Today, the fabulous Rebecca DeMarino has dropped by to talk about her debut novel, A Place In His Heart. If you haven’t read my thoughts on A Place In His Heart, see my review here. I’m so happy she took the time for this interview!
About A Place In His Heart:
Anglican Mary Langton longs to marry for love. Puritan Barnabas Horton is still in love with his deceased wife and needs only a mother for his two young sons. And yet these two very different people with very different expectations will take a leap of faith, wed, and then embark on a life-changing journey across the ocean to the Colonies. Along the way, each must learn to live in harmony, to wait on God, and to recognize true love where they least expect to find it.
This heartfelt tale of love and devotion is based on debut author Rebecca DeMarino’s own ancestors, who came to Long Island in the mid-1600s to establish a life–and a legacy–in the New World. A Place In His Heart is the first in The Southold Chronicles series.
Rebecca, what inspired you to write A Place In His Heart (APIHH)?
I grew up listening to my mom’s stories about Barnabas Horton, my ninth great-grandfather and how he came across the pond from England on a ship called The Swallow. When my brother became interested in genealogy, we discovered there was a lighthouse named after Barnabas, located on Long Island. I asked my mom if she’d like to go there, and off we went. There was a lot of interesting information about Barnabas. He was a baker and a widower with two young sons when he met my ninth great-grandmother. But I could find very little about her, and I began to wonder about what dreams and motivation she had, and courage she must have possessed, when she married and then left her family behind for the wilds of Long Island. A few years later, I began writing my first novel in a quest to give her a voice.
What spiritual message or theme do you want to communicate to readers with APIHH?
That God is there to hold our hand, no matter what our troubles. We don’t have to do it alone – all we need to do is ask.
What was most challenging about writing a story set in this time period?
I would say the dialogue. I had many good resources for the political/religious climate and for the home life/culinary aspects. But writing the dialect for today’s readers is challenging. You want to convey the feel of the language and for the reader to know what place in time they are, but for modern readers it can get irritating if overdone. Finding the right balance is the challenge!
Just for fun:
Do you have any hobbies?
I love to read! And I enjoy gardening and hiking. Travel is a passion of mine and I really like to study genealogy and learn about my past. It’s fun seeing how many of the things I enjoy kind of “run” in my family!
If you could live in any other time period in history, which would it be and why?
Tough question. Perhaps the 17th century if only to maybe have the chance to get to know my ancestors that I wrote about in A Place In His Heart. But they lived in a pretty harsh world. Living in the wild west in the 1800’s would be fun – I’d love to be a cowgirl!
Thank you for having me on your blog, Courtney! It was fun!!
Thank you so much for agreeing to the interview – and for writing a unique and touching novel!
Rebecca DeMarino lives in the Pacific N.W. with her husband Tom, and enjoys travel, hiking,
baking, genealogy and gardening. Her debut novel, A Place in His Heart, is a historical romance
inspired by her ninth great-grandparents, Barnabas and Mary Horton, and is book one of The
Southold Chronicles.
Author Contact Info:
Read a chapter excerpt: Visit here
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