Meet author Liisa Eyerly
Liisa Eyerly writes award-winning historical murder mysteries that blend the intrigue of Agatha Christie with the faith-filled depth of Francine Rivers. Her debut novel, Obedient Unto Death, won the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award and first place in Spiritual Fiction, launching her Secrets of Ephesus series set in the first-century Roman Empire. A former teacher, librarian, and small business owner, Liisa now writes from northern Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband and a tenacious Border terrier. Through rich research and vivid storytelling, she weaves history, faith, and suspense—leaving reviewers to warn: prepare to be hooked.
Tell us about your newest book.
Powers of Death is the third in the Secrets of Ephesus series, where early Christians walk a razor’s edge between faith and survival. Awakened in the middle of the night, Sabina, my Christian sleuth, is plunged into a murder and cover-up of a childhood friend found murdered and floating in the pool of a luxurious private bath complex. Set amidst the political turmoil of Emperor Domitian, the secret Christian church in Ephesus draws the authorities’ attention, and no one cares about one drowned woman. Sabina follows suspects and clues into the courts of an incense-laden temple to Isis, with its eunuch priests and midnight initiations. Sabina risks everything to expose murder, betrayal, and corruption beneath the empire’s glittering surface.
What inspired you to write your story?
The series began with a cluster of “what ifs.” What happened to the church after the apostles were gone? How did ordinary believers endure persecution, political pressure, and Rome’s seductive culture? And who risked everything rather than renounce their faith? Those questions led me to Ephesus in 96 AD—a cosmopolitan city where paganism, imperial power, and the young Christian movement collided. Paul had once shepherded a vibrant but vulnerable congregation there. It was the perfect setting for mystery: bustling markets, hidden house churches, restless crowds, and a legal system ready to crush dissent.
What genre do you focus on.
My lifelong love of historical whodunit mysteries collided with my faith when I realized something was missing. The Roman-era mysteries I devoured rarely included Christian characters—yet the world of the New Testament pulses with drama, betrayal, danger, and a faith bold enough to defy an empire. Who were the men and women willing to risk execution rather than renounce their beliefs? What courage—or desperation—compelled them? What secrets did they carry? Those questions would not leave me alone. They ignited countless murder scenarios in my imagination. And when I couldn’t find the stories I wanted to read, I decided to write them myself.
Why do you write?
The spark came during a conversation with my son. He mentioned a friend who lost his faith after reading The Da Vinci Code, and that stopped me. It reminded me how powerfully stories shape belief. If a secular thriller could unsettle faith, could a carefully researched mystery strengthen it? That question became my calling. I set out to write suspenseful, historically grounded stories that illuminate rather than distort—novels that entertain deeply while inspiring lasting confidence in truth.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Sabina, the female sleuth of my series, is its heartbeat. A young Christian widow in 96 AD Ephesus, she lives between two worlds. While the early church offered women new dignity and purpose, Roman society still bound them with legal, social, and marital constraints. Sabina must honor her father—her sole financial support and a pagan magistrate sworn to enforce laws that outlaw her faith. Quick-minded and brave, she sometimes acts before she thinks, forcing her to improvise daring escapes. Watching her balance loyalty, justice, and belief fuels each mystery—and gives readers a heroine to cheer for.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
Honestly? It’s wonderfully erratic—and I’m slightly embarrassed to admit it. I always imagine I’ll keep a tidy writing schedule with clear daily goals, but life has a way of rearranging my plans. What truly keeps me on track is my writers’ critique group. Every two weeks, I’m required to submit five pages. That steady accountability—five pages at a time—has carried each of my novels from first sentence to final chapter. It’s not glamorous, but it works. Book by book, page by page.
What is the hardest part of being an author?
Marketing my book. Luckily, writing conferences give a lot of information on marketing. With a small press like Cross River Publishing—or especially in self-publishing—much of the responsibility falls on the author. That means learning new platforms like Substack, creating YouTube content, connecting with genre-specific blogs, and building a reader community are necessary.
What’s the best part of your author’s life?
