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Not available at this site at this time. Set in turn-of-the-century Florida, this frontier saga traces the life of Ivy Cromartie Stranahan, the first English-speaking teacher in the region, as she struggles to teach school in the Seminole Nation and lead Indian families to Christ. Ivy is disliked by tribal leaders in spite of her obvious love for their children, yet she eventually overcomes their resistance and serves as their spokesman in negotiations with the U S government. Already scarred by her mother's tragic death in childbirth, Ivy overcomes her husband's suicide and other devastating disappointments to share her faith with her adopted people and eventually earn their love. Like all of us who search for meaning, Ivy yearns to experience the power of faith, understand the limitation of human protection, and learn the importance of perseverance in caring for those we love. Other books in this series: A Sweetness to the Soul, Love to Water My Soul, A Gathering of Finches Reviews: "Spinning a tale of love, adventure and history, Kirkpatrick draws readers into the lives of Frank and Ivy Stranahan, real-life influential settlers of Florida. Readers will forget this is fiction based on fact as they read about the unusual love story that took place amid daily danger and great hardship....Kirkpatrick thoroughly researched this couple and their impact on the Seminole tribe and the founding of Fort Lauderdale. As a result, readers will feel they're a part of the Stranahan life and times. Highly recommend this book to men and women." —Christian Booksellers Association Market Place “Her research gives the book depth; her empathy gives it a soul.” —The Sunday Oregonian "With a compelling literary style, the reader is drawn into the story and immersed in the hardships and triumphs of the early settlers and the surviving Seminoles...Ivy is revealed to be an early visionary and crusader for the environment and women's rights." —Marco Island Eagle, Florida Price includes shipping and handling.
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Not available on this site at this time. Please visit the Aurora Colony Gift Shop to purchase. The people of Bethel, Missouri, seek to live with simplicity and generosity, existing in the world of the 1850s but remaining set apart from its distraction and vanities. Rather than finding peace in the would-be utopia, spirited young Emma Wagner chafes at the constraints of a culture that values conformity over independent thought, especially women. When Emma’s outspoken ways growing skepticism lead to a clash with the colony’s beloved leader, she finds new opportunities to pursue her dreams of independence. But as she clears a pathway West to her truest and deepest self, she discovers something she never expected: a yearning for the warm embrace of community. Based on a true story. The first book in the Change and Cherish trilogy. Awards:
- Finalist, 2006, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)
- Finalist, 2007, WILLA Literary Award, Historical Fiction, Women Writing the West
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Not available on this site at this time. Please visit the Aurora Colony Gift Shop to purchase. A story of tender truths about a women’s desperate efforts to shelter her family. Emma Giesy, a strong-willed German American, believes her young family will thrive in the light of their newfound freedom, after she and her husband branch off from their close-knit and repressive religious community in the spring of 1856. Determined to raise her children on her own terms, Emma suddenly finds herself alone and pregnant with her third child, struggling to keep her family secure in the remote coastal forest of the Washington Territory. With loss and disappointment as her fuels, she kindles a fire that soon threatens to consume her, making a series of poor choices that take her into dangerous relationships. As clouds of despair close in, she must decide whether to continue in her own waning strength or to humble herself and accept help from the very people she once so eagerly left behind. Rich with historical details and vivid characters, A Tendering in the Storm poignantly gives voice to a mother’s fears for her family and a women’s search for her truest self. Based on a true story. The second book in the Change and Cherish trilogy. Awards:
- Winner, 2008, WILLA Literary Award, Original Softcover Fiction (Trade or Mass Market), Women Writing the West
