Inspy Romance

Inspy Romanceā€”Fall in Love With a Good Book

Hello, friends!

by

Hi, friends! Happy Easter! šŸ‡ I’m thrilled to be joining the Inspy Romance team.

To celebrate this special season, I wrote a sweet short story titled, A Dash of Easter Joy.Ā Please feel free to download it from BookFunnel. (An email address is not required.)

Now hereā€™s a little bit about me. Iā€™ve always loved reading, but I didnā€™t discover Christian fiction until 2017! Up until that point, I mostly read literary fiction and chick lit. Iā€™d tried reading romance novels a couple of times when I was younger, but I didnā€™t know there was such a thing as ā€œcleanā€ or ā€œsweetā€ romance, and I didnā€™t enjoy any of the racy books I picked up.

That changed when I came across a Christian romance novel by Linda Goodnight.

This story was sweet. It was heartfelt. It was about true emotional connection rather than physical lust.

It was quick, tooā€”I read it in an afternoon, and felt wonderfully uplifted afterward. I quickly searched out more books by Ms. Goodnight, and then began reading books by many other talented Christian romance authors. A whole new world had opened up to me at the exact time in my life I needed it! God is just so good.

After six months of reading every Christian romance novel I could get my hands on, I started to think that maybe I could write one, too. Iā€™d gone to graduate school for creative writing but had focused on my career in marketing communications after graduation. I hadnā€™t done any serious creative writing in almost fifteen years!

So young, so fresh, so fond of overplucking my eyebrows!!! šŸ˜†

I started small. By 2017, Iā€™d quit my marketing job to take care of my three young boys, so I was busy most of the time. However, our local YMCA had a childcare room where I could drop the kids off for up to two hours a day. Iā€™d spend a little time working out, and then Iā€™d take my laptop to one of the tables in the lobby and write for an hour. If I got a couple hundred words written, I was happy.

I was excited about my new project. It gave me something fun to think about when I was doing the laundry, washing the dishes, and cleaning up after the kids. I figured if it ever got published, that would be cool, but I wrote that book for me.

I went to a writing conference in 2019 and met an agent who was interested in my novel. A couple months later, she sold it to Harlequin Love Inspired. Falling for the Innkeeper came out in 2020 and was named one ofĀ ā€œSix Sensational 2020 Debut Series Romancesā€Ā by the American Library Associationā€™sĀ Booklist Reader, which was a huge honor! It was also a finalist for the 2021 Book Buyers Best Award.

(My next book in that series,Ā The Babyā€™s Christmas Blessing, comes out on September 27. It doesnā€™t have a cover yet, but it will soon, LOL!)

The only one who looked excited about my book was the one who couldn’t read!!! šŸ˜†

After Falling for the Innkeeper came out, I dipped my toes into indie publishing with The Billionaireā€™s Secret, which was a #1 Bestseller and #1 Hot New Release across multiple categories on Amazon, including Christian Romance, Christian Womenā€™s Fiction, and Contemporary Religious Fiction, among others. Indie publishing is fun because you have control over how you package and market your booksā€”although it can definitely be harder to find an audience!

To close out our time together, here are a few fun facts about me:

  • Iā€™m married to a real-life rocket scientist! We live in Texas, where heā€™s helping to design and build a ā€œstarshipā€ that will eventually take people to the moon and Mars.
  • Iā€™ve visited The World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, and Iā€™ve also attended a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace! (Sadly, I didn’t meet the queen.)
  • I grew up in Canada but spent many summers on beautiful Cape Cod.
  • My parents named me after the heroine inĀ The Thorn Birds. (Is it any wonder I became a romance novelist? šŸ˜†)
  • My boys all love to read, and I love reading to them! Some of our favorites these days are the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.

I look forward to getting to know you better by chatting with you in the comments! Iā€™ll randomly choose one commenter (both U.S. and international entrants are eligible) to win an ebook copy of The Billionaireā€™s Secret on April 20 at 9:00 am CST, so go ahead and tell me a few fun facts about you below!

P.S. If youā€™re so inclined, Iā€™d love to have you join my newsletter. Once or twice a month I send out exclusive bonus content like the short story at the beginning of this post, personal blog posts, and giveaway announcements, as well as behind-the-scenes updates about my upcoming books. Sign up here!

