I’m very excited about my guest blogger today. She’s Deeanne Gist, and she writes “edgy” inspirational historical romances. Her delightful books have received HUGE amounts of critical acclaim. She’s won two consecutive Christy Awards, is a three-time nominee for the RITA Award, and has been nominated for or won an astounding number of other awards, too.
And here’s just one example of the reviews Deeanne consistently garners, this one for Deep in the Heart of Trouble, which received a Top Pick from RT Books Reviews:
“Gist does it again! Her signature prose is consistent and she delivers a thoroughly delightful and entertaining story that’s worthy of our time and attention. Not only won’t you want to put this book down, you’ll want to enjoy this story again and again.”
Deeanne has a new book out called Love on the Line, a historical romance starring a rural telephone operator and a dashing Texas Ranger.
And now I’m going to turn things over to Deeanne, so she can tell us all about her new book.
ONE RINGY-DINGY…
We have an old rotary pay phone hanging on a wall in our gameroom. I’d always get tickled when teenagers came over and asked how to use it. Yet I found myself in that exact same position while researching my new release, Love on the Line. It’s about a turn-of-the-century switchboard operator and a Texas Ranger who goes undercover as a telephone repairman.
The only exposure I’d had to switchboards was from the old Laugh-In episodes with Lily Tomlin (dating myself here). Suffice it to say, I had a lot to learn. Not just about switchboards, but about how telephones worked back in the day. Since my book is set in a rural Texas town, there were party lines. I wasn’t sure how those worked either.
Then, of course, my hero was an undercover telephone repairman. So, I also had to learn how to repair the phones, string the lines, climb a telephone pole, etc. It was quite the education. Did you know they didn’t use safety straps back then? The men simply climbed the pole, then wrapped one leg around it to hold them steady while they did their work. Crazy!
And the telephone operator did much more than connect two parties together. She served as News Central and answered a huge range of questions. What’s playing at the opera house? Who came in on the afternoon train? Where’s the doc? Are the streets outside of town dry or muddy? I lost my cow, will you find out if anyone has seen her?
Talk about having to know everybody’s business! And the party lines were a hoot. Several people would share the same line. Each family had a specific ring. For example, the Smiths might have three short rings. But the Jones had two shorts and one long. Even still, everyone on your line heard the ring and if they wished to pick up and listen in, they certainly could.
Bottom line, I no longer rib the kids when they don’t know how to use our rotary. I simply show them how it works and feel rewarded that I’m passing along a little slice of history to this generation of techno-wizards.
Vanessa, here. Deeanne, thanks for that lovely glimpse into the past. Readers, I bet that whetted your appetite for Love on the Line, didn’t it? And here’s the blurb to pique your interest even more:
Rural switchboard operator Georgie Gail is proud of her independence in a man’s world … which makes it twice as vexing when the telephone company sends a man to look over her shoulder.
Dashing Luke Palmer is more than he appears though. He’s a Texas Ranger working undercover to infiltrate a notorious gang of train robbers. Repairing telephones and tangling with this tempestuous woman is the last thing he wants to do. But when his stakeout puts Georgie in peril, he realizes more than his job is on the line.
Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? And what an original sounding story! For more about Love on the Line, visit Deeanne’s beautiful website. While you’re there, make sure to check out her blog and sign up for her newsletter.
For my readers today, Deeanne is giving away a copy of Love on the Line. Just tell me if you remember having a rotary phone in your house, or whether you’ve only ever used a mobile or walk-around phone. One person who comments will win a copy of Deeanne’s wonderful book.
Yes, not only do I remember having a rotary dial on the phone… I remember having a party line!
Cool, Betty! Did everybody in the neighborhood know everyone’s business?
Yes I remember having a rotary phone. Guess that shows my age. Then when we said “dial a number” we really did mean Dial! I admit I used to play with the dial too as a kid.
I did too, Linda! And of all the phone numbers I’ve had over the years, that rotary one is the one I still remember the best.
When I was a child we had a MASSIVE telephone mounted to the wall. It was rather beautiful. You had to connect to an operator to get a line. The operator was the biggest gossip in the district. She listened in on all the calls. Everyone knew this, so kept the talking to a minimum.
Mary, that’s exactly like Dee’s blog post!
We had a rotary phone for a short while when I was a child.
My husbands grandparents met off a Party line by accident. He was calling for her sister. They fell in love at first sounds of each others voices 🙂
Crystal, now THAT is a romance novel in the making!
i dont have a rotary at our house, we just use mobile phone 😉
That’s the standard now, Eli.
Eeks… That seems like eons ago… But yes, I remember having one when I was REALLY young…. Those things were huge and chunky…
Yes, I remember having one. We even had a wooden telephone ‘booth’ hung on the wall with a working phone inside of it. Beautiful.
Seems like they took up half the telephone table!
I don’t recall a rotary at my parents house when growing up though I’m sure there was one hanging on the basement wall when I was really little (the ‘old’ house). I do know that there was multiple ones in use at my grandparents’ house however and I even had a rotary walkie-talkie phone there (two phones connected by about 20ft of cord to talk between rooms)–neat for a kid used to buttons but not part of the wireless walkies generation quite!
