What Do a War, Two Vets, and a Beautiful Window Have in Common?

The next book in The Stained-Glass Legacy Series, Window of Peace, released today, and I chatted with Regina Rudd Merrick about it a couple weeks back. Jumping from the 1920s in the first book to 1970s and the Vietnam War, Merrick gives us more of the Dunne family, more of the chapel, and another great story connected to both and to that window! Listen in while we chat about historical fiction, the 70s, and what’s coming next for Regina!

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What Do a War, Two Vets, and a Beautiful Window Have in Common?

Surprisingly, a lot!

I had a lovely chat with Regina Rudd Merrick the other day, and I felt like I was sitting on her front porch sipping sweet tea. Shh… don’t tell. I prefer mine barely sweetened, but she was gracious, so I sipped away! (Just kidding. There was no tea involved on my end, but I did drink a ton of water. And tea really is mostly water, so…)

As one of the four women who were on the same writing retreat that sparked the idea of The Stained-Glass Legacy Series, Regina was also one of the two authors who had to dip their toes into historical fiction to make the series work. Each book is set approximately fifty years apart, so you end up with a fascinating glimpse into how the world and this particular little area of Tennessee changes over the series.

Regina talked about dipping into childhood memories, researching things she remembered, and how all that played out in her book. I can tell already that this book about a Vietnam vet who wants to go home to be a vet(erinarian) is going to be a favorite. This is my childhood (bits of it anyway), and I’m excited to see how it looked on the other side of the country!

Window of Peace by Regina Rudd Merrick

Michael Connor “MC” Dunne led charmed life. He had a plan—finish veterinary school, get married, and take over the local animal clinic. Enter the Vietnam War.

MC returns home, injured, to Park Haven, Tennessee, and soon learns there’s a new vet in town, hired when the local veterinarian suffered a heart attack. So much for his plan.

Violent flashbacks and nightmares pull MC away from his faith and turn him into a hermit. His safe place is the family farm, working on the old cabin and restoring the chapel his great-uncle built in the early 1900s, with the family’s heirloom stained-glass window.

Nancy Jean Baker struggles to prove herself as a competent veterinarian to the small-town skeptics of Park Haven. Fighting her own demons from a traumatic past, she’s driven to succeed. But when war veteran MC Dunne returns home, wounded and wary, Nancy discovers she’s standing between him and his dream.

Can they help each other overcome their hurts and horrors? Or is their hope of happiness doomed when the past threatens to ruin their future?

You can learn more about Regina and her books on her WEBSITE.

You can also listen to the episode she missed with the other authors HERE (hint… I remembered incorrectly and it was about another group project).