Welcome Guest Author Lacy Williams and a Giveaway

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One of my favorite childhood memories was heading over to my Aunt Donna’s house to spend the night. Often, we’d watch a favorite movie–the Apple Dumplin’ Gang was one of our top choices. It’s a movie hubby and I have shared with our kiddos to much laughter and shouts of “Mr. Donovan, I gotta go!”.

As a teen, While You Were Sleeping nudged out any other movie for my top favorite. It wasn’t only the romance that I loved, but the goofy family that seemed to enfold the lonely Lucy.

It wasn’t until I started writing that I realized there was a name for the types of movies and books where a main character gets enfolded in a friend group: the found family trope.

There’s a reason I love writing about this trope so much. I walked into a library meeting room in 2006 and found my writing family in an author’s group meeting. I’d always known I had stories inside of me, but sometimes it was difficult for my family (and later my husband) to understand how characters talked to me inside my brain. When I walked into that meeting room full of strangers and got to chatting… I knew I had found my people. They were just like me! It was as if an instant bond had formed.

Many of my books have explored the “found family” theme, including the second book I ever wrote, THE HOMESTEADER’S SWEETHEART, where the hero adopts a passel of boys, to ROPING THE WRANGLER, where a schoolteacher adopts three orphaned girls. And now I’ve got a brand new release, LOVE’S HEALING PATH, with heroine Maddie Fairfax. Maddie is a nurse and caring for a woman on her deathbed, a woman who demands a promise from Maddie. That promise is to take care of her three children when she dies. And it’s a promise that Maddie can’t refuse.

But Maddie is a single woman on a dangerous journey along the Oregon Trail and… and three children prove to be a LOT of work. I hope you’ll check out my new release and find out how things turn out for Maddie and the children.

Thanks for letting me visit with you today at P&P.

I’m going to give away a paperback copy of my brand new book and a $10 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner from those who comment. I’d love to know: do you have a favorite movie or book that explores the found family theme?

-Lacy

 Visit Lacy William’s Website

Click Cover to Order From Amazon.

Maddie Fairfax may be young, but on this Oregon-bound wagon train, the pioneers welcome help from the self-trained nurse. Until Dr. Jason Goodwin joins up with their company. The doctor portrays a frosty exterior, but Maddie may be the only one who sees the profound loneliness that haunts him.

After losing his wife and children in a terrible accident, Jason has vowed not to open his heart again. But when Maddie takes on the care of three young orphans, Jason finds himself entangled in the lives of the makeshift family. And as their journey west continues, Maddie’s radiant compassion begins to light up the darkest corners of his heart.

Until the unthinkable happens. Will Jason’s guarded heart and Maddie’s untamed spirit pull them apart?

Tropes/themes:

  • May/December
  • ready-made family / adopted orphans
  • grumpy/sunshine
  • love on the journey
  • emotional scars

 

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51 thoughts on “Welcome Guest Author Lacy Williams and a Giveaway”

  3. Our favorite family movie is the animated cars my 2 year old great grandson says kacho sound the race car makes. A romantic movie is the card where a soldier receives a Christmas card and then able to meet and spend time with author.

  5. Favorite movie series is The Man from Snowy River and the sequel. I love westerns and these tugged on my heart strings. Lacy, your books are awesome. Thank you for pursuing those stories talking to you in your head. Many days have been brightened by your books. Thank you for coming to P&P today.

    • My kids love the Man from Snowy River!! One of my childhood favorites. Thank you for reading my books. 🙂

  6. Found Family Theme – My favorite movie about this theme would be The Sound of Music for me. For my favorite book, I’d say The Thorn Birds.

    I enjoyed reading your blog post. I love watching The Wagon Train on TV (westerns are m favorite) and hope to read one of your books soon!

  7. The Christmas Card is great. As a child, we loved to watch The Wizard of Oz. All those travelers become a family.

  8. Many years ago I saw a movie called Room For One More. It inspired me to become a foster and adoptive parent.

  10. Happy Valentine’s Day. One of my favorite family movoe, Sound of Music. Based on her true story, I loves it.
    Another, With 6 You Get Egg Roll, Lucy was so funny.

