Tag Archives: adoption

Review: The Other Child, by Pirkko Rytkonen

The Other Child, by Pirkko RytkonenThe Other Child, by Pirkko Rytkonen (2017)

Emma Jorgens’ outwardly stable life sits on a shaky foundation. She and her husband, Kent, are each wrapped up in their own lives and drifting apart. She has overindulged their fourteen-year-old daughter, Becky, whose entitled attitude is growing stronger by the day.

And Emma has a secret that could destroy everything she’s gained.

As a teenager, newly-arrived from Sweden, wide-eyed and impressionable, she fell for her employers’ son and had a baby. She was tricked into a closed adoption, so the records are sealed, but she’s never stopped wondering about her infant son.

Emma and Kent have created a basement apartment for some extra income. Their first tenant is a university student recommended by a friend – a young man named Mathias Smith.

It doesn’t take Emma long to realize Mathias is her son, and they begin a complicated attempt at a relationship. Mathias is frustrated because he wants to meet his birth father, who doesn’t know he exists.

Emma’s afraid to tell her husband the truth, but she’s out of time because the birth father is running for office and the tabloids are digging up whatever they can throw at him.

Emma and Mathias are each struggling, mentally spiralling into dark places because of their stress. Mathias’ health is deteriorating, too, and Emma’s so wrapped up in him that her husband and daughter feel abandoned.

The Other Child is an account of a secret finally exposed, and the emotional fallout that must come before any chance of a happy ending.

The author clearly knows her main characters well, but at times I was confused about what was happening because I needed more of a lead-in to orient me in the scene or I needed another clue to help me understand a character’s behaviour.

Pirkko Rytkonen has written an emotionally-complex novel that dares to address hard issues about relationships, secrets, and drug addiction. The Other Child is her first novel. Her writing theme is “Grace Through the Journey.” For more about the author and her work, and to read her blog entries, visit pirkkorytkonen.com.

[Advance review copy provided by the author.]

My Corner of the Vineyard (Guest Post)

My Corner of the Vineyard

by Christine Lindsay

Looking back almost 17 years ago now, I started out as a writer hungry to share my memoirs as a birth-mother, a woman who relinquished her baby to adoption.  But I was far from ready to write that book, far from ready to give comfort to others. The Lord redirected my energy into writing Christian fiction.

He used that time to refine me as a birth-mother, to refine me as the woman He wanted me to be. He did that by helping me see who I really was in His eyes. I had so much healing still to go through at the beginning of my writing career. Like I say in my non-fiction book,

“Typical. Most people going through emotional healing think they’re healed long before they actually are.”

I’m so glad today that my heavenly Father held me back from publishing that non-fiction book in the year 2000, when I was chomping at the bit to stand on a soapbox and tell the world how I felt—that relinquishing my baby broke my heart. That book would have done little to help others. It would have only allowed me to toot my own horn.

This past summer the Lord opened the doors—after all these years—to publish that true-life story that started me writing in the first place. Finding Sarah Finding Me is my birth-mother memoirs, about what God taught me through that tumultuously emotional journey, and also the heart-wrenching and joyful stories from other adoption triads. But with relief I see that long-held-back book is now helping others through their adoption story. It’s helping women see themselves as God sees them.

Christine Lindsay and her birth-daughter, Sarah

Whenever I speak in public I get the great honor of hugging some hurting woman. They range from adoptees, to adoptive moms, women who suffered infertility, or women who married the man they used to call Mr. Wrong because of an unplanned pregnancy, and most quietly of all, women just like me who sidle up to my side—birth-moms.

It’s been a long journey, certainly not an easy one, but to see God working in this part of the vineyard, the part where one woman gives her baby up to another mom and dad for the sake of the baby, is a really special corner. I live here and at long last this birth-mom is happy.

Finding Sarah, Finding Me, by Christine LindsayBook Blurb:

Sometimes it is only through giving up our hearts that we learn to trust the Lord.

Adoption. It’s something that touches one in three people today, a word that will conjure different emotions in those people touched by it. A word that might represent the greatest hope…the greatest question…the greatest sacrifice. But most of all, it’s a word that represents God’s immense love for his people.

Join birth mother Christine Lindsay as she shares the heartaches, hopes, and epiphanies of her journey to reunion with the daughter she gave up…and to understanding her true identity in Christ along the way.

Through her story and glimpses into the lives of other families in the adoption triad, readers will see the beauty of our broken families, broken hearts, and broken dreams when we entrust them to our loving God.

AUTHOR BIO

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction with complex emotional and psychological truth, who always promises a happy ending. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary and historical romances Londonderry Dreaming and Sofi’s Bridge.

