When I pitched Village of Women to publishers when asked what else do you have, I had only a concept. When they showed interest in the idea, I had to get serious about my story. Village of Women is now the series title. The first book, Angelina’s Resolve, differs from my other books. Angelina isn’t looking for a husband or marriage. She is a wealthy single woman who supports temperance and the suffrage movement.

She’s an architect with no credentials of her own. Angelina is determined and headstrong and doesn’t take counsel from men very often.

She was the perfect protagonist for my story idea. I’d been doing some historical research on Kansas for my novella Healing Hearts when I ran across an article about Greeley, Kansas, a town originally founded by Horace Greeley. He and other philanthropists of his time were determined to build Utopia towns. They never lived there themselves, only set the rules, chose the residents, and financed them. As a follower of Karl Marx and Joseph Engels, he tried a few times to create a town that matched his narrative and failed.

My story takes placed a decade earlier than his first attempt to fit the time frame I wanted for the setting, right after the Civil War when many people migrated west for a better life. Angelina and her dearest friends Bridget and Teresa read about Greeley and his concepts and discussed how women could do it better. My idea was a village designed by a female architect, where businesswomen would settle there and every citizen treated equally, no matter their ethnicity, gender or race. And they wrote temperance in the by-laws.

This was a fun story to write, especially when I added Edward Pritchard as the contractor. A man working for a female boss was unheard of. And her naivete regarding the world outside her sphere of influence slaps her in the face throughout the story.

I could address attitudes toward women, Native Americans and people of color from the viewpoint of the period. Angelina learns to walk out her convictions and change from a pampered daughter to an independent woman while building a town and dealing with all the mishaps that occur and her growing feelings for Edward.

Educated, independent, modern thinking women were pariahs during the 19th century. It is relatable even today as 21st century women have to work harder than men to prove their worth in male-dominated fields like architecture.

 Angelina is also challenged to discover what the Bible says about women and Jesus’ love for them.

 I had so many what-if moments, I had to delegate some of those to future books in the series.

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Cindy Ervin Huff is a Mentor and a member of Page 1 online and has been a Word Weaver for over a decade. She is an Award-winning author of Historical and Contemporary Romance. She loves infusing hope into her stories of broken people. She’s addicted to reading and chocolate. Her idea of a vacation is visiting historical sites and an ideal date with her hubby of almost fifty years would be sitting in the audience of a theater presentation. Visit her website: www.cindyervinhuff.com

What-if moments are the coolest things for me as a writer. After writing Healing Hearts, my novella in The Cowboys collection, I’d given Lonnie Holt his happily-ever-after but left sweet, noble Jed, his twin brother all alone. I wanted to write his happily-ever-after (HEA). I needed a heroine that would both challenge and intrigue him. 

My first novel, Secrets and Charades, focused on a female doctor who went west as a mail-order bride and her future husband Jake was kind and patient. What if a mail-order bride married a monster. That is when Delilah Mclain James came into the picture. She answered a mail-order bride ad in hopes of making an easier life for her parents who, like her, were servants in the home of a very demanding family. The letters from her future husband were sweet, and the man appeared very educated. But when she arrives, he is not at all who she imagined he would be. Her life becomes a nightmare.

This backstory helped cement her fearful and angry attitude toward men when her husband dies, freeing her from his prison but leaving her with no way to support herself. Enter Jed Holt, lay-preacher and Civil War veteran who patiently befriends her, gives her employment on the ranch he shares with his brother and his family, and works to build her trust again.

And as always, more what-if moments come to mind as their romance unfolds that give them many things to trip over, before their HEA. I wanted to encourage women of abuse as they read Delilah’s story that there is hope for their future. I know women who’ve escaped from domestic abuse and those who have read Rescuing Her Heart feel I have accurately portrayed their internal struggle.

As a romance writer, I don’t want to just write a sweet HEA story, but a story with genuine problems that are relatable. The Word tells us there is nothing new under the sun. And as I study history, something I love to do, I am reminded of that biblical truth. Domestic abuse is not a new thing. PTSD existed since the beginning of time. Modern man hasn’t discovered new things, but we are more aware of these struggles than in past generations. We encourage people to seek treatment and counseling. I hope Rescuing Her Heart finds its way into the hands of those people and encourages them to seek help. I hope they learn they are not their past. My theme verse for all my books is Ecc. 3:11 “He makes all things beautiful in his time.”

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Cindy Ervin Huff is a Mentor and a member Page 1 and a Word Weaver for over a decade. She is an Award-winning author of Historical and Contemporary Romance. She loves infusing hope into her stories of broken people. She addicted to reading and chocolate. Her idea of a vacation is visiting historical sites and an ideal date with her hubby of almost fifty years would be seating in the audience of a theater presentation. Visit her website www.cindyervinhuff.com

I made plans to retire to Alabama by the end of 2021. I dreamed of writing, going to the beach, and visiting family and friends. Instead, one week before leaving Texas, my husband was rushed to the hospital. For several months, he was in the hospital four separate times and went through five procedures — ultimately losing a kidney to cancer.  

I did retire, but my dream of writing and traveling was interrupted. Fatigue, depression, and self-reliance dampened my passion for writing. What was once a joy was becoming a chore. Doubt seeped in. Do I really have anything to say? What is my purpose, my calling, my gift?

Discouraged, I sat down to have my quiet time with the Lord. Unrest threatened to cloud my concentration as I read Scripture. Lord, open my heart to Your Word.

As always, when I cry out, the Lord answers.

Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11 CSB).

Meditating on the verses calmed my unrest. While these verses are speaking of spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit used them to open my eyes to another truth. If anyone [writes], let it be as one who [writes] God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything (editing mine).

My calling, my purpose, my gifts are not dependent on me. My writing is not God-breathed as Scripture is — but every breath I take is dependent on God’s grace. Through the strength God provides, the sentences I construct are messengers of that grace. May they go forth and serve those in need, so that God is glorified through Jesus Christ.

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Kathy McInnis is the author of Companions on My Journey. She is president of WW Page 39. Kathy shares her writings on her blog at www.ferventgrace.org. She is a former chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains and the president of Fervent Grace Ministries, a nonprofit organization.  Kathy enjoys hiking, sitting on the beach, and reading a good mystery. She and her husband live on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay with their rescue dog Bella. They have three grown children and three grandchildren.