Apron Strings Book Series

Today for Fiction Friday I am interviewing Sandra Ardoin who has a new book out. Renee is the seventh book in the Apron Strings Book Series, a multi-author series of which I am also a part.

Each book can be read as a standalone with the only connecting factor being an old-fashioned cookery (recipe) book called Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book. Each book takes place in a decade from 1920 to 2020.

Sandra’s book takes place in the 1980s.

First, a little about the book:

Renee Burnette, a widow living in the North Carolina mountains, has longed for two things she never had growing up—a permanent home and a lasting friendship like the one she has with Val from her cooking club. In the summer of 1986, the local apple growers sponsor a bake-off with a monetary prize that would bring Renee closer to her housing goal. But after Renee and Val each enter, their relationship goes from best friends to bitter rivals.

When Renee learns of the opportunity for a promotion at work, she’s determined to prove her qualifications to her handsome, single boss. The closer they draw to one another, though, the more Renee fears that an office romance will jeopardize her job and her housing dream.

As the bake-off competition intensifies, Renee’s office relationships are strained, her sweet son becomes unruly, and the rift with Val widens. Can a decades-old cookbook help Renee restore the bonds every woman needs?

Now, an interview with Sandra:

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

For me, writing is a business, but it’s also a ministry, so the faith aspect is important. I write Christian romance and began with historicals set in the late 19^th century. For the past couple of years, though, I’ve written contemporary romances. Honestly, I’m eager to get back to the past and alternate with a mix of time periods.

My writing career began in 1986 (the same year in which Renee takes place) with greeting cards and posters, then I moved on to children’s short stories for Sunday School take-home papers. I’m a big believer in God’s timing, and His timing, when it came to writing novels, was not until 2009. That’s been my focus since, with my first (a novella) traditionally published in 2014 and the follow-up novel in 2016—the Barnes Brothers series. In 2019, I went independent and have published ten additional novels and novellas.

In my real life, I’m a wife, mom, and occasional granddog-sitter living in North Carolina.

2. What is your latest book about? Who are the main characters and when and where does it take place?

My latest book is Renee, Book Seven in the Apron Strings series. In this series of books that takes place in different decades, I was blessed to be given the 1980s, a decade I know well. I set the book in western North Carolina near Asheville and gave the story a young widow (Renee) with a six-year-old boy. She had a somewhat vagabond childhood and yearns for a sense of belonging and lifelong friendships.

Renee believes a house, rather than the small apartment she and her son now occupy, will offer that permanency she’s lacked in life. Hoping the prize money will complete the funds she needs to buy a house, she enters a baking contest, only to discover she’s competing against her best friend.

3. What is the overarching message of your latest book?

Renee is a story about relationships . . . with a little romance thrown in. Her go-to verses are Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. I chose those scriptures, because they are so because they are so apropos to Renee’s spiritual growth.

4. Did you learn anything about writing or yourself as you were writing the book?

I’m accustomed to writing romance from two points of view—the hero and heroine. This book is only in Renee’s point of view and light on the romance. When it came to her interactions with Greg, I so wanted to write his POV, too, which made the romance a little more challenging for me.

5. Where can readers find out more about you and your projects?

Readers can visit my website and find my complete book list at http://www.sandraardoin.com/books. I’m also on BookBub, Facebook, X , and Goodreads.

The best way to keep up with what’s new, discover what’s upcoming, and learn of sales and specials is to subscribe to my newsletter. I send it out once a month or when something special is happening, like a sale or new release.

Check out Renee or any of the books in the Apron Strings series on Amazon and read them through Kindle Unlimited.

It’s time to introduce you to another one of the authors from the Apron Strings Series, a series of books by eleven different authors that follow the story of eleven women from each decade. The books can be read independently and one will be released each month in 2024 except December.

This week we are meeting Priscilla, the character from the third book in the series. This novel is written by Jenny Knipfer, who is the creator of this series. She is the one who had the idea and brought all of us authors together to create the series.

Here is a short interview with Jenny to tell you a little more about Priscilla and Jenny herself:

1. Tell us a little about yourself:

I grew up on a small family dairy farm in eastern Wisconsin. I have such fond memories of those days, and they shaped me in so many positive ways.

