General Interest 2 - Derinda Babcock

Following Destiny: Q & A with Lexie Logan

August 4, 2017 by Derinda Babcock

FOLLOWING DESTINY: Lexie Logan Returns to the Twenty-First Century Q & A with Lexie Logan LEXIE LOGAN is the main character in both Book One, Dodging Destiny and Book Three, Following Destiny. Though not physically present in the second book, In Search of Destiny, her influence on the lives of people she left in the nineteenth century keeps her personality alive throughout the story. As I created Lexie’s character, I wondered what made her tick. How was she like me? How was she different? What strengths and weaknesses made her believable? In what ways did she influence the people around her, …

Tying the Past to the Present: A Different Lens

September 2, 2016 by Derinda Babcock

Tying the Past to the Present: Looking Through the Lens of History to Learn Lessons for Today This is the theme of my website–its raison d’être. When the site first went up, I said the “Past, recent, and present history is included in this website’s definition of HIStory. The purpose is to inform, encourage, and entertain.” Though I am interested in historical information garnered while researching for my novels, I’m more interested to learn how lessons from the past, recent or distant, can be applied to my life today. What can I learn from people who lived centuries before me? Did they struggle with …

In Search of Destiny

April 21, 2016 by Derinda Babcock

In Search of Destiny: Book Two in the Destiny Trilogy If you read Dodging Destiny, did you wonder what happened to the people Lexie Logan left behind in the nineteenth century? I did. Originally, Dodging Destiny was written to be a stand-alone novel, but all of my beta-readers told me I couldn’t stop with the first novel. They wanted to know what happened to the characters when the Civil War broke out. They wondered how Lexie’s experience changed her after she returned to the twenty-first century. I listened and began to research. Book Two, In Search of Destiny, is now available for …

Dodging Destiny

September 13, 2015 by Derinda Babcock

Have you ever tried to run from your Destiny? Destiny can be defined as . . . “something that is to happen or has happened to a particular person or thing; lot or fortune,” but the word can also mean, “the power or agency that determines the course of events.” For Christians, that power or agency is God. Isaiah 55:11 (ESV) says, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Check out …

Undoing Life’s Mistakes: David Stearman

September 10, 2015 by Derinda Babcock

A Visit with David Stearman David Stearman is a songwriter/recording artist/novelist, who specializes in adventure stories set in exotic locales. He has a special love for the tropics, jungles and beaches which is reflected in both his novels and personal life, in the form of hobbies such as breeding parrots and growing orchids. David is involved in missionary work, and because of his speaking and concert engagement travels widely. His stories reflect the life he lives and places he visits in a way that makes his readers feel as if they’ve been there too. David, what were the factors that …

July: Pausing to Remember History

June 30, 2015 by Derinda Babcock

What images do you see when someone says July 4th? Do you think of picnics, fireworks, wars, old documents, or something else? As a reader and writer of historical fiction, here is what comes to my mind. July 3, 1775 George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the American Revolution. The first battles of the American Revolution occurred in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. (Aril 19, 1775). People living in the Thirteen Colonies rebelled against the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. July 4, 1776 The Declaration of Independence is …

INSPIRATION FROM A TRACTOR SEAT

February 26, 2015 by Derinda Babcock

HOW SITTING ON THE SEAT OF A TRACTOR INSPIRES ME Picture this: A novelist-farmer in Southwestern Colorado needs answers to questions that keep popping up in her current work-in-progress. She also needs to mow or disk the pasture. If she spends her time thinking about plot and characterization while sitting in front of the computer, the pasture doesn’t get done. If she spends a few hours on the tractor, the writing doesn’t get done. So what does this author decide to do? She multi-tasks by mowing or disking the pasture while mentally working on her novel. The novelist-farmer is me, and some of the …

FIREWALL, an edge of your seat read

February 8, 2015 by Derinda Babcock

FIREWALL This novel by DiAnn Mills will keep you turning pages ’til the very end. This story is fast-paced with a surprise twist at the end. If you’re looking for a story that will keep your blood pumping and your attention riveted, then FIREWALL is the book for you. Here is the text from FIREWALL‘s back cover blurb: After a whirlwind romance, Taryn Young is preparing to board a plane at Houston International Airport, bound for a dream honeymoon, when a bomb decimates the terminal. Injured but still alive, she awakens to discover her husband is missing and they’re both considered prime suspects …

A Christmas Tale | Un cuento de Navidad

December 17, 2014 by Derinda Babcock

A CHRISTMAS TALE When I was growing up, most of the cousins in my extended family were girls, so when my brother and the only boy cousin got together for reunions, they couldn’t stay out of mischief for long. I was the eldest cousin, and as I remember it, this mischief was always directed at the girls. They loved to hear us yell, and were overjoyed if we chased them. A CHRISTMAS TALE is a work of fiction, though the characters are a compilation of personalities from my childhood. Some of the names have been changed to protect the …

Christian Fantasy: New worlds to explore

December 6, 2014 by Derinda Babcock

Exploring Fantasy Worlds with author R. J. Larson Fantasy is not a genre of fiction I typically choose. I mean, come on. Dragons or other strange and frightening creatures? Make-believe words and worlds? Magic? Medieval-type settings full of castles and men and women who fight with swords or other deadly weapons? REALLY? By definition, fantasy is extravagant and unrestrained imagination using mental images that are unreal or fantastic. This type of fiction never attracted me much, though I did enjoy Lois Lowry’s, The Giver, and Robin McKinley’s Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, The Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword when my classes read …