Atoning for Ashes {book review}

“We were both broken. God knew it takes two broken hearts to make a whole.” 


{about the book} 

Josie Chadwick dreams of marrying for love in Cornwall, England, but with her father’s debt threatening to destroy all she holds dear, her romantic options are dwindling. When her elder sister Delia is disowned, Josie finds herself heiress of Chadwick Park, torn between dreams and duty. After sacrificing her heart to atone for Delia’s sin, Josie clings to the hope she will learn to love a distant husband, whom she fears is incapable of requiting her affection. 
Charles Radcliffe’s heart has been scarred and hardened by rejection. He fears hurting his new bride, but his fears of betrayal and rejection are stronger, making it impossible for him to trust her love―let alone the love of her God. 
As Josie and Charles face their new life together, ominous events warn of dark family secrets that could shatter them both. More than a loveless marriage is at stake if they cannot stand as one. Will they learn to trust God and each other before it’s too late? 



{about the author} 

Kaitlin Covel has a thirst for adventure much like the heroines of her stories. She is an old-fashioned romantic, and if she could time travel to any historical period, it would be the Regency Era. Here in the 21st century, she is a certified Nutritional Therapy Technician, but writing is her passion, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. She has honed her craft since childhood, benefiting from the insights of other writers through professional writing associations such as the Jerry Jenkins Writer’s Guild and Hope*writers. She lives with her family in Maine, where she enjoys teaching the teen Sunday school class at her church. Her favorite things are family, books, history, chocolate, music, the ocean, and strong cups of tea.





{my review}

Georgette Heyer meets Charlotte Bronte meets Madeline Brent, and Jane Austen metaphorically writes the foreword. I spent the second half of the book in tears. 

oh. my. stars. 


Atoning for Ashes was the first novel I’ve read in 36 hours all of last year. (Yes, that includes my own.) 


I couldn’t put it down. The prose was so delicious, like a good thick hot chocolate, with the bite and snap of a gingerbread… Okay, I’ll stop with the food references. I’m making myself hungry. But seriously, this book is on a plane where I feel with my bones and my lungs, not with my emotions. It’s raw, and physical, and very present. 


I see so much of myself in this story. In Josie, in Charles, in the supporting characters. 


The places this novel took me are rich and vivid, elegantly painted, exquisitely detailed. I don’t need to go to Cornwall–I feel as though I’ve been there. 


The struggles of the characters are real and poignant. They’re human, flawed, broken, and yet there is hope–hope for forgiveness. For healing. For love. For redemption. 


The things that break us can also be the things that heal us.

Recommend for 16+ due to tastefully portrayed married life, and thematic elements including violence. 


If you’re interested in reading Atoning for Ashes, you can pick it up here.


Review copyright 2019 by Annie Louise Twitchell. 
Book media and data used by permission.

Through the Pages {a giveaway and a thank-you}

It’s been almost a year since this story started, but it’s far from finished. 
I want to hug all the people who’ve helped spread the word about Through the Pages, but most of them aren’t in my immediate range of hugability. 
So instead, I’d like to give away one of my Collector’s Boxes. 
In this giveaway, you’ll receive a paper back copy of Through the Pages…
A paper back replica of Harper South’s Journal, available ONLY in these special bundles…

Five art prints…
And maybe a random bonus gift!
The Collector’s Boxes will be available on my website when I have more books in stock! In the meantime, why not enter the giveaway?
International Winners: unfortunately, lack of funds prohibits me from shipping internationally. So instead, for international winners ONLY, I have an e-book copy of Through the Pages in your choice of Kindle, PDF, or ePub. 

And in closing, a random landscape shot. This is my hometown, ladies and gents.

Good luck! -Annie

Through the Pages {my first novel}

Once upon a time, not too long ago, in fact, a little less than a year ago…

{August 19th, 2017}

“Hey, Annie, remember how you were asking, ‘what will I write next’ the other day?”

I did ask that question, after finishing Jump: The Things I Remind Myself. But when God asks a question like that, I’ve found He tends to have ulterior motives behind it. So I very cautiously said, “yeah, I remember… what about it?”

“Well, I’ve got one for you. Write a book for your mom.”

Cue wide eyes and a heck of a lot of confusion. And a scrambled message to my girl’s group. “I think I’m supposed to write a book for my mom. Help!”

Go figure, they all thought it was a brilliant idea.

