Between the Lines With Alexis and Michael

Can you believe this is my tenth month of podcasting? I can’t. It astounds me how many inspirational authors are out there, and I’m blessed to be able to talk with a small minority of them. For one of the July episodes, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexis A. Goring, and my first male author, Michael Duty. I will …

Interview with Author Susan K. Beatty

About the Book Book: Relinquished Author: Susan K. Beatty Genre: Christian Woman’s Fiction Release date: May 16, 2023 No one takes her kid and gets away with it. When Teagan Parsons discovers that the Amber Alert on a celebrity couple’s child is actually her daughter, she’s determined to rescue the daughter she relinquished years ago. If she’d only realized the …

Review of Lone Star Sweethearts

About the Book Book: Lone Star Sweetheart Author: Shannon Sue Dunlap Genre: Inspirational Rom-com Release Date: May 23, 2023 Katherine Bruno is the shrew of Sweetheart, Texas. Her passionate, unfiltered temper clashes with the gentle pace of her tiny hometown. When she’s drafted to help the mayor’s wife who wants to run in the local election against her own husband, …

Daylilies

What better plant to feature on Release Day than daylilies? This is one of the most adaptable flowering plants in the world, and yet, I had never heard of them before moving to Tennessee. It was because of sweet friends we met the first time at our church that my yard is now adorned with these amazing flowers. Kenny and …

Wild Columbine

When I think of the abundance of flowers that grow in the wild—without benefit of fertilizer, conditioned soil, and well-timed sprinklers—it reminds me of the abundance of our Lord. Just as He’s created each of us with a unique DNA that gives us our looks, character traits, and giftings, He does the same for the flowers in the fields. Then …

Butterfly Milkweed

The first I’d ever heard of milkweed as a garden plant was from an elderly woman in our church who is known for her amazing green thumb. You want to know about any flowering plant—ask Carol. Last summer, she gave Chris a milkweed plant as a gift because he had heard the fluff of the spent blooms were a great …

Virginia Bluebells

Why would a Tennessee girl write about a Virginia plant? Two reasons—unlike the others I’m highlighting, this one does well in full sun, but does even better in partial shade—or does “dappled light” sound writerlier? These garden perennials also bloom early in the spring, so you get some color alongside daffodils, hosta, Solomon’s Seal, and ferns. But their blooms are …

Coneflowers

Most of us have heard of the health benefits of Echinacea, but did you know this medicinal herb came from a very popular, versatile flower genus? Echinacea genus is a member of the daisy or Asteraceae (asters) family. There are several species within this genus, and most are more commonly known as coneflowers. Interestingly, the word Echinacea comes from the …

Irises

I realize irises are not an uncommon flower, but since it’s the Tennessee state flower, I’d be remiss in not writing a post about this popular perennial. The first time I had irises in my own yard was when I married Chris and moved into his Northern California cabin sitting on twenty acres. There weren’t any irises in the “yard” …

Hydrangeas

You might be wondering what motivated me to write about popular Middle Tennessee plants this week. My Bedford County Novella releases on the 18th, and since main character Alyssa Mitchell is a landscape architect (that’s a fancy name for gardener), I thought it would be fun to share some of my newly acquired plant knowledge. The yard is my happy …