Romancing The Rock

Rather than offer Carol Preston a standard interview, I asked her to share part of her life with us – either a story about how she met her husband or her testimony of faith. Carol offered to share about both.

Meeting my husband, Neil, and beginning my faith journey, really happened about the same time. It all seems so long ago now that I can hardly imagine being without either. I was just thirteen when my Mum and I attended a Christian rally with an American speaker, whose message really made it  clear to me that a commitment to follow Jesus would give my life meaning, purpose and joy. So I pushed my way to the front when the invitation was given and I’ve been walking with God ever since.

Within weeks my Mum decided it would be best if we began to attend the church she had grown up in, and that was the Church of Christ. We began going to services in that church and I went off to youth group with a couple of my friends. Neil was one of the youth group leaders and over the next couple of years we got to know each other, fell in love and we were married when I was just 19, and he 20.

In those days this was a pretty normal pattern amongst the young people at church. We all wanted similar things and had similar expectations. We were focussed on living our lives for God and partnering with someone of like mind was a priority. So while we experienced all the challenges of getting to know someone new and working out how to love, bless and support one another, neither of us had any doubt that we were meant to be together for our lives.

And now here we are 45 years later! Plenty of ups and downs, two wonderful children, a wonderful daughter-in-law, and son-in-law, and four gorgeous grandchildren. A  very blessed life for which I am very grateful.

How wonderful to have both found the Lord and the love of your life around the same time. Last week I reviewed Carol’s novel Tangled Secrets in conjunction with the ACRBA blog tour. You can read the review here. I asked Carol to tell us what she’s working on now.

At the moment I am writing my ninth novel. It’s an historical fiction, of course, and based on the real lives of some more of my ancestors. This is quite a different story though, as it’s based on a family who immigrated to Australia from Germany, to work in Grafton. The family, along with many others, was supported in coming here to take up work in a factory belonging to a German immigrant who had been very successful in business and wanted to share his good fortune with fellow countrymen.

So I’m moving away from stories about convicts and facing some interesting challenges of writing about language and cultural barriers which would have faced these newcomers. Of course, it’s still a love story and there are some sad, as well as exciting historical events which occur during the period about which I’m writing – the late 1800s. I’m really enjoying the research and the writing and hope it will be a really good read. I have no title yet but it will essentially be a story about belonging.

Sounds great Carol! In the meantime, the last of Carol’s Turning the Tide Series is out now. Here is a bit about it:

When Betsy’s beloved grandfather dies in suspicious circumstances she is determined to find out the truth about his final hours. Even when she uncovers long held secrets in his past, she holds onto her belief in his goodness.

But the journey to truth reveals issues in her own family and that of her father, from whom she has been estranged for many years.

Can she face her own past?

Set in the early colonial days of New South Wales and based on real characters in the mid 1800s. Truly Free continues the story from Tangled Secrets, Books 3 and 4 in the Turning the Tide Series.