After 40 years of wandering (but always in lovely places and not in a desert), Cathe Swanson has recently returned to her childhood home and family in Minnesota.
In the summer, she and her husband enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and being outdoors, gardening, hiking, birdwatching, and kayaking. The long winters are perfect for playing games, reading, and indoor hobbies. Cathe’s been a quilter and teacher of quiltmaking for over 25 years and enjoys just about any kind of creative work, especially those involving fiber or paper.
Everything inspires new books! A lifelong love of quilting, Cathe’s Swedish heritage and an interest in genealogy led to The Glory Quilts series. The Hope Again series is inspired by her life in the Midwest and experiences with the elderly, the military, and inner-city ministry. As a child of the 60’s, she’s having fun writing about hippies and the Jesus People movement in the Serenity Hill series.
Cathe writes books with creative plots and engaging characters of all ages, to glorify God and entertain and bless readers. Her heartwarming stories will make you laugh and make you cry–and then make you laugh again.
Baggage Claim
There had to be at least one healthy branch on his family tree...
Who can he trust?
When Ben Taylor, widower and father of four lively children, decides to track down his biological parents, he discovers a family tree with tangled roots and broken branches. The deeper he digs, the more Ben would rather cover it all up again and pretend he never met them.
Things grow exponentially more complicated when he discovers shady dealings at his job at Great Lakes Therapy. Piece by piece, his comfortable life crumbles as he becomes caught up in a dangerous network of fraud and deception. Anxious to protect his children, he convinces their nanny - who isn't quite what she appears to be - to take them to safety while he wrestles with just how much he can trust his "new" relatives to help. When everything is unraveled, and there is no one else to lean on, will Ben find the courage he needs to see it through and the wisdom to lean on the One who can save them all?
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Snow Angels
When Lisa Marsh is roped into serving Thanksgiving dinner at the local community center, she encounters hundreds of children, lively teenagers, stubbornly independent veterans, eccentric elderly people -- and a particularly rude and scruffy homeless man named Pete. The evening ends in disaster, but when her best friend challenges her to reach out and help other people, Lisa decides to take on the project of reforming Pete – whether he likes it or not.
Her plan is simple: Help him find a job and become respectable. All he needs is a helping hand and some guidance. And a shave. Definitely, a shave.
Pete is willing to work, especially if it means spending time with the pretty volunteer, but her tactless determination to “reform” him makes him dig in his heels. Her creative ideas for employment become increasingly outrageous, but every time he tries to put an end to her meddling, she charms him with her good intentions and willingness to serve others.
Lisa finds herself unaccountably attracted to her vagabond protégé and irresistibly entangled in the lives of the other people she meets at the community center. Before she knows how to stop it, her one small service project snowballs into an extraordinary Christmas ministry that just may change her life forever.
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Long Shadows
Old sins cast long shadows
Mona Vickers is forging a new life, building a safe and loving home for her girls far away from the hatred and contempt they experienced after their father’s arrest. She’ll do whatever it takes to make it work – even teaching a class that hits too close to home.
Roy Strough, director of the Unity Plenkiss Community Center, wants to help the hardworking mother who’s captured his heart, but he’s already offended her pride once and won’t do that again.
Mona’s growing faith is put to the test when one of her students is caught up in a trafficking scheme, but the biggest challenge comes from the shadows of their past. A vengeance-bent stalker forces them into hiding, compelling Mona to decide who she can trust with their secrets – a man who loves her and an all-powerful God.
Hope for the Holidays
Newly arrived from her home in the Congo and armed with a brand-new degree in nonprofit management, Carrie Strough is eager to organize and improve the Unity Plenkiss Community Center. Unfortunately, no one wants to be organized, and only Micah Neresen, the charming and handsome pastor of the local church, is interested in her plans. Or is he just interested in her?
With a cast of lively and eccentric characters including a homeless vet with PTSD, a con man, an elderly couple with an over-the-top Christmas display, a feisty committeewoman with a past of her own, and a police investigation, Micah and Carrie wonder if there is any hope for the holidays this year!
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Home Run
Phoebe Schenstrom's always been a bit bossy. After all, she's the oldest of ten children, has worked as a nanny and run the children's ministry at the Unity Plenkiss Community Center for three years. But when a clash - or two - with clients leads to her suspension, she needs to prove that she's more than a babysitter.
Her brother's adventure camps for city kids might give her a chance to save her job, but he's invited Ben Taylor to help with it, and Phoebe doesn't want to give Ben the wrong idea... and she certainly doesn't want thim to think he's just her fall-back plan.
It should have been a simple camping trip in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula, but someone knew they were coming....
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