Debut Author Spotlight ... Lynne Gentry

REFLECT … REINVENT … REJOICE

by Lynne Gentry

Growing up on a Kansas dairy farm meant entertainment was hard to come by. Our black and white TV antenna only got two fuzzy channels . . . if the wind wasn’t blowing, which almost never happened on the bald prairie. Out of necessity, I learned to amuse myself. While my siblings constructed secret hideouts in the bales of hay stacked in the old barn, I jabbed a stick in the cracks of the railroad-tie loading dock and pretended I stood behind a microphone. Barnyard animals and even a few stray opossums applauded my story-telling skills. As my budding imagination searched for expanded avenues of expression, I tried my yarns on the family, and before long they declared me capable of selling wind in a bag, should the unlikely need ever arise on the windswept plains.

But the best laid plans of mice and country girls, are not always those of the Lord. When He called me from the makeshift stage, I never dreamed the stint would include marrying a good-looking preacher, raising two of the best kids in the world, and spending the next twenty-five years up to my elbows in church work.

So what’s a stage-deprived wife and mother to do?

Now, this is where the Lord’s sense of humor takes a dramatic turn (which suits me, when I think about it). Eight years ago, God called me to take another stab at story-telling. But this time the story is His and the lost world is my stage.

If the words I pen change your life, then I will bask in the applause of heaven.

REINVENTING LEONA
by Lynne Gentry

Tyndale House Publishers, July 2011

Leona Harper loves being a pastor's wife. Her impressive resume touts thirty years of coaxing hot water from rusty parsonage plumbing, planning church potlucks, and standing beside her husband while members take potshots at his sermons. Except for the little tiff with her grown children, Leona feels her life is right on track with the wishes of the Almighty...until her husband drops dead in the pulpit.

When the church board decides to fill the Reverend's vacated position Leona is forced to find a paying job, mend her fractured family, and tackle her fears. With life spiraling out of control, Leona might find the church members antics comical if she weren't so completely panicked. Can the faith of an overwhelmed widow withstand the added heartache of two resentful children and several underhanded church members? If Leona can't trust God, how will she learn to trust herself?
http://www.lynnegentry.com

This debut novel is one of four launching Tyndale's DIGITAL FIRST ebook line. All four DIGITAL FIRST novels may be purchased online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, iTunes, and Mobipocket.com.