The theme of Sung in Shadows, the book that broke me, is mental illness and the struggle of those who support others with mental illness. Why that topic? It’s actually a topic near and dear to my heart. While mental health has become less of a taboo topic, there is still a huge gap in support and understanding of those who struggle with mental illness and the people who support them. I’ve been on both sides of the aisle now, and my wrestle with mental illness actually came to a head during the writing of Sung in the Shadows.

Don’t Be Like Jonah . . . or Me

You see, even though I knew God wanted me to write a book with a mental health thread, I wanted to make it as small as I possibly could. But God wasn’t satisfied with a “side-note” of what He called me to write. With only three months before my book was due, God orchestrated events so that my editor read the first chapter of my draft-in-progress. With firm, but loving kindness, she told me what I turned in was not the story that needed to be told. That mental health thread I was trying to hide under many other layers of plot? That was were the real story was. That was the one that needed to be told.

I should have known that fighting God wasn’t going to end with me winning.

So everything got tossed out and rewritten in 1/3 of the time that I usually write a book–and it wasn’t because it came easy. Every word was a fight, every page a wrestle with the struggles I’d endured as a supporter of those with mental illnesses and the realization that I myself had reached a mental breakdown. I needed help, but those I supported still needed me. I should have gotten professional help, and I regret that I didn’t. However, God was good enough to minister to me through the writing of the story, those who ended up being my support, and the soundtrack to Sung in the Shadows below.

A release is coming, but it’s so much more . . .

Between now and release, I plan to create several blog posts, not just about the history like I usually do, but also about mental health, my journey to write this story, and some things God taught me about Christians and mental health. Unfortunately, the Church has, by-and-large (but not everyone), ignored mental illness, shamed those who struggled, and/or failed to support those with mental illness and the loved ones who support them.

Sung in the Shadows is specifically written for anyone who has ever struggled to support someone with mental illness or has ever struggled themselves. As hard as this book was for me, it’s become as much a book of my heart as Counterfeit Hope is. It’s so important to me that both groups feel seen, understood, supported, and loved by God despite the struggles.

Today, I’m sharing with you what I’m calling the “Sung in the Shadows Soundtrack.” These are the songs I listened to over and over and over and over (and still listen to on hard days) as I wrote Sung in the Shadows. May it encourage you and help you as you walk through your own struggles.

READER QUESTION: What songs would you add to a list for encouragement and hard days?

When past darkness prowls, will stepping into the light lead to a brighter future?

In nineteenth-century Cincinnati, fear keeps Nora Davis caged with secrets and lies. Her true identity as the daughter of a famous opera singer is too dangerous to reveal with her former captors still on the loose. But weekly singing lessons at Longview Asylum—her paranoid mother’s permanent residence—light a flame in Nora, and it’s one she can avoid fanning for only so long.

With his suicidal ma in the asylum, Ezekiel Beaumont’s soul is weary, but Nora’s presence at the asylum intrigues him. As a Pike’s Opera House employee, Ezekiel thinks Nora might be cut out for the stage. He also begins to wonder if Nora’s ma is really the famed Constanza Brisbane, who went missing mid-performance. He’s determined to find out.

Though Ezekiel brings the performance world a little too close for comfort, Nora is drawn to his warm personality all the same. The two of them steadily grow closer, but then Nora begins to fear she’s being watched, and her own paranoia blooms.

As the line between what’s real and false grows fainter, will Ezekiel’s and Nora’s faith and love overcome?

“From the haunting halls of Longview Asylum to the dangerous secrets of Nora’s past, Sung in the Shadows delivers a riveting blend of romance, mystery, and redemption.”

—Misty M. Beller, USA TODAY best-selling author of the Sisters of the Rockies series

Learn More Here

Story Inspiration

The story spark for this story came from a variety of places. The political/judicial corruption and city rioting came from an event in 1884 that I discovered while researching Counterfeit Love. Two men were responsible for the violent death of their employer, William Berner and Joe Palmer. William Berner had connections, while Joe was a black man. Berner received a conviction of manslaughter with a maximum 20-year sentence, while his partner received a murder conviction and death sentence. The city felt someone had bought the jury in Berner’s favor and rioted. In the end, fifty-four men died, an estimated two hundred were wounded, and Berner escaped safely to the State Penitentiary to serve eleven years of his twenty-year sentence before being released for good behavior.

