Welcome back Donna Wichelman to Thyme for Writers with the release of Undaunted Valor, the second in her Waldensian Series. If you haven’t read the first, Light Out of Darkness, you won’t want to miss it!
Are You a Kindred Spirit?
A while back after I released my first book, Light Out of Darkness, I shared a meme on Facebook that resonated with my heart and soul as a writer. This week when I announced the release of the sequel, Undaunted Valor, on social media, a dear friend reposted the meme to me saying, “Resharing these truthful words.” The post brought tears to my eyes once again—partly because she remembered and partly because of the words themselves.
I think many writers feel a sympathetic response to the sentiment expressed on the meme, because our writing hits us so deeply and so personally. We profoundly understand what it means to toil over our work—the frustration when the words won’t come as well as the moments of sheer joy when the words feel so truly inspired that they seem to write themselves.
Also because inherent in the writer’s life is a solitary journey, I think we secretly cling to the idea of discovering a kindred spirit. We delight at the notion that when someone has read our work, we’ve brought them along on the road with us, and we are no longer alone for our efforts.
Sharing our hearts and souls through our writing can be a scary proposition. This meeting of the minds and hearts is an intimate experience that can happen in no other way. I think that’s why at times we second guess ourselves and ask, “What if nobody understands? What if I’m still alone after I’ve put my heart out there on my sleeve?”
I believe what compels us much of the time on this lonely road is an eternal hope that we will have put together two sentences that capture the essence of all that matters and another soul will read and say, “Ah ha! I understand!” We will have found someone with whom we can share our experience and who may even laugh and cry with us over the same spilt milk, and we will have made a friend.
Perhaps all this sharing of the heart and soul seems too esoteric. But if you’re like my dear friend who re-shared the meme with me and the words on the page resonate with you, it would be my sincerest pleasure to know that I’ve found another kindred spirit on the writing journey.
Undaunted Valor Blurb:
Book 2 in the Waldensian Series
For nature lovers, ski aficionados, travel enthusiasts and history scholars, the French Alps offer some of the most spectacular scenery and outdoor recreation in all Europe with its majestic mountain peaks, cascading waterfalls, unspoiled forests and quaint mountain villages. People come to get away from the daily grind and rejuvenate their spirits.
But when Alessandro Marianni’s grandmother Luciana is kidnapped during a church conference in Chamonix, the same landscape becomes an ominous height to scale, and Jamie Holbrooke and her fiancé Alessandro have difficulty distinguishing between friend and foe on the race to find her. They will have to weather a rainstorm on a mountain trail, negotiate a dangerous waterfall, outmaneuver a car chase, and defy an assassin’s gun in their search.
Will they find their beloved Luciana before it’s too late? Who will die on the way to the finish line? Who can they trust? And where will Jamie find the courage to confront her adversaries? In this sequel to Light Out of Darkness, the answers will lay in unanticipated places and with unexpected allies and require Jamie to discover what it means to trust God with Undaunted Valor.
Donna Wichelman’s Bio:
Light Out of Darkness
Donna Wichelman was a communications professional before writing full-time. She has authored short stories, essays and articles in various inspirational publications and lives her dream writing novels and screenplays. She and her husband work with teens at their local church in Fort Collins, Colorado. They travel, bike and kayak whenever their schedules allows.
(C) 2018 Donna Wichelman
Buy Link: Amazon.com
Social Media:
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-wichelman-46149941
(C) 2018, Donna Wichelman