  11. One of my favorite family movies is Yours Mine and Ours (the original one with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda), but another favorite is Return to Me a touching story of a man who loses his wife, donates her organs, and then falls in love with the woman who received his wife’s heart. My husband even likes that one..

  18. I am not a writer but it must be wonderful to have stories and characters in your head like that. As a family when our children were small we loved watching Parent Trap. Not exactly a found family trope but a reassembled one. Thanks for all your wonderful books and this chance to win your new one.

  19. I immediately thought of Yours, Mine, and Ours with the classic era stars Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. His family/household organizational chart was funny! I always appreciate your historical research and interesting characters.

  22. I don’t know that I have a favorite, since it would be hard to pick just one. However, I’ve always liked “Pollyanna” with Hayley Mills, “Room for One More” with Cary Grant, & “Yours Mine and Ours” with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. 🙂

  24. I don’t watch too many movies, though the movies I watch are all old westerns! So, I’d have to go with The Cowboys, which is the first time I remember seeing A Martinez in any show. The boys did form a type of family in the movie.

  27. Good morning , I really really love the old movie Penny Serenade and also the movie The Egg and I, I loved both those movies and when they happen to come out on TV I make sure I watch them. Thank you for the chance at your great sounding book. Have a very Happy Valentines Day.

  29. The Apple Dumpling Gang is one of our favorites also! “Yours, Mine, and Ours” with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda is my all time favorite.

  30. My favorite movie is “The Quiet Man”! It is such a shame that a lot of people have never heard of this movie. It is with Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne.

    Are you freezing in OK?

  33. I’ve always liked Yours, Mine, & Ours with Lucille Ball and the (I think it was PBS) movie series of Anne of Green Gables

  34. I just read a book by Sarah Lamb called Mail-Order Gambler. It has a found family theme. Thanks for the chance to win a prize.

  35. I can’t think of any off the top of my head. I generally don’t have favorite books, authors, music or movies. Much of it depends on my mood at the moment. Like I listen to American Indian flutes when my mind is “scattered” to calm it (or if I can’t get a migraine to settle). When I clean, I like to listen to classic rock turned up loud! I read more than 1 book at a time and they are usually all different types. I messed up once and almost put a review on the wrong book!

  36. Welcome today. I love this trope. I remember one I just loved: Pollyanna. I am sure there have been others, just cant bring them to mind right now. Thanks for the give a way. I love your books.

  37. While You Were Sleeping is a favorite move of mine too. I also really enjoy watching Where The Heart Is starring Natalie Portman. That’s another found family one too.

  38. There are so many good movies. Yours, Mine, And Ours” is one of my favorites. I like the original one the best, but the remake is good too. I love your books. I have read and reread some of them.

  41. It’s not really a book but it’s the OMalley series by Dee Henderson. Nothing like friends becoming family literally

  43. The TV show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman & the movie Raising Helen are the first two that come to mind for found family.

  44. You mentioned one of my favorite movies, While You Were Sleeping. It shows so well how the idea of what you think you want can be so different from what you really want. As well as how different someone cane really be compared to who you think they are. There is a similar movie on the Hallmark Channel, A Very Merry Mix-Up, where a woman goes to meet her future in-laws but ends up with the wrong family who has the same name. That family is everything she could have hoped for. When the mix-up is discovered and she goes to her fiancee’s family, she doesn’t fit in at all. The contrast of a family built on love, caring, and enjoying each other with one interested in status and money is sharply drawn. Not as important or critical a situation as Maddie finds herself in. As you mentioned at the beginning, found family can often be more important in some ways than those in your family. You are there because you want to be and they accept you for who you are.

  45. I know I’ve read books with this trope but of course I can only pull one out of my memory banks at the moment: Harry Potter. Harry finds his family at Hogwarts (which is contrasted with his actual relatives, the Dursleys, who are horrible).

    Thanks for running the giveaway and making part of the prize a physical book (I read those a lot more quickly than e-books).

  47. I’ve never heard of the found family trope. Thanks for sharing about it.

    I think Dee Henderson’s O’malleys would fit this trope because it’s a group of group home kids who decide to form their own family together. I love this series!

    Looking forward to your new book. ?

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