About the Book

Book: Weaving Roots

Author: Heather Wood

Genre: Christian Historical Fiction with Romance

Release date: June 25, 2024

Baltimore, 1828

Spinning. Turning flax to fine linen thread for her family’s weaving business keeps Betha’s hands occupied all day, but it’s the concerns spinning in her heart that never truly rest. How can she give her nephew Henry a secure, loving home when his father remains indifferent? How can she guide the boy who calls her “Ma” to know and follow the Lord for himself? And when past secrets and future changes collide, will she lose Henry altogether?

Colm Gallagher is passionate about teaching boys using innovative educational methods. But is his kind and thorough instruction enough if he is not allowed to give his students the ultimate truth of God’s Word? Confronted by his student Henry Young and the boy’s lovely but determined aunt, Colm considers if he has allowed practical considerations to outweigh his deepest-held beliefs.

Even as Betha and Colm are drawn to each other, family loyalties, financial pressures, and personal uncertainties push them further apart. Will the threads of their lives unravel or become knit together into something stronger?

Weaving linen is her family’s legacy. Weaving roots of truth and grace is her calling.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Heather Wood grew up in the Chicago suburbs, loving history, classic literature, writing stories, and Civil War reenacting. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in Bible/Theology from Appalachian Bible College, she settled in Virginia with her husband David. Her early passions fuel her writing today, although she spends most of her days now working to infuse her love for God and good literature into the hearts of her four children.

More from Heather

I’ve gone through a lot of phases in my life. I’ve been involved in different hobbies and activities, only to have them fizzle out after a few years. So when I started writing, I thought it was the same thing—that it was another short-lived hobby and soon I would get back to my regular life.

My third book was about to be released when one day, it felt like God turned a light bulb on in my mind: This is what I’ve been preparing you to do all along. When I look back at my parents, my education, and the experiences of my life, I realized that God had specially equipped me to do exactly what I was doing: write Christian historical fiction about real American church history.

The epiphany was more scary than exciting. I’m a “one idea at a time” kind of author. I don’t have multiple projects going at once. I had no idea, as I went to publish my third book, if I would even be able to come up with a plot and characters for a fourth. Would I announce to my friends that this writing thing was here to stay only to find I never got another story idea? What about the sacrifices it would require of my husband and kids?

That was just in 2022. Releasing this summer is Weaving Roots, my fifth book and the first in a whole new series with entirely new characters. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series unfolds from the idea seeds God has planted! I regularly offer my writing up to God, willing to walk away if He were ever to ask me to do so. Until then, I will work diligently and trustingly at the work He has given me to do.

You see, while each book does start with an idea seed, it’s watered by real history. As I take my spark of inspiration to the history books, I delight in finding out what God was doing in the time and place I’m writing about. My plots grow up around the real people He used and the work He was doing (although I usually make people who really lived into minor characters at best. Most often, I merely refer to them off the page while using what I do know about them to inspire my characters). I always try to drop vivid characters into the world as it really existed and watch and see how they respond. I dig into Scriptures and the theologians and Christian thinkers of their era or the one before to round out my themes and take the book’s message deeper. As a result, I am always the first one who is convicted and challenged by the message God brings to my stories.

Weaving Roots introduces us to the father of the siblings in my Finding Home series when he was just ten years old in 1827. He’s a second-generation Irish immigrant in a family of linen weavers in Baltimore, more than a decade before the Irish Great Famine. To the best of my knowledge, no one in either Christian or general market fiction has written about this time, place, and people group. Not everything on the page will be what you expect, as this generation between Colonial and Civil War/ Victorian Americans was very unique in their beliefs, struggles, and priorities. Henry Young is brought to Baltimore by his father, who is looking for a fresh start for his son and himself. Henry soon finds that his new schoolmaster is not what he expects and his father has more major changes coming into his life.

I can’t wait to share Weaving Roots with you and see how God uses His words to bless and encourage you!

Interview with Heather

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

I was a thirty-something mom of four when I started writing down a Civil War-era northern homefront story that had lived in my head from the time I was a teenager! I never intended to write more than that first book- actually, I never intended to even write that book. I published Until We All Find Home in 2019 and have published one book a year since that time.

How do you create your main characters?

My characters are a combination of their personality, environment, experiences, and faith. They’re never a straight stereotype of their personality and always come out with many layers. Sometimes I start with a character and build the plot around their strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes I start with an external idea seed such as a real historical incident and create a person who has to engage with it in some way. I love to create dynamic characters and drop them in the world as it really existed and see what happens! What choices do they make, how do they react to their situation, and how does their faith or lack thereof play into it?

Have you experienced writer’s block, and how do you handle it?

Sometimes I sense writer’s block at the beginning of the process when I’m trying to create characters and plots from seemingly thin air, and other times I experience it further into the project. Besides prayer and simply creating uninterrupted time to think, I most often find my way out of writer’s block by returning to research and finding the answer to my problem in some obscure historical detail or by talking through the issue with my critique partners or others in my Christian Mommy Writers community. They bring fresh pairs of eyes and life experiences to the table and can often help me think of a solution that I wouldn’t have been able to on my own.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

I was surprised to find God addressing my own fears and weaknesses in the faith messages I wrote for my characters as well as the way He continually provides ideas and inspiration that obviously come from outside of myself. I wrote my first book “for fun” and was surprised by how involved God wanted to be even in my fun!

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

My Finding Home series and my newest release, Weaving Roots, can be found on Amazon as well as on my website, heatherwoodauthor.com. There you’ll find links to my blog and social media accounts, where I talk more about my writing journey and what readers can expect from my books.

Blog Stops

Vicky Sluiter, August 17

Stories By Gina, August 18 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, August 18

Locks, Hooks and Books, August 19

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 20

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, August 21 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 21

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, August 22

Devoted To Hope, August 23

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, August 24

Batya’s Bits, August 25

For Him and My Family, August 26

Labor Not in Vain, August 27

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, August 28

The Sacred Line, August 29

Books You Can Feel Good About, August 30

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Heather is giving away the grand prize package of a paperback of Weaving Roots, a special handstitched bookmark and a sticker designed especially for Weaving Roots, a copy of The Virginia Housewife, an 1820s cookbook referenced in Weaving Roots, and a $15 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2ddab/weaving-roots-celebration-tour-giveaway