A Bit About Dime Novels

Dime novels were the first novel type to make books and reading available to the common man. On a wage of $5 to $8 a week, traditional books that cost $2 to $3 were cost-prohibitive to anyone below the middle class. Dime novels were cheaply printed, much smaller in length and size, and cost only a nickel to twenty-five cents.

In addition to being cheap, dime novels were the precursor to genre fiction. Searching for crime, suspense, mystery, romance, thrillers, westerns, etc? Thank Dime Novels. These stories became wildly popular and spurred other variations and genres. Are you a fan of subscription fiction services like Love Inspired or Guidepost? Yep, dime novels were their start.

Personal Behind-the-Scenes Facts

I wrote this story during one of my life’s most challenging caregiving seasons. Generally, a novel takes me about 6 months to draft, with another month or two for self-editing. However, due to lots of stops and starts as I dealt with multiple significant health crises for my mother-in-law (including a broken neck), this book took 14 months to draft, and I had to squeeze edits down to two weeks. This book was such a disjointed mess that I never thought it would come together, but by God’s grace and mercy (and a fantastic editing team), it is the book you read now.

Writing a “spin-off” series from Counterfeit Love brought challenges I hadn’t expected. In the first draft, the characters didn’t closely enough resemble their portrayal in Counterfeit Love, so I had to do some serious reworking of characters–especially Abraham Hall and Dr. Pelton. Although I swore I would never reread one of my books once published, I did indeed have to reread Counterfeit Love. I created a detailed document of information from Counterfeit Love that had to be kept the same in Written in Secret. Even more challenging, the characters had to stay similar to what they were in Counterfeit Love while being different enough to show how they grew between 1880 and 1884.

Each “Guardian” has flavors of my core group of girls and critique partners, The Mayhemmers. I am the one most like Theresa, Liz the one most like Lydia, Angela the most like Nora, and Voni the most like Flossie. However, each character is still their own person and not directly based on a Mayhemmer.

Written in Secret by Crystal Caudill

In the heart of nineteenth-century Cincinnati one woman holds the power to rewrite history.

What happens when fiction becomes reality? In the corruption-infested Queen City, danger lurks in every shadow, but Lydia Pelton refuses to stay silent. She writes under a pseudonym, E. A. Dupin, crafting crime novels to exact justice and right the wrongs she sees in society. When a serial killer decides to be the sword to her pen, Lydia is confronted with the consequences of her words. Four men are dead, and the city blames her.

With murders on the rise, Officer Abraham Hall’s only lead is Lydia’s fiction, and he is thrust into an investigation with the “Killer Queen of Romance.” Despite his misgivings about the woman, he realizes that even with his reputation for catching elusive criminals, he needs her help. But his unexpected attraction to Lydia proves as difficult to manage as the woman herself.

As the mystery unfolds, Abraham and Lydia race to rewrite the ending, not only for Cincinnati’s citizens, but for their own hearts too.

Purchase Links:  Amazon  |  Apple Books  |  Baker Book House  |  Barnes & Noble |  Books-A-Million  | Christianbook  |  IndieBound  | Kobo  |  Kregel Parable Christian Book Store

Month-Long Blog Giveaway #1

Help me celebrate the release of Written in Secret and get the word out about the new series. From March 4 to April 1, this giveaway will be open to those legally allowed to enter both domestically and internationally. International winners will be given a prize of equal value as shipping costs are prohibitive. See my giveaway policies for more details.

Prize: homemade book cozy, fuzzy socks, journal, reader mug mat, bookmarks, stickers, tea, and chapstick.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Month-Long Giveaway #2

Already have the book?? This giveaway is for you. Somewhere in the first fifty pages of Written in Secret is the answer to “What attacked Lydia and Abraham inside the circus tent?” Fill out the below Google Form to be entered for your chance to win a $25 gift card to Amazon or Baker Book House. The giveaway runs until April 11, 2024. The winner will be selected the week of April 12 and notified by email.

Enter Here

What is something you’d like to know about my research or behind the scenes that maybe I didn’t answer?

My family told me not to come home, that I should enjoy this time because I would have to be managing a lot of things when I got home–including one of the most difficult caregiving seasons of my life, which is REALLY saying something if you knew some of the things we’ve walked through with my MIL. Even with my decision to stay at the conference (because I really felt like God was telling me to), I was coordinating lots of things at home with getting meals to my family, friends and family reaching out to me to let me know they were praying and wanting updates, and honestly the whole weekend was a blur. I couldn’t enjoy the Carol final or celebrate it with my family. And when I came home, the next six months were focused on my MIL’s recovery. The Carol final kind of got lost in the shuffle, and while I wouldn’t change anything, it was a wounding point for me. Because the Carols were such a big deal, and yet in my own family, it felt like it never happened.

