Sometimes stories are inspired by real life, but not exactly. My latest series features three brothers, and I have three brothers. Here I am many, many years ago at Christmas with my three brothers.
We didn’t live on a farm, but we lived in South Dakota when this picture was taken. My grandparents lived on a farm in South Dakota and some of my friends lived on farms. Those memories are part of what inspired the books in the Dalton Brothers series. Book 1 features Wade, the youngest, in Four Little Blessings. Book 2 features, Matt, the middle brother, in Country Blessings. Book 3 features, Peter, the oldest, in Homecoming Blessings.
Although the books take place in three different locations, a small Florida beach town, a farm in South Dakota, and a small town in northern Georgia, the stories all have South Dakota in common. The three brothers spent many summers visiting their cousins on a South Dakota farm. Matt came to love that farm and eventually made his home there. These locations also relate to my real life. As I mentioned previously, I lived in South Dakota, and I also lived in a small Florida beach town and in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia.
These books were previously published by Steeple Hill Books, which is now known as Harlequin Love Inspired. If you missed reading them back in 2008 and 2009, you can catch up with them now. The first two books are currently available, and the third book is ready for preorder. If you preorder Homecoming Blessings, you can get it for 99 cents.
Here is the cover and blurb for Homecoming Blessings.
If there is a part of your life that you would include in a book, what would it be? I’m giving away the first book in my Kellersburg series, Hometown Promise, to one person who leaves a comment. I will draw the winner’s name on May 11, 2019 at 9 PM MST.
Merrillee Whren is an award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. She is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award for best inspirational romance manuscript presented by Romance Writers of America. She has also been the recipient of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of thirty plus years, and has two grown daughters. She has lived in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Florida but now makes her home in the Arizona desert. When she’s not writing, she spends her free time playing tennis or walking while she does the plotting for her novels.
I adore this cover!
How adorable you all look! Your books sound fun, I love family series!
Hi Merrillee, cute photo:) Meeting my husband for the first time- a good friend pointed him out to me and commented that ‘all the girls like him’ so I thought he would be waaay out of my league!! We laugh about this now- he had no idea!!
Blessings:)
The picture reminds me of my childhood when we dressed up in western clothes with our play gun and holster strap to our sides.
I think there are a couple of things from my life one would be childhood memories of living on a farm and climbing trees.
The second is more resent and traveling to America and meeting a online friend for the first time and then doing a tour of some of the historical sights
I would include my childhood relationship with my brother and sisters, climbing trees, roaming the woods, playing ball, riding bikes, eating mama’s homemade bread with homemade jam in the warm sunshine s.
I live very far away from the state where I grew up. And while I don’t necessarily want to live there again, setting scenes for a book there would be fun, including the woods behind our house where we spent hours playing as kids.
I bet living on a farm was fun. My dad grew up on one. I grew up in a small neighborhood surrounded by woods. We had so much fun playing in the woods and making forts. All those woods are gone today and it is all houses. What fun it was to spend the entire day outside playing and using our imaginations!
Welcome. You do not need to include me in the give a way. Thank you though. What an adorable picture. I have pictures like this with myself, my three brothers and youngest sister. I like how you came up with the series. I always find it interesting how authors come up with their ideas. It is the same I suppose with us quilters. We see/hear something and run with it. Have a wonderful weekend
I live in Florida and my parents live in California. My Dad loved the constellations. Oftentimes when there was a crescent moon, I would call him and tell him to go outside in a few hours because I was sending him a smile in the sky. Now that he has passed away, I get a big grin on my face whenever I see a crescent moon in the sky. I tell myself that it is my Dad smiling at me.
I love family series and what a great cover! If I included part of my life in a book it would include my family living in a small town, having the freedom to come & go playing with my brother and friends all over the place, and weekend trips to visit grandparents, aunts and uncles! Thanks for the chance!
Used to think I wanted a brother or sister. Now I’m glad I didn’t.Yes I’ve had everything fall on me about my parents but I have had the blessing oftaking care of them. My grandparents had a small farm and I spent every minute I could with them. I would like to think I could still live the farm life.
Love the pic of you and your brothers! I would say one thing from my life I’d share in a book would be my childhood. My Daddy was one of 12, and we’d go to visit the family in the summer. We didn’t go every year, sometimes one or other of the families would come here. When we would go to GA to see them, the WHOLE family would gather at one house. They all lived in the country, with cows, chickens, hogs, and it was great to be with so many relatives. I have so many happy memories of those times, which is great since now there is only 1 of the 12 still living.
The picture is too cute!! We moved around a lot when I was little, so I love stories about people who’ve lived in one place a long time.
Thanks, Toni!
Thanks, Paula.
Wemble, that would be a cute thing to include in a romance book.
Kathy, although I’m not wearing one in this photo, I remember having a gun and holster, too.
Jenny, both of those things would be great in a book.
Lelia, I can just taste the homemade bread and jam.
Stacey, going back to places you used to live for story ideas is always fun.
Lori, I loved visiting my grandparents farm, and it is definitely fun to play in the woods.
Susan, what a cool idea. That could definitely work in a book.
Connie, interesting that you should mention wanting a brother or sister. I always wanted a sister, but I got three brothers. I actually cried when my youngest brother was born because he wasn’t a girl. But in hindsight, I’m glad to have 3 brothers.
I don’t know how my reply to Connie got posted twice and not under her comment.
Trudy, here is my real reply to your comment. My dad was also 1 of 12 siblings, but unfortunately, he was the second to youngest and many of the older siblings died before they reached adulthood. We did visit some of them, but they were spread out across the country, so we only got to see the South Dakota relatives often.
Thanks, Lindi. We moved a bit ourselves. I lived in South Dakota, Montana, and Washington state while I was growing up.
I love your books. Speaking of brothers and sisters, I’m the 2nd youngest of 10. Five boys and five girls. My parents we both married before, with children from first marriage. When they married , they had us 4 girls. We’re close as siblings. The Exes were always around for birthdays and holidays parties. That’s how my parents raised us
Great family memories! Thank you for sharing.
My Daddy was the third to the oldest. There were 4 boys, a girl, four boys, a girl, and two boys. The oldest two died in birth order, so the one just younger than Daddy decided they were all going to do that. WRONG! I’m sorry you didn’t get to meet all of your Dad’s oldest siblings. Most of my Uncle’s died in their 60’s. My Daddy passed at 72, and at the time he passed, he’d lived to be the oldest age. Now, my last Uncle passed this past Monday, and he was 87. We just never know!! They all live on our memories!
In high school my family moved from Southern California to a small Kentucky town. I think a move like that would definitely be added to a story if I wrote one.
Thank you so much for sharing about your family I love being close to my family and when I was younger I always helped my Dad with the chickens a childhood memory I will never forget! Love the cover of your book!
Love the cover of your book, Merrillee! And I love that picture of you with your brothers. I’d like to include when I was growing up and the cows I had as friends. I was trying to give one of the cows an apple from the apple tree. One of the apples went rolling down the hillside and the cow went jumping down the hill after it. It was so funny. There’s a whole tree of apples but the cow had to have that one.
Lori, you’re welcome.
Melynda, that’s a big change and would make a good story.
Thanks, Patty. That’s a big family. They can be a lot of fun!
Thanks, Sarah. My brothers and I used to help gather the eggs in the chicken house when we visited my grandparents’ farm.
Thanks, Sally. Animals can be so funny. My grandpa had Clydesdales on his farm. I couldn’t believe how big they were.