Get Lost in Jane Myers Perrine's Butternut Creek

Everyone, please help me welcome Jane Myers Perrine to our Get Lost family! Jane is a member of my local writers' group. She's funny, knowledgeable and such a great support to those of us just starting out on a writing career. Welcome, Jane!

 

BIO

Award-winning writer Jane Myers Perrine has worked as a Spanish teacher, minister, cook, rifle instructor, program director in a state hospital, and been an active volunteer but she always wanted to write.   Finally, she found time and has published books with  Avalon Books, Steeple Hill Love Inspired, and FaithWords, a division of Hachette Book Group.  Her short pieces have appeared in the Houston Chronicle and Woman’s World magazine.   

Jane’s Butternut Creek series is about a young minister serving in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas and is filled with affection and humor.  The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creek, the first book in the series, was published in April, 2012.  The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek will be available on November 20, 2012.  The third book, The Wedding Planners of Butternut Creek will be available in late 2013.

With her minister husband George, Jane lives north of Austin where their lives are controlled by two incredibly spoiled tuxedo cats. 

THE STORY BLURB

The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek

 

            Undaunted by their previous failures, the Widows of Butternut Creek continue their search to find a bride for Pastor Adam in The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek, the second of the Butternut Creek series.

          For once, Adam and the Widows—the elderly ladies who run the church Adam serves--agree on something.  Gussie Milton is the perfect woman for him.  But Gussie is skittish after a traumatic experience in college.  Oh, sure, she'd like a relationship but has trouble trusting and throws herself into caring for her aging parents, running her photography business, and serving the church.   As Adam court Gussie, the Widows push and Gussie shies away.   Can the Widows' meddling change the couple's lives forever?  Here’s a hint:  the third book in the series has the title The Wedding Planners of Butternut Creek.

EXCERPT

From the desk of Adam Joseph Jordan, M.Div.

I’m a sad burden for Birdie MacDowell.   Since I arrived at the church in Butternut Creek seven months ago, I’ve attempted to lift that weight from her shoulders and to correct the many errors she expects me to atone for. 

If she were to comment on the first paragraph of this letter, Miss Birdie would point out that I wrote a run-on sentence and ended it with a preposition.   Despite my earnest efforts, I have failed her again, at least grammatically.

When I first arrived here in Butternut Creek, called to serve the Christian Church, she saw me as too young and too inexperienced for almost everything.   She was correct.  She believes she always is.  Personally,  I’d hoped the passage of time would take care of both of my flaws, but Miss Birdie is not one to wait around and hope for change.

Although she’s never expressed this, an odd omission for a woman who prides herself on her speaking out fearlessly, she knows that a man of my age—too young—and with a sad lack of piety could never act as her spiritual guide.

She’s probably correct.  I am woefully incompetent to lead another person to faith when I struggle daily with my own flaws.  Thank goodness for grace from the Lord if not from Miss Birdie.  

But I have discovered a few things in the months I’ve been in here.   First, I fell in love with this small town in the beautiful hill country of Texas the moment I arrived: the friendly people, the Victorian houses, the live oaks shadowing the streets, the downtown square surrounded by coffee shops and gift stores and antique malls with a few businesses—the barber shop and the diner where Miss Birdie works--sprinkled in. 

Secondly, I found out I do possess some skills.  I preach a good sermon, teach an interesting adult Sunday school class, have an active youth group, and make much appreciated hospital calls and evangelistic visits regularly.    I’ve also improved my basketball game.

But there was one area in which Miss Birdie still found me lacking:  finding a wife and producing children to populate the children’s Sunday school classes.

Yes, she wanted me to find a bride.  Wanted is an inadequate word here.   Even was determined doesn’t approach the level of her resolve.  Add to that adjective single-minded and unwavering  and the total comes close to her desperate need to marry me off.  Do not add choosy to that list because she’d marry me off to any single woman still in her child-bearing years who lives within a fifty-mile radius of Butternut Creek.  Her task is made nearly impossible by the dearth of single women in small central Texas towns.  

Could be she expects God to create a mate  from my rib, but that hasn’t happened yet.   Nor do I expect to wake up, as Boaz did, to find a bride lying at my feet.  Of course, if a woman should appear in my bed, whether at the foot or cozily snuggled next to me, her presence in the parsonage would create a scandal from which neither the church nor I would recover.

Because Miss Birdie has renounced these biblical approaches to finding me a wife,  I shudder to imagine what she has in her fertile and scheming  mind.  All for my own good, of course.  

For the protection and edification of all involved,  I decided to document  every one of the efforts she and her cohorts, the other three Widows, have made in their attempts to find me a mate.   In addition, this book will cover my next year at minister in Butternut Creek, my search for experience and a wife as well as the joy of living here with the wonderful people who inhabit this paradise.

I send it off with my love and my blessing and in the desperate hope that someday Miss Birdie will smile upon me and say, “Well done, Pastor.” 

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JANE?

Contact: Jane@janemyersperrine.com

Website: JaneMyersPerrine.com
Facebook: Jane Myers Perrine
Twitter: @JanePerrine
Blog: JaneMyersPerrine.com/blog



AND NOW, A FEW WORDS FROM THE LOVELY LADY HERSELF!

If you can’t find me, I’m probably lost in a book because I love to read.  I devour books as our Irish setter—may she rest in peace--used to devour anything left in her reach, edible or not.

When I was a child, books were my favorite gifts.   I spent Christmas day in front of the fireplace reading.  What bliss!  What joy! 

In college, I had a double major in English and Spanish because I thought, “What better way to spend four years than to read the best literature in two languages?”    During that time, I took creative writing and even co-wrote a prize-winning one-act play. 

Many years later, after life allowed me time, I decided to write novels.   Actually, I started writing when I decided I had something to write about, when I had the maturity and the depth of experience that I could share. 

Even as a writer,  I still read.  I truly am a bookaholic.   When my wrists became too weak to hold a book—carpal tunnel, the bane of writers—I got a Kindle and have twenty-five pages of samples and complete books.  I love to go into a bookstore and wander.  Yes, bookaholic.

I write all morning, swim after lunch, and read in the afternoon—I am retired and can do that!   At night, I have to read an hour before I fall asleep.  When I have a appointment, I pull my Kindle in my purse and seldom notice the passage of time.  I’m constantly lost in a story.   If I didn’t read, I don’t believe I could write.  Reading replenishes creativity.

But I don’t read books like those in my Butternut Creek series, humorous small town stories which reviewers compare to novels written by Phillip Gulley and Jan Karon.  I love those books and writers but fear my brain might grab hold of one of their story ideas and use it.  I’d hate for that to happen.

What do I read?  I love a good murder mystery.  Nothing perks up a plot like a body in the living room.   I like traditional Regencies because I think they are so clever.  I’m re-reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander , one of my favorite novels and much easier to read on Kindle.  

Get lost in a story?  All the time.  Most of my life.

* * *

Lots of voracious readers become writers.   I’ve read surveys which say 80% of American adults want to write a novel. 

Have you written a book?  If not, have you ever wanted to?   

 

Folks, Jane has offered a copy of The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek to one commenter. So get commenting! Jane, thank you for joining us today! I've enjoyed your visit!

 

Note: Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to US and Canadian  addresses only. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Winners of drawings are responsible for checking this site in a timely manner. If prizes are not claimed in a timely manner, the author may not have a prize available. Get Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the listed prize. GLIAS does not automatically pass email addresses to guest authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address.