Guest Author: Allie Pleiter

I'm pleased to welcome my friend Allie Pleiter to Net's Book Notes today.

The Inspiration Behind Easter Promises
by Allie Pleiter

Misery loves company. Especially when it’s one-to-one. The most compelling love stories involve two people taken to the edge of their coping. On a spiritual level, I have always believed the end of our ropes is holy ground where God makes the biggest (but most painful) improvements to our souls. Emotionally, it is where two hearts no longer have the energy to resist each other and love has its best chance to break through.

Now, just add the sheep.

No, really. That’s what I did. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Back it up six months or so when a local sheep farm I know sent out an email. They were asking for prayers because they were facing a surprise population explosion of lambs. The work, it seems, of a particularly . . . um . . . romantic ram who took his job description a little too seriously. As a knitter and a romance writer, I found the story absolutely priceless. So when Steeple Hill came to me asking to write an Easter story to wrap up my beloved Kentucky Corners series, well, it didn’t take long for my muse to put two and two together. Or, in this case, one control freak librarian, one grieving widower veterinarian, and four very pregnant sheep. I’ve recounted this premise easily a dozen times in the past three weeks, and I still giggle about it.

We love stories because stories unravel all around us (no knitting pun intended). They’re hiding in everyday conversations, email newsletters, newspaper stories, that funny look the guy at the bus stop gave you. Whether you’re a writer or a reader, your love of story can always enrich your world.

Or, in my case, put a little fleece in your fiction.

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Enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction. An avid knitter, harp player, and non-reformed chocoholic, she spends her days writing books, doing laundry, running carpools, and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie grew up in Connecticut, holds a BS in Speech from Northwestern University, and currently lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois. The "dare from a friend" to begin writing eight years ago has blossomed into a career that includes numerous public speaking engagements, two books on parenting; BECOMING A CHIEF HOME OFFICER and FACING EVERY MOM'S FEARS, and now novels for Steeple Hill. She is the mother of two children and, most recently, a Havanese dog named Bella.