A Promise to Break – Kathryn Spurgeon

A Promise of Home

Featured by Kathryn Spurgeon, posted in Historical novel

Announcing a new exciting, 1940s historical novel.

“This is an awesome book. I have loved the entire series.” Amazon Reviewer

“Intriguing, exciting, heartbreaking, and full of history.” A Series Reviewer

I’m so excited this new book has been released. It’s a great book set during the war. I’ve been told it’s one of my best.

As WW2 heats up, many young men from Fremont’s hometown of Shawnee, Oklahoma, enlist or get drafted. Word filters in about the wounded, the missing in action, and those who have died.

Fremont Pope avoids the draft, but to do his part, he finds a job at an ammunition plant in Colorado while his wife, mission-minded Sibyl, agrees to the move, hoping to teach women what she’s learned. They’re also glad to leave their cantankerous family behind in Oklahoma.
And then their family follows them to Colorado. Of all things!

When they have to move again, Fremont’s boss offers an amazing promotion back east. Their other choice is to move to New Mexico for mission work. It’s a tough choice. Plunge ahead to a lucrative corporate job or help a small new church grow.

They yearn to go home, but where is home? What does God want them to do? Are they willing to give up their dreams and begin again?

A Promise of Home, the fourth and final book in the Promise Series, carries the reader through a timeless family saga based on a compelling true story.

Love and blessings,

Kathryn

A Road Trip to Hollis

10/31/201710/31/2017 by Kathryn Spurgeon, posted in Historical novel

Hollis, where my father grew up, is a little town in the far southwest corner of Oklahoma, still charming in many ways. It took about three hours to drive there from Oklahoma City. On the trip, my brother, sister, and I passed cotton fields that looked like patches of snow, visited a cemetery that was as hot, dry, and dusty as if going back to the Dust Bowl age, and took pictures of old stores, churches, and schools where my family once walked.

The day trip was fun, especially with my siblings in tow. Since all of us had visited there as children, we reminisced about our childhood and favorite relatives. Thank you Keren and David for accompanying me.

We visited the Harmon County Historical Society where we found pictures of my dad when he graduated in 1948 and many names of relatives mentioned in historical books. Then we went to the Harmon County Courthouse, where a nice lady helped us look through monster books that went back to the beginning of time, or the beginning of the county’s statehood. Marriages. Divorces. Testaments. We found a great aunt’s marriage licenses from the 1920’s, and my great grandparents’ will and testament. What a find!

Joe’s Grill, a hometown café, gave us an awesome lunch. If you ever go through Hollis, try the special catfish meal. It came complete with homemade German Chocolate cake.

I’m considering writing a short story or historical novel about my father’s family from Harmon County. Set in the 1930’s like my other historical books, this one would be about the five sisters and the baby girls they lost during the Great Depression. Where was God when the Dust Bowl hit Hollis residents so hard?

The Bible instructs us to remember the past. Remember what God has done. Deuteronomy 32:7 states, “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.”

Digging into the past has been a challenge. I love looking back to see how God worked through people. He was always there, always helping, always loving. However, sometimes you have to look really deep to see it!

You can find my Christian novels based on real people, A Promise to Break, and A Promise Child, on Amazon.

Where to find my historical novel

08/23/201701/26/2025 by Kathryn Spurgeon, posted in Historical novel

My new novel, A Promise Child, second book in the Promise series, continues the story of Sibyl, a banker’s daughter, who falls in love with Fremont, a penniless hobo. It is now available at several places:

Memory House Publishing: http://memoryhousepublishing.net/a-promise-child/

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2szydtf

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36107109-a-promise-child?from_search=true

Best of Books at 1313 East Danforth, Edmond, OK

The Living Word, at the Shawnee Mall, OK<img

The Arts 317 317 E Main St, Shawnee, OK 74801

Pottawatomie County Museum, (Santa Fe Museum)

If you like this book, or the first one, A Promise to Break, I would appreciate a review on Amazon or Goodreads! Thank you! God has blessed me more than I deserve!

Guest at Book Release Party!

08/11/201701/26/2025 by Kathryn Spurgeon, posted in Historical novel

The 1930s party to release my novel, A Promise Child, is almost here! We’ll have a Special Guest at the party – Margaret Pope Akin, the first baby born in A Promise to Break, the first book in the series – and my mother! 1933 margaret pope (2)
Thought you might like to see her baby picture. The books about the Trimble and Pope families could not have happened without her help. She is a delightful, intelligent and godly woman.

This is as much Margaret Pope’s book as it is mine. She has a clear memory and has been willing to spend hours and hours discussing and dissecting the family history, the town of Shawnee back in the day, and the details surrounding life in the ‘30s. I hope you get a chance to meet her! 2007 Margaret 2

Enjoy the journey with Sibyl and Fremont as they live out the late 1930’s in A Promise Child.

More about Book Release Party

A Café with a past.

07/06/2017 by Kathryn Spurgeon, posted in Historical novel

Shawnee, Oklahoma has some interesting places that have existed since the 1920’s or 30’s, some mentioned in my book, A Promise to Break. Last week, when I was in Shawnee, my mother and I ate at the Hamburger King.

She says they make the best hamburgers she’s ever eaten with toasted buns, fresh lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. They also make many kinds of homemade pies. Oh, delicious.

What important people or dignitaries may have eaten at this hamburger joint during the past decades? Many famous people came through Shawnee and could have stopped in. It’s strange to think that my great-grandparents probably ate at the same café I did. That history connects me to them in a tighter way.

Which makes me think of my ancestors’ godly, Christian lives and the way their values have been passed down through the years. Some history never fades. I hope my great-grandchildren remember the values I’ve been taught and tried to live by. Maybe that’s one reason I write historical fiction based on true stories, so future generations won’t forget their past.

https://atomic-temporary-2031384.wpcomstaging.com/my-writing-2/