Birthdays Are More Fun With Presents

What would a birthday be without any presents? Today I thought it would be fun to ask some of the Stitches Thru Time authors about their favorite birthday presents, both for them and their characters.

What is the most memorable gift you have ever received?

Shirley Raye Redmond:
I was ten-years-old and living overseas in Japan when I received a box of
brand new Nancy Drew mysteries from an aunt. I was thrilled because the
books weren’t available over there at the time.

Linda Shenton Matchett:
My husband printed the Historical Novel Society review of Under Fire, "fancied it up," and framed
it.

Pegg Thomas:
I honestly can't think of one that stands out. We're pretty low-key about birthdays. It's more about making the birthday person feel like king or queen for the day than it is about gifts. The birthday person doesn't do a lick of work on their birthday. That may not sound like much until you realize that we live on a farm. No chores - as all - is a huge deal. They get their choice of home-cooked meal or restaurant of choice, favorite type of cake (mine is always angel food), and choice of entertainment. For me, that's pretty low-key too, usually a favorite movie on DVD, a board game, or cards.

Jennifer Fromke:
A chair to go beside my bed. It has words in French all over it. It’s gorgeous, and wordy and I love it.

Catherine Castle:
My first bicycle. After I received it, I told all the guests the party was over so I could ride it. When my mother came outside with the ice cream and found all tbe guests gone she made me go to everyone's house, apologize and invite them back to the party.

Amber Schamel:
I have so many wonderful gift-givers in my life that it is hard to pick just one. But my earliest memory of a memorable gift was when I was probably 3 or 4 years old. I came downstairs to see a beautiful doll house that my parents had purchased for me. Complete with an operating elevator, it was a little girl's dream. 

Crystal Barnes:
Um...That's a hard one. I always like getting presents (including books, of course), but lately the best gift has been having my family surround me, getting to see and spend time with the ones I love the most. This year I was abundantly blessed to spend my birthday with my husband after almost 13 years apart.

What is the most memorable gift your book's character has ever received?

Amanda from Amanda's Beau by Shirley Raye Redmond:
My name is Amanda Dale. I live on a small chicken farm near Aztec, New
Mexico. My most memorable gift was a copy a Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
by Lew Wallace. It was given to me by the local schoolteacher, Gil
Gladney, who I am in love with. He’d loaned me his copy once. I read it
and wanted to be a better person after having done so. I was tickled when
he gave me a brand new copy of my own.

Ruth from Under Fire by Linda Shenton Matchett:
My name is Ruth. I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and still live there with my folks.   I have two siblings - a younger brother, Chip, and her sister, Jane, is the youngest. I'm a reporter for the local newspaper which allows me to be professionally curious (and nosy). I received a portable Remington typewriter from my parents in support of my journalistic career.

Maksim Ivanov from Anna's Tower by Pegg Thomas (part of The Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides collection releasing in November 2018):
I fled Russia after my father became a casualty of the programs for aiding a Jewish family. With little money and less English, I stowed away on a ship sailing from Buffalo, New York, to Duluth, Minnesota. When the ship ran aground off Thunder Bay Island, I am stranded there with winter setting in. My mother knitted me pair of mittens for my eighteenth birthday. It was my last birthday in Russia before escaping programs and coming to United States of America. I now live on Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron. Is very cold here and mittens mean much to me.

Author's Vision for Darby

Darby from Jennifer Fromke's Work in Progress:
My finance is killed in an accident as he drives me to the hospital where I delivers my son, stillborn. The woman sharing my hospital room begs me to trade the stillborn for her live baby girl. There's a full moon, and overfull Labor and Delivery floor, the computers are down, and an icy snowstorm outside causes the generator power to switch on. Telling a lie with save a life, but at what cost?
So the best gift I ever received was her...Mia. I mean, who would expect someone to just give you a baby?

Allison Walters from A Groom for Mama by Catherine Castle:
My name is Allison Walters. I was abandoned by my father and ‎determined early in life that I would never let another man hurt me. To protect my heart I always broke off relationships before they got too serious. But when Jack Somerset reappears in my life I discovered the heart wants what the heart wants even if the deal they strike isn't real.  
The best gift I ever received was an arm load of forsythia gathered from the roadside. One spring afternoon, my boyfriend, Jack, made his buddies stop the car they were driving to gather the stems, because he knew I loved the cheery blooms.

Sam Adams from Dawn of Liberty by Amber Schamel:
My name is Samuel Adams and I'm here in Pennsylvania at the 2nd meeting of the Continental Congress in an effort to convince my fellow delegates to cast their votes in favor of independence. We are already at war with Britain, so we can no longer delay the decision.
The most memorable gift I have ever received came shortly before my trip to Congress. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I had no suitable things to wear to such a gathering. My old clothes and shoes would have to suffice. However, as I sat at table with my family, there was a knock on the door. A tailor appeared and insisted on fitting me for new clothes, already paid for by the good people I represent in Boston. I was shocked. After he left, there was another knock. This time it was a cobbler fitting me for a new pair of shoes. Also paid for by my constituents. By the time a third knock from a wig maker sounded on my door, I was overwhelmed.

Dinah from Love, Stock, and Barrel by Crystal Barnes:
My name is Dinah Joy Lexington. I'm a feisty, inquisitive redhead who knows a bucket-load about guns, including what it's like to be caught in a shotgun wedding with the barrel pointed my direction.
 My most memorable gift came on one of the most memorable days of my life---birthday or no. I was looking for a worry stone to mark the day, but instead got caught in a flash flood, rescued by a handsome cowboy, and best of all accepted the gift of salvation from my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, after surviving the whole ordeal. That has to be the best birthday present for all time. 

And of course, we need a giveaway! Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for an ebook copy of Amber's Dawn of Liberty short story collection!

Each comment also gets your name in the drawing for the grand prize at the end of the month.