Susan Kirby – författare

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is reach with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well.Take Ellen, Lacey's great-great-great-great-grandmother, growing up on an Illinois farm in 1830. Ellen asks her father to bring her some blue calico; instead, he brings her a new stepmother, Julia, and Julia's difficult son, Silas. It isn't until clashes between Silas and Ellen's father threaten to tear her new family apart that Ellen realizes how much Julia has come to mean to her -- but is it too late to save her patchwork family?

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is rich with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well. Take Hattie, Lacey's great-great-great-grandmother, growing up in Mount Hope, Illinois in 1856. Illinois is a free state, but the law allows slave hunters to search for run way slaves, and tensions are pretty high between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in town. Hattie is caught in the middle: her best friend's father is the local constable, and Hattie's own father seems to be involved in some pretty dangerous -- and illegal -- business. But nothing can prepare Hattie for the tragedy that awaits the little town when the tensions finally explode.

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is rich with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well.Take Daniel, Lacey's great-great-grandfather, growing up on his grandparents' Illinois farm in 1890. Daniel is happy on the farm, but he is determined to find a way to get out west to visit his father so they can be a whole family again. He hatches an ingenious if risky scheme to make the trip, but when he arrives at the depot in Valentine, Nebraska, he finds the little town abuzz with fears of a Sioux uprising. And an even bigger surprise awaits him at his father's cabin, forcing Daniel to rethink his idea of what makes a family whole.

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is rich with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well. Take Lacey's great-great-aunt Ida Lou, living with her brother, Vic, and their struggling single mother in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1918. Vic wants to join the fighting overseas, while Ida Lou dreams of becoming an aerialist like her heroes, The Flying Wards. She's sure that traveling with the circus will enable her to find her long-absent father. But even as a rich suitor for Ida Lou's mother promises a bright future for the family, a near-tragic accident threatens to put an end to Ida Lou's dreams.

For Paula Blake Jackson, doing what was best for her daughter, Joy, would always come first. And that meant reconciling with her estranged husband. As she and Colton Blake mend the pieces of their broken relationship for their daughter’s sake, he thaws her frozen heart. But could Paula trust her future to the man who had abandoned her when she’d needed him most?Colton had assumed that Paula would be better off without him, though he was surely a man in need of love…and redemption. Then the daughter he never knew gave him a reason to live and the chance to win back Paula’s love.

WHAT MORE COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? When jilted bride Shelby Taylor decided to take a solo honeymoon on the rolling prairie, she was greeted with a firm No Vacancy at the local inn–and before she could leave town, a sign man's crane crushed her car. As complications multiplied, it sure seemed as if the Lord was trying to tell Shelby something….Signs were Jake Jackson's livelihood–and skittish Shelby might as well be wearing a neon one that read Hands Off. As the stranded city girl transformed into Jake's dream woman, he knew it would take more than a Welcome Home billboard to send Shelby the message that her future was obviously here–with him….