- Finalist, 2008, Christy Award, Evangelical Christian Publishers Association
- Finalist, 2009, Oregon Book Award, Portland Literary Arts Organization
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Not available on this site at this time. Please visit the Aurora Colony Gift Shop to purchase. “Of all the things I left in Willapa, hope is what I missed the most.” So begins this story of one woman's restoration from personal grief to the meaning of community. Based on the life of German-American Emma Wagner Giesy, the only woman sent to the Oregon Territory in the 1850s to help found a communal society, award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick shows how landscape, relationships, spirituality and artistry poignantly reflect a woman's desire to weave a unique and meaningful legacy from the threads of an ordinary life. While set in the historical past, it's a story for our own time answering the question: Can threads of an isolated life weave a legacy of purpose in community? Based on a true story. The third book in the Change and Cherish trilogy. Other books in this series: #1) A Clearing in the Wild, #2) A Tendering in the Storm Reviews: "Jane has a gift for breathing simple beauty into the lives of remarkable historical women characters. In A Mending at the Edge, Emma comes off the page and shows readers an unforgettable picture of a very unique Oregon community. I love living within view of Mt. Hood even more now that I better understand those who shaped the tenacious beginnings of this region."–Robin Jones Gunn, author of the bestselling Glenbrooke Series and the Christy Award-winning Sisterchicks novels "In A Mending at the Edge, Jane Kirkpatrick completes the literary quilt of the Emma Wagner Giesy trilogy, piecing together the historical fabric of Emma's personal story with that of the Aurora Colony. Emma's efforts to find a house–and a home–in this communal society in Oregon once again reflect the conflict of individual and community needs represented in Kirkpatrick's earlier two works in the Change and Cherish Historical Series. Based on a solid historical framework of the Aurora Colony and the broader social, political, and cultural landscape of the 1860s, Kirkpatrick offers a story of hope and achievement that captures the spirit of giving, sharing, and receiving central to 'mending' within a communal settlement."–James J. Kopp, communal historian and Board Member of Aurora Colony Historical Society Price includes shipping and handling.
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Not available at this site at this time. Out of the wilderness… Three women. Three eras. Three miracles. 1901: Plagued by loneliness on the Big Muddy Ranch, a sheepherder’s wife awaits the outcome of her husband’s trial for murder. He is sentenced to life in prison—and she to life without him. But a startling event could redeem their pasts and transform their future. 1984: Against a backdrop of attempted murder, federal indictments, and the first case of bioterrorism in the U.S., one woman seeks to rescue her granddaughter from within the elaborate compound of a cult that has claimed the land. 1997: On the much-reviled, abandoned cult site, one woman’s skepticism turns to hope when she finds that what was meant to destroy can be used to rebuild—and in the process realizes a long-held dream. For three women seekers united across time, a remote and rugged stretch of land in the Pacific Northwest proves to be a place where miracles really happen—and the gifts of faith, hope, and charity are as tangible as rocks, rivers, and earth. Based on true stories. Awards:
- Bestseller List, 2005, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)
- Finalist, 2005, Spur Award, Western Writers of America
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Based on the life of Marie Dorion, the first mother to cross the Rocky Mountains and remain in the Northwest, A Name of Her Own is the fictionalized adventure account of a real woman's fight to settle in a new landscape, survive in a nation at war, protect her sons and raise them well and, despite an abusive, alcoholic husband, keep her marriage together. With two rambunctious young sons to raise, Marie Dorion refuses to be left behind in St. Louis when her husband heads West with the Wilson Hunt Astoria expedition of 1811. Faced with hostile landscapes, an untried expedition leader, and her volatile husband, Marie finds that the daring act she hoped would bind her family together may in the end tear them apart. On the journey, Marie meets up with the famous Lewis and Clark interpreter, Sacagawea. Both are Indian women married to mixed-blood men of French Canadian and Indian descent, both are pregnant, both traveled with expeditions led by white men, and both are raising sons in a white world. Together, the women forge a friendship that will strengthen and uphold Marie long after they part, even as she faces the greatest crisis of her life, and as she fights for her family's very survival with the courage and gritty determination that can only be fueled by a mother's love. Based on a true story. The first book in the Tender Ties series. Awards:
