Welcome Marilyn Turk to my blog today.
Congratulations, Marilyn, on your latest release, ABIGAIL’S SECRET.
Newly widowed Abby Baker returns home to Hope Harbor with her young daughter to help her ailing mother, hoping to restart her life. Weighed down by grief and fear of failure, she wishes she had the strength of her grandmother, who had the challenge of raising a young child alone while also taking on the duties of a lighthouse keeper after her husband drowned. What was the secret of Granny Abigail’s strength?
Carson Stevens is a lighthouse enthusiast who has bought the deteriorating Hope Island lighthouse to restore it and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. When he meets the attractive granddaughter of the former keepers, he wants her to be part of the restoration.
What awaits them at the lighthouse? As Abby and Carson work together, they discover clues to a family secret that threatens to change Abby’s life forever. But someone is trying to sabotage their efforts at restoration. Are they trying to keep something from being found?
Renovating the old lighthouse might be their goal, but renovating their hearts may be what Abby and Carson need the most.
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Have you ever felt like you had more on your shoulders than you could handle? Has the burden of your responsibilities weighed you down? And not only do you feel overloaded, you feel guilty that you’re struggling to manage. What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you handle life the way your ancestors did?
In Abigail’s Secret, we meet Abby, a young widow trying to care for her young daughter and her ailing mother. Still dealing with grief from the death of her military husband, she moves back home and leaves the life she had started on the other side of the country before she got married. Trying to start over, she is faced with the memory of her late grandmother who took her husband’s place as a lighthouse keeper after he drowned. She too, was a widow raising a young daughter alone. Yet memories of her from Abby’s childhood were of a strong woman who could do anything and not feel defeated. How did she manage all alone? What was the source of her strength?
Several years ago, I took a survey of over 100 women for a Bible study I plan to write. In the survey, I asked who the respondents thought was the strongest woman they’d ever known? Overwhelmingly, the answer was their mothers, and especially, their grandmothers. Why? Because life was harder when they lived, yet they managed.
I’ve often thought of the pioneer women, the ones who traveled across the prairies in destitute situations, many walking, often not having enough food to feed everyone so they fed others first even if they didn’t get to eat anything themselves. Somehow, they survived (although not all did). Still, can you imagine cooking at the end of a long day over a fire, even if that meal only consisted of some “bread” out of cornmeal and beans? And can you see traipsing across the country with all those clothes on in the heat? No A/C and no heat. No thank you.
Yet, even with all our female ancestors had to deal with, I wonder if they ever considered themselves strong? After all, men were strong, and women were the weaker sex. Of course, we women know that’s not true; we just have different kinds of strength.
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Marilyn Turk sees the world as the miraculous creation of God. As a writer, she tries to capture His truths in everyday life through her historical novels and heartfelt devotions. Her passion is to encourage women to develop their God-given gifts and find their strengths, a message she delivers when she speaks to audiences.
Marilyn is the director of the Blue Lake Christian Writers Retreat, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, American Christian Fiction Association, Word Weavers International and the Faith, Hope and Love chapter of RWA. She and her husband are avid lighthouse enthusiasts, having visited over 100, and her popular lighthouse blog features true lighthouse stories. In her spare time, you can find her boating and fishing with her husband, taking walks or playing tennis in her home state of Florida. Connect with her on http://www.marilynturk.com and through social media.