When I learned about the Christy Award Final, it was a redemption of that chaotic time. A sense of healing that I didn’t realize I still needed. I thought I had let it go and moved on, but y’all. Not only did I get to celebrate with my family, my husband came with me this weekend on a rare weekend alone and I got to bring him into the crazy writing/reading world that I love. He only sees my life behind the computer and hear about bits and pieces of my conference experiences. Last night, I got to introduce him to the people whom I’ve formed amazing relationships with, and I got to have him next to me at this big fancy gala where we got to celebrate God’s redemption and great love shown in a way I didn’t know I needed.

I was a finalist among many amazing authors who I have such a great respect for, and I fully anticipate it was one of them to have “won” the category last night. But I truly feel like I was a winner, as you can tell from the story above. But since I went through all the trouble of actually writing a thank you speech, I thought maybe you’d like to see what I would have said if I had won. (And if by some blow me away extra blessing I did, then here’s the written version of what I said.)

(Note to self ONLY: Holy cow girl, if you are reading this in front of people, then pull yourself together. God has blessed you beyond measured and redeemed the year behind you 100-fold to what you went through. Give Him all the glory. Praise His name. Give your speech, and remember people are more important that awards, but this is an honor and a blessing you never expected and should be celebrated.)

I never expected to be up here reading this speech, but I give all credit to Rhonda Dragomir for the impetus to actually write a speech despite my expectations. I’m thankful to even be nominated for a Christy. I’ve read many of the authors nominated here tonight, and I’m beyond honored to be listed among them. Truly, it is one of those dreams you tell God but don’t actually expect to receive. These men and women are people I’ve long looked up to and whose books I’ve lost many nights of sleep over and will continue to lose sleep over. Thank you for writing your stories and inspiring others to follow your lead in writing for Christ.

I want to thank my God and my Jesus first and foremost for this unmerited gift. This award represents God’s redeeming of a really hard year for my family. I cried when I heard the nomination, and it was enough for me. But in His abundant grace, He has done what is above anything I ever imagined. May all I do and write always point back to Him.

Thank you to Travis, my amazing husband who has supported me and encouraged me to write even before I knew this would be the journey God called me to. Thank you Malaki and Nehemiah for putting up with your scatterbrained mom and providing endless fodder for her stories. Thank you to Mom, Dad, Matthew, Ramey, Linda, and Noah for your never-ending enthusiasm and support. You make the hard days better.

Thank you to my amazing agent, Tamela Hancock Murray, who was the first one to take a chance on me. Janyre Tromp, your mad editing skills were invaluable. Thank you, Kregel and the entire team at Kregel. It has been a true blessing to work with each one of you. Thank you to my co-authors of the collection, Cara Putman and Angela Ruth Strong. You are amazing women who have taught me so much, and I am one lucky ducky to have worked on this project with you.

Thank you to the judges and coordinators and many others involved in the running of the Christy Awards. What you do is a blessing to authors and readers alike. I appreciate the honor you have bestowed upon me with this award.

Thank you to my fellow Mayhemmers, Liz Bradford, Angela Carlisle, and Voni Harris and to Lucy Nel. I would never have survived the trials of a writing career and plain ol’ life without you. To all those who have encouraged me, prayed for me, read my books, and joined me on this writing journey, whether you be an author, reader, and/or friend, may you be blessed a hundred-fold for the blessings you have poured upon me.

To everyone in this room, thank you for being here and celebrating the wonderful way God works through fiction. May each of you use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace.

Creating a Cover

The process of creating a cover rarely involves me beyond the initial form I fill out to my publisher of critical information about the story that might work its way onto the cover. Generally, other than seeing the final product and saying I like it, that’s about as involved with the process as I get. However, with the We Three Kings Romance Christmas Collection, the experience was very different.

The Draft

Cara Putman and Angela Ruth Strong are my co-authors in this collection, and all three of us were sent the cover asking for input on how it might be tweaked. Really the only element from our story on the cover other than the snow indicating winter/Christmas was the ornament of the three kings. The ornament is one that my characters buy at the end of the story, and it reappears in various forms in the other two stories. You can see the original cover they sent us below:

It wasn’t a bad cover, we just were afraid it wasn’t compelling enough for readers to pick up. Especially when compared with the previous novella collections in the series: Joy to the World and O’ Little Town.