- Bestseller List, 2003, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)
- Independent Bookstore Pick, 2003, National Booksense (now known as IndieBound)
- Caldera Achievement Award, 2006, Nature of Words
- Distinguished Northwest Writer Award, 2005, Willamette Writers
- Finalist, 2004, Oregon Book Award, Portland Literary Arts Organization
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Her desire was to have a life worth living. Her hope was to survive. Following a family tragedy, a battle for survival, and a test of faith, Marie Dorion begins again in the rugged northwest landscape known as the Okanogan settlement, By 1814, the Astor expedition she has joined to cross the Rocky mountains has disintegrated. New trials confront Marie with an abrupt ending to love, separation from friends, the disappearance of one child, a puzzling, painful division from another. Through it all, she struggles to know her purpose and worth. What could this God of the stars care for the survival of a mere woman? Fed by memories of her distant friend, Sacagawea, Maries discovers that inside every challenge is a gift to be treasured. Based on a true story. The second book in the Tender Ties series. Awards: none Other books in this series: #1) A Name of Her Own #3) Hold Tight the Thread Reviews: "A complex novel with strong characterization and an authentic Native American voice." —Romantic Times, **Four-Star Review** “Jane Kirkpatrick has a rare gift, for her novels touch both the emotions and the intellect. Every Fixed Star is the moving, heartfelt story of one woman’s journey toward accepting herself. Like all of Jane’s novels, it’s more than a ‘good read’; it’s a life-altering experience.” —Liz Curtis Higgs, bestselling author of Thorns in My Heart and Bad Girls of the Bible Price includes shipping and handling.
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As the 1840s bring conflict to the Pacific Northwest's rugged Columbia Country, new challenges face Marie Dorion Venier Toupin: the wife, mother, and Ioway Indian woman who crossed the Rocky Mountains with the Astor Expedition, the first big fur trapping expedition after Lewis and Clark's. On French Prairie in the newly forming Oregon Territory, Marie strives to meet the needs of her conflict-ridden neighbors: British settlers and Americans, missionaries and disease-stricken natives, fur trappers, and French Canadian farming families, and the surviving natives of the region. At the same time, as a mother, Marie must weave together the threads of an unraveling family. One daughter compares and judges as she seeks to find her place; another reaches for elusive evidence of her mother's love. Marie's memories are threatened with the emergence of a figure from the past. In the midst of this turmoil, Marie discovers an empowering spiritual truth: Unconditional love can shed light on even the darkest places in the heart. The third book in the Tender Ties series. Based on a true story. Awards: Other books in this series: #1) A Name of Her Own, #2) Every Fixed Star Reviews: "...when these and other characters commit such offenses, they are neither demonized nor tidily redeemed. In combining historical authenticity with an exceptional ability to render poetic the thoughts of her characters, Kirkpatrick achieves a novel that enchants as it educates." —Publishers Weekly "…Thorough research backs Kirkpatrick's compelling fiction. Her description and much of the language are poetic and imaginative...This book will appeal to mothers who are raising children and grandmothers watching their grandchildren grow. It provides a realistic scene of the time period which history bugs will enjoy, and Christians will appreciate the insights Dorion gains as she learns about her faith."— Esprit, the Magazine of Evangelical Lutheran Women Inc. Price includes shipping and handling.