Closest I’ve come to switchboards was at the local Historical Society run Ottertail County Museum–and it was a neat display as they had the whole telephone dispatcher’s room set up.
Crazy thing was that my grandma told me about phones from ‘her day’ and that the phone numbers weren’t even 7 digits! That boggled my mind as a kid…
Sounds cool, Katie!
Never had one in my house by my grandparents did, I’ve seen some at some museums i’ve been too and its mind blowing how far we’ve come since then looking at skinny phones now.
It truly is, Amy.
I remember when I was young, at my grandmas house had a rotary phone and she had a party line, it would ring and I would go to answer it and she would say its not for us. I also remember having to wait while a neighbor was on the line and we needed to make a call, in our house, in the city we had a old dial up phone but no party line.
Party lines sound like a big PITA, to me!
We still have a couple of rotary phones in our house. They are the backup when the power goes out.
I remember party lines. We had them we were growing up. It was bad to know people could listen in on your conversations. Sometimes, you would pick up the phone and some one was talking. The same would happen when you were on a call and you could hear someone pick up on another phone. In those days, few people had more than one phone in their homes. I vaguely remember the operator being involved at times. I was young enough not to have any reason to make a phone call.
I have enjoyed all of Deeanne’s books. They are well researched. The details of the period and places the stories are set are always wonderful. I want a good story, but I want the everyday details that take me there. I want to smell the dust in the streets, the oil from the rigs, the feel of the early bicycles, the fear of an indian attack, and the awe inspired by the grandest house in the country. She delivers it all.
Thank you for the giveaway.
Yes, wonderful books, aren’t they, Pat?
Hi Deeanne and Vanessa,
I have had my eye on “Love On the Line” since I heard about it a few months ago. It has such an appealing premise.
I do remember the days of using a walk around phone. I’ve seen rotary phones in person before in other homes but I don’t think we ever owned one. I miss those.
And remember those old princess phones? They were the height of coolness, at the time.
I just started reading some inspirational books this summer. I haven’t got to Gist yet, but keep looking at them when I am at the library. There are on my to be checked out list:-)
We had a rotary phone that sat on the kitchen counter.
I can remember what a big deal it was when my parents purchased our first push-button phone. Boy, did we thinking we were living large! 🙂
It’s great to hear from everyone!
I guess I am too young we never had any of these things, it has been cellphones and touchpad phones and laptops etc for me. But I would have liked a rotary phone it looks so cool and very different to use! Thanks for the chance to win your books sounds super!
I remember having a rotary phone, and while I don’t think it was a party line exactly, I remember my great-grandparents having different rings for their house and barn on the farm!
We had a rotary phone. I always thought it was the neatest thing ever 🙂
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I rember having a rotary phone on the desk in the family room, My parents refused to upgrade to a new phone whenb I was a pre-teen/teenager, so we had to use the rotary to call friends and boyfriends. My mom also purchased a really old rotary phone that hangs on the wall, a few years ago.
I don’t remember if we had one at my parent’s house, but I definitely remember a rotary phone at my grandparent’s house. My grandpa used one for a long time!
Yes I too remember having a rotary phone in our house when I was growing up !! What a great interview ! And this sounds like a great book ! Thanks for the chance to win it Have a Blessed and Wonderful Day!!
We had a rotary phone until I was 11. I remember when my grandma got a push button phone, she had to tell us kids not to play with it! Now my kids don’t even know what a rotary phone is, and they want cell phones!
We didn’t have a rotary phone growing up, but most of my family did including my grandparents. It’s amazing how fast things change…the phone booth has become extinct and payphones are next. I live in an amish community so we still have a few payphones left, but when we travel we can never find a working one and I refuse to break down and buy a cell phone. I think I am the only 25 year old I know without a cell phone!
I do remember having a rotary phone, my parents still have it. I actually do have a wall rotary phone that I found at a sale. I love it. My daughter thinks its funny and have had people ask me how it works. I just thought REALLY? you don’t know how to use it. I guess that just means I am old.
Would love to win and read this book. Thanks for the giveaway.
LOL! I love that, Chris!
My parents had an old rotary phone and I loved to look at but wasn’t allowed to touch it. After that we just had a regular cell phone. The older phones are so neat and I would love to have one again!
We never had one at our house, but both my grandma and my aunt had one at theirs. My aunt’s was one of the big, old, fancy ones. I loved messing around with it and would run for it if it rang 🙂
We had a rotary phone but it sat on a shelf. That was the first phone I made a phone call on.
I don’t know if we had a rotary phone growing up, but we definitely had land lines. I do kinda miss having a land line. And I was trying to reach a teenager the other day who doesn’t have a landline, only her cell phone. Hard when the kid doesn’t always keep track of it. Do I call her mom’s cell to reach her? If only I could call a landline to reach her!! 😀 (I LOVE LOVE your books!!!)
Yes, I do remember having a rotary dial phone. I also remember the color. It was white. I was never on a party line but my mother has told me stories about when she was on a party line.