“Hey Annie,” came the somewhat amused voice from the upstairs regions of the cosmos. “It’s for her birthday next year, by the way. And it’s about books. The interior will be cream paper, with an artistic book drawing for underneath the chapter headers. The cover will be purple.”

And that is the story of why I had a meltdown from August 19th to August 21st.

This was uncharted territory for me. I was pretty sure it would be a novel, not one of my short stories or a novella or something easy. (I’ve never completed a first draft of a novel, only a lot of partial first drafts.) And I had less than a year. And I needed to keep it a secret from everyone around me. (I’m horrible at keeping exciting things secret.)

{the journey}

The rest of August, September, and October were spent in a weird sort of stasis. I didn’t write a whole lot, at least, not that I remember. I did a lot of thinking. I spent a lot of time with books, and with my mom. And by mid October I had a pretty solid idea of what this story was supposed to look like.

November came around and I used NaNoWriMo as my excuse to pound out a 50k novel in a very short period of time. For the first time, I had a whole, finished, novel. And I couldn’t tell anyone.

Well, not quite true. I told my girl’s group (after making them swear to secrecy). I told Missie. And in June of 2018, I told my pen pal/adopted grandmother/great-aunt about it, because she asked what I was working on, and I was pretty darn sure that she wouldn’t tell anyone. 
The hardest thing this whole time has been keeping it a secret from everyone. Hannah helped; I had to tell her because I was in the middle of a stress-induced panic attack of “I can’t do this!” and needed help getting myself out. I told Jeremy because I conscripted him to receive the packages so my mother wouldn’t suspect anything. I made my cover designer, my editor, my beta readers, and my girl’s group swear themselves to secrecy, and… 
…here we are. 

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from this story:

“That’s the thing, Miranda, you never get over the butterflies if it’s the right person. They just settle down a bit. If it’s the right person, you just go your whole life being all tangled up with the butterflies in your stomach and the love in your heart.” 

Through the Pages
Annie Louise Twitchell

LOOK AT THIS COVER
*all the heart eyes to That Book Gal for this amazing design*
Available at Amazon

Fun Fact: I had the hardest time finding an editor until I was actually ready to see about hiring one. At that point, Facebook hiccuped and showed me a notification for a post from an editing page I’d been following and hadn’t done much looking into. If you’re in the US, I highly recommend Lemons to Lemonade Editing. Not only did she do a wonderful job with my line edits, but she works on paper, meaning I had a marked up paper copy to make my changes from. That was perfect for how my head works and the way I prefer to do things, and made my process of fixing things so much easier.

Fun Fact #2: I’m still a bit giddy that I actually did this thing. I will probably be varying degrees of giddy for the next two months.

Fun Fact #3: I’ve actually been so overwhelmed since I gave the book to my mom on the 5th that I’ve had two or three headaches and gone swimming a lot and written almost nothing. Just this blog post. I’ll get back in my groove eventually. I think.

The Bunny approves. This is important.

~Annie

A Tale of Two Apples {blog tour wrap-up}




So basically this summer has been insane and I haven’t stayed on top of things very well. I’ve been crazy busy with projects and life and general busyness and a whole lot of swimming. 


I’m finally posting my wrap-up for the Tale of Two Apples Blog Tour. Better late than never, right? 




Here are the posts, we’d love for you to check them out. 

Sunday 22nd:
Monday 23rd:
Tuesday 24th:
Wednesday 25th:
Thursday 26th:
Friday 27th:
Saturday 28th:
Wednesday, August 1st:
  • Annie Louise Twitchell {wrap-up post}


And here are the links to our short stories:

Iron Core {review and author interview}

Rebekah is a dear friend of mine in South America. We actually met over a year in a teen writer’s group on Facebook, when she asked for someone “who knows stuff about snow” to beta read a project for her. Wellll, if there’s something I know about… it’s snow. And the rest, as they say, is history. 
Her newest story, Iron Core, had me in tears. I’m here to share the misery enchant you with this wonderfully heartbreaking story. I fell in love with Lunetta’s story and I’m dying for more, whenever Miss DeVall decides to stop torturing me and let me have it. (In her defense, I do think she has to finish writing it first.)
See this pretty cover? Hehe

{Iron Core Blurb}
Everything will be okay. 
Deep in Brancaleone, a prison carved from the mountainside, eighteen-year-old Lunetta plans her escape. Raised behind iron bars, all she wants is freedom – and to take her mother with her.


