The Old River Road Blog Tour // Author Interview

Hey everyone!! Guess what, guess what, guess what??? Ivy Rose just recently released her novel, The Old River Road! *squeal of excitement* SO exciting!! :D 

Meet Ivy Rose and her debut novel, The Old River Road. This book is the first in a series of a yet-to-be-determined number of books based on the lives of the author’s ancestors. Written in a style similar to that of Janette Oke and Laura Ingalls Wilder, this is a story you won’t want to miss.

1885

When seventeen-year-old Clara Boutwell married her dashing coworker, William McDonald, she was convinced her life was near perfect. The journey before them as newlyweds in the great city of Chicago was promising and exciting. But a frightening disease soon takes William in its grip, forcing them to the clean air of the western frontier in a desperate attempt to save his life. But pioneering doesn’t prove to be easy, with miles between neighbors instead of fences. On the eastern Washington prairies, the McDonalds face hardships and trials in a new world where everything is tested, from physical endurance to emotional strength—down to their relationship and faith in the Lord.

This novel tells the incredible true story of Clara and William, the great-great grandparents of the author, in a sweet narrative full of laughter, tears, and the struggles of an early pioneering family. Prepare yourself to share in their experience as you read this account of a pioneer family in Washington state, and see their lasting legacy that has endured into the fifth generation.

Available now in paperback and ebook on Amazon

Add on Goodreads

~ Author Interview ~

Hi Ivy Rose! So, first question for you, what was the inspiration for The Old River Road?

The inspiration came from reading Clara’s memoirs when I was around 10 years old. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is so amazing! Someone should turn this into a book!” Knock-on-wood. :) 

Well, I'm very glad you decided to turn into a book! (TORR is wonderful, peoples, you've got to read it!) 
What is one piece of advice you'd give to fellow writers?
Don't get discouraged, and don't give up. Remember Who you are writing for. There will always be the cosmic kill-joy to say something unking about what you write, but there will be twice as many who are the best cheerleaders ever.

That's a lovely piece of advice! Thank you for sharing that insightful tid-bit :)Sooo, what is your favourite part of The Old River Road?
Hmmm...that's a tough question. I think one of my favourite scenes in the Valentine's Day dance. That one was super fun to write. 

Aww, that scene was so sweet! Probably one of my favourites too :) You said that scene was super fun to write, did you have a part of The Old River Road which was the hardest to write? 
(SPOILER!!) Probably when Clara and William go through losing a child. The emotions in those scenes...it actually made me cry. 

*sniffs* Oh yes, I remember that part. It made me cry as well :'( It was very sad, but beautifully written too :) Now for a fun (and slightly random) question for you: What is one fact about you that people either don't know about or would never guess? 
Hehe - this made me giggle. :) Something the people literally laugh out loud when I tell them is that I used to be a painfully shy person. Until I was around seven years old, I was a quiet, mousy, borderline-rude kind of shy. Now, I'm about as extroverted as it gets. Even though it's hard to tell through a screen, just about anyone who knows me knows that I can talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... :) 

Haha, well that is very interesting! It also reminds me of a certain sibling of mine . . . ;) 

Thank you for the chance of letting me be a part of your blog tour, Ivy Rose, and CONGRATULATIONS on the release of TORR!! :D 

~ About the Author ~

Ivy Rose is an 18 year old history lover and literary enthusiast. Aside from writing, she enjoys being outdoors, chocolate, travelling, reading, and ATVing (preferably if there is mud involved). She resides with her family of 9 on the banks of the Long Lake in eastern Washington.

You can connect with Ivy via her blog, Goodreads, and Pinterest. 

~  Giveaway ~

The Old River Road Prize Pack

International Prize 

 ~Blog Tour Schedule~

Friday, July 8^th (release day!)

Emily  — Review, Spotlight

Jesseca Wheaton — Review, Interview

Saturday, July 9^th

Olivia K. Fisher  — Interview, Spotlight

Faith Blum  — Review, Interview, Spotlight

Hannah E.  — Review, Interview

Monday, July 11^th

Faith Potts  – Review

Rebecca Morgan  — Review, Interview

Tuesday, July 12^th

Abigayle Ellison  — Review, Spotlight

Kenzi Knapp  – Review, Interview

Hosanna Emily  — Review, Interview

Wednesday, July 13^th

Blessing Counter  — Interview

Victoria Minks  — Review, Spotlight

Thursday, July 14^th

Deborah C.  — Review, Spotlight

Anna S. Brie  — Review

Leona G. — Review, Interview

Friday, July 15^th

Hope Ann — Review, Interview

Amanda Tero — Review, Interview

Anika Joy – Review, Interview

Guest Post

Hey all! I did a guest post for Thomas, which was posted yesterday, so if you're interested, check it out here: Be Strong and Courageous.

