Christian Historical Fiction Talk is listener supported. When you buy things through this site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Become a patron and enjoy special perks and bonus content.
Today it’s my pleasure to welcome to a show one of Christian historical fiction’s best known and best loved authors. Kim Vogel Sawyer has been a mainstay of the industry for many years and has sixty books under her belt. She writes lovely, heart-warming fiction that is sure to soothe and nourish your soul. Her new book, Still My Forever, is sure to please her long-time fans and new readers as well.
Still My Forever by Kim Vogel Sawyer
Can a frustrated composer find new inspiration with the woman who once made his heart sing? From the bestselling author of Freedom’s Song comes a charming romance inspired by a real historical figure.
Four years after leaving town to make a name for himself as a composer, Gilbert Baty has returned temporarily to Falke, Kansas. Now, he’s trying to keep everyone from learning the truth about his disastrous years in New York City. He hopes to start writing music again in Falke, but he can’t help being distracted by Ava Flaming, the brown-eyed baker to whom he was briefly engaged before he ended things—and who still stirs feelings in him he knows he has no right to pursue.
Ava had thought she was past the loss of Gil Baty. But to her dismay, she’s as drawn to him as ever. The situation only gets worse when Gil establishes a youth band in Falke, showing once more what a good man he is.
But when the band has a chance to compete in a statewide competition, Ava faces the prospect of heartbreak again. Could music take Gil away forever this time? Or might God be stirring in Ava’s and Gil’s hearts a new song that will draw them together for good?
Get your copy of Still My Forever.
im Vogel Sawyer grew up in Kansas. All over Kansas. Her dad, an educator by vocation and a house fixer-upper by design, had itchy feet. Consequently, Kim attended seven different schools in five cities before graduating from high school. Being painfully shy, all that moving and starting over was tough, but now looking back, she sees the purpose. She became a keen observer of people, and all of that observation works well when crafting fictional characters. And it led Kim to a personal truth: God wastes nothing…not even a shy little girl’s fear of entering yet another new classroom.
Although Kim Vogel Sawyer dreamed of being a writer from her earliest memories—even recalls telling her kindergarten teacher that people would check out her book in libraries someday!—she chose to become an elementary school teacher. She used her degree first in an in-home daycare/preschool, then as a home visitor with Head Start, and finally in a fifth grade classroom. Kim loved the kids, but health challenges (a variety of auto-immune disorders) made it difficult to keep up the pace of full-time teaching.
In 2001, she dropped to part-time status and began using the morning hours at home to write. The characters and stories that had lived in the back of her brain for years found their way from her fingertips onto a computer screen. She made a promise: to never write anything that would embarrass her mother or to write anything she would be embarrassed for her daughters or former students to read. A friend read the manuscripts and made a statement that resonated with Kim.
“Your stories, even though they cover tough topics, are so gently told, and they’re laden with hope.”
Hope. Kim Vogel Sawyer’s favorite word. She adapted the comment into a pledge to her future readers: Gentle stories of hope. And of course, knowing our hope is found in nothing less than a relationship with Jesus Christ, Kim’s stories always possess a strong spiritual thread.
Kim Vogel Sawyer’s first book, A Seeking Heart, which was loosely based on her mother’s family history, released in June of 2002. She began attending writing conferences to learn more about publishing, and she signed with a literary agent in 2003. In 2005, between March and November, she signed contracts with Bethany House, Barbour Publishing, and the Heartsong Presents line for a total of ten books. At the end of the school year, she resigned from teaching and has enjoyed a full-time writing and speaking ministry ever since.
In September of 2018, she celebrated the release of her fiftieth novel, a number not even the imaginative little dreamer could have envisioned. Every day, you’ll find her at her computer, most often with a cat on her lap, bringing to life the characters that fill her head and using their struggles to show the hope we can possess when we place our lives in God’s loving, capable hands.
When Kim isn’t writing, she enjoys traveling with her retired military hubby, quilting, antique-shopping, and spoiling her quiverful of granddarlings—six Sweeties, two Bugaboos, and a pair of Wugmumps—who are the joys of her life. She likes them even more than chocolate, and that’s saying something.
Kim is currently at work filling her most recent contract and using her teaching degree combined with her love of writing to teach at writing conferences across the U.S. She knows God opened the door to a writing ministry to her, and she intends to write until He closes the door or calls her home.