{Author Bio}
Rebekah DeVall prides herself on being the girl who wrote 200,000 words in 21 days. She’s a Christian author with a penchant for killing characters and a love for writing real female protagonists described as “the example of a Christian hero that young readers need to see”.  




{Contact Rebekah}

Blog: http://www.rebekahdevall.wordpress.com

{Author Interview}


You’re a missionary kid, stationed overseas. Did that contribute to the emotions and the overall story of Iron Core?

Yep, I’m a missionary kid, way deep down in South America. While Iron Core wasn’t a “missionary story” per se, some of Lunetta’s emotions and feelings definitely came from my missionary-kid heart.
Lunetta struggles with feelings of loneliness and missing her family. She has to experience the world entirely from scratch, without any previous knowledge. That’s kind of what we missionary kids go through during furloughs (which is coming up close for my family!) I mean, what exactly are dimes and quarters? I’ve been working with South American money for all my life. How am I supposed to dress? I don’t know. I haven’t been in an American church since I was thirteen, and we all know how fashion-savvy thirteen-year-olds are.
So, long story short, there’s a whole lot more of me in Lunetta than I expected when I sat down to write this story.
You write deep, hard stories. Why? (Do you think it’s possible for you to write fluff?)

I write deep, hard stories because we live in a deep, hard world.
To be honest, I’ve never been the kind of girl who was satisfied with sweet romances and children’s fiction. I grew up on War and Peace, Shakespeare, Anne of Green Gables (wow that list looks strange), Little House on the Prairie.
I grew up in a house where one night, the living room would hold my dad and a couple there for marriage counseling. The next day, a young woman pregnant out of wedlock. The next day, we would pack up and travel three or four hours to a church, to meet with people who walked miles and waded through rivers just to hear God’s Word.
There’s so much going on in this world, and I feel like standard Christian fiction brushes no more than the surface.
Is it possible for me to write fluff? I think so. I mean, all things are possible. I’ll let you know the day that happens. 😉
What’s it like, being a writer in a missionary family? What are a couple challenges you face every day?

I don’t think I have many challenges that other writers in big families don’t. There’s always the issue of scheduling – when there’s a weekend trip, two basketball games, piano classes, Bible Institute lessons, English class, six kids in homeschool – there’s always a lot going on.
One of the challenges I’ve faced is the fact that I’m generally an antisocial person. I’m happiest when I’m at my desk with my headphones in, my music playing, and fingers tapping across the keyboard. But as a missionary family, we’re here to serve people. So it’s always a struggle – to write or socialize?
What do you do in addition to writing and making me cry a lot?

Oh, man, you have asked the million dollar question.
I have seven little siblings. Not a day goes by that I don’t:

  • Drive someone somewhere
  • Tie some little person’s shoelaces
  • Fix their hair
  • Break up a squabble
  • An infinity of other things
I’m also a part-time Bible Institute student, which is where I find a lot of inspiration for my stories.
On top of that, I have a part-time job in a cheese factory. Want gruesome details about how Gouda cheese is made? I’m your girl.
Add that to writing (and making poor Annie cry), and I’m busy enough.
How many stories do you have up your sleeves?

Good thing I’m wearing two layers of sleeves!
On the “to-be-published-this-year”, there are at least eight, if I’m not forgetting any.
Now, on my “plot-bunny-will-be-published-someday” list? Thousands.

{My review}


5 stars

She did it again. Rebekah DeVall did it again. Iron Core has more of the gripping emotion I’ve come to love in her writing, wrapped in a fresh story and bright new characters. Iron Core is intense, for all the brevity of the story. She seems to make one sentence do the work of two. Lunetta is a dear who needs to be loved and taken care of, but she doesn’t seem to allow for that. Persa… Carlotta… ZANE, who I definitely don’t have a tiny crush on. I love the characters. They’re tangible and I can feel the threads of their own histories that make them into the individuals they are, even in such a short little book. 

Recommend for teens 14+

One Year Ago {this calls for celebration}

One year and one week ago I sat in the living room on a cold Saturday morning and read through the entity of KDP’s (Kindle Direct Publishing) terms of service. One year and one week ago I talked with my dad and decided on Annie Louise Twitchell as the name I would publish under. One year and one week ago today I opened a KDP account.

