Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Erica Vetsch & The Indebted Earl

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! I’m delighted to have my dear friend Erica on the blog today, sharing some of the people & books who’ve influenced her writing journey.

Title: The Indebted Earl
Series: Serendipity & Secrets #3
Author: Erica Vetsch
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Release Date: March 23, 2021
Genre: Christian Regency Romance

Can Captain Wyvern keep his new marriage of convenience all business–or will it turn into something more?

Captain Charles Wyvern owes a great debt to the man who saved his life–especially since Major Richardson lost his own life in the process. The best way to honor that hero’s dying wish is for Wyvern to escort the man’s grieving fiance and mother safely to a new cottage home by the sea. But along the way, he learns of another obligation that has fallen on his shoulders: his uncle has died and the captain is now the Earl of Rothwell.

When he and the ladies arrive at his new manor house in Devon, they discover an estate in need of a leader and a gaggle of girls, all wards of the former earl. War the new earl knows; young ladies and properties he does not. Still wishing to provide for the bereaved Lady Sophia Haverly, Charles proposes a marriage of convenience.

Sophie is surprised to find she isn’t opposed to the idea. It will help her care for her betrothed’s elderly mother, and she’s already fallen in love with the wayward girls on the Rothwell estate. This alliance is a chance to repay the captain who has done so much for her care, as well as divert her attention from her grief. When Wyvern returns to his sea commission, she’ll stay behind to oversee his property and wards.

It sounds so simple. Until the stalwart captain is arrested on suspicion of smuggling, and Sophie realizes how much he’s come to mean to her. Now she’ll have to learn to fight, not only for his freedom but also for his love.

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My Writing Influences

by Erica Vetsch, author of The Indebted Earl

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love books. I remember reading Curious George books with my little brother, who loved George! I remember our Winnie-The-Pooh books, and pretending to be Tigger. My mother had a set of books she was saving for when “I was old enough.” They were the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Beldon stories.

In first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Williams, changed my world, because one day she showed me that you didn’t have to say the words out loud to be reading. You could read silently in your head! What??? Game-changer!

Oddly enough, though I read all the time, for some strange reason that neither I, nor my parents, could understand, my third grade teacher decided to put me in the remedial reading class. This class was held a couple times a week at a separate table from the rest of the kids in the class, and a special teacher came in to help us with our reading. I often couldn’t be bothered to pay attention, because I was reading the material she put before us.

In fourth grade, I read and read and read. Head in the clouds, nose in a book. Misty of Chincoteague, Farmer Boy, The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I lived every moment of those books.

Eventually, I discovered The Black Stallion, Cherry Ames, and wonder of wonders, Zane Grey cowboy stories. When I wasn’t actually reading books, I was thinking about them, continuing the characters’ adventures long after the last page was read.

When I was in high school, there was another reading epoch in my life. My mother loaned me an old Mills & Boon book written by a pastor’s wife in New Zealand, one Essie Summers.

This was my first real romance, as sweet and clean as could be, and I was hooked! Essie Summers was a prolific author, one of the most beloved ever at Mills and Boon/Harlequin. All in all, she wrote 51 titles, including her autobiography. When I  grew up, I made it a personal quest to own a copy of every book. My collection was finally complete more than twenty years after I began the search when The South Horizon Man arrived from a used bookstore in England.

Every one of these authors I mentioned…and dozens…if not hundreds more!…have influenced my writing and my desire to become a writer. Laura Ingalls, Dr. Seuss, Helen Wells, Rosamond du Jardin, Zane Grey, Walter Farley, and Essie Summers…they taught me through their stories. Not just how to craft a plot, or how to build suspense, or how to create a realistic setting. They taught me how to be kind, how to work through problems, how to be brave, how to imagine and live through words. They taught me to love the written word, the shape and look of them on the page and the feel of them on my tongue. They taught me to appreciate places I’ve never been, navigate relationships and emotions I’d yet to encounter, and opened worlds to which I had never been exposed.

And not only way back then, but now, too. I have so many friends in the writing world who influence me with their writing. Mary Connealy, Julie Klassen, Michelle Griep, Gabrielle Meyer, Rachel McMillan. Each one is uniquely gifted, and I learn something each time I read their work.

Which authors have influenced your life? Or was it a teacher who taught you to read, or to appreciate reading, or to think about a book in a different way?

CONNECT WITH ERICA: Website | Facebook | Instagram

(1) winner will receive a print copy of The Lost Lieutenant, The Gentleman Spy, & The Indebted Earl and a $10 Amazon gift card!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight April 19, 2021 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on April 26, 2021. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

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This giveaway is hosted by JustRead Tours, not RimSP
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

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What about you? What makes you want to read The Indebted Earl by Erica Vetsch? Which authors have influenced your life? Or was it a teacher who taught you to read, or to appreciate reading, or to think about a book in a different way?