Meghann Whistler (24 Posts)

Meghann Whistler is a wife, mom, and Christian romance novelist who loves writing sweet, happy stories that WON'T make your grandmother blush! When she's not writing, reading, or jamming out to Christian rock music, you can find her enjoying a relaxing evening with her rocket scientist husband (seriouslyā€”he's a real, live rocket scientist!) or playing with her three kids.


Comments

  1. I live in a small tourist village in the mountains of South Africa. We are surrounded by natural and commercial forests. We have two giant Schnauzers who love nothing better than running through the forest on free-range walks.
    Until my husband retired last year he lectured at the university where Nelson Mandela and other African leaders studied.

  2. Welcome to Inspy Romance Meghann! This Michigander is an avid reader, retired high school teacher, wife, mom to 3 sons, and Oma to 2 grandsons and 2 granddaughters, who loves to travel. I have driven coast to coast (26 states and have visited the corn palace) plus 9 foreign countries on three continents. Planning a summer road trip out past the corn palace to visit our youngest son, who lives in Idaho. I was born in Berlin, Germany and learned English as a second language. Hubby was a pastor for 30 years.

    Downloaded and looking forward to reading your holiday inspired story A Dash of Easter Joy. My oldest granddaughter’s middle name is JOY. Off to visit son#2 and our youngest granddaughter today for Easter. Blessings this Easter weekend. Best wishes and Welcome.

  4. Hi Meghann! Welcome. I love your story of writing for an hour at the gym while your kids play in the daycare room! Hey, your true passion for writing will always find a way!

  5. Welcome and congratulations on publishing several books. Thatā€™s a huge accomplishment! Iā€™m looking forward to reading your books. I am very thankful for clean romance writers. Weā€™ve retired to Kentucky from northern Virginia right outside Washington DC where we raised our kids. They all moved to Kentucky so we followed. I get to watch and play with a bunch of grandkids!!

  6. Welcome!! I’m already following you in many places!! So glad you’re here at Inspy now! I’ve read CF since way back to the early ’80’s!! I live on the Space Coast of Florida, which really mean Brevard County, where Kennedy Space Center is located, and can just go outside to watch the launches!

  7. Welcome today. Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself. I was fond of over plucking my eyebrows also. LOL I still have the thin ones. I grew up in CA on a farm and the family moved to IL when I was in high school. I met my husband at church. We have now been married 37 years. We had one boy and one girl. (now 36 and 34) I taught them both to sew, count cross stitch, read to and with them, and many other crafts. They are both avid readers now as am I. Our daughter loves to sew and quilt. Our son is an avid sewer. He has been sewing and selling reenacting clothes for men since he was in high school. He is a Taylor in his own right and highly respected in the reenacting community.

  15. Wow, good for him, Lori! My husband is the sewer in my house, too! Anytime one of the kids needs something stitched, they know that I am NOT the person to go to, LOL!!!

  16. Thanks, Merrillee! I remember the outside being much more interesting than the inside. We were on a cross-country road trip at the time, so any kind of little break from driving was fun for us!

    Happy Easter :)

  17. Welcome! I live in northern California, near the coast and near redwoods! My husband and I were missionaries in Hong Kong for 19 years and Cambodia for 3. Now we’ve been retired for almost 10 years. I’ve been reading Christian fiction since the days of The Sugar Creek Gang :-) It was pretty sparse before Janette Oke started writing back in the 80’s. I’ve got a few writers in my family (but none fiction), but all I’ve written is missionary newsletters and a few articles for our missions magazine :-)

  18. So happy youā€™ve joined us at Inspy Romance, Meghann! Fun fact about me: I married my high school sweetheart and am more thankful for him every day. Other fun fact: we have a very small house and are currently renovating and absolutely everything is in disarray this weekend with family coming for Easter. Thank the Lord for the great outdoors!!!

  19. I have 12 sibblings 8 brothers and 4 sisters 10 of my sibblings are yonger than me.2 nieces and 2 nephews.I have a Cotton candy and snowcone buisness . My birthday is May 16th and I will be 24. My mom knew she was going to marry my dad in 8th grade.You don’t have to enter me in the giveaway cause I already read the billionaires secret.

