Author Interview (and a Giveaway!): Lin Stepp & Downsizing

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Downsizing by Lin Stepp, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! Please join me in welcoming Lin to the blog to chat about her new book!

Title: Downsizing
Series: Mountain Home Books #2
Author: Lin Stepp
Publisher: Mountain Hill Press
Release Date: April 1, 2021
Genre: Clean/Sweet Contemporary Romance

Forced to suddenly downsize her life, and not by choice, pushes Mary Pat Latham to give up all that is familiar, to reexamine her life in every area, and to eventually open her heart to new beauty and purpose, instead of only looking back in regret.

At midlife, Mary Pat Latham has an almost perfect life—a successful husband, a beautiful home, four fine grown children, and a wealth of meaningful activities and social clubs to fill her days—so it’s a total shock when her husband walks in one day and says he wants a divorce. As if hearing a stranger talking in her own kitchen, Mary Pat listens to Russell’s reasons for wanting to abandon their long marriage and to his plans, already in place, to sell their home and move on. What will she do? Where will she go? She hasn’t worked since the children were born, her life wrapped up in home and family. Stunned, Mary Pat heads to the small mountain home she and Russell bought from her parents years ago, too shocked and humiliated to face her friends or anyone she knows right now.

Owen McCarter knew he’d need to stop by the old Jennings place, on some pretense or other, after Wheeler told him he’d seen a woman up there acting sick. After all, the house was next door to his at the end of Highland Drive. When he knocked on the front door later, it took him a minute to recognize Mary Pat, weeping and so different from the girl he’d known in childhood and fallen in love with. Owen reached out in friendship, of course, seeing Mary Pat so upset, but he felt surprised at the old memories that touched him, too. Hearing her problems and learning why she’d come to the mountains, Owen knew it unlikely she’d stay for long after the more lavish life she’d known. But he couldn’t help wishing she would.

Another Lin Stepp novel set in the Smoky Mountains … with a special “Downsizing Diet” available free to readers as a book supplement.

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Other Books in This Series

Hi Lin! Welcome back to the blog!

Q: If your new book Downsizing had a theme song, what would it be?

Lin: I’d pick “My Tennessee Mountain Home” by Dolly Parton – perfect, too, because Dolly is also a big fan of my books.

Carrie: those Tennessee mountains are my happy place, for sure 🙂

Q: Tell us four behind the scenes facts about Downsizing.

Lin: (1) DOWNSIZING, my fourteenth novel set in the Smoky Mountains, is set in the charming Arts & Crafts Community east of Gatlinburg and is full of real places readers can visit after reading about them in the story.

(2) I believe we can all “bloom” into a new life at any age of life, and the main character in DOWNSIZING, a middle-aged woman, does exactly that in this story. The book exemplifies one of my favorite quotes, that: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” [Stan Helmstetter]

(3) When forced to downsize her life, main character Mary Pat also decides to downsize herself by losing weight. This meant I needed to create a totally fictitious weight loss center and a diet for Mary Pat to follow in the book. I drew on years of teaching psych and working in counseling at a weight loss center to create an imaginary weight loss business and I revamped a diet I’ve used successfully for years for Mary Pat’s diet. Watching me lose some weight trying it out, fans began asking me to put the diet in the book, so a Free Download link is included at the book’s end, in case readers want to check out the diet and try it, too.

(4) I think everyone loves the black bears of the Smoky Mountains. I hadn’t featured black bears in previous mountain books so in DOWNSIZING a number of adventures with bears, especially a troublesome bear called Ole Blaze, play a major part in the story. Despite the fact that I live near the Smokies and hike the trails often, I really learned a lot about bears researching for this story!

Carrie: i love the arts & crafts community in Gatlinburg!

Q: Tell us four quick reasons why you love to write.

Lin: Let’s see … I love to write:

To share my stories through books
To bring readers to the Smoky Mountains I love.
To show that warm-hearted, moral books can be a joy to read,
And to know I am using the talents and gifts God gave me.

Q: What was the first book you read that captivated you like no other?

Lin: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. … And I still love it.

“To live will be an awfully big adventure.” – J.M. Barrie

Carrie: I didn’t read that one until I was an adult…

Q: What are some books that shaped your writing journey and maybe even inspired you to write?

Lin: Some books I especially remember are:

L.M. Montgomery’s Anne Books … showed me the beauty of lovely, virtuous writing

Catherine Marshall’s book CHRISTY… made me yearn to serve and live a meaningful life

Earl Hamner’s book SPENCER’S MOUNTAIN… showed me a heart yearning and determined to write

Jan Karon’s Mitford Series… helped me see that sweet moral books could touch and sell

Carrie: Christy has been a favorite of mine since childhood!

Q: What’s your favorite quote from Downsizing and why do you love it?

Lin: In Chapter One, Mary Pat puts a quote on her refrigerator for inspiration for the changes ahead she faces. She adds a little prayer after, too …a lovely reminder that despite the trials, hurts, mistakes, and betrayals that come our way, with God’s help, we can always make changes and choices to turn our lives around for good. I hope this new Mountain Home Book will be an inspiration to many.

Here’s the quote:

“Today is the first day on the road to a new you…. Lord, help me make this be the truth for my life.”

image credit Katie Riley