s heart thudded at the sight of her son. She dropped her hem, stopped to regain her breath as far as her corset allowed, and held her palm to her chest. “Boys.” She paused to inhale again. “Stop this fighting right now!”

Naomi Oliver stomped out the door of their schoolhouse toward the little crowd. Some of the children made way for their teacher while the errant boys’ fists flew toward each other, only hitting their mark half the time. “What is the meaning of this?” She grabbed hold of Philip’s collar.

Check out the book here

About the author:

Kathleen Rouser is a multi-published author of historical and contemporary Christian romance. Kathleen has loved making up stories since she was a little girl and wanted to be a writer before she could even read. She loves Jesus and is a fan of the three Cs—cats, coffee, and chocolate. She lives in southeast Michigan with her hero and husband of many years and two sweet cats who found a home in their empty nest. Sign up for my newsletter and receive a free novella HERE.

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