A busy writer and speaker, Christine, and her husband live on the west coast of Canada, and she has just released her non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and Goodreads

Read Chapter One of Finding Sarah Finding Me: Click HERE

Purchase links:

Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)
Barnes and Noble

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Historical Novelist Christine Lindsay

Christine Lindsay’s tag line is “Giving hope and strengthening faith,” which she does through richly-written historical fiction and a contemporary romance novella, Londonderry Dreaming. Her most recent release is Veiled at Midnight, a novel filled with historical drama and with timeless human struggles. Read on…
Author Christine Lindsay, and the covers of her novels

Janet: Welcome, Christine, and thanks for taking time to join us. Your book Captured by Moonlight was the 2014 winner of Canada’s The Word Guild Award for historical. Did you enter your latest novel, Veiled at Midnight, in that contest?

Christine: Sadly, Janet, I missed the deadline to enter Veiled at Midnight for The Word Guild this year. Oh well. But what an honor it was last year for Captured by Moonlight to win in my category, and congratulations to you for Heaven’s Prey being a finalist in the suspense category.

Janet: Thanks! What’s the most exciting thing for you right now?

Christine: To be honest, the most exciting thing is watching my youngest son who is 26 falling in love with a beautiful girl. When our kids grow into the adults God wants them to be, it’s so exciting. My son is a musician and a graduate of Briercrest Theological College, and is currently the lead guitarist in a worship band. His young lady is exactly what I have been praying for my son Rob for years.

Janet: What’s your biggest challenge right now?

Christine: Trying to balance two part-time jobs, promote Veiled at Midnight that was recently released, do edits for my publisher on a historical romance called Sofi’s Bridge that will be coming out later this year, and trying to write my non-fiction book that has a looming deadline. My non-fiction book is about the relinquishment of my first child to adoption in 1979 and our painful reunion in 1999, and to the relationship we currently have that is sweetened by the love of God.

Janet: That’s enough to keep you busy! Tell us a bit about Veiled at Midnight.

Christine: Veiled at Midnight is the third and final installment of my series Twilight of the British Raj. This third book has a hard act to follow because Book 1 Shadowed in Silk won the ACFW Genesis, The Grace Award, and was a finalist for Readers’ Favorite. Book 2 Captured by Moonlight won The Word Guild Award and was finalist for Readers’ Favorite and the Grace Award.

As a finale Veiled at Midnight is quite explosive and passionate in my opinion. When you write a series you get really invested in the characters. While each book can stand alone in this series, many of the main characters pop up in the following books.

Cam: "The truth hit him like an artillery barrage. He was just like his wretch of a father."In Veiled at Midnight we find the little boy Cam from Book 1 is now an adult and struggling with the alcoholism he seems to have inherited from his natural father. Cam is also in love with a beautiful Indian woman he’s known since childhood. But as a high-ranking officer in the British army and having the prestigious position of aide to the last British Viceroy to India, Cam must fight against racial bias to marry the love of his life. Or will he?

Janet: Where did the story idea come from?

Christine: Two things—first of all I wanted to have a more redemptive story for a person struggling with addiction. The ending to book 1 Shadowed in Silk was good, but there were things I wanted to say further. There are a lot of people in this world suffering because either they have addictions or the people they love do.

Secondly, my series starts off in 1919 with India’s first real attempt for independence from the oppressive British rule. I had to finish the series off when Britain did relinquish her strangle hold on India in 1947. What a flamboyant time in history!!! It was great doing the research of Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife Lady Edwina, and all that they did to help the Indian people through that terrible time called the Partition.

Janet: Do you have a favourite character in the story?

Christine: So hard to choose. I love them all, especially my main characters Cam and Dassah, and then Cam’s sister Miriam and the man she’s falling in love with, Jack Sunderland, but there is a secondary character that snuck up and stole my heart.

Reverend Alan Callahan. At first this character was only going to be a foil to help Cam through his alcoholism, but as Alan’s character developed he made me laugh. He’s a tall, lanky, Anglican vicar, with a slightly longish nose, threadbare suit, and always in need of a haircut. He rides out on his horse into the Himalayan foothills to visit his parishes. Alan used to be the vicar of a large English church back in Britain, until he lost his parish because of his drinking problem.

After Alan conquered his addiction he took on missionary service in India and has remained happy ever since. When Alan meets Cam, his beautiful ecclesiastical elocution and precise annunciation deliver really scathing but hilarious rebukes—real zingers—to Cam. Alan is a hoot, and a man who doesn’t even realize he’s lonely for female companionship.

Janet: Alan is a fun character. Sometimes I think the secondary ones have a little more freedom to push the boundaries, because they’re not on the page often enough for readers to become tired of them. What’s the novel’s theme?

Christine: The theme is found in the main scripture verse Romans 8:38, 39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Because this book is set during the Partition of India and the country of Pakistan being carved out of India, the theme is all about separation. Families are being torn apart and separated due to the horrific political and religious conflict of Muslims and Hindus. But so is Cam being separated from the woman he loves due to racial bigotry, the conflict around them, and due to his drinking problem, and from his seeming embarrassment that she is Indian.