Later with almost four years of college in, life interrupted, and my husband and I found out we were expecting our first child. I was a stay-at-home mom for a number of years and also when our next son came along. When both the boys were in school, I worked part-time using some of my creativity as a florist and a children’s librarian.

I am a very creative person, and I’ve done so many things through the years to express my creativity, from playing music to painting and drawing, to sewing and crafts of all sorts. And writing. That’s been there in the background all along.

In 2014 I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and it’s been quite a rough ride since. In 2018 I had to retire from my job because of my disability and didn’t know how I was going to fill up my time, but suddenly I thought of a novel I had started years ago. I resurrected the book from an old computer and pecked away at it and finished it in a couple months. Then, I kept writing…

Since then, I have learned a lot as an independent author, and with God’s grace, despite my continuing disability, have gone on to write and publish twelve novels.

My writing has slowed of late because I’ve been facing more physical disabilities and emotional stress. I have been away from home for over four months, living in a nursing home. The Medicaid program I am now on is working to get me home, but it has been taking a very long time. I miss my home in the country, my family, my dog, my plants, and all of my things. I miss my happy place of writing. I hope to be back there soon and filled with more inspiration and spirit to keep writing stories that will not only entertain but encourage readers along their particular path in life.

I am blessed to be married to a wonderful man for more than 30 years. We have two adult sons, two grandchildren with another one on the way, a daughter-in-law, and a soon-to-be daughter-in-law. I am also a dog mom to our mini Yorkie, Ruby. She is bright, fierce, tiny, and full of character, and adds so much joy to our lives.

2. What is your latest book about? Who are the main characters and when and where does it take place?

My latest book is Priscilla in the series Apron Strings, which I created and invited other authors to join. It follows the theme of a traveling cookbook throughout a 100-year span, passing through the hands of various women. My book is set in the late 1940s after World War II.

The synopsis:

ONE COOKBOOK CONNECTS THEM ALL…

Book three in a string of heartfelt inspirational stories, featuring different women throughout the decades from 1920 to 2020

In the post-WWII era of 1946, Priscilla Hadley dreams of being a wife and homemaker, but there’s one big obstacle in her mind—Priscilla has been told she can’t cook to save her life. However, she’s out to prove that wrong, especially to handsome but annoying Aaron Johnson, her twin brother Jeremy’s friend and fishing buddy, who also happens to be the local police lieutenant.

In an effort to polish up her culinary shortcomings, Priscilla joins a local cooking club. A woman from the club gifts Priscilla a cookbook that could very well put her on the path to realizing her dreams. Much to their surprise, Priscilla and her family find much more than recipes within the cookbook’s pages. What will be its greatest blessing?

With an ailing father and the Wisconsin family farm to help keep afloat, in the absence of two brothers who died in the war, where will Priscilla find the time to learn to cook? Will she renew her faith in the presence of adversity or allow her present fears and past losses to dictate her future?

3. What is the overarching messages of your latest book?

I toyed with the idea of turning traditional gender roles around in Priscilla. After World War II, things changed for women and men in the workforce and even with what was expected of them at home. But I would say the message of Priscilla is one of trusting God when you can’t see how or where your help will come from. I guess that’s called Faith! And Priscilla learns that what she can do or not do does not matter so much as the kind of person that she is on the inside.

4. Did you learn anything about writing or yourself as you were writing the book?

I think that with every book I have written, I have learned more about writing and myself. Priscilla has strong elements of familial ties, and I really worked hard to portray those well and in a way that was inspiring at times and comical at others. I always relive a part of my life when I write a book, because there’s always some of my story in it, even if it’s just a little bits and pieces. I did that with Priscilla, writing about the importance of family and growing up on a farm.

5. Where can readers find out more about you and your projects? (Social media links)

Find out about all of my books and more on my website at: https://jennyknipfer.com/

Readers can follow me on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07QV9HPH4

Facebook at https://facebook.com/jennyknipfer.writer/

Instagram at https://intsagram.com/jennknipferbrave/

I am most active on social media via my Facebook group, Journeying with Jenny: https://www.facebook.com/groups/402738713921985/

Join my newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/742af683508f/join-my-author-team-as-a-subscriber

And here is a short excerpt from Priscilla, which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Priscilla-Apron-Strings-Book-3-ebook/dp/B0CM3X9LC3

EXCERPT:

Priscilla couldn’t cook to save her life.