Research—hands down. Writing gives me permission to chase questions most people might casually wonder about but never pause to explore. That curiosity has carried me to Italy, Greece, and Ephesus in modern-day Türkiye, where apostles once lived and preached. Layer by layer, I reconstruct Sabina’s first-century world through everyday details: spiced wine paired with flamingo-tongue appetizers, vibrantly dyed tunics, the echo of conversation in marble bathhouses. Studying artifacts in museums and walking ancient streets helps me sense the textures and rhythms of her world—and my hope is that readers sense them too.
What’s one thing your readers should know about you?
I’m a social introvert. Solitude restores me—I do my best thinking and creating in quiet moments. Yet I deeply value my friends and family, and I genuinely enjoy meeting new people. I may need time alone to recharge, but meaningful conversation and connection energize me in a different, lasting way.
How have you changed or grown as a writer?
I’m continually growing—because writing demands it. With every book, I become more aware of the layers a strong story requires: structure, pacing, character depth, historical accuracy, emotional resonance, and thematic clarity. I take classes whenever I can and learn from fellow writers, critique partners, and readers. Each manuscript stretches me in new ways. My hope is that every novel reflects greater skill, deeper insight, and a stronger connection with my readers than the one before.
What is your favorite pastime?
I enjoy pickleball and tennis, which in Wisconsin can mean playing in 30-degree weather with snowflakes flitting around.
Do you have other books?
Obedient unto Death book 1
Fortunes of Death: book 2
Powers of Death: book 3 (coming in August)
We’d love to know. What are you working on now?
Book Four in the Secrets of Ephesus series has begun to percolate in my imagination. That’s often how my stories arrive—quietly forming in the background while I’m still finishing the current manuscript. Threads of motive, setting, and danger start weaving themselves together long before I outline a single chapter. I’ve learned to pay attention to those whispers. A question, a historical detail, a “what if” moment—and suddenly Sabina has another mystery tugging at her sleeve. It’s still early, but the sparks are there, and I’m eager to see where they lead.
Website:
Link to book:
Crossriver Media https://www.crossrivermedia.com/product/fortunes-of-death/
Amazon book page https://amzn.to/3Di2gyQ
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22186290.Liisa_Eyerly
Social media links:
Website. www.LiisaEyerly.com
Author Facebook page at Liisa Eyerly Author page
Meet author E. V. Sparrow
A short story writer turned award-winning author E. V. Sparrow writes Historical and Literary fiction. She published two novellas, and two books so far in the Those Resilient Muldoon series. Readers experience characters who go “From Darkness Into Light” as God redeems their brokenness. Sparrow served on missions, a worship team, several prayer teams, Single’s Ministry, and in the Divorce Care program. She lives with her husband in North Carolina. A grateful Grammy to six from her two adult children, Sparrow caretakes woodland creatures around her home while she drinks coffee and munches on dark chocolate.
What inspired you to write your story?
I tend to write more edgy books, less sweet, yet I love sweet people and situations. What comes out when I write is more painful and challenging. I believe that people are pricklier than we’d like to be and sometimes cover up our wounds. I like to uncover the hurts and show how God deals with those of weaker faith in Him. It’s satisfying to redeem my lost characters by setting them on a spiritual journey and healthy paths for their lives.
What genre do you focus on.
Historical fiction and Literary fiction. Literary fiction delves deeper into cultural and relational issues without as much romance. Although I include that as well. The Gilded Age deeply appeals to me, and I prefer not to write stories with modern technology. I was raised in a small Gold Rush town. Everything around me was simple and antiquated. Those memories have never left me and influence my creativity.
Why do you write?
I began with short stories of my travels and how God unexpectedly showed up in many ways to help me. I had so much to tell others about that, then my critique group insisted I write books. I always imagine stories whether I write them down or not. Why not write and publish them to inspire others?
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Orla Muldoon. She is a resilient sister in the Muldoon clan. I chose the name Orla because it was someone I knew, and because of its meaning in Gaelic: Golden princess or ruler. Orla had very low self-esteem from village persecution and superstition in Ireland due to her unusual eyes and hair, and self-inflicted scars made her feel the opposite of her name. But God found ways to redeem her from a lost woman to His beloved princess.
What is the hardest part of being an author?
I am not a true introvert, so sitting for hours and days doesn’t appeal to me for long. I like people and interaction. An author can’t write without sitting and isolating oneself.
What’s the best part of your author’s life?
I control much of my time and efforts myself without my publisher. Now that I am an indie author, I make my own schedule around everything else in my life. Organizing it all is another challenge.
What’s one thing your readers should know about you?
I, myself, was once lost, and God found me to redeem me into His love and light. It was the most dramatic and powerful event in my life. I’m supremely grateful to Him. That’s why I love to write about redemption as much as possible.
What is your favorite pastime?
Exploring the outdoors in every way I can, which doesn’t work well with writing, unless I sit on my porch in our woods. I call our yard Sparrow Woods. It’s full of birds, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums, racoons, deer, and other critters that just leave footprints. I feed them all and have a water supply for them. I gain wonderful satisfaction from being outside. A remnant from my childhood, I assume. God feeds my spirit there.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
I have 2 novellas: Muldoon’s Minnesota Darling, and The Perfect Christmas for Cara. First full-length novel is Muldoon’s Misfortunes. The Muldoon family members are the focus of these books. Irish immigrants, Catholic, destitute, yet hopeful. All are redemptive stories and can be read as stand alone.
What are you working on now?
Liam Muldoon’s story, which is Book 3 in the Those Resilient Muldoons series. This is inspired by my grandfather’s life as a boy and young man from 1898-1918. He lived to be 104.
Website: https://sparrow.world
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Madam-Muldoons-Garden-Those-Resilient-ebook/dp/B0FJH3F733/
Social media links: https://linktr.ee/ev.sparrow
Meet author Linda Summerford
Linda Summerford is the award-winning author of The Glider, a tribute to her parents who adopted Linda and her younger sister together. She speaks to churches throughout the South working toward foster care reform because of the separation and suffering she and her siblings experienced. Linda was a mentor with Epworth Children’s Home for many years and worked with her husband in children’s ministry for over 30 years. Linda is the President of a writing critique group, Word Weavers of Maggie Valley, NC. She now lives in the beautiful mountains of western NC.
Tell us about your newest book.
My debut book, The Glider, brings awareness of the plight of children falling through the cracks of a broken foster care and adoption system. When a sister I had no memory of appeared we were determined to find answers to what caused our separation. Our search leads us to discover the atrocities we endured at the hands of that broken system. Will we find answers or realize that it’s still happening?
What inspired you to write your story?
Mine is a true story of my life in foster care and adoption. While serving on a foster care review board, I realized the system still needs reforms even today.
What genre do you focus on.
This book is nonfiction. I am working now on a fiction novel and children’s books.
Why do you write?
I must be obedient to God’s calling to work toward reforms and share my message of God’s grace, intervention and love in my life.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
My novel I’m writing now, Mending Olivia’s Heart, is about my adoptive mother whose middle name is Olivia.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
I’m a night owl so I love to write late at night when the house is quiet with my cat snoring nearby.
What is the hardest part of being an author?
The hardest part for me is overcoming imposter syndrome. I’m aware that I’m a beginner and there are much more experienced writers, but still I must be obedient to what God has called me to do and not compare myself to others.
What’s the best part of your author’s life?
When I hear someone say that the message in my book changed their heart and caused them to understand foster children and the great need for reform.
What’s one thing your readers should know about you?
I love meeting new people and sharing what God’s done to change circumstances in my life.
How have you changed or grown as a writer?
I’m getting braver in public speaking, especially in recognizing it’s not about me, but rather about children who need an advocate standing up for them.
What is your favorite pastime?
I love long walks around the lake near our neighborhood and volunteering at local children’s homes.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
I’m in the process of writing my first novel, Mending Olivia’s Heart, about my adoptive mother and her life before and after adopting me and my younger sister. I discovered after her passing that she was married before my father and had a stillborn baby. She never spoke about it to either of us.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on children’s books from the viewpoint of the foster and adopted child along with my first fiction book.
Website: www.authorlindasummerford.com
Link to book: https://a.co/d/2kPFjin
Social media links:
IG: @lindasummerford
Meet author Sandi Rebert
An award-winning author, Sandi Rebert is a pastor’s wife. She and her husband, Brian, have served in rural Maine for over forty years. She has written over twenty Christian plays, cantatas, musicals, and programs used by churches across the US and several foreign countries, and is presently turning her most popular dramas into novels. Sandi enjoys art, playing musical instruments, acting, homeschooling, and teaching private music lessons. She considers herself blessed to have three grown children and six wonderful grandchildren.
Tell us about your newest book.
In the gripping sequel to the five-time award-winning novel Redemption’s Promise, the beloved characters of Jason, Ruth, Deborah, Antonius, Yosef, and Maya return to confront new trials that will test their faith and determination. Tensions continue to rise between Jason and his father-in-law, Ephraim, over the controversial claims of Jesus as the Messiah. From the streets of Tarsus to the barbaric arena at Caesarea, the former centurion, Antonius, grapples with betrayal as his nemesis, Aurelius, seizes the opportunity to exact revenge. As the shadows of the past loom larger, a dual timeline emerges, revealing the tumultuous journey of Saul of Tarsus, the Terror of Jerusalem—who will become the Apostle Paul. Melding the two together with the climax of Acts 17, as Jason’s home is attacked for harboring Paul, this page-turning novel will keep you glued until the end.
As alliances shift and secrets unravel, Redemption’s Victory promises heart-pounding excitement, unexpected twists, and the enduring strength of faith amidst adversity. Will redemption truly be within reach? Join the journey and uncover the ultimate victory that lies ahead! (from Amazon description)
What inspired you to write your story?
Originally, I wrote the first story in this series as an Easter drama for churches to present the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection from a different perspective. The book form was so well-received that many of my readers asked for a sequel!
What genre do you focus on?
Christian Historical Fiction. My father instilled a love of history in me. My mother instilled a love for Jesus Christ. I love stepping back in time and walking beside my characters as they struggle and grow in the Lord.
Why do you write?
My desire is to take both loves and combine them into exciting, page-turning, fictional stories that weave in a clear presentation of the gospel. As my characters who are believers face trials and grow through them, I hope Christians will be edified and encouraged.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
This book has three main characters: Jason – found in Acts 17 and Romans 16:21 (the first book in the series gives him a fictional background), Antonius (a former Roman centurion), and the Apostle Paul (from his days as the “Terror of Jerusalem” through his encounter with Jason in the town of Thessalonica.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
I don’t have an actual schedule. I write as time allows and when inspiration is there (often in the middle of the night)!
What is the hardest part of being an author?
Marketing. I don’t have lots of money for advertising and find it time-consuming and confusing.
What’s the best part of your author’s life?
Getting into my characters’ heads. Why? I am very close to my characters. I enjoy bringing them to life for my readers. Many have said that my characters seem real and feel like friends or family.
What’s one thing your readers should know about you?
Many of my books began as stage plays for churches, Christian schools, and homeschooling groups. Although I still market them as such, when Covid hit, and no one was able to produce plays, I began turning my dramas into novels! Some then turned into several series! Also, because of my background in drama, I am producing my own audiobooks! I have three at present: Redemption’s Promise, In Due Season, and Season of Uncertainty.
How have you changed or grown as a writer?
I see the value in creating the world around my characters more than I did when I began, though I don’t let it bog down the story’s pace or excitement.
What is your favorite pastime?
Music. I play several instruments (main ones are piano, flute, accordion, and harp), sing, and lead our church’s choir.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
Yes. Redemption’s Promise (biblical fiction); In Due Season and Season of Uncertainty (Williamsburg during the American Revolution); The Innocent for the Guilty, In Darkness and in Light, and For Better or for Worse (Western series) A Heart to Forgive (Philadelphia during the Centennial Exhibition); Heart of Patience and Mountains on the Prairie (standalone Westerns).