Cam, Dassah, as well as Miriam have to learn that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even our own sin or addictions.

Janet: Is there another title in the works?

Christine: I’m excited about Sofi’s Bridge coming out later this year, a historical romance set in Washington State 1913. This book deals with post-traumatic stress syndrome and the fact that we cannot save the ones we love, only Christ can do that.

And I’m excited about the non-fiction book that I started back in 1999. God knew that the story wasn’t ready to be published then. I had so much healing to gain. But now in 2015 the Lord must have done His work in me, because He’s opened the door for this story about the relinquishment of my birth daughter, and what that emotional pain taught me about the Lord. Title is still in the works, but it will be released November 2015.

Janet: Two books releasing this year… very different content, but I can see how they’ll both touch readers’ hearts. What got you started writing?

Christine: Pretty much that non-fiction book I just mentioned. After the reunion with my birth-daughter when she was 20, I went through a terrible depression, reliving my original loss of her when I’d given her up at 3 days old. My husband caught me crying about it one day. He went out and returned a while later with a brand new journal and pen. He said, “Here, honey, write it”

I took my emotional pain and poured it all out to the Lord in that journal. As He brought healing to me in time, I felt His encouragement to put that spiritual truth into fictional novels to help others. So my books are highly entertaining but have strong spiritual takeaways.

Janet: That’s one of the things I appreciate about your novels. What do you like best about the writing life?

Christine: Making new friends, like you, Janet. 🙂

Janet: Someday we’ll meet in person! What do you like least?

Christine: The terrible time pressure. Writers don’t make much money. For the amount of work we put into our novels, we make pennies. Good thing most of us aren’t writing for financial gain. Many of us hold down full-time jobs as well as try to write, so we can share clean, uplifting novels, and also be caring wives, mothers, grandmothers. Family must come first.

Janet: Is there a particular song or Scripture verse that’s made a big difference for you?

Christine: My life verse that anchors all my writing and speaking is Isaiah 49:15, 16a. “Can a woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you. See…I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

Janet: Chocolate or vanilla? Coffee or tea? Are you a morning person or a night owl? Cake or Pie? What’s your favourite season?

Christine: Vanilla. Tea. Morning person. Pie. And my favorite season is spring—like my novels—God takes the dark, the cold, the hurtful, and turns it into triumphant warmth, light and beauty.

Janet: What was the best part of the story to write?

Christine: The humor in my characters. When you’re writing about a heart-rending time in history, you need to balance that with light. I get a real kick out of my characters’ wit. Reverend Alan Callahan and Cam’s sister, Miriam, especially. These two characters make me laugh till the tears run down my face.

"Honestly, Miriam, the way you barge into Dante's Inferno you must think angels ride on your shoulder."

Janet: Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Christine: Make the word Perseverance your middle name. That’s what it’s all about.

Janet: Amen. What do you do when the muse is uncooperative?

Christine: Go for a brisk walk with the dog.

Janet: Any interesting research tidbits?

Christine: I thoroughly enjoyed the biographies of Lord Louis Mountbatten (the Queen’s cousin) and his wife Lady Edwina. Lady Edwina, though not a Christian and having some shady morals in her personal life, was also an inspiration when it came to her Red Cross work during WW2 and during the Partition of India. I came to admire her for that.

Janet: What are you reading these days? Listening to?

Christine: I just finished reading Crooked Lines by Holly Michael—a very different style in Christian literature. But I loved it.  It was set in India, in many of the places I’ve been to. I also highly recommend The Language of Sparrows by Rachel Phifer.

Janet: What do you like to do to recharge?

Christine: Spend time with my loved ones—my husband, my mother, my kids and grandkids. I especially love to go camping with my husband in our little travel trailer.

Janet: Tell us something you appreciate about where you live.

Christine: I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world—British Columbia, Canada.  We’re within an hour’s drive of the ocean, but are surrounded by mountains. About six hours to the Rockies.

Janet: What’s the most surprising/fun/zany/scary thing you’ve ever done?

Christine: I wanted to learn to fly, so I took a trip up with a pilot in a small plane just to see if I could handle it. It was exhilarating, and I would have done it if I’d had the money.

Thank Janet, it’s been such fun being a guest on your blog. One of these days we’ll have to meet in person. Hugs for now.  Christine

Janet: Christine, thanks so much for taking time to answer all these questions… my, but I was feeling curious when I put this interview together! The Lord bless you as you prepare these next two books for the world, and in all the other aspects of your life as well.

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You can visit Christine Lindsay’s website and sign up for her quarterly newsletter—she always has something free to give away. And go to the links below to read sample chapters from all the completed series Twilight of the British Raj.

Veiled at Midnight, by Christine Lindsay

Chapter One Shadowed in Silk

Chapter One & Two Captured by Moonlight

Chapter One & Two Veiled at Midnight

Purchase sites for Christine Lindsay’s books: