Category: Blue Heart Blessed

December 20, 2013 / Blue Heart Blessed, book clubs, books / 2 Comments »

Blue Heart, Big Blessing

Sarah bookSo here’s a little story to make you smile. A few years back, I wrote a book about a woman who, after getting stood up at the altar, decides to open a used wedding dress boutique in a brave to attempt to sell her custom-made, dress-of-her-dreams wedding gown. The book, entitled Blue Heart Blessed, was so named because the main character, Daisy, sewed a little blue satin heart that had been blessed by an Episcopal priest, into the inside of each dress she sold, so that those beautiful gowns could be properly repurposed. The story was primarily about Daisy needing to sell her dress and her inability to let it go, but in the meantime, she helped lots of brides find beautiful dresses, each one with a tiny blue heart stitched inside.  The uptown boutique was called Something Blue and I situated it in St. Paul. (The book is sadly no longer in print, but it is available as an e-book for a great price and has a fun, new cover!)

Last week, when I held a little contest on my Facebook author page where I offered a print copy of Blue Heart Blessed to a lucky winner who correctly guessed the year I got married (based on a very hip-looking pic of my hubby and me). One of the responses was from a lovely reader named Sarah. Sarah told me that she had loved Blue Heart Blessed when she read it, and that her story was similar to Daisy’s. And she found herself wanting to re-christen a beautiful wedding gown that she had not yet worn as a bride.

Sarah dress Sarah heart Sarah sewingShe wrote: “My first engagement was much like Daisy’s – we already had the dress, the photographer, the banquet hall, the decorations…and after it ended, I didn’t know what to do with my dress. That’s when my mother Sarah couplesuggested making a blue heart. We made a blue heart for my wedding dress and asked my Uncle (who is a pastor) to bless it. I just recently got married in September and we sewed my blue heart into my dress as it was a dress I had purchased when I had been engaged several years earlier.  Now, after meeting Andrew, I understand that God has a perfect plan for me and that I just needed to wait and trust in Him.”

She sent me these lovely photos and was so sweetly generous to let me post them here. Thank you, Sarah! And congratulations!

October 3, 2011 / Blue Heart Blessed, Greenbrier Books, Kindle / 2 Comments »

I like the letter E

I was a Kindle hold-out for a couple years, I confess.

I had a debilitating devotion to paper and ink and I just didn’t want to give them up. I only wanted books with pages, thank you very much, and I ardently rubbed away any interest in an e-reader the moment it popped up.

But when you are in the book industry, you simply cannot ignore the signs of the industry’s times. You can ignore it if you are a reader, but not if you are a writer. And the fact is, e-books are the way in which we are headed. Just like cave drawings gave way to papyrus and papyrus gave way to paper, paper is giving way to digital.  You can still read books on cave walls if you want to, but you can’t write one on a cave wall and expect anyone will read it.

All that is to say, I got a Kindle for Christmas last year, after hinting that I was ready to give it a try, and am flabbergasted by how much I love it. I can take fifty books with me wherever I go. I can get a book in seconds, if I need it. Case in point: When I finished reading Catching Fire, the second in the Hunger Games trilogy, at midnight, I nearly hyperventilated as I frantically clicked buttons on my Kindle to buy the third one so I could begin reading it at 12:01. Which I did.

I can fit my Kindle in my purse. I can make notes. I can highlight. I can do everything I did with paper books except loan them to friends – and I think the day is coming when that will change, too.

And the really wonderful thing about e-books for me personally is, my Out-Of-Print early books are finding new life in the electronic book format. Blue Heart Blessed, a fun romantic sorta-comedy that I loved writing and which has been out of print for more than a year, is now back in circulation as an e-book with Greenbrier Books.  Three more of my OOP books will be available in the coming months via Greenbrier. And that’s happy news for me.

If you haven’t bought an e-reader yet, I totally get why you haven’t. If you have, may I suggest Blue Heart Blessed (the e-book) for the incredibly low, everyday price of $2.99?  If you haven’t read it, and you love a love story, I think you will enjoy it.

I plan to blog again tomorrow. Yes, on a Tuesday! Something big is happening tomorrow…

See you then.

February 2, 2008 / Blue Heart Blessed / 7 Comments »

You can’t hurry love

It’s here! My latest release, Blue Heart Blessed, officially hits bookstore shelves TODAY!

I had a blast writing this one, folks! After spending some significant writing time the last year immersed in social issues, criminal law and the depths of the human spirit (see the Rachael Flynn Mystery Series), it was a fun departure for me to spin a quirky tale about the quest for true love.

This book is about the passionately romantic Daisy Murien who, after planning her dream wedding to the nth degree, gets stood up at the altar. In a valiant effort to move past the heartache, she opens a secondhand wedding dress shop, hoping to sell the custom-made dress of her dreams. Trouble is, anytime anyone gets close to buying her gown, Daisy rips off the price tag. Letting go is harder than she thought it would be.

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about it: “In this sweet contemporary romance, Meissner (A Window to the World) explores one woman’s response to rejection and hurt. When a man she’d trusted jilts Daisy Murien almost at the altar, bitterness colors every aspect of her world. Admirably, she parlays her betrayal into opening a secondhand bridal gown store, Something Blue, where each gown has a story and a tiny blue heart is sewn into the seams and blessed by Daisy’s friend and mentor, the elderly Father Laurent. When the kindly priest is felled by a heart attack, a new romantic interest (predictably) enters Daisy’s life. Lurking on the sidelines is a high school friend who may have feelings for Daisy, and a wealthy single Christian man who can’t seem to make the sparks fly. Meissner tells her story well, and her Christian themes are interwoven throughout with a deft touch. Readers will appreciate some fresh elements: an Ecuadorian couple that cooks for the apartment dwellers every Sunday, and the one gown in Daisy’s inventory she does not want to sell. The ending is well told if conventional, with all the loose ends neatly tied up, which should please fans of “happily ever after” romance novels.”

Yep, I really did tie up all the loose ends this time. I don’t usually write the typical romance novel, but I was pretty pleased when Romantic Times gave Blue Heart Blessed 4½ stars and a Top Pick rating.

And hey, I’ve decided to have a little fun with a promotional project for Blue Heart Blessed. I created a blog for it. Check it out right here! Hope you’ll stop by often.

And now for a contest! Win a free copy of Blue Heart Blessed just by stopping the blog and saying hello. Everyone who posts a comment between now and this time next will have a chance to win.

Have a great weekend, everybody.