What are you working on now?
I am working on a Civil War story that incorporates the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” It’s a very gut-wrenching, heart-warming tale (another based on a play I had written earlier).
Website: sandirebertbooks.com
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Redemptions-Victory-Redemption-Sandi-Rebert/dp/B0GR8Y9ZR3
Social media links: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sandireb/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/962356834425310
Youtube: – https://www.youtube.com/@dramaticdifferencepublicat160
Meet author Patti Townley-Covert
An award-winning freelance author, Patti Townley-Covert wrote The Windblown Girl: A Memoir about Self, Sexuality, and Social Issues. This inspiring memoir shows how exchanging cultural lies for biblical truths led to peace and stability.
Patti’s written numerous articles for international and national publications. Her award-winning blog is on her website at ptcovert.com.
She’s done the limbo in the Caribbean, gone on a King Crab Safari in the Arctic Circle, and explored Denali on a clear Alaskan day. At home in Southern California, she keeps fit with step aerobics and zumba classes. Patti also loves reading good books on the beach.
Tell us about your newest book.
In The Windblown Girl: A Memoir about Self, Sexuality, and Social Issues, my mother’s and husband’s voices tried to convince me that I was a prude and frigid. So did the “if it feels good do it” zeitgeist of the early 1970s. It was a time of global chaos. Vietnam, my dad missing in action. Watts riots. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Trying to discover the truth about myself, I engaged in an illicit love affair with a Norwegian navigator on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. We expected this no-strings attached affair to end after two weeks. But God had other plans (so wild that I could never have made them up), and that intense romantic liaison became a monumental catalyst for my transformational journey.
What inspired you to write your story?
The Windblown Girl, shown on the cover. On the same Caribbean cruise when I met the Norwegian, I discovered this Lladro figurine. Despite life’s fierce winds blowing against her, she stands firm on a Rock with a book behind her back. It took years for me to grasp her significance and how she epitomized my life. This story was more than forty years in the making with many details unfolding over time.
What genre do you focus on.
The Windblown Girl is a memoir that was written using fiction techniques so it reads like a novel. This coming-of-age story has much history and spiritual truth incorporated into it, similar to the Christian historical fiction series I’m working on now.
Why do you write?
I write because I want to expose cultural lies and set forth biblical truth in ways readers can relate to. For almost a decade, I had the honor of working with NASA-level scientists helping them show how the scientific facts support biblical creation more than evolution. Truth shores up faith and changes lives for the better whether set forth in nonfiction or fiction.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
It varies depending on what’s going on in my life. I love it when I have a full day with no other plans but writing. However, that’s rare.
What is the hardest part of being an author?
As an author, I wish I could just write. Being a writer involves juggling many different tasks like website development and marketing. Such tasks are often outside of my comfort zone.
What’s the best part of your author’s life?
Ongoing learning and making connections. Whatever I’m writing, whether a devotion, article, or book–for readers to understand the content, I must understand it first. Much of my writing involves social issues because they are a major part of our world. That was true in my memoir and is just as true now. Over the years, I’ve gotten involved with the fight against human trafficking, securing funding for foster care, learning about child and domestic abuse and so much more. It was Covid, George Floyd’s murder, and local soldiers being killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan that pulled together the pieces of my memoir.
What’s one thing your readers should know about you?
I care deeply about them as individuals. And, I write because the biblical truths I do my best to set forth have brought peace and stability into my life and can do the same for theirs no matter how troubling the chaos in our world.
How have you changed or grown as a writer?
While working with scientists, primarily as an editor, I learned to identify concepts that helped them understand my changes. Over time identifying problems strengthened my writing skills to where I now teach them to others.
What is your favorite pastime?
Conversations with friends over a meal. Or reading a good book.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
I’ve co-written two books, In the Red Zone: A Game Plan for How to Share Your Faith with Kent Tucker and Love. Money. Power. A Pastor’s Journey into Reality with John Setser. And I’ve edited dozens more written by scientists and a philosopher/theologian.