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Not available at this site at this time. For Madison "Mazy" Bacon, a young wife living in southern Wisconsin, the future appears every bit as promising as it is reassuringly predictable. A loving marriage, a well-organized home, the pleasure of planting an early spring garden--these are the carefully-tended dreams that sustain her heart and nourish her soul. But when her husband of two years sells the homestead and informs her that they are heading west, Mazy's life is ripped down the middle like a poorly mended sheet forgotten in a midwestern storm. Her love is tried, her boundaries stretched, and the fabric of her faith tested. At the same time, she and eleven extraordinary women are pulled toward an uncertain destiny--one that binds them together through reluctance and longing and into acceptance and renewal. Based on an actual 1852 Oregon Trail incident, All Together in One Place, speaks to the strength in every woman and celebrates the promise of hope that unfailingly blooms amidst tragedy and challenge. The first book in the Kinship and Courage series. Based on a true story. Awards:
- Bestseller List, 2001, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)
- Bestseller List, 2001, Christian Booksellers Association (CBA)
- Best Inspirational Books, 2000, Affair de Coeur
- Finalist, 2001, Reader’s Choice Award, Romance Writer’s of America
- Nominee, 2001, Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, Romance Writer’s of America
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Not available at this site at this time. A circle of courageous women discovers the meaning of independence, forgiveness, and love. Ruth Martin had a dream: to become an independent woman and build a life in southern Oregon for herself and her children. But when her friend Mazy's inaction results in a tragedy that shatters Ruth's dream, Ruth must start anew and try to heal her tender wounds. Her friends are also moving on. Mazy wrestles with her understanding of what faith and family really mean; Tipton discovers that marriage requires more than she's ready to give, and Suzanne's challenge is to keep seeing with new eyes. Together, the turnaround women travel to arenas of untested promise where they'll find a hope that sustains them and relationships they'll cherish all their days. The third book in the Kinship and Courage series. Based on a true story. Awards:
- Bestseller List, 2002, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)
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Jane speaks about the qualities of power and the historical women she has researched and written about. Those qualities are found in each of us today too. Enjoy this bookstore presentation with laughter and hope. Watch the trailer here. Price includes shipping and handling.
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When blind and widowed Suzanne Cullver reaches California with a group of women who have survived tragedy on the Oregon Trail, she sets her mind on doing for herself all that must be done. Though she cannot see, she rejects offers of assistance, unwittingly risking her children’s safety – and her own. Her companions blindly falter as well, held hostage by their own pasts. As Suzanne attempts to control her life in Shasta City, Ruth defends against past errors, failing to see how she limits love. Meanwhile, Mazy’s vision seems to be permanently clouded by her late husband’s betrayal. But when a young stage-driver risks all for a Wintu Indian, his life becomes entangled with the turnaround women – and together they are changed forever as they discover that No Eye Can See all the good God has in store for those who love Him. The second book in the Kinship and Courage series. Based on a true story. Awards:
- Bestseller List, 2002, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA)
- Other books in this series: #1) All Together in One Place, #3) What Once We Loved
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Novice to experienced writers will benefit from Jane who knows better than most what it takes to be a truly great writer. These videos are recordings of Jane’s Beachside Writers Workshop presentations. Learn how to encourage yourself to start to write, the nine essential ingredients to a novel, writing and editing tips, and researching that next big idea. This collection of four DVD includes:
- Video 1: I Would if I Could…But I Can’t
- Video 2: Nine Points to a Novel
- Video 3: Writing and Editing Tips
- Video 4: Researching and Writing Your Family Story
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This video is designed to encourage the reluctant writer to take the next step. Is it to write more powerful letters? Is it to begin that family story? Is it to discover through writing what your life is all about? Novice to experienced writers will benefit from Jane who knows better than most what it takes to be a truly great writer. The Writers Classes Collection are recordings of Jane’s Beachside Writers Workshop presentations. Watch the trailer here. Price includes shipping and handling.
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Nine essential ingredients to a novel that will keep pages turning, bring meaning to a reader’s life, and tell the stories of the human heart. Novice to experienced writers will benefit from Jane who knows better than most what it takes to be a truly great writer. The Writers Classes Collection are recordings of Jane’s Beachside Writers Workshop presentations. Watch the trailer here. Price includes shipping and handling.
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Jane shares her own writing tips and those of several award-winning and best-selling authors hoping to help YOU find your path toward completing your writing goals. Novice to experienced writers will benefit from Jane who knows better than most what it takes to be a truly great writer. The Writers Classes Collection are recordings of Jane’s Beachside Writers Workshop presentations. Watch the trailer here. Price includes shipping and handling.
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Jane offers questions to ask before beginning that family story and provides creative comments to share with other family members saying “What? That never happened?” Discover yourself inside your family story. Novice to experienced writers will benefit from Jane who knows better than most what it takes to be a truly great writer. The Writers Classes Collection are recordings of Jane’s Beachside Writers Workshop presentations. Watch the trailer here. Price includes shipping and handling.