Hope you enjoy it and have a great beginning of the new week!! :)

Chilly Mornings // Fake Men

Hello all! How was your Sunday? Y'all ready for the new week? :) 

Here's the next post on our trip to North Carolina! 

FIRST DAY OF CAMP. We woke up very early the next morning. AND IT WAS SOOOOOO COLD. I THOUGHT SOMEONE MOVED US TO A FREEZER. 

Okay, she’s exaggerating there. Ok, fine. A fridge then. But it was very chilly when we woke up. (I didn't really believe it before, but yes, mountain air is cold. What's it like during the winter, I'd like to know? ;))Our window had been open all night, and I didn’t realize that until around 4 or 5 in the morning. Then I rather sleepily struggled to get the jammed window to close. That took awhile.

And she woke me up with “HELP ME WITH THIS WINDOW!!!”

Yeah, Tiger Lily finally decided to help me :P Hey, it was 5 in the morning!!!! Anyway, we went back to sleep, but we were still pretty cold. Our blankets weren’t the warmest to be honest, just a couple of flannel blankets that were a mite too small. 

That’s what happens when you travel by plane and have to pack sheets, blankets, and pillow, not including clothes and stuff into a carry-on and a back-pack. 

Oh yes, and Tiger Lily did this pretty french braid on me for the morning. 

Okay Tiger Lily, now you say something. 

Something.

ABOUT THE TRIP!! -_- 

What kind of face is that? *looks at Blessing Counter while she makes this really really weird face at me*................I still don’t know what kind of face that is. 

OH! BREAKFAST!!! It was SOOOO good.  We usually don’t eat super fancy breakfasts, and at the cafeteria in the college, they had EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN YOU COULD WANT FOR BREAKFAST. I mean they had bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes, waffles, DONUTS, hash browns, muffins, a ton of different kinds of fruit, french toast, yogurt, cereal, hot chocolate, coffee, juice, you name it! I’m hungry just thinking about it. 

COFFEE XD My favourite part of breakfast! ;) 

After breakfast, we all went to class. Tiger Lily was taking a pre-vet camp, and I was taking a Christian Music Jam one. SUPER FUN! 

My band composing our first song! :)

Classes started at 9, then had a lunch break at 12, then started again at 1 until 3 in the afternoon. After that, all the students were taken on a mandatory campus tour, as well as a look into some of the courses that Lees McRae offered. 

LOOK AT THAT GUY!!! THE FAKE GUY. I thought he was real. . . . . .

Yes, as I was saying, Lees McRae was showing some of the courses they had to offer and one of them was nursing. They had a mannequin hooked up to some stuff to illustrate some things. But a lot of people looked a little freaked out when they first saw the ‘man’. It blinked, peoples. BLINKED!! 

Oh yeah, and then we went to a restaurant near the college for dinner. The food there was really good. I think there was chicken of some sort, and another kind of chicken. And mashed potatoes. WITH GRAVY. And that’s all I remember :P 

There was a lot of stuff that we could do during free time, like rock climbing. We were both surprised and delighted to find out that they had a rock wall at the rec center, so we headed over there to do some climbing :D HOWEVER (of course there’s a story to something as simple as heading to a building :P) 

Despite the campus tour we had taken the day before, we were still uncertain as to where to go to get to the recreational center, where the rock climbing was being held. We started walking down a road, but then after we started passing a couple cottages, we were fairly certain we had gone the wrong way. So we back tracked and I got distracted by this lovely flower and HAD to take a picture, all the while mourning over not bringing my camera. But the iPod took a pretty good picture, I guess ;) 

Anyway, while I was taking the picture, we happened to see another Landry student. Tiger Lily had the brilliant idea of following him to the rec center. So we did, but as inconspicuously as we possibly could. Long story short, we managed to finally reach the rec center and did some rock climbing for awhile before heading back for dinner. 

(I apologize for Tiger Lily’s absence; she’s currently watching Studio C and eating Doritos ;) But I’m not purposefully hogging the post :P )

Field night was a ton of fun, although we mostly just watched the other students play Ultimate Frisbee and soccer with two other girls we had met. 

Oh yeah, and we got photobombed by one of the camp counsellors. . . 

Ok, I’m back. :D 

Oh, finally! Okay, you continue now.