That was what Aaron Johnson had said, anyway, and his opinion was the only one that mattered to her.

Aaron was her twin brother Jeremy’s annoying but attractive best friend and fishing buddy, and he had been hanging around a lot of late. Far from the tall, scrawny kid Priscilla remembered

from school, Aaron had filled out nicely. She keenly noticed when he moved his arms how his shirt tightened over the lumps of muscle underneath. His face had taken on some substance too.

With a straight nose, evenly spaced, dark blue eyes, and lips that had nice curves and peaked points, he had always had fine features. But being so thin as an adolescent had made him look

like a scarecrow. A determined edge to her jaw, Priscilla Hadley folded a wad of bread dough on the butcher block counter and punched it with a fist.

Do or die; I’m gonna prove Aaron wrong! Sure, the potatoes she had made for supper last night had gotten a little too crispy, and the carrots had been a wee bit

mushy.

You can’t justify those pork chops, her conscience told her.

Her spirit sank. Those Priscilla had burnt. But not on purpose. She had only taken her eyes off the pan for a few minutes.

The screen door banged, and Priscilla turned her head to see Jeremy step into the house. His thick brown hair hung over his forehead. He pulled off his boots and walked into the kitchen.

Tucking his thumbs behind the suspenders on his overalls, he sniffed.

“What ya cooking tonight for supper?” he asked, smiling, one corner of his thin lips hiking higher than the other. He winked at her, his brown eyes fringed with what Priscilla

liked to refer to as his cow lashes.

Why does he have all the luck?

Priscilla inwardly sighed. Her lashes were thin and short, and on occasion she’d taken to coating them with mascara. Although she would never admit to that.

Jeremy cleared his throat. “I…sure hope it’ll be better than last night.”

Without a second thought, Priscilla scrunched the towel she had hanging over her shoulder and pitched it in her brother’s direction.

He chuckled and ducked. “Hey, now. None of that. I was just kidding.”

Maybe he was, but Priscilla knew the truth: she was not a very good cook. It amazed her that she cobbled enough together to pull off a meal several nights a week. Jeremy pitched in too.

Thank goodness for that. And she had to admit, he was much better at it than her.

Dad took care of breakfast, making one of his three standbys: oatmeal with raisins, honey, and cream; eggs and bacon; or hotcakes. And everyone fended for themselves at lunchtime. But suppers had been mostly left up to her since Mom had passed away, almost twelve years ago. Priscilla had been far too young to lose Mom, and not a day went by that she didn’t miss her. Mom had succumbed to influenza. It still made Priscilla mad that such an everyday illness had taken her mother’s life.

Priscilla had tried to pick up the slack after Mom died, doing most of the housework. But she had always disliked cooking, and before Mom had passed had usually made herself scarce when there was any to be done.

Somehow, her three brothers, her dad, and she had managed as a family for many years until Peter, her oldest brother, had died two years ago. Mown down by a bullet, somewhere on a

distant battlefield. It had taken them all more than a year to get over the loss of him, and of course they never truly would. How did one recover from such things? Losing Mom had been

difficult enough.

Then, a month before the war had ended, Reuben had died. They’d never found out how. Just chalked up as another soldier who had lost his life, along with so many others. That left her,

Dad, and Jeremy. Jeremy hadn’t fought because the government had considered him exempt, since he was running the family farm and a bout of polio in his childhood had left him with an

uneven gait and a weakened leg.

Jeremy snuck by her and pulled the cookie tin off the shelf.

He opened it and grabbed a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies that a neighbor had dropped by yesterday.

Taking a big bite from one, he said through a mouthful of cookie, “Mmm, these taste just like how Ma used to make them.”

And there it was—that burning pain. That little tweak of jealousy in the pit of her stomach and the whispered words in her ear: You’ll never be the cook your mother was. Nor the

woman, Priscilla ventured to wager.