I hate California freeways.  Okay, so I really don’t hate them, but sometimes they’re crazy inconvenient.  Zipping along without a care in the world—awesome.  Traffic backed up for at least twenty minutes  (one way) due to an accident… well, it’s not so bad if you’re plotting out a new book.  I was doing Silenced Knight.

And then the voice of Google Maps piped up and told me about that twenty-minute delay. The clock ticked.  The delay normally wouldn’t have bothered me.

But I’d wanted to go past the exit, past my final destination, and stop at a store.  Oh, and meet one of my Launch Team members.  Yeah.  Her.

And horrendous traffic killed the chance to meet her in person.

Meet Karin:

Fun, spunky, and always helpful when you need something tested or have an odd question.  I swear she knows a little about everything it seems.  I ask, and BAM. Answer forthcoming in seconds.  And she’s right.  SCORE!

Like most of my launch team, she kind of mocked the idea of spare time.

Okay, so there was no “kinda” about it.

Spare time?!? You’re kidding right?! 😉 I love the beach, reading, and spending time with my family. If I had spare time, I would garden more and catch up on my scrapbooking. Which makes me giggle since I’m about 13 years behind!”

I’m getting a theme here, though.  Methinks Karin likes the beach.  Look:

The coolest place I’ve been… ok so that’s hard. First thought was the beach. My husband jokes that the second my feet hit the sand and I can see the waves, I instantly calm down, and I think he’s right. But that’s probably my favorite place and you asked for coolest place.

So I’ll go with the doctor’s office at USC Norris when the doctor said to my husband, “You are good. You’re done. Someone ‘up there’ must be looking out for you. You’re cancer free.”  That moment was awe inspiring in a way I can’t even try to describe, except that God’s faithfulness hit hard in that moment. It was Holy ground.”

Yep. I’m with you on that. The beach is awesome, but anyplace that informs me my husband’s death warrant just got canceled… favorite place ever.

She reads—a lot.  And I’ve not heard of almost any of the people she likes!  Guess who just got a new reading list!  Maybe you’ll find a new author in this list, too.

Hers are:

I have lots of favorite authors! Among them are Chautona (of course!), Jen Hatmaker, Leah Atwood, Belle Calhoune, Bob Goff, JoAnn Durgin, Shauna Niequist, Valerie Comer, Francis Chan, Lucy McConnell, Kimberly Rae Jordan, Brooke St. James…”

As far as promoting my books with me, Karin says:

I started with Chautona’s pre reading team back before the release of Tarnished Silver and, with the exception of maybe two, have pretty much been on every one since. I love getting to read the books as Chautona is ready for us- either piece by piece or once the rough draft is ready, and then interact with Chautona and the other advance team members about them. Its been so fun and I’ve gotten to know some amazing women which is such a blessing!

Karin went on to explain why she chose to officially join the team:

I sort of talked about that before but basically I choose the team because I absolutely love reading Chautona’s books and loved the idea of getting to participate in the process.

Now Karin answered this before she got her copy of Will Not See, but this is what she said:

Currently, I am most looking forward to reading Will Not See… I got to read part of it recently and I’m telling you, it is going to be SO SO SO good! I can’t wait to read the rest… but once I do I”ll be dying for her to hurry up and read whatever God puts on her mind to do next!

As far as her team choices go…

Alexa or Madeline? That’s easy. Alexa is amazing but I love Madeline! I’m intrigued by her development and really curious to see how she grows in book three.

Mac or Luke? Chautona, that isn’t fair! Both. I‘m cheating and saying both. They are steadfast, Godly, and remind me (each in their own way) of my husband. And Chad. Don’t forget Chad!

Joe or Keith? Hmm.. ok so Joe. I’m going with Joe. But not because I don’t like Keith.

Cassie or Kaye? I love organizing (just finished cleaning and organizing my house actually), so I thought I’d go with Kay, but right now I’m curious about what happened to Cassie, so I’m going with Cassie.

Wynnewood or Legends? Legends. I really LOVED the first one. Can’t wait to see where this story goes. (See Ashley? SEE!)

Karin had a random question for me, too! She said:

I’m not sure why, but I was thinking of Aggie yesterday and the chicken pox “incident,” and I wondered if that was inspired by real life events or were you just imagining all the terrible things that could happen?

Well, chicken pox in our house DID kill my kids’ chance at going to a wedding. I swear, each kid got them, one after the other like dominoes.  And then it repeated itself years later with the second batch.  Except for poor Lorna.  My Lorna hasn’t gotten them that we know of.  Sigh.

She was also gracious enough to add:

Chautona, thank you for the amazing experience of getting to be a part of this team. I absolutely love it!!!

So yeah.  Traffic killed the chance to meet this gal just the day after my birthday or so.  But I’m going back.  Yes I am.  You see, I drive down her way every month.  Seriously, I’m just minutes from her each time.  We’ve GOT to do this.

Watch for the next team member: Tina!