Oh yeah, so we found someone’s frisbee and tried playing with it but for some weird reason none of us could catch it. Ever. It was probably the wind or something :P 

Yes, of COURSE it wasn’t because we were all horrible at catching *rolls eyes*

No, of course not. So in the end, we gave up on that and found a soccer ball which we used to play catch with instead. That went a lot better - until we decided to try and catch it with one hand……….. 

Haha, oh yeah, that was fun! 

Field night ended with this beautiful sunset. 

And I guess we should probably end this post now too, before it gets too long! Hope you all enjoyed reading more about our trip :) 

Ta ta!! (I’ve always wanted to say that :D)

Called over airport intercom // Chocolate Fries

Okie dokie! Finally getting around to posting about our trip to North Carolina! I’ve got Tiger Lily helping me with this post, since duh, she was part of the trip too ;) So, here’s how it’s going to work. I’ll be purple, and she’ll be blue. Ready? :D 

 Hi Everybody!!!! :) Where be the pictures? (btw I don’t know how it happened, but I look ridiculous in almost all the pictures. It’s probably Blessing’s fault :P)

*coughs* ANYWAY, the first picture from our trip is this lovely wing from the plane. Have anything to say, Tiger Lily? 

Uggggggghhhhh. 

Okaaayyyyyy. Here, we are taking a quick picture to let Mom and Dad know we got on the plane safely. 

OH! We have a story to tell about getting on the plane. So - 

We almost missed our flight. We had to go through security and then more security and then some more security -

And the machines also broke down the same day, so the line was SUPER slow - 

And then we had to run for 5 minutes to find our gate and I had a stitch. AND i was trying to text Mom to tell her we were on our way to the gate but that stupid autocorrect kept changing my message to  ‘heading to hate’. 

But I got her to stop because she almost ran a man or two down in the process :P 

HEY!!!! Wait....I did? 

Anyway, Mom got our messages, and she understood we meant gate, not ‘hate’. Once we reached the gate, a woman looked up and said, “Oh there they are!” 

They were holding the plane for us!!!!! I felt so special :D

Well, also for some other people as well. Once we got on the plane we just sat and rested. SO relieved that we got on the plane ok ;) After another 10-15 minutes, the plane got moving. Don't you just LOVE that exhilarating feeling you get whenever the plane is speeding down the runway, just before take off? It's my favourite part of airplane rides! Next to the clouds, anyway :) 

Ooohhhh clouds. I love seeing clouds like this :)

I feel sick just thinking abut it. 

In case you didn’t know, Tiger Lily gets airsick. And carsick. And boatsick. And motion sick. Yet she still likes rollercoasters. . .  and doesn’t get sick on them. Weird. . . ANYWAY, back to the trip. 

Once we landed, we went to the Wendy’s in the airport and got chili. The lady gave us a lot of crackers, and we kind of sort of might have made a big mess with them. And then Blessing went to get a frosty and somehow came back with fries instead and no frosty. 

Interrupting here. I did ask for a CHOCOLATE frosty, please. And the waiter said “okay”, punched in some stuff, and handed me french fries. Huh, maybe that explains the weird look she gave me. Wonder if she heard me say chocolate fries. . . .  

(Excuses, excuses, excuses….. :P) So, we had, or were supposed to have, 4-5 hours waiting in the airport until the shuttle bus came to pick us up, so we walked up a travellator and then down. And then up. And then down. 

Enter weird picture #1. 

Oh, and in case you wanted to know, Blessing thought it would be a great idea to shake up the coke bottle to make it a little less fizzy.

Hey, it DID work. Okay, so maybe it got a little more flat than we wanted….

Anyway, as Tiger LIly was saying, we had to wait quite a few hours by ourselves at the airport, so we did get a teensy bit bored for a time.  

Hey lookie!!! A weird picture of you, not me!!!! I took that picture :D 

*sigh*

OH. Another story. Okay, so did you know that the airport at Charlotte has rocking chairs inside it? 

Yeah, we also did that while we were waiting. Rocking. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. 

And then….. Our names got called on the intercom. "WOULD SO-AND-SO PLEASE GO DOWNSTAIRS TO BAGGAGE CLAIM". We just sat there at first, staring at each other in stunned silence. Then it called us again. 

We jumped out of our seats, grabbed ALL our luggage and ran for our lives. :P I thought we were going to be arrested or something for sitting in the rocking chairs. Hey, in my defense, I’d been up since 5 that morning!

It was just Ms. Christine, the lady who was supposed to pick us up from the airport. Whew. 

Anyway, we waited with other Landry students for another hour and a bit, then boarded a HUGE bus (fairly certain it was a tour bus of some sort) and drove for 2.5 hours until we got to the college. I listened to ALL three albums of The Willis Clan :D 

And I slept. While also listening to the Willis Clan. :D

As we pulled up to the front door of the college, a big group of people came rushing towards the bus, waving their hands and yelling. LOUDLY. 

