About the Book:
Twins Livy and DeeDee McCreary open a dance studio in honor of their late mother, whom they lost when they were six. Problem is, Livy remembers nothing of the day her mother died. The more she questions her family about that awful day, the more she suspects she’s been lied to all her life. While she’s seeking answers to what really happened, she keeps crossing paths with handsome engineer Scott Lorenzo, who compels her to question the New Age philosophy she was raised on. What if there is a personal God out there who cares about her?
Before Livy can discover answers, a brutal accident interrupts her search. Her life flips upside down as she faces a future she is not prepared for. Yet the unanswered questions continue to haunt her. Can she find the strength to keep on with her quest, even if it means losing the two people most dear to her—her twin, and the man she loves?
2015 Finalist, ACFW First Impressions Contest
Author Mini-view:
Tell us a bit about yourself and your writing. (How did you get started? How many books have you written? Where are you on your writing journey?)
I'm fairly new to the author world, but already have two Kindle books published in my Seattle Trilogy series. I started my first novel in April 2013, joined writers' groups, and discovered real soon how much I still had to learn!
What is your favorite Bible verse?
My favorite verse: Psalm 16:11 - You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.(NKJV)
It's just a beautiful work of verbal art, don't you think? And belies the popular notion that a relationship with God is pure drudgery. Anything but!
What have you read lately that you would recommend?
I've discovered a new author, Kate Morton, who writes dense, gritty fiction filled with twists, turns, and a surprise at the end. I recently finished Lake House, and now I aspire to write that well myself.
What book are you featuring today?
My latest release, Sapphire Secrets, is filled with romance and mystery - the story of a young woman's quest for truth. She must learn the truth about how her mother died. As her journey progresses, she begins questioning the New Age beliefs she was raised on. What if there is a personal God who cares about her? But a brutal accident interrupts her search and...oh wait, I better not say any more!
If you could tell people who are going to read/have read your books one thing, what would it be?
Dear future readers: I write about the world as it is today, and not as it was 20 years ago. If you encounter strange, oddball characters in the pages of my books, well, it's only because they exist in real life too!
About the Author:
Seeing an unfilled niche in the Christian fiction market, Ms Cahill birthed Hot Topic Fiction at an intensive four-day writers conference. HTF isn’t afraid to explore the question, how does God want us to live out our faith in this not-so-brave new world? Without insulting the reader by offering pat or easy answers–because there aren’t any–HTF tells stories of ordinary Christians following hard after Christ in a world of terror and violence, of upside-down morality, of hostility to Judeo-Christian values.
Ms. Cahill also blogs about puppies, substance abuse, and single parenting…sometimes all in the same day. She’s going to finish that novel she started at age 11 called Mitch and the Martians…someday. She has written several newspaper articles, two Christian contemporary novels, and more limericks than she can count. Email her at dawn@dawnvcahill.com, or find her on Facebook. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW).
Snippet:
As if the graveyard at midnight wasn’t eerie enough, Livy’s dad boomed out his annual recitation of Edgar Allan Poe.
“At midnight, in the month of June, I stand beneath the mystic moon—”
Tonight’s mystic moon glimmered around a cloud, through the tops of evergreens, trying in vain to cast a beam into the mild June night and Brighton Cemetery.
“Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall—”
Livy clutched a handful of flowers to her chest and focused on keeping her breath steady and even. Her feet snapped twigs as she and her twin, DeeDee, followed Dad’s flashlight arc along a row of oaks.
His baritone voice pierced the night. “My love, she sleeps! Oh may her sleep, as it is lasting, so be deep—”
A heavy wind sighed overhead. Branches creaked under the weight of the night. Livy dare not reach over and clasp her twin’s hand. If she did, her shaky grip would betray her. Gravel crunched behind her as the groundskeeper trailed them.
“Some sepulcher, remote, alone—”
Most people would never guess famed rocker Declan Decker quoted Edgar Allan Poe. Tonight he was plain old Dad, Howard McCreary, come to pay his respects on the twentieth anniversary of his late wife’s sudden passing.
“Oh to think, poor child of sin, It was the dead who groaned within.”
She ground her teeth to keep from telling him to shut up, he was spooking her. He’d only say twenty-six was far too old to let a midnight cemetery spook her. Still, at each nocturnal visit to Mom’s grave, a secret phobia gripped her. Coimetrophobia. Fear of cemeteries. Each year, she feigned indifference to the waving shadows and moaning wind. She forced herself to stroll with nonchalant strides like her no-nonsense twin.