Tabitha Bouldin: Horses, Chasing Dreams, a Giveaway & More

Please help me welcome my author friend Tabitha Bouldin to the blog this week. Tabitha writes Contemporary Romance and is giving away an ebook of her new release, Waiting on the Tides. Be sure to comment below by December 6 for a chance to win!

Welcome, Tabitha! Let’s jump right in with our first question. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be a veterinarian. I planned on moving to Montana to treat wild mustangs as an equine vet. Then, I wanted to be a wildlife photographer and take pictures of the mustangs. Win-win all around for a horse-crazy girl. I’d still love to visit the wild herds and take photographs, and I’d still love to be a vet, but that’s not the true calling on my heart as an adult. 

Sounds like you’re an animal lover, so I assume you have pets? Do they find their way into any of your stories?

At the moment, we have three cats and one horse. I grew up with animals, and with them always being a part of my life, I find it’s almost impossible for me to NOT include animals in my stories. Cats, dogs, and especially horses tend to make their way into my books. There are times when it feels like the animals are taking over the story! I love writing them, though, and don’t mind when the personalities of my real pets transfer to the book. 

I think most readers enjoy stories with animals, so that’s a plus for you! Who was your favorite book character as a child and why?

I grew up on all the horse books (surprise, surprise!), and my favorite of them all was Beauty from Black Beauty. I read that book over and over again until my copy was so worn out that the pages were falling out. I loved the voice that the author gave the horse, and even though it wasn’t an all sunshine book, it had heart and depth that even my young mind could latch onto and understand. 

What is the setting of your current novel? Is it a real location or fictional? Tell us about it.

My current setting is a set of fictional islands off the coast of Georgia called the Independence Islands. My current book is set on Breakers Head, though the characters do travel a bit across the other islands. The islands are meant to be residential, with no tourism allowed except on a single island that all the other islanders stay far away from. This helped create a small town feel to each island, even though they’re set at the beach.

I love stories set at the beach. How did you select the names for your characters?

For main characters, I love using name generators. I’ll run through hundreds of names before I land on one that seems to fit their personality. And I’m not above changing a character’s name halfway through. 

If you could only publish one book in your lifetime, which of your novels would you choose?

One that I haven’t even written yet. The story of my heart is still well and truly locked up inside me. I love all my stories, don’t get me wrong. I’d happily talk and share all day every day about my characters and their tales, but that ONE book has yet to be unleashed. It’s there. I feel it brewing deep in my heart. Perhaps one day the good Lord will help me show it to you. 

I hope you write that book one day! How long, on average, does it take you to write a novel?

I’m a fast writer, and usually a pretty clean first-drafter. But that doesn’t mean that my stories are ready to go the minute I first type THE END. There’s lots of editing involved, and sometimes total rewrites. I’m in the process now of scrapping an entire book and starting over from scratch. Wait, that doesn’t answer the question, does it? I write between 3,000 and 5,000 words per day, Monday through Friday. This allows me to draft a 55,000-word novel in a month. Then the real fun begins…editing!

I’m impressed with your daily word count. That’s awesome. What did God teach you through the writing of Waiting on the Tides?

God gave me the chance to see life through my characters’ eyes. Christian, in particular, came to my attention early on and began showing me that I could do better as a Christian and as a person. You see, Christian sees people through the lens of his past mistakes. He judges them based on the face they first present to him, and it doesn’t occur to him that there might be a deeper character under the layers. When he first meets the heroine, he judges her based on her age and nothing more.

While I like to think that I do a bit better than that, I realized through writing Christian that I tend to accept my personal opinion of someone as fact without looking deeper. It’s a flaw that I’m working to overcome. 

I’m sure we could all do better with looking deeper into who people really are. What is one of your favorite quotes from Waiting on the Tides?

“She’d made herself a promise to be the heroine of her own story. And heroines did not let the hero—or the villain, as Christian might turn out to be—stop them from living their dreams.” 

This is one of Abby’s quotes, and it really resonated with me that she’s going to keep going and keep chasing her dreams regardless of what Christian throws in her way. 

I hope you keep chasing your dreams too, Tabitha. Thanks so much for sharing on the blog. It’s fun to learn more about you and your new release!

Join the conversation. Do you like reading novels set at the beach? What about those with horses? Did you read Black Beauty as a child?

Be sure to comment below by December 6 for a chance to win an ebook of Waiting on the Tides!

Waiting on the Tides by Tabitha Bouldin

Click the book cover for purchase link

People are more than the sum of their mistakes.

After a life lived in her older brother’s shadow, Abby Solomon is ready to take on the world—or at least a teaching position that puts her face to face with the one guy who thinks she’s nothing more than an immature nuisance.

When his daughter’s mother abandoned them, Christian Johnson swore off women and the trouble they bring. No wife—no drama. Just how he likes it.  But as Christian struggles to juggle his job as a cop with raising his daughter and tracking down a runaway teen, he’s forced to ask the one woman who reminds him of his wife for help.

Abby is thrilled with the opportunity to show Christian that there’s more to her than what he thinks. But just as Christian begins to trust Abby, she makes a colossal mistake that threatens to ruin everything. 

She just wanted to be accepted.

He wanted to be left alone. 

It’ll take a runaway teen to show them that love is not measured by a single mistake.

This Breakers Head novel is Tabitha Bouldin’s final book in the Independence Islands Series featuring five islands, six authors, and a boatload of happily-ever-afters.

Tabitha Bouldin has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing/English from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and has been writing since 2015. When she’s not homeschooling her kids, you’ll find her curled up with a book. Tabitha’s genre of choice is Contemporary Christian Romance which she describes as: Adventure with heart.

Connect with Tabitha: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / TikTok / BookBub / Goodreads / Amazon / Newsletter

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If you missed my special Thanksgiving poem video last week, you can check it out here.