“Dear Henry, Love Edith” by Becca Kinzer … and a GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to Friday Reads!

 

 

You can enter to win a print copy of Dear Henry, Love Edith, courtesy of the publisher. (US ONLY!) You can enter by using the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of this post. (Contest ends February 3.) Click To Tweet If you’re the chosen winner, I’ll contact you for your information to pass along.

 

About the book…

After a short and difficult marriage, recently widowed Edith Sherman has learned her lesson. Forget love. Forget marriage. She plans to fill her thirties with adventure. As she awaits the final paperwork for a humanitarian trip to South Africa, she accepts a short-term nursing position in a small Midwestern town. The last thing she needs is a handsome local catching her eye. How inconvenient is that?

 

Amazon purchase link

 

Q&A with Becca…

 

Q: Where did your idea for this story stem from?
A:  The idea for this story was planted in my mind several years ago when I was single and living in an apartment building that housed three other tenants. For a while I knew everybody who lived in the building. But eventually people started moving out, and a new guy moved into the apartment beneath mine. Even though the building was small, we never ran into each other. For months I never knew his name or what he looked like. But of course that didn’t stop me from making assumptions about him based on the things I overheard coming from his apartment, like music or snippets of conversations. I thought I had a pretty good picture of him inside my head. Then one day he showed up at my door to let me know a moving truck might block the driveway for a bit because he was moving out. As he talked, I couldn’t help thinking how different he looked from the guy I’d been picturing. And apparently I wasn’t at all like the person he’d been picturing. Before he went down the stairs, he asked me, “How come all this time I thought you were a little old lady?” I never saw that guy again, but our interaction always amused me and eventually sparked the idea for this story.

Q: You have a career in nursing. How has your experience shaped your storytelling?
A:  I’ve always loved a funny story, but I think working over eighteen years in the critical care setting, especially dealing with COVID these past few years, has proved to me even more how important humor and laughter is in warding off bitterness and despair. But not if the humor comes at the expense of kindness. My hope is that my storytelling is always shaped by both.

Q: Edith is looking for her next adventure following the death of her husband. What was it like exploring her journey?
A: Edith and I had very different experiences when it comes to marriage. She married right out of high school, whereas I didn’t even date a whole lot until I was in my midtwenties. (Mostly because guys weren’t asking me out a whole lot, but let’s not focus on that aspect.) Unlike Edith, I had a little time to live on my own and get talked into a few crazy adventures like skydiving before a wonderful man did finally ask me out and we eventually married. Part of exploring Edith’s journey was reflecting on how my perspective on marriage might have been different had I married young and missed out on those years I was single. Especially if, like in Edith’s case, the marriage turned out to be more challenging than expected.

Q: What do you enjoy about romantic comedy? Is there anything you found challenging about this genre?
A: I love the general lightheartedness of a romantic comedy, especially since so much in life tends to veer toward dark and heavy. I know having this story and these characters to focus on as a writer this past year was a huge blessing to me as a nurse. It gave me something uplifting to think about after long, stressful days at the hospital, which is the same blessing I hope readers get from this story. I think the biggest challenge with writing in this genre, though, is creating a story that is lighthearted and fun but still believable and filled with depth.

Q: Who is your favorite character in the novel?
A: Oh, boy. Why don’t you ask who my favorite child is while you’re at it? Having said that, Henry. Definitely Henry. (Don’t tell the other characters.) I mean, he looks like a young Paul Newman. How could he not be my favorite? Good looks aside though, what really endears Henry to me is his penchant for self-deprecating humor to compensate for his flaws. Probably because that’s something I can relate to all too well.

Q: What will fans of romance love about the relationship between Edith and Henry?
A: I think romance fans will love how the element of mistaken identities allows their
relationship to contain a fun trope-y mixture of love at first sight combined with friends to more. Plus there’s just something always romantic about a relationship built through exchanging letters back and forth, isn’t there?

Q: How does faith play a role in this story?
A: I think we all love that romantic notion of taking a giant leap of faith to answer God’s call, especially when God calls us to exciting new territories. What we love far less, and what the characters in this story must discover, is sometimes faith requires taking small steps day after day right where you are and trusting that God will use those small daily steps as much as he uses the giant leaps.

Q: While this is your debut novel, you’ve won a number of writing contests before. How did those experiences lead to the publication of your first book?