One year ago today I uploaded the cover file:

One year ago today I struggled over the acknowledgements, how to express what I felt and what I wanted to say. I’d never felt that something was so important. 
One year ago today I uploaded the finalized manuscript. 
One year from tomorrow, January 28th, my first book was published on Amazon Kindle. 
The Christmas Ladder is a little tiny story; it’s about 10 pages long. It’s a true story, mostly. It’s based on a story from my great-grandmother’s childhood. To celebrate my first book baby’s birthday, I’ve listed it for free on Amazon on the 27th, 28th, and 29th. 
It’s been a long year. It seems impossible that it’s been a whole year already, but at the same time I can’t believe it’s only been a year. I’m standing on the edge of 21, almost teetering, waited with bated breath. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. 
This past year has been full of pain and grief and anger and hurt and depression. It’s been full of anxiety and fear. It’s been full of hope and love and joy and the kind of laughter that explodes into a million glittering echoes because there’s nothing else for it to do. It’s been full of growth and change and healing. 
I’ve moved mountains, I think, at least for myself. 
I’m so thankful for this last year. 

-Annie

2017 {my year in review}

It all started one fateful day in December 2016… 
It was the first holiday season since my great-grandmother Louise had passed away, so a number of us were reminiscing on Facebook, and a cousin shared a story that I, and a number of others, had never heard before. That story stuck in my heart and without necessarily thinking about it I found myself painting. Then I wrote the story out. I asked for a couple beta readers to help polish it up, then published it on my blog. On January 27th I hit publish on my first little Kindle e-book.
I wrote a poem for my local library’s poetry contest and won first place in the adult category with Something. Reading that one out loud at the presentation night was hard; I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it all the way through. It wasn’t nerves this time. It was how deeply the poem affected me personally.
I turned right around and started seriously working on my novella, Spinner of Secrets. Spinner of Secrets had been in progress for almost two years. I had an incredible team of beta readers who helped me get it in shape, then I started a process I would repeat three more times before the end of the year: formatting. I expected to hate formatting. I expected to take forever to get it, and to end up with a bit of a ‘ehh’ job. 
I didn’t. I loved it, and my first proof copy came in the end of April. I had a book. I’d made an actual, real, honest to goodness book. Not gonna lie, there was a lot of crying. And a lot of jumping around and yelling in excitement. And I don’t really remember a lot else.
I had two poems published in an anthology, “What The Sirens Say” and “Ache”. 
I was invited to enter a couple pieces in an anthology to raise mental health awareness, with all proceeds donated to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I wrote two poems for that, and then was able to help out a little with finalizing it. 

Back in January I’d assembled a poetry manuscript for a contest. I didn’t win, but I got bored one afternoon, rearranged it a bit, formatted it, and ordered a proof copy. This little book just might be my personal favorite of all my works this year. I finished it off with a handful of my own sketches, and published it on August 16th.
On September 28th I published The Ocean and I. A short collection of poetry, prose, and photos, it’s a snapshot of my vacation in Friendship, Maine this summer. It started as just a letter to me, from me, but I was encouraged to publish it, and people seem to have liked it.
With only two weeks left before the deadline, I learned about an attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for largest anthology. I am one of over 100 authors who contributed. There are several goals we have to reach before the record is broken, but it’s kind of a big deal and I’m excited.

No Dragons, Please! was, like Spinner of Secrets, two years in process. I pulled it from my back files to be re-written and published. Originally written for my youngest brother’s 10th birthday, I had it published professionally in time for his 12th.
Other things of note:
In addition to my cat, rabbit, dog, and houseplants, I have a fish. His name is Thaddeus and he is a Halfmoon Double Tail Male Betta fish. He is fabulous. His tank is next to my computer desk and he likes to sit near me while I work.
I successfully pulled off the 2017 New Releases Showcase, a Facebook event featuring myself and eight other authors who’d released books in 2017.
In terms of mental health, this has been the best year in a long time. All of this work, all of this stretching and pushing and testing limits, and it’s still been the best year I’ve had. I’ve been scared. I’ve been angry. I’ve been stubborn and in the wrong and stupid and a brat. But I’ve been so joyful and excited and eager. I’ve been so happy I screamed and I’ve been so overwhelmed that I cried. It’s been good. 
And my total word count for 2017… as close as I can figure from my tracking…
246,769
At the end of the year, 2017 has been life-changing. Looking back at where I was one year ago today, I can safely say that I never saw this coming. And I can safely say I don’t regret it.

