I’ve over at the ChristiansRead blog with something “close to my heart,” so to speak. :) "I’ve been discipling a young woman at church who used to be in my youth group, so I’ve seen her grow up, to an extent. She’s very busy with graduate school right now, but there’s a young man she’s met with whom she’s gotten closer. It’s always hard for me to give advice or encouragement to young women when it comes to their love lives. Everyone’s experience with romantic relationships is different depending on each person’s personality, family background, and life experience." Click here to read more

I was over at the Regency Reflections blog talking a bit about my latest Regency knitting project, “Shell Pattern Manchettes” and also a little historical tidbit about knitting in the Regency and Georgian era.

I’m over at Suspense Sisters blog today talking a bit about the quandry I’m in over the murder and mayhem in my current Regency romance work-in-progress.

Beth's new book just hit the shelves! To celebrate the release of Backfire (Mountain Cove) Suspense Sisters had a full week last week hearing from Beth about her book and running a giveaway. Here's the back cover blurb: NOWHERE LEFT TO HIDE Tracy Murray had thought she'd be safe disappearing in the wilds of Alaska after her testimony put away a gang leader. But the gang symbol tattooed on an attacker's arm means the clock has run out. She's been found—and she knows the killers won't let her escape alive again. She can't fight an entire gang alone—she needs help. But when she finds herself relying on widowed firefighter David Warren, a new struggle emerges. Fleeing Alaska and cutting all ties could be the only way to survive…but it would mean leaving her heart behind. Mountain Cove: In the Alaskan wilderness, love and danger collide Be sure to visit Suspense Sisters for all the posts last week: Giveaway of BACKFIRE Excerpt of BACKFIRE A message ...

I’m currently working on two projects, one a Regency novel and another a sort-of dystopian/near future series that I’ve felt God laying on my heart to write. The problem with the dystopian is that I have too many ideas! I wanted to do the third Protection for Hire series book as the start of my near-future world, but suddenly I had six or eight new characters appear in my head, each with their own stories. I’ve been writing my ideas down as I get them, but now I feel like I’ve been dissing poor Tessa and Charles because the other stories seem more interesting to me right now. I guess I’ll continue with my plan: to write the third Protection for Hire book as planned, and table these other characters’ stories. Or maybe I’ll introduce a couple of them in Tessa and Charles’s book? It’s actually been rather interesting to subtly alter Tessa’s old story world to mesh with this new dystopian world idea that God gave to me.

I’m over on ChristiansRead.com talking about a really important message I heard yesterday that pertains to God’s message in my Regency writing, and I guess my writing in general.

For fun, I decided to knit the Regency scarf that Gerard, my hero, gives to my heroine in my Christmas short novel, The Spinster's Christmas . I can’t remember if I posted the finished scarf on my blog, including any changes I made to the pattern, so here it is. I chose A Gentleman’s Comforter from The Ladies’ Knitting and Netting Book, First Series by Miss Watts, originally published in 1837. You can download the .pdf of the Fifth Edition, with additions, which was published in 1840 . I’m pretty sure this pattern was in use in the Regency, because most patterns had been passed down by word of mouth long before they were published. So Jane Austen could have gotten this pattern from a friend or family member and used it when making a scarf for her father. :) Here’s the original pattern: I wasn't entirely certain what “coarse steel needles” and “5 skeins of fine wool yarn” mean, so I just guessed. I used US 1 needles and fingering weight wool yarn, but you could use a...