Amanda Cabot invites readers back to Cimarron Creek for the emotionally rich conclusion of the Cimarron Creek Trilogy. A Tender Hope (Revell) offers a heartwarming tale of loss, betrayal, and love in the majestic Texas Hill Country. In this interview Amanda shares her favorite characters, and touches on research done for the book.
A Tender Hope has some unexpected twists. What was the inspiration behind your creative plot?
One of the things that’s always intrigued me is the fact that some people hide behind masks. We think we know them, but then we discover that we saw only what they chose to show us.
That started me asking “what if” questions. What if I learned that my husband wasn’t the man I thought he was? What if everything I believed in turned out to be lies?
Fortunately, I’ve never been in that situation, but that didn’t stop me from presenting poor Thea with exactly that dilemma.
You introduce readers to some new characters in your book. Do you have a favorite character?
I could say that I love them all, but that’s not true, since I most definitely do not love the villains. Yes, there’s more than one. If I could pick only one favorite character, it would be Thea, the heroine. She caught my fancy when I was writing Paper Roses ten years ago. (Can it really be that long?)
Now, a decade later, I enjoyed getting to know her as an adult. As readers will discover, Thea’s had a difficult life and deserves a happy ending. I promise that she gets it, but the road to happily-ever-after is not an easy one.
Your main character, Thea Michener, has started a new career as a midwife. What type of research was required to accurately portray her role?
As it turned out, I didn’t have to do a great deal of research on midwifery, because I’d already written about characters who were midwives. Remember Priscilla from Scattered Petals? The research challenge for A Tender Hope was Jackson’s being a Texas Ranger.
Even though I’d visited the Ranger museum in Waco a few years ago, there were many aspects of Ranger life that I still needed to research. After all, I wouldn’t want to have my hero wearing the now famous star badge if that wasn’t authentic to the period.
You have chosen Texas’s Hill Country as the setting for the Cimarron Creek Trilogy series. Why did you choose this location?
Many readers know that I spent my early childhood in a small town in Texas, and that though my family left there when I was seven, the land of Spanish live oak trees and bluebonnets was firmly etched in my memory. While I didn’t live in the Hill Country, it’s one of the parts of the state that resonates most deeply with me. There’s its natural beauty—the hills and wildflowers are gorgeous—as well as its history.
And then there’s the food. Barbecues, bread from a German bakery, peach jam—who could resist that?
What do you hope readers gain from reading A Tender Hope?
As always, I hope they’ll finish the book with a smile on their faces, a renewed belief in the healing power of love, and the knowledge that God can—and does—answer prayers.
Visit Amanda Cabot’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/amanda-cabot/
A Tender Hope
Cimarron Creek Trilogy
Amanda Cabot
Revell