Overcome by guilt Brooks returns with the intention of returning the deed to Raven Creek Ranch but finds John on the floor dead from an apparent suicide. After graduating finishing school, Keri Langston can think of nothing better than returning to her home, pulling on a pair of overalls, and riding the range of Raven Creek Ranch. She arrives at Shoofly to discover that the ranch she expected to inherit was lost in a card game by her uncle and that he committed suicide because of it.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Coming soon from River North Fiction
Overcome by guilt Brooks returns with the intention of returning the deed to Raven Creek Ranch but finds John on the floor dead from an apparent suicide. After graduating finishing school, Keri Langston can think of nothing better than returning to her home, pulling on a pair of overalls, and riding the range of Raven Creek Ranch. She arrives at Shoofly to discover that the ranch she expected to inherit was lost in a card game by her uncle and that he committed suicide because of it.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
News & Notes
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Tessa Afshar ~ FamilyFiction Plus

As the Historical Fiction correspondent for the new FamilyFiction digital magazine, I recently highlighted Tessa Afshar's debut novel, Pearl in the Sand in my historical news column.
As you know authors love words so I often receive a lengthier response to my interview questions than space allows in the magazine. When that happens, I'll be sharing the extended interviews with my readers :)
So here is Tessa's full response to my interview question.
Rel:~ What was it about Rahab that captivated you enough to write her story?
Tessa:~
Rahab lived in the bowels of a wall; her house was built into the defensive walls of the city of Jericho. When I read about this detail in the book of Joshua, I was hooked. What was it like living in a wall?
Then during a visit to Florence, I noticed that Ponte Vecchio—the famed bridge straddling the Arno River for almost seven hundred years—had tiny shops built right into its walls. They bulged out of the sides of the bridge like odd-shaped barnacles sticking out of the hull of a ship. Before my eyes, a little bit of Rahab’s life materialized.
The tiny glimpse we are given of Rahab in the Hebrew Bible reveals an uncommon woman; she wasn’t afraid to bargain with the enemy to save her life. Clearly she loved her family as she fought to spare them from destruction. The only thing that outstripped her courage was her astonishing faith in a God about whom she could not have known very much. I found these qualities fascinating, but I also felt there must be more. She was a harlot after all. What did that life do to the heart of such a woman?
The more I read about Rahab, the more amazed I became at her destiny. This Canaanite harlot married one of Israel’s leading men, a man as clo
se to a Jewish aristocrat as you can get in a country without kings and princes. Wait a minute! How was that possible? Who would conceive of such a marriage? Well, except God.
Pearl in the Sand recounts the tale of a woman whose world was a mess, whose life was a mess, whose heart was a mess, but in encountering God, she found to her shock that her life was salvageable. More than that—it was valuable. She found that she was lovable. And Salmone found out these same truths right alongside her.
God started the most significant part of Rahab’s life by literally pulling down the walls of her home around her. As traumatic as that moment must have been for Rahab, she could not have moved on to the future God had planned for her without it. In a parallel pursuit of healing for her broken soul, Pearl in the Sand portrays a God who just as determinedly set out to ruin the walls surrounding Rahab’s heart. I think women today need to know God as the wooer and pursuer of their hearts. They need to know that sometimes the most glorious breakthroughs of life come through a vector of God-ordained pain.
More than anything I wrote this story because I hope the reader of this story will come away with a deeper glimpse into her own soul, and a more profound understanding of God the Father. Rahab learned to cling to God in the midst of her sorrows, to believe in Him more than she believed in fear. For me, that is one of the most crucial components of faith: becoming a person who gives God full access to every part of one’s soul, even if that access sometimes hurts because it involves the demolition of one’s defensive walls.
Relz Reviewz Extras
Review of Pearl in the Sand
Visit Tessa's website and blog
Buy Tessa's book from Amazon or Koorong
Read FamilyFiction's premiere issue
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar with US giveaway
Synopsis:~
Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible’s answer is yes. At the age of fifteen Rahab is forced into prostitution by her beloved father. In her years as a courtesan, she learns to mistrust men and hate herself. Into the emotional turmoil of her world walks Salmone, a respected leader of Judah. Through the tribulations of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true source of one another’s worth in God and find healing from fear and rejection.
My take:~
Writing a book is daunting enough, choosing to write about a Biblical character ups the stakes even more. Debut novelist Tessa Afshar is more than up to the challenge in her beautifully rendered story of Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute named in the lineage of Jesus. Tessa acknowledges there is little known about Rahab and Salome, highlighting the Biblical references and encouraging readers to examine them, acknowledging her story is extrapolation. Her vivid storytelling brings the fall of Jericho into sharp focus, the fear of the Canaanites palpable as God's unusual plan unfolds as the Israelites march around the impenetrable walls. Rahab and Salome's love story is evocative and compelling while Rahab's journey from an idolatrous harlot to a believer in the one true God, is heartrending and inspiring. The spiritual threads are woven effortlessly throughout, from the consequences of Rahab's past and Salome's pride to the healing power of God's forgiveness and the hard reality of His justice. Pearl in the Sand is reminiscent of Tosca Lee's Havah and Francine River's Redeeming Love and I don't make such comparisons lightly. I trust this is just the beginning of many more books from such a talented author.
With thanks to Wynn~Wynn Media for my review copyRelz Reviewz Extras
Visit Tessa's website and blog
Buy Tessa's book from Amazon or Koorong
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Book Trailer for Tessa Afshar's Pearl in the Sand
Pearl in the Sand captured my attention from when I first saw the cover. Can't wait to discover how Tessa Afshar tells this story.
Tracy ~ another Biblical story for us! It might make a good 2011 RBC Book Club selection :)
Please share ~ do you enjoy retellings of Biblical stories? What have been your favourites?