These covers were stunning, in my opinion, and I felt like our cover didn’t match the “feel” of these other two. After tossing some ideas around with Cara and Angela, I decided I wanted to play in Canva, an image creation program. I’m a pretty tactile person, and this was how I process anything that requires a visual image. After talking with a friend who is a cover designer, one of the things I realized that was missing was that “aisle”  or framing feeling. The columns in Joy to the World draw your eyes to the house and up to the title. In O Little Town, you have the lamp posts creating that same sort of effect.

Playing Around

Using Cara and Angela’s suggestions, I brought in more trees to create the framing feeling. But in our conversation, we also brought up the fact that each of our stories has to do with some form of light. My story is “Star of Wonder,” Cara’s is “Beauty Bright,” and Angela’s is “Perfect Light.” And considering our stories connect to the three Weise (wise) men, the cover would probably benefit from having a star. I’m getting pretty savvy at using Canva with layering, and so after lots of playing with removing backgrounds and editing various features, this is the mock-up I came up with:

Making the layers match in coloring is something I’m still learning, and since this was just me playing around, I didn’t bother with even trying. I sent the mock-up to Angela and Cara but did not intend to send it to Kregel. I responded with some verbal tweaking ideas that we’d discussed, but I didn’t mention I’d created a mock-up or anything. Design is not something I have a lot of confidence in, and besides, it was more or less just playing for my own sake so I could communicate some suggestions without overstepping.

However, Angela added my mock-up to her email when she sent in her recommendations. I am so thankful for her boldness in doing that. It gave a much-needed encouragement boost, and Kregel’s response was equally encouraging. And I think you might understand why when you look at the two options they sent to us afterward:

Option 1:

While that was better than the first one, we unanimously agreed that the second option was the favorite. And now, I get to reveal the FINAL cover of We Three Kings: A Romance Christmas Collection.

Cover Reveal – the FINAL Cover

Didn’t they do a phenomenal job? AND LOOK!!! They took my playing-around mock-up and turned it into something beautiful!!!! I’ve always loved my covers from Kregel, but this one will always have a special place in my heart (and on my Christmas tree). God is so good to bless me with that sort of encouragement, and I am so grateful that He used Angela to place it into Kregel’s hands. Now we just have to wait for it to release in September. Want to know more about each of our stories? Here is the blurb and preorder links!

We Three Kings: A Romance Christmas Collection

In this Christmas collection, Weise men still seek Jesus–and love

Best-selling romance authors Caudill, Putman, and Strong follow three generations of the Weise family in this third collection of Christmas novellas from Kregel that will prove just as popular as the previous award-winning volumes.

“Star of Wonder” by Crystal Caudill
The Christmas-themed maiden voyage of his family’s grand steamer ship was supposed to be Aldrich Weise’s chance both to instill investor confidence and to romance Celestia Isaacs. Instead, he must foil a criminal and leave his lady love behind forever.

“Beauty Bright” by Cara Putman
Lieutenant Charles Weise served as a Monuments Man after World War II and now works to restore stolen art to rightful owners. Captain Lillian Thorsen pairs up with him not only to return treasures but also to fix the war-torn lives around them.

“Perfect Light” by Angela Ruth Strong
Essential oils mogul Brendon Wise is drawn to Lacey Foster, the event planner for his huge Christmas lights festival. But when he inadvertently makes a spectacle of her on television, Lacey wants nothing to do with him. Will a chance to give gifts to those in need at Christmas be the key to discovering common ground–and maybe love?

Preorder Links:  Amazon  |  Baker Book House  |  Barnes and Noble  |   Books-A-Million

What do you think of the cover and the process?

Before all this happened it was my goal to have a short story written and edited for my newsletter subscribers and the draft of my second book 3/4 of the way done before edits on my first book came back. I’m happy to announce that I have met at least ONE of those goals (though I am a good way closer to my second book goal than before all this happened). I even created a cover, which is substantially better than the cover I designed for the deleted chapter. Without further ado, here is the cover and blurb for my short story:

Banking on Love

She expected to save her brother, not rob a bank.