A: Writing contests have played a huge role in my writing journey. When I entered my first writing contest in 2018, it was the first time I showed my writing to anyone outside of my family, and I was terrified. But by going through the process, I discovered two important things. One—my writing didn’t stink. Two—I still had a long way to go. So I buckled down, continued studying the craft, and wrote, wrote, wrote. A year later I entered this contest again with a romantic suspense entry, thinking that was the genre I wanted to pursue. As almost an afterthought, I entered a short rom-com story too, not because I expected it to go anywhere, but I wanted to get as much feedback on my writing as possible. And wouldn’t you know, it was the rom-com story that the judges all loved. It ended up winning. And you know what happens when you win a contest at a writers’ conference? You have to stand onstage and give a speech! Talk about a whole new level of terrifying. But I must not have bungled it too bad, because afterward an agent—who a few months later would become my agent—approached me, wanting to know more about this story. After a lot of rewrites and edits, that little rom-com story landed me my first publishing contract. So thank the Lord I decided to enter it into that contest.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from Dear Henry, Love Edith?
A: I hope readers take away the idea that wherever their location, whatever their
circumstances, they can live a life of adventure and purpose when they trust God to use their efforts, big or small. (Okay, fine. I also hope readers take away a lot of laughs.)

Q: Who is one of your favorite fictional couples? What do you love about their love story?
A: George and Mary Bailey forever. When I watched It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time several years ago and saw a young Mary lean over that counter to whisper, “George Bailey, I’ll love you till the day I die,” I instantly knew that I would too.

 

The Healing Power of Slapstick Comedy

by Becca Kinzer

 

I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching a lot of Jerry Lewis movies. Maybe it’s because every member of my family has a story about accidentally walking smack-dab into our upstairs bathroom door. Whatever the reason, I’ve always appreciated slapstick comedy.

Which is why I still laugh to this day about the time my dad was mowing the lawn and a bee landed on his cheek. One of my greatest hopes has always been that a neighbor was looking out the window the moment my dad stopped mowing and suddenly clobbered himself so hard across the face that his hat and sunglasses sailed off.

Because that’s part of the power of slapstick humor, isn’t it? The suddenness. The
unexpectedness. One moment you’re trudging across your college campus with your roommate on a dark winter evening. The next moment you’re flailing your arms wide and belting out a high-pitched note worthy of an opera.

Why? Because that’s what you do when your foot hits a patch of ice.

And what does your roommate do when she sees you flat on your back the next second? Ask if you’re okay? Offer a hand up? Promise to never tell a soul about that operatic squeal you just made?

No. She laughs. Hard. As in bent over, knees crossed, “I’m going to wet my pants” hard.

When my roommate finally caught her breath long enough to apologize for laughing (in between further giggles) and make sure I was okay, the best she could offer was “I’m sorry, but you have no idea how much I needed that.”

To see me fall? Rude. Except . . .

I couldn’t stop laughing either. I knew I must have looked ridiculous that entire one second I made the valiant effort to stay upright. Turns out I needed that fall too.

And maybe that’s the real power of slapstick comedy. Something that should only bring pain and embarrassment somehow offers healing. Sure, it offers healing through laughter—which we’ve all heard is the best medicine. But more than that it offers humility.

Kind of hard to remain proud and self-important when you’re taking a fall, isn’t it? Walking into a closed door? Getting sprayed with whipped cream that was meant for a slice of pumpkin pie? (Another one of our family stories that gets retold every Thanksgiving.) How about getting your rear end squished between closing elevator doors? That happened to one of my fellow nurses. When she returned to our unit in a tearful mixture of laughing hysterics and red-faced embarrassment, recanting how the seat of her scrub pants had gotten trapped between the doors, the one thing I’ll remember more than anything was her describing how hard the patient had laughed the entire elevator ride.

Because this wasn’t just any patient. This was a patient who had been severely burned. A patient who’d undergone dozens of surgeries and countless dressing changes, experienced unimaginable pain, and still had a long, grueling road of physical therapy ahead of him.

And he’d laughed. Hard. (Probably the first time he’d laughed at all since his accident.)

While I don’t imagine my coworker relished having her hindquarters pinched shut in the elevator doors, I’m sure she would say it was worth it. And not just for the laughs. It was worth reminding this patient that no matter how others appear on the outside—dignified, scarless, agile—we’re all human.

Which means we’re all equally capable of looking like fools at any given moment.

Which means we’re all in constant need of grace. Compassion. Mercy.

Which means sometimes, more than anything, we need that blend of humility and laughter that, let’s face it, only the healing power of slapstick comedy can provide.

 

 

 

About Becca…

 

Author photo by Jennifer Claytor, Copyright © 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Becca Kinzer lives in Springfield, Illinois, where she works as a critical care nurse. When she’s not taking care of sick patients or reminding her husband and two kids that frozen chicken nuggets is a gourmet meal, she enjoys making up lighthearted stories with serious laughs. She is a 2018 ACFW First Impressions Contest winner, a 2019 Genesis Contest winner, a 2021 Cascade Award winner, and an all-around champion coffee drinker. Dear Henry, Love Edith is her debut novel.

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