All my love – AnnieLou

No Dragons, Please! {live on Amazon}

Popping in again real quick to say that No Dragons, Please! is now live on Amazon in paperback!

Here’s the link: No Dragons, Please!

This will also be on my website for sale, but — I have limited copies at home and I have two events coming up locally, so it’s not available yet as I need stock for those and am short on money. Buying books directly from me means two things: I get a little more money from the sale, and you can have them autographed however you want. But it also means I have to have the books on hand to sell to you. I’ll try hard to have copies available to order in time for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, be on the look out for some special stuff coming in December!

I won’t promise to be back with a blog post before the end of November and the end of NaNoWriMo 2017, but I shall try.

~AnnieLou

November {news and chatter}

First things first:

My favorite small person turns 12 at the end of the month!

Secondly: 
I’ve been sick most of this week, and got a little behind on my NaNoWriMo project. I’m not worried about it though. It’s not slow writing, it’s only a question of whether I can write or not. I’ll catch up this week and the beginning of next, and I should be ahead enough that I don’t have to write over Thanksgiving if I don’t want to. (I’ll be cooking dinner this year.)
Thirdly: 
I have book number five out this weekend! No Dragons, Please! was written for my favorite small person’s birthday two years ago. I pulled it out again this summer and got it rewritten, edited, and done up in a proper paperback in time for his birthday again. That’s the cover shown above. I’ll have the Amazon link as soon as it’s available. 
Copyright 2017 by Annie Louise Twitchell

Aveza of the Ercanhelm {Character Interview}

{Author Bio} Rebekah DeVall is the author of “When Your Melody Fades” and many more upcoming Christian fantasy books. Find her on Facebook or her blog.


I’ve had the pleasure of working with Rebekah for some time now, although we can be pretty good at distracting each other rather than working. (I am NOT an angry kitten!) She’s a talented lady who, I have high hopes, will go far with her writing.





Aveza of the Ercanhelm

{Interview with Hagan}
Hagan Kenlin is king of Korbin. All other information is classified.

(Note from the author: He’s a surly fellow, man of few words, and INTJ.)
ALT: What is your full name?
Hagan Kenlin.
ALT: What was/is your relationship with your father?
He always preferred my brother. Can I blame him? No.
ALT: Siblings?
I had one brother, Othmar, king of Allod. He was born to rule Allod—I made myself able to rule Korbin. Opposing countries, yet we brothers came to rule the greatest kingdoms of the world, at least for some time.
ALT: How do you fall in love? At first sight? Over a long period of time?
Love is a thing for peasants. Marriage is an arrangement for mutual benefit, or at least for my benefit. It served me well, first with Brunhild, now with Johanna.
ALT: If you were granted three wishes, what would you ask for?
  1. The throne of Korbin, unquestioned, in my hands.
  2. A son, to take over the throne after my death… and only one. I need no civil war.
  3. Prosperity never kills.
ALT: How do you decide if you can trust someone? Experience with others? With this person? First impressions? Intuition? Do you test the person somehow? Or are you just generally disposed to trust or not to trust?
I do not trust until my trust is earned, and even then… only time can tell. Brunhild proved me wrong there.
ALT: Did you turn out the way you expected you would? The way your parents expected?
My parents expected me to be a failure. They were wrong with that, as they were with so much else.
ALT: What are you most proud of in your life?
The youngest prince of Allod, the failure, now king of Korbin? I should think that quite an accomplishment.
ALT: Have you ever been arrested? What for?
I do the arresting.
ALT: How would you, if you could, choose to die?
Of old age, having a son to rule my throne and make it greater than even I could.
ALT: If you could do one thing and succeed at it, what would it would be?
I succeed at all I put my mind to do.
ALT: You’re the kind of person who:
Makes my own way in life. Station and laws will not hold me back, nor will the opposition of small organizations such as the Ercanhelm. Nothing will stop me from my destiny, nothing at all.



You can pick up a copy of Rebekah’s book on Amazon, HERE.

Rebekah and Hope Ann are having a release party on Facebook, on October 7th – click {here} to join in the fun!

Thanks for interviewing, Rebekah, and congratulations on the new release!

Be looking for my review of Aveza of the Ercanhelm in the next few days!

All characters belong to their author. Used with permission. Copyright 2017 by Annie Louise Twitchell and Rebekah DeVall.