Yes i remember the rotary phone, also the party line. My grandmother has a phone on the wall that you had to turn the lever on the side to get the operator who in turn rang for the person you watned to talk to. Those were the days.
Hii,
I only have a mobile phone, and a walk-around phone at home from my mum and dad. I’m a bit too young to have used a rotary phone. 🙁 I do think it would have been fun. 🙂
I remember my grandparents having a rotary phone (my other grandparents had party line) and my grandpa was blind and would always dial the operator to make his calls. My parents have a look alike rotary phone on thier wall but it dials like a push button.
Oh yes, we had a rotary phone the whole time I lived at home…it was a big deal when we went I moved out on my own and got a cordless, LOL.
I remember using our rotary phone. Plus we just got a new phone for my Father-n-Law because he was still using his rotary phone that he had forever. He’s 87 yeaars old it’s taking him forever to learn how to use his new phone cordless phone..
Old habits die hard, Tina, don’t they?
I do remember having a rotary dial phone. We still have one at a thrift shop where I do volunteer work.
I actually have two rotary phones in my house. They don’t work. But they were handed down from my grandmother, and I have kept them ever since she gave them to me. There are a lot of old memories, and fascination in those old phones.
I personally didn’t, but I do remember my grandparents having one.
Telling my age here but we had one and was a 6 party line and had to use the operator to connect our call. I remember when we did not have to use the operator but had party line and I would keep picking up to see if they had hung up yet. lol
I love Deeanne’s books and have this one on my wish list.
When I was a child we went years without having a home phone. We used to go to a neighbor house if there was an important call to be made. As a young woman ,I had a rotary dial phone with a party line and thought it was wonderful.
I am too young to have had rotary phones in my house, but I do remember visiting my great-grandfather’s house and he had one hanging on the wall.
I remember having to dial and if you messed up you had to start all over. There were times when you could hear people talking and hear their conversation. That’s crazy not wearing any harness to fix the telephone lines. I do not like heights in any way. Scares me a lot.
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I remember growing up with a rotary phone until about age 13.
Oh, my God! This is such a fun thread! I can’t reply to each one, but ladies, I’m reading every one!
We had a few rotary phones, however when I was born they certainly weren’t the norm. The rotary phones were simply older phones, and we mainly had the long, stretched-out phone cord. If you had the money, and were high tech, then you had the cordless. When my grandmother died, we had one of her tan marble rotary phones. My mom told me it was a big deal – my grandmother specially ordered that phone to match a set of marble coffee tables she had. While we are now in the age of mobile phones (in fact we even removed our home line since we don’t use it anymore), when I get married and move into my own home I plan on displaying her phone and using it if I get a landline.
I love that your grandmother’s phone match her marble coffee tables!
Even though my family never had one in use in our home I remember using a rotary phone whenever my siblings and I played pretend as children. Now we use our home cordless phone and/or cell phones.
We had them for the longest time and they always were great when the electricity was out but cell phone are good too as long as they’re charged lol. I can still remember having a party line when I was a child. You had to wait if someone else was talking and anyone could just listen to your conversation!! We also have one of those pay phones that was made into a lamp lol
Land lines are great in a blackout!
Oh yes I had a rotary phone. I spent all night on the phone with my boyfriend one night when we both fell asleep while talking. I slept on the kitchen floor underneath the big black rotary phone. I will never forget it.
Great memory, Lyn!
My Mom and Dad still have a bright yellow rotary phone in their kitchen. It still works though it crackles a little. I had a princess style rotary phone even in college, that had belonged to my grandmother. I wish I had kept it.
I, too, grew up with rotary phones. I grew up in a big city and all my friends had party lines. However, my father was a doctor so we didn’t. I remember listening to some interesting conversations at my friends’ homes–although we weren’t supposed to listen,
I think it is so cool that so many of you had party lines. We never had those, so I had to do a bunch of research on them. They seem like such a hoot!
Thanks so much for stopping by, girls!
We’ve never had a rotary phone. We use mobile and walk-around phones.
Hi Vanessa and Deeanne!
Vanessa thanks for inviting Deeanne over today! I’m thrilled because everyone in my family is receiving a copy of Love on the Line this year for either their birthday or Christmas!
I don’t only have gond memories of having a rotary phone but I want it back! At least in that day in age you didn’t have to worry about the phone working if your power went out. When I was growing up I had friends who were jealous that we had a one party line and didn’t have to worry about others listening in on their phone calls.
My husband’s grandmothers was one of the “roller skating” supervisors in Hartford, CT who supervised the operators by roller skating up and down “the line”. Working for the phone company must be passed on down thru the genes becuase my Mother-in-Law was also an operator and my son is a Manager for AT&T.
I must admit my son often throws his hands up in dispair as I refuse to get a cell phone. I’m one of the few who DON’T want to be in touch 24-7. After all once in a while after a long day of work I do just want to sit back and read. While a “regular” phone it’s so easy to just leave it off the hook – no ringing, no messages, no interuptions just quiet uninterupted bliss!