  20. Hello! I am a newsletter subscriber but I have yet to read on if your books! šŸ˜³ I have Falling for the Innkeeper and Iā€™m thinking Iā€™ll read that next! Iā€™ll look forward to your posts here. šŸ˜ƒ

  25. Hi Megan, welcome! Very nice to have you here and getting to know you a little more. My husband and I are retired. We have 2 grown children with little families of their own and we have 3 grandchildren and 1 almost 8yr old fur baby. We enjoy going on our walk every morning and I love to garden. We live in a small town in Texas. Have a great weekend and a Very Happy and Blessed Easter.

  26. Welcome, Meghann! My wife and I live in the Washington D. C. suburbs of southern Maryland. Yeah, I’m a guy who enjoys Christian romance :-). We’ll be celebrating our 33rd anniversary in June. I spent 26 years doing software for satellites so rocket scientists were my buddies! What company does your DH work for?

    I’ll spare you the long list of hobbies and interests, lol! I’ve had so many. The list does include crochet, though.

    I look forward to your contributions here at IR! Welcome!

  29. Thanks, Lincoln! Congrats on your upcoming anniversary! My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was a kid, but I’ve forgotten it now…

    DH works for SpaceX. :)

  31. SpaceX. Hmm, probably should have guessed that, lol. Well, send him greetings from another space geek! :-)

  33. Yes a big family 2 brothers and a sister r married this past July we finally were able to get together after almost 2 years for a family reunion we couldn’t even get together after my grandma passed away suddenly on March 24 2020 she was 90 my grandpa is still living and he is 94 will be 95 in June if he’s still living.
    Yes I am popular with my cotton candy and snowcone buisness I think Last summer I had about 15 jobs from May to October .I can’t wait for your next to books to come out

  34. I forgot to say my grandpa and grandma have about 200 great grandchildren,82 grandchildren and about 15 great great grandchildren

  35. Hi, and welcome to the blog! :) I love TX, and I think it’s cool that your husband is a rocket scientist. I found Clean/Sweet romance and Christian Fiction in my late teens/early twenties, and I’m really glad for all the work each and every Christian author does. So, truly, thank you!

  36. Welcome to Inspy!! It is so great to see you again. I am so glad you are here. I have been married to my husband for 33 years. I am a cat Mom to three. We also feed the strays. There are two strays who appear to be pregnant. We are on kitten watch. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.

  37. Wow, Kendra – 200 great grandchildren!!!! That is WILD!!!!

    I’m sorry you couldn’t get together for your grandmother’s funeral, but I’m glad you were all able to get together this past July :)

    Happy Easter!

  39. Thanks, Debra! Nice to see you here, too!

    My kids love cats sooooooo much, but I’m terribly allergic! They’d be so jealous to hear about your kitten watch!

  40. I am late coming. Welcome to Inspy. I am an Aussie. I have 2 rescue cats Libby (short for Liberty) and Henry (who has been a real cuddle bunny today). I like Linda Goodnight also I use to read a lot of Heartsong present books. I also read LI and enjoyed the historical range.
    I love that your husband is a rocket scientist.

  41. I am quite young, I am 24 years old and I live in Chile. I walked a similar path to yours with romance I read classics and tween books or on the YA spectrum for 14/15 because higher up it started on sexual content, I also stuck to Japanese manga for the same reason. I discovered Christian fiction a few years ago I was shocked to see that there was Christian science fiction, Christian fantasy and romance in all its subcategories! there are even authors who write horror novels with Christian spiritual themes of good vs evil! it’s a huge world.
    My dream is to be a writer, I want to write Christian romance books at this moment I have in mind two Christian fantasy fairy tale retellings.

  45. Hi Meghann, so nice to meet you! Welcome to Inspy Romance :-)

    I too, have visited the Corn Palace in Mitchell. What an awesome place that was! And my grand-girl loves Piggie and Gerald & the Pigeon ones by Mo, even though she’s a bit above that in her reading level (she’s in 2nd grade). She even has bookmarks with them on it & loves to use them for reading whatever book she happens to be in. We’ve introduced her to Romana & Beezus and Junie B. Jones. She’s very much into beginning chapter books & is as voracious a reader as my husband and I.

    I look forward to more posts from you in the future & getting to know you more.

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