What are you working on now?
The CHRONICLES OF CHOICE series with co-author Nan Rinella. She’s the regional director in Texas for the C. S. Lewis foundation so this Christian historical fiction series gives glimpses of the wit and wisdom of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. A free prequel, The Battle Begins will be available for e-newsletter subscribers this summer. There’s a sign-up form on my website at ptcovert.com.
This series is set right after World War II in England. In Derailed (Book One), internal voices like Anger, Despair, and Grief plague the thoughts of Lily after the Harrow-Wealdstone train crash deals her a horrific blow. These contrast with the voices of love as demonstrated by her father (a vicar) and the Claibornes (her best friend’s family). Phila, her handsome brother Hugh (the future Earl), Lady Beatrice and Sir Henry do all they can to help as Lily rejects God, determined to make her own way as a fashion designer for the Queen’s couturier, Norman Hartnell.
In Book Two, Detoured, Phila takes center stage as she finishes her education at Oxford, intent on marrying Prince Charming. But a knight-in-shining armor, a giant Scot named Ollie, who won the Victoria Cross during the war, vies for her heart as Deception, Pride, and Self-Pity threaten. Phila and Ollie, Lily and Hugh all need to a spiritual detour from the wide road to the narrow one. Conversations with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in the Eagle and Child, as well as their writings, challenge internal lies.
Website: https://ptcovert.com/
Link to book: https://bit.ly/Windblown-Girl
Social media links: https://www.facebook.com/patti.townleycovert/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patti-townley-covert-973b4614/
https://www.instagram.com/wndblwngir/
Meet author Dawn Shipman
Dawn Shipman knew she wanted to be a writer since Mrs. Juell’s 10th-grade Creative Writing class. Since then, she’s written stories, plays, poetry, quizzes, puzzles, and hundreds of magazine articles. 2021 saw the debut of her first novel in her Lost Stones of Argonia YA fantasy trilogy. Dawn lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and a revolving band of fur kids—dogs, cats, and horses.
Tell us about your newest book.
Kingdom Lost tells the story of Lyric, the only child of a widowed king, when her kingdom is overrun by a seemingly innocent neighboring prince. In the pages that follow, she learns she is part of a much larger story, an ancient prophecy, and a quest she would never have chosen for herself. She finds strength in herself she didn’t know she had and slowly learns to become the queen she will one day need to be.
What inspired you to write your story?
I wanted to write something different than the contemporary fiction I’d been focused on. Where good and evil were much more clear cut than what is so often detected in our contemporary world. A world where nobility, goodness, and kindness were valued.
What genre do you focus on.
Fantasy for the YA (Young Adult) reader. I have read and loved many books but The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia were the most life-changing for me. I wanted to create a world and characters that would live long in their readers’ minds, too.
Why do you write?
To tell stories that, I hope, will touch others’ lives the way mine was by other authors.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Lyric, Princess of a land called Tressalt in the world of Argonia. She had a different name for a long time, then “Lyric” just came into my mind. The name was unusual and held vibes of music, poetry, and creative sound. It just seemed “right,” and now I couldn’t think of her any other way.
What’s the best part of your author’s life?
Creating characters and worlds that are completely unknown to anyone but me! Why? Perhaps, in a way, to become part of that different world and to spend time with those characters.
What’s one thing your readers should know about you?
My faith is extremely important to me, but all people are welcomed into my circle if they want to be there.
What is your favorite pastime?
Riding my horse in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
The rest of the trilogy—“Quest of the Queen,” and “Battle for the Crown.”
What are you working on now?
The prequel to the Lost Stones trilogy—“To Soar on Jeweled Wings.” I’m very excited about this. So many questions raised in the trilogy will be explored and answered here!
Website: https://dawnshipmanfiction.com
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Lost-Stones-Argonia-Book-ebook/dp/B09KTJHZ7C
Social media links: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063338973694
https://www.instagram.com/dawnshipmanfiction/