Character Spotlight ~ Penny Zeller's Hailee Annigan & Nate Adams with giveaway

Hailee & Nate

Penny Zeller's final story in her Montana Skies trilogy, Hailee, is available now.  Enjoy meeting her latest characters.

Over to you, Penny:~

Brief physical description

Hailee Sophia Annigan is beautiful with long wavy dark blond hair with golden highlights framing her face. She has large blue-green eyes the color of the ocean and is 19-years-old. She is 5’5” and slender with fine features.

Hailee is an orphan and the oldest of three children. She was born into a poor working family and raised in Cincinnati in the late 1800s.We get glimpses into her difficult childhood and are taken back into a time when she struggled to find her place in life.

Maxwell Nathaniel Adams, Jr. or “Nate” as he is fondly referred to, has gorgeous deep blue eyes, thick sandy blond hair and is nearly 6’ tall. He has the “boy-next-door” appearance with strong arms, a physically fit build, and a gentle smile.

Nate was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, but his heart yearned for a life different from that into which he was born. He is the son of the wealthy and well-known Worthington-Adams family and was raised by a nanny and attended boarding schools.

Actor/famous person

Hailee looks as she appears on the cover of the book.

Mikey Jerome is a soap star. He is exactly as I pictured Nate, and his picture was taped to my computer the entire time I was writing the book. :) At one point, my husband even asked, “Who is that guy?”

Hailee’s strengths

Hailee is resilient and reacts well in emergency situations, of which she’s had many. Hailee is nurturing and takes great pride in teaching her younger brothers, not from textbooks, but from memories of what she learned in school when her life afforded her the luxury of being a student.

Hailee is strong in her newfound faith. She is also sweet, kind, thoughtful, spirited, feisty, and competitive!

Hailee’s weaknesses

Hailee tends to be a bit of a worrywart. :)

Nate’s strengths

Nate is a prolific speaker, caring of others, a gifted pastor, and is a Godly man of integrity. He is compassionate, dedicated, and tenderhearted.

Nate’s weaknesses

Nate struggles with things that are beyond his control.

Quirk (if any)

Hailee is clumsy when moving at a slower pace, however, when she’s running, she’s extremely surefooted. Her father used to tell her she “could run like the wind!”

Nate likes to tease and has an exceptionally witty personality.

Your inspiration for the characters

Hailee was inspired by a piece of mail I received regarding orphanages. I knew I wanted to write a story about a girl placed in an orphanage and how she came to find herself in that predicament.

I introduced Nate in the second novel in my series, Kaydie, and was excited to expound on his character and follow his struggles in answering God’s calling on his life.

Background to the story

Hailee is the final book in my Montana Skies Historical Romance trilogy. Nate is McKenzie and Kaydie’s nephew (their sister, Peyton’s son). Following is the blurb:

For years, orphan Hailee Annigan was just a ragamuffin in the Cincinnati streets, stealing food to keep her two younger brothers fed. Her thievery landed her in a home for delinquent youngsters, where her life was changed, thanks to her teachers. Now, nineteen-year-old Hailee excitedly heads to Montana to be a teacher, yet she's still plagued by her shameful past and the fear of never seeing her brothers again.

Based on his upbringing in high-society Boston, no one would have guessed that Maxwell Nathaniel Adams Jr. would attend seminary and become a church pastor in rugged Montana. Even now, Nate's parents refuse to put aside their own plans for his future and accept his calling.

When their paths converge, an immediate attraction draws Hailee and Nate together, even as the pressures and demands of others pull them apart. Can the unlikely pair come to terms with their pasts and face the future together?

Thanks Penny ~ it is a pleasure having you share :)

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Coming soon from Whitaker House

Whitaker House author, Sharlene MacLaren has long been a favourite author of mine so it is great to see she has a new contemporary novel releasing in September, 2010. Whitaker is obviously extending its fiction line with Vanessa and Penny's September releases also.

Click on the links and enjoy:~

Tender Vow by Sharlene MacLaren

Michigan-born brothers John and Jason Evans took a ski trip in the Rockies, but only one came home alive-John was tragically killed on a daring descent down Devil's Run, an infamously dangerous slope.

In an attempt to soothe his guilt and grief, Jason sets out to make amends with his widowed sister-in-law, Rachel, by offering to help with her two small children, doing odd jobs around her house, and trying to ease her own heavy burden of grief. A new Christian, he is bent on growing his faith and helping Rachel see her way through the fog of pain and confusion.

Left to raise her three-year-old daughter and newborn son on her own, Rachel Evans is anything but willing to become her brother-in-law's charity case, particularly since they have a history she'd rather forget. She's determined to make it on her own but soon finds that God has other plans for her-and for Jason. Can she accept the Lord's leading and still honor her late husband's memory?





A Love for Tomorrow by Vanessa Miller

When Christian talk show host Serenity Williams's fiancé calls off their wedding because he can't deal with her popularity, she determines that she will never fall in love with another pride-filled, ego-driven pastor. Then, Serenity's producer asks her to interview the charismatic Pastor Phillip McKnight, who has recently gone through a divorce. Serenity feels that this is her chance to expose the arrogance of ego-filled pastors to the world. But Pastor Phillip is broken and humbled from his experiences, and the surprising humility of this man causes Serenity to want to un-break his heart. However, Serenity will need the Lord to fix her heart and change her mind about male preachers before she and Phillip can become all they were meant to be to each other.






McKenzie by Penny Zeller

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" is the reasoning that prompts McKenzie Worthington, a young lady of Boston's high society, to respond to an ad for a mail-order bride for a man in the Montana Territory. McKenzie is desperate, after all, to save her beloved younger sister, Kaydie, from her evil, abusive husband, who robs banks for a living. And so, it is with reckless determination that McKenzie runs away from the comforts of home and hearth to head West and meet her new husband-whom she'll divorce, of course, after she rescues her sister.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" is the reasoning that also prompts Zachary Sawyer, a rugged rancher after God's own heart, to post an ad for a mail-order bride in various newspapers across the country. Managing a ranch and caring for his adoptive son, Davey, has become more than one man can handle alone, and Zach prays for God to send him a wife with whom to build a life and share his dreams.

When McKenzie arrives at Zach's ranch, she immediately puts her plan in motion, searching for her sister and doing all she can to keep her new husband from forming an attachment. But his persistent kindness and significant self-sacrifices begin to change her heart-and ruin her plans. God has a way of working things out to the good of those who love Him, though, as McKenzie and Kaydie will soon see.