Love Inspired Historicals: The End of an Era

By now the news has made its way through cyberspace: Harlequin is closing five lines in mid-2018, and Love Inspired Historicals (LIH) is one of them.

I received the email from Harlequin less than an hour after submitting revisions to my next Regency with them, A Mother for His Family. I had been on Cloud 9, and once I saw the news, I crashed hard.

Of course, I'm not alone in grieving. Readers, editors, and, yes, authors, are in shock. Some authors feel like we just lost our jobs.

What does this mean to the industry? I don't know, beyond the fact that the market is fluid, changing, and authors and publishers must adapt.

What does this mean for me? I don't quite know that, either, but I can tell you that A Mother for His Family will go to press and release in January of 2018--so that's good news.

Every author has secret dreams. One of mine was to write for Harlequin. Another was to write for Barbour, and to walk into a Christian bookstore and see my book on the shelf. This year, both of those dreams came true.I am grateful beyond words.

But still sad. God closes doors and opens others. He has always been the One who has had control of my writing. I must trust Him to reveal His plan in His timing.

This has been an excellent reminder to seek Him at every step and never grow complacent.

I will keep writing. I have stories in my head, ideas and imaginary friends. And I'll tell you here first: I signed a new novella contract, so that's on the horizon. The story is called First Things First from the upcoming First Loves Forever Collection. The heroine might be familiar to you: her name is Georgia Bridge, and she was introduced to readers as a four-year-old who wanted pet birds and a new mama in For a Song from The Cowboy's Bride Collection.
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Thanks for your prayers for the readers, editors, and authors affected by the closure of LIH.