November 1884

When Eunice Reed discovers her younger brother has been arrested for public intoxication, she travels from Cincinnati to Chicago to save him from himself. But public intoxication is the least of their problems. Irvin is tangled up with a dangerous bank robber. Will the love and ingenuity of a sister be enough to save Irvin from making the biggest mistake of his life?

This short story is exclusively for my newsletter subscribers. Not one yet? You can sign up here. My newsletter crew members are the first to know about titles, book covers, launch team member callouts, contests, and they get a monthly chance at winning a $15 Amazon gift card.

So was this post a shameless plug for my newsletter? Yep, but I put a lot of work into this 7500-word baby, and it’s one I hope you’ll enjoy.

While I struggle to make friends with people existing outside of fiction–I can’t say real people because my fiction characters DO become real to me–I always get very excited when it comes time to meet my newest characters. I thought it might be fun to take you through a little bit of my process as I get to know a character I’m developing for a short story. At this point, I know VERY little about my character. I’ve already brainstormed a few ideas with my critique partner, but Harriet is still very flat on the paper.

What I do know:

Harriet Carmichael is a bit of an outsider to the upper-class society in which her family partakes. She goes beyond avid gardener to more of the botanist level, and she relates better to the plants than people. In fact, most people find her odd even though gardening was a perfectly acceptable hobby for upper-class women of the time.

She is forced to attend the Christmas party of a woman who is skilled at double-edged compliments and making Harriet feel even more insignificant than before. However, while at this party, she receives a note or a gift (not sure which yet) from a secret admirer. No matter how much she wishes it were true, she can’t believe its authenticity. However, something happens (again, don’t know what yet) will send her on a hunt to discover the true identity of the letter writer. Was it another cruel joke of the woman, or had someone really seen her and wanted to get to know her better?

That’s it, that’s all I really know right now, but I’m really excited about writing this brief story. Depending on how it turns out, it may be my Christmas gift to my newsletter subscribers. But I digress…

After attending the Online Character Summit this weekend, I am determined to take some of what I have learned and carve Harriet into a deeper more human character that we can all relate to on some level. So here we go:

Getting to Know Harriet

This portrait by George Clausen is how I physically envision Harriet at the moment. She’s nothing extraordinary, and her clothes are rather dull. She tends to wear browns in order to disguise her constant work in the soil. From here, it becomes sort of an interview process.

Me: So Harriet, who are you? Why do you feel you that you don’t fit in? It can’t just be your love of plants.

Harriet (rubbing hands together and then tucking them behind her when she finds dirt under her nails): I don’t really know much about people, and honestly, I don’t understand them. People are unpredictable. Plants follow certain rules, I know what they need to coax them into vibrancy, which ones to pair together, and which ones to plant in order to entice or repel certain insects or animals. I love being able to create and work within God’s creation. Plants are exactly what they are supposed to be. People? Not so much.

It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s that I don’t know what to make of them. Some are genuinely who they appear to be, others opposite from what they present to the world. I have a few friends, but mostly, I am uncomfortable around people. I don’t know what to say. I don’t enjoy the same things as my peers.

I like books about gardening, plant life, and even scientific articles about altering plants to be more sturdy against the elements. Miss Austen, Mr. Dickens, and the such leave me baffled. I can play cards, play piano, and embroider as required, but why would anyone want to do those when you can be outside? In fact, I hate winter. I spend most of it planning my next garden or tinkering in the greenhouse/conservatory. The best days are the days I can go to the university and work in the botany department (need to check that was a thing then).

Oh, thought! Have her compare different people/personalities to different types of plants!

And so it will go for a few days. Harriet and I will be having some deep conversations and some lighter-hearted ones. What are the things she likes? The things she fears? What does she want more than anything? What does she believe about herself? What does she need to learn? etc. These are hard questions to draw out, but I love the excitement of it.

Just so you don’t think Harriet is fully developed before I put words on paper, this initial examination is rarely what she ends up looking like as I actually write. Harriet will grow and define herself, shedding some of the things I thought we decided in the beginning. She will develop her own voice and become a real person. Even scarier, she will start making her own decisions and direct my story in ways I never envisioned.

I hope you enjoyed a little sneak peek of my process in developing characters, now I really am going to get off here and dive into uninterrupted conversation with Harriet. I’m starting to get caught up on reading, so look for more steady book reviews in the coming months. 🙂

Do you like gardening? What things do you think Harriet will need in order to rightly portray someone who loves plants, maybe even more than people?