On Tour with Prism Book Tours
Book Tour Launch for
The Waldensian Series
By Donna Wichelman
Interview with the Author
What was your motivation behind writing these books?
A number of years ago, I became fascinated by the real-life story of the Waldensians, a persecuted, pre-reformation Christian sect who were often martyred for holding to their doctrinal views against papal authority over the centuries of the second millennium. While church historians have written volumes on the religious group, I wanted to write a fictional, Christian suspense series that created a contemporary story around a people whose real-life story of valor and faith endured the test of time. In both Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, Jamie and Alessandro come face to face with unrelenting criminal forces that require the protagonists to find courage and hope by looking toward the preserving faith of their ancestors.
What do you hope readers take with them after they’ve read them?
Encouragement to stay the course even when circumstances seem to beat us down and a steadfast faith and trust that God walks beside us even in our darkest hours.
Do you have a favorite scene that you can share with us?
In Chapter 8 of Undaunted Valor, we are in the POV of Alessandro’s grandmother Luciana who has been kidnapped by the mob. Two enforcers keep vigilance—Jozef, whose barbarity knows no end and Zamir, whose compassion defies even his own demons. It’s now day two of Lucian’s captivity, and her eighty-two-year-old body feels wracked by the physical effects of being constrained in a rustic wooden chair. She rues the ruthlessness of her cruel captors and prays that God would send someone to help her. When Zamir comes indoors from chopping wood, he removes her restraints, so she can use the toilette. While she’s in the bathroom, Luciana compares her worn face to the vintage mirror with its black spots around the edges where the silver coating has been eaten away by time. Overcome with grief, an unbidden tear slides down her cheek.
We pick up the scene where Luciana opens the door to return to her restraints but stops, arrested by the sight of Zamir advancing from the back room with a more comfortable chair for her old body to sit on, and Zamir says:
“I thought perhaps you would find a cushioned chair more bearable.” He placed the chair where the rustic one had been. “I found it among a number of stored furniture in the back.”
Luciana tried to blink back the tears, but this time they would not be stopped. They cascaded down her cheeks like a waterfall. God had answered her prayer, and he had used her jailer to help her. She gulped and dried her eyes. “Thank you, Zamir.”
“It is nothing.”
“No, Zamir. It is everything.” She settled in the chair and felt the padded leather envelop her. She smiled. A little bit of heaven had descended upon her living hell.
If you could sum up each book in one sentence, what would you say?
In Light Out of Darkness, a prestigious art exhibition turns into a horrific spectacle when a murder throws a wounded art curator and a wary professor together on a hunt for a stolen painting that triggers the unfolding of a two-thousand-year-old mystery.
In Undaunted Valor, when Alessandro’s Grandma Luciana is kidnapped by a mobster avenging the death of his brother, Jamie and Alessandro must distinguish between friend and foe on their race through the French Alps to find her and discover an unexpected ally as they face their enemies with undaunted valor.
Share something about you that is unique - maybe about how/where you write... or favorite snack foods?
Though I have been writing since I first learned to put pen to paper, I discovered my true passion for writing at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales where I focused on English literature. I loved the classics and developed a taste for books that touched the human spirit. At Atlantic College, I wrote a thesis on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and visited the Brontë parsonage in Haworth, England. I will never forget my experience, walking the heather-dressed moors on a drizzly day in spring, when I happened upon an old man with a cap and a cane whose ancestors knew the Brontës. His stories so captured my fascination that I knew I would be writing novels someday. Still sitting framed on my writing desk in script is Emily’s poem, No Coward Soul is Mine, which I bought that day in 1976 from the parsonage gift shop. The poem continues to have an indelible effect on my faith and writing life. From time to time when I’m feeling discouraged, I turn to the poem, and the first stanza reminds me,
No coward soul is mine,No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere.I see Heaven’s glories shineAnd Faith shines equal arming me from Fear…
Light Out of Darkness
(The Waldensian Series #1)
By Donna Wichelman
Romantic Suspense
Paperback & ebook, 320 pagesBy Donna Wichelman
Romantic Suspense
April 2nd 2018 by Soujourner's Press
A prestigious art exhibition turns into a horrific spectacle when a murder sends an art curator and a professor on a hunt for a highly coveted stolen painting.
