Rhonda Hanson – författare

Joel Etheridge purposed to wait his entire life, if he had to, for that "once in a lifetime love". He never expected that love to walk into his offices on Music Row, incredibly talented, but as irritating and stubborn as she was beautiful. Those who had known Joel for years were quick to point out that his premature gray hair only became evident after Meredith Clark blew into town.

Meredith''s careless lifestyle is one of innocent self-indulgence, harmless, for the most part. She seems to have no use for shoes, would rather fish all day than attend social events and wouldn''t wash a window or clean a fridge, if her life depended on it. Her fuse is short but her temper burns out quickly. She is a chart-topping, award-winning songwriter and musician. Joel Etheridge is credited for her meteoric rise to the top of the industry, but he will have cause to wonder if his involvement with Meredith Clark''s career caused more harm than good.

Each of them has a past that neither will talk about. Eventually, their bad choices catch up with them. One of Meredith''s bad choices is Cagle Lawrence, a man who emerges from her past, threatening to expose her in a humiliating way that would end her career overnight.

What lengths will Joel Etheridge go to, to protect the woman he desperately loves?

On May 28, 2014, Pahwoo came to life. So did my youngest granddaughter, Evie. When Evie was born, her older sister, Eliza, came to stay with Grammy and Pappy for a while, because little Evie had to spend some time in the hospital''s NICU. I could tell that four-year-old Eliza was going to need some special help coping with being separated from her parents, and with all the confusion during this time.

After being at the hospital for several hours, we brought her home with us. I tucked her into bed, and laid down beside her, and we stared at the wonderful old 1957 Goodman locomotive motion lamp, for a bit. It was the same train lamp that I, as a four-year-old, used to watch at night, to fall asleep by. Then I heard myself say, "Once upon a time..."

So began the story of an odd little owl named Pahwoo, a tale that continued to unravel over many years, until it finally faded to a quiet end.

For several year, the story was only for Eliza and whenever she came to stay with Grammy and Pappy, no bedtime passed without picking up where Pahwoo had left us. Eventually, Evie became old enough to be interested in Pahwoo and her many friends: Blinky the cat, Lily the goat, Dusty the pony, Millie the mouse and so many others who came to life, as Pahwoo''s adventures unfolded.

Now, those seven years have passed, and Pahwoo''s many escapades have passed with them. I ignored the urging of family members to record all these stories, because I was so sure that I would never forget them. I regret that now, because Pahwoo grows fainter and fainter, in my memories.

Perhaps, though, I have gathered enough of those memories so that Pahwoo can give my grandchildren one last gift: a little book of some of her more outstanding moments with her friends.

Does Father have wings? Little Wally Greer''s friend, Foster Ames, thinks He "flaps them when He wants to whip up a tornado" but Wally says they''re "probably more like tents".

Father''s Wings is the sequel to Father''s Choice and is the second book of the three book series.

Enjoy the return of the characters you came to know so well in the first chronicling of the love story of Joel and Meredith. Get to know new ones, as the lives of Joel and Meredith continue forward into a season of intercession, and spiritual warfare that can only be survived under the protection of a loving Father.

Father''s Song is book three in the "Father Series", and follows Father''s Choice (book one) and Father''s Wings (book two). Father''s Song takes the reader once again into the lives of Nashville music mogul, Joel Etheridge, his wife, Meredith Etheridge, a well-known recording artist, songwriter and author, their long-time friend and producer, Perry Mitchell, and others from books one and two, that the reader has already come to know well. Delightful, new characters are skillfully woven into the story.

When she was nineteen-years-old, long before Meredith Clark came to Nashville and met Joel Etheridge, on her way to escape her hellish ordeal in New Orleans, she ended up stranded on the side of the highway in rural Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, and was taken in by Pastor Fred Blake, his wife, Miss Marcie, and their nine-year-old daughter, Carlyn. Meredith spent almost a year as a member of their family and made a lasting impression on little Carlyn, who is all grown up, now. She has come to Nashville to seek the Etheridge''s help to rescue the publishing rights to her music, that an unscrupulous record label is claiming she signed over to them. Perry Mitchell has been tapped to work with Carlyn in the studio, to record her original music in order to build her catalog. Carlyn is quiet, humble, and painfully shy, until she plays her guitar, closes her eyes, and begins singing. Perry MItchell, whose greatest dread was that he would be saddled with having to work with some girl who was perky, is drawn in and admits to himself that whatever this lovely creature is, she is definitely not perky!

After years of resistance and now, with great reluctance, Meredith has finally penned the requested autobiography of a life she had thought had been put away, for good. What will "the Church" think of her, now? Is her career over? Will she, once again, find herself in the crosshairs of an attack? Meredith knows fully well that friendly fire is every bit as lethal as enemy aggression.

This third book in the Father series, Father''s Song, weaves the final threads into this much loved tapestry. It reaches back across former years and hints at the years to come, with a bittersweet, lovely but final chord.

We take our last looks into the lives of Joel and Meredith and perhaps see a side of Father we weren''t expecting. Does Father have a song? Meredith has always been sure that He does. She has heard Him singing lyrics from beyond a great distance, words just outside her understanding that have to be felt before they can be heard. But what is His song? Will she ever be allowed to know?

Long before she became a famous, chart-topping recording artist, Meredith Clark was brutally wounded, insecure, and lonely; part little girl, part fragile woman. Just as she had fled a traumatic situation as a scared sixteen-year-old, she once again sought to put miles between herself and an abusive relationship. Piling everything she owned into her car, and stealing away from New Orleans in the middle of the night, she headed anywhere north, as quickly as possible.

Only making it as far as Grayson, a tiny northern Louisiana town nestled in Caldwell Parish, a blown-out tire and no usable spare put the frantic nineteen-year-old at the mercy of strangers, who not only took her in for the night, but insisted she stay with them in their home for as long as she needed to, while she rested and worked through her ordeal. It was here that Meredith, who had never known her father and who lost her mother when she was only a child, discovered what it was like to belong to a real family. It was here that she found that she could still laugh, that she could cry the kind of tears that brought healing, that she could share the gift of music with a nine-year-old little girl who loved her as much as if she were her own sister. It was here that Meredith met Father.

Father''s Friend, although not part of the Father Series, which is comprised of Father''s Choice, Father''s Wings, and Father''s Song, is a linked novel that takes the reader back to the beginning and peels back the layers of who Meredith Clark really is. It allows us to understand how someone who is her own deepest hiding place is able to reluctantly venture out into the open, while desperately clinging tightly to her Father''s hand. She is slow to heal, slow to trust, slow to confide, but the music Father breathed into her has a life all its own and is stronger than Meredith''s desire to remain hidden.

She eventually braves the return to her childhood home, where those who frightened her are no longer a threat. What awaits her there will bring about circumstances that are used by her loving Father to lead her to her calling, to her purpose, and to love.

Although Meredith maintains a tough exterior and brandishes a dry and sometimes caustic wit, along with a sharp tongue, Father sees through it all, and will one day bring a man into her life who sees what He sees.