“Jesus was a man of His generation. He was not a man of the previous generation.”
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Dr. Bunsen the new pastor of Squarespire Baptist Church, in A Year with the Harrisons, has just arrived to a large congregation that includes the title family. He is a sincerely religious man. Despite appearances otherwise, I never intend for you to think he’s not sincere. He might be a bit aggressive, but sometimes religious people are. I know from the inside that they care passionately about their culture. They don’t view themselves as marginalized, but as proudly independent.

Dr. Bunsen’s sermon isn’t funny because his beliefs are being mocked—it’s because he’s SO sincere that he’s getting a little out of hand and firing bullets at the congregation without getting to know them first. His wife, Mrs. Bunsen, has the same strong feelings when she talks to the music minister about instituting a band. (Actually, it’s not hard to imagine Mrs. Bunsen with an actual rifle.) But though she might seem a little hostile at first, Mrs. Bunsen is a loyal and devoted mother and a good friend to people she agrees with. If you’re her friend—probably in that case you have the exact same thoughts about music—you can trust her absolutely, and that’s a great quality as opposed to duplicity. In this aspect, at least, the Bunsens really are living out the Christian message.

At the end we still don’t get to know the Bunsens or many people in the church very well, as the Harrisons decide to go to another church. But we do know they are go-getters. If there’s an old abandoned grocery store, before you know it they’ll turn it into another little Bunsen church like their old one at Rocky Creek. And in a world where Christians are often shown as shy and self-conscious (people would rather say you had a bar mitzvah than that you were baptized!), I wanted to show something more realistic. Church people can be FIERCE.

And there will be more updates.

This month saw a lot of activity on the website, with participation in a promotion at the first of the year drawing a lot of visitors. They continued throughout the month, however, which I was pleased about. I sent out A Year with the Harrisons to get some reviews as well--it's been almost a year since it was published, but with so many other things to do I'm just now getting the ball rolling on this book. I reopened Goodreads, continued to develop my FB presence (those fan pages can be a hassle, but they are worth it), and got on BookBub. I also have a little Goodreads button on my blog sidebar now, which will link to all the books I've read over the past 2 years. I started putting up book reviews before I got back to the author account.

The books on the website have A Year with the Harrisons in a runaway lead. Ryan and Essie, Bellevere House, and Victoria: A Tale of Spain are all tied a little bit back of Harrisons. Facets of Fantasy is trailing a bit and Consuela is lagging far behind. Stats fluctuate quite a bit, though, and Ryan and Essie, which was once one of the lowest on page views, has climbed steadily over the last few months. It's clear though that A Year with the Harrisons is getting a lot of attention right now, which is perfect since it was the most recently published book. It was released during a very quiet time when I didn't have a lot of social activity, so it's taken a while to start up.

And there will be more updates.

A Year with the Harrisons is FREE on Kindle today and tomorrow! Be sure to grab your copy and help get the sales ranking up during the promotion. Oh, and so you can enjoy the book too, of course! 😊
 
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Growing up in the country, Luna, Letty, and Lamia Harrison are as close as three teenage sisters can be. During a very special year one adventure follows another as the girls grow up—especially when it turns out their aunt, a famous singer, has been blackmailed for years by the father of Letty’s handsome new friend. A story with a little football, a little gravel on dusty backroads, and a whole lot of music.

One of the areas I had most fun with when working on A Year with the Harrisons--when it was first drafted or this year when it was published--was the music theme. Music is something I've always loved (I am practically glued to my MP3 player and I've run through more pairs of earbuds over the years than could be counted.) But it hasn't played a large part in any story except The Harrisons, at least so far. 

There are two aspects of music that spiral their way through The Harrisons. Mainstream popular music--a blend of pop and country, very likely to be heard on the radio or even in grocery store background music; and music played in churches. The church scene is quite diverse--classical cantatas, traditional choir music, modern worship choruses, and a dash of instrumental and orchestra, and a lot of story is generated by the conflict between people who argue about these different kinds of music. On the mainstream music end, a prominent subplot concerns the Harrisons' cousin Betty and her family, all of whom do popular music professionally. 

Snatches of lyrics poke into the story now and then. Even when Lamia gets herself into a little trouble befriending a boy whose brother is throwing a house party, the errant teenagers hum and sing themselves all the way to jail. Music isn't just a plot device in A Year with the Harrisons--it's part of the story's heart and one of the reasons it continues to resonate with people. Music is . . . well . . . resonant, after all.

And there will be more updates.