Escaping a painful past in Cleveland, Ohio, Jamie Holbrooke flees to Milan, Italy as an art curator. But her past follows her during an evening stroll along Varenna’s shoreline walk when an assailant, who looks like her dead brother, presses a mysterious riddle into her hand. Still reeling from shock the next day, she discovers her long-time paragon, Dr. Alessandro Marianni, may have a link to the enigmatic riddle. Before she can discover the answers, their colleague falls prey to an assassin’s bullet. Convinced the riddle and murder are connected, Jamie and Alessandro risk their lives to uncover why an obscure painting has caught the attention of art critics and criminals alike. At stake is a two-thousand–year-old drama, unfolding in the contemporary world of the Northern Italian Alps.
Will Jamie and Alessandro stop powerful organized crime figures before the painting is lost forever and with it a secret more valuable than the prized artwork? Will Jamie find the answers to help her reclaim her life again? She will need the courage to face her fears and the persevering faith of Dr. Alessandro Marianni to heal her wounded heart.
Undaunted Valor
(The Waldensian Series #2)
By Donna Wichelman
Romantic Suspense
Paperback & ebook, 281 pagesBy Donna Wichelman
Romantic Suspense
April 4th 2018 by Sojourner's Press
For nature lovers, ski aficionados, travel enthusiasts and history scholars, the French Alps offer some of the most spectacular scenery and outdoor recreation in all Europe with its majestic mountain peaks, cascading waterfalls, unspoiled forests and quaint mountain villages. People come to get away from the daily grind and rejuvenate their spirits.
But when Alessandro Marianni’s grandmother Luciana is kidnapped during a church conference in Chamonix, the same landscape becomes an ominous height to scale, and Jamie Holbrooke and her fiancé Alessandro have difficulty distinguishing between friend and foe on the race to find her. They will have to weather a rainstorm on a mountain trail, negotiate a dangerous waterfall, outmaneuver a car chase, and defy an assassin’s gun in their search.
Will they find their beloved Luciana before it’s too late? Who will die on the way to the finish line? Who can they trust? And where will Jamie find the courage to confront her adversaries?
In this sequel to Light Out of Darkness, the answers will lie in unanticipated places and with unexpected allies and require Jamie to discover what it means to trust God with Undaunted Valor.
Tour Schedule
May 14th:
Launch
Heidi Reads...
Rockin' Book Reviews
Stacking My Book Shelves!
May 15th:
Colorimetry
Uplifting Reads
Reading Is My SuperPower
Remembrancy
May 16th:
Paulette's Papers
Hardcover Feedback
It's all About the Romance
May 17th:
Mel's Shelves
Moments
Hearts & Scribbles
May 18th:
Teatime and Books
Locks, Hooks and Books
underneath the covers
All-of-a-kind Mom
Andi's Book Reviews
Jen Around the World
May 19th: Grand Finale
Launch
Heidi Reads...
Rockin' Book Reviews
Stacking My Book Shelves!
May 15th:
Colorimetry
Uplifting Reads
Reading Is My SuperPower
Remembrancy
May 16th:
Paulette's Papers
Hardcover Feedback
It's all About the Romance
May 17th:
Mel's Shelves
Moments
Hearts & Scribbles
May 18th:
Teatime and Books
Locks, Hooks and Books
underneath the covers
All-of-a-kind Mom
Andi's Book Reviews
Jen Around the World
May 19th: Grand Finale
About the Author
Donna Wichelman was a communications professional before writing full-time. She has authored short stories, essays and articles in various inspirational publications and lives her dream writing novels and screenplays. She and her husband work with teens at their local church in Fort Collins, Colorado. They travel, bike and kayak whenever their schedules allows.
1st Prize: $25 Amazon Gift Card, Copy of the LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS (signed print copy to US winner, ebook to international winner) + 4 oz. Tea of your choice from the Tea Source or 1 LB of Coffee from DazBog Coffee (will Add $10 to Gift Card for international gift in lieu of tea or coffee)
2nd Prize: $15 Amazon Gift Card + Copy of LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS (signed print copy to US winner, ebook to international winner)
3rd Prize: Copy of LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS (signed print copy to US winner, ebook to international winner)
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