I think it was supposed to be a welcoming but I wanted to go back in the bus and hide. It was like this, you wake up, step out of the bus and - “WELCOME TO LANDRY!!!!!” yelled right in your face. Not to mention the ears. 

They were so friendly, but yes, it was intimidating at first. VERY intimidating. Going from a quiet country house (okay, so maybe not SO quiet, but still) to being plopped amidst a bunch of yelling, screaming people. It’s scary. We followed the flood of people into the college, and somehow ended up in our dorm room. To be honest, I don’t remember much between getting off the bus and into our dorm room. All I can recall is TONS of people yelling and shaking your hand and lots of noise. Lots. 

Anyway, we got to our dorm room. Here’s a picture of it. 

P.S. Blessing had curled her hair before we left, and by the time we got there, about 10 hours later, it was flat :P Yeah, rough trip.  And just the tiniest bit stressful.

Ahem. After we unpacked most of our stuff, we took another picture to send to family. Just to let them know we were safe and had arrived, you know? :) The rest of the night was camp rules and assignments and who was your teacher and counsellor chats and that sort of stuff. And then ahhhhh. Sweet sleep ;) 

End of day 1! 

P.S. After awhile, I couldn’t really tell the days apart……. :P so there probably won’t be 13 posts; just saying 

Next post coming soon! :) 

Hey look. I can type on this when you’re not looking :P

Added note: I did not see that last sentence Tiger Lily added before posting this. We were working on Google Docs so that it would be easier for us to type, and apparently she went in and added some ...stuff before I copied and pasted. Sisters XD 

The Pray For People and Country Tag

Olivia from 9 Kids plus 2 tagged me awhile back with this special tag. Thank you, Olivia! :D

The Rules

-thank the blogger who tagged you

– copy and paste the rules

-Pledge to pray for one person and one country or city every day  for two weeks

-tag two bloggers

-have fun!

I pledge to pray for my cousins (who are currently in Uganda) and my own native country, Canada :) 

Tagged Peoples 

Faith

and

Jesseca

Counting Our Blessings // Sawyer Maretzki

Time for another Counting Our Blessings post! If you would like to learn more about this, or read more awesome posts by others, click HERE.

Today, allow me to introduce Sawyer Maretzki to the blog! :)


Hello, I am Sawyer Maretzki. I'm twelve years old and I am one out of eight kids. And I live on a farm. I am also not a very good blogger...at all. I haven't posted since last October and I only have three posts. Plus, I only have two followers :) I do love to write, but I feel I never have time. So thank you Blessing Counter, for making me write a post! :D Anyways! On with the blessings...

I am thankful for my friends...I may not have very many, but the ones I do have I'm very close to. They are always there for me. Truly a blessing. 

I am thankful for our farm...Living on a farm has taught me so much! Not only about animals and hay etc. etc. But also good life lessons, like responsibility, perseverance, wisdom, and many more! I love animals too! Six years before, when we lived in Oakville, (very opposite to farm life) we never had ANY pets, except for fish and they don't count. ;P Now, we have cows, chickens, horses, pigs, rabbits, cats, a dog, a tarantula, a bearded dragon, and fish. 

I am thankful for my siblings...Some people can't stand being around their siblings, but I love their company! I don't know what I would do without them. They're my best friends. Plus, I'm stuck with them my whole life, so I kinda have to love 'em! :)

Me and my siblings 

I am thankful for Bible Quizzing...I just love Bible Quizzing!! It's a great way to keep God's Word in your head, and it's super fun! I have Bible verses running through my head all day! It's great!

A Bible Quizzing tournament 

I am thankful for my cats...They are just awesome. They're cuddly, affectionate, adorable, furry, weird and so much more. Right now we only have four. We had three kittens, but my dad doesn't like that many cats, so we gave them away. :(  But our lady cat is pregnant AGAIN. :) I love kitties. Such a blessing to me.

I am thankful for prayer...Need I say more?? It's got to be my favourite thing. 

Well, that's all I got for today, but if you visit my blog- Maretzki Family Blog Maybe, just maybe, I'll post more. :D 

Thank you for reading! 

A Fun Giveaway!

Hello y'all! Happy Canada Day! Happy Independence Day!! (Oh, so many happy days ;) )

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that Rebekah is hosting a giveaway at her blog in celebration of 200 posts!! Whoot whoot! :D

She's giving an awesome prize away, and I would TOTALLY suggest checking it out! Go HERE for more details and HERE to enter!