Guest Blog: Heidi Gray McGill and Vision of my Heart *Prize Paperback copy of the Book :)

Dear Readers, Please join me in welcoming back Heidi, an amazing woman who gets so much done despite the disability she's faced. Plus, she writes interesting stories!

Introduce yourself — name, where you're from, and something people notice when they meet you.

Thank you for having me, Christina. I’m Heidi Gray McGill. I live just south of Charlotte, NC, in a small town in South Carolina. People often notice me taking a quick walk without my shoes…no matter the weather. I have no idea where this came from, except that I can clear my mind more quickly…probably because I have to be extremely focused on all the acorns, uneven edges in the sidewalks, and where I am going. I’m legally blind and rarely use my cane when I’m out and about in familiar areas, but I still get disoriented.

Tell us about your book — title and back cover blurb.

My book is called Vision of My Heart, and it's the seventh and final book in my Discerning God's Best series.

It's about a young woman named Serafina Shankel who loses her sight to smallpox, along with a lot of the confidence she used to wear so easily. But she doesn't let it break her. She meets that altered world with quiet dignity, choosing composure over complaint.

Then a frontier storm strands her far from home, and a horseman named Connor Finnegan finds her. He's steady, a little dry in his humor, and he's weathered enough loss of his own to recognize it in someone else. He doesn't offer her a heroic rescue or easy promises. Just patience, and a way of seeing her that has nothing to do with sight at all.

Neither of them expects how far that bond is going to reach, or how much hope it awakens in a heart he thought was long since buried. The future God has for them looks nothing like what either imagined. And, it actually turns out to be much sweeter, though they’ll go through ups and downs to get there.

Vision of My Heart closes out the whole Discerning God's Best series for readers who've been with the town of Shumard Oak Bend since book one. Most readers will tell you to start at the beginning of the series and watch the characters grow. They become like family, and you’ll want to visit with them often!

Share one thing you found difficult or challenging about writing this book.

Great question. Writing Sera's point of view was the hardest part, hands down. She's not just visually impaired, she is completely blind with no light, no shapes…nothing. And I had to write every single scene from inside that experience.

Here's the thing about what this meant to me. I have just enough vision to be dangerous. I still run into toddlers more often than I'd like to admit. So, sitting down to write a character with zero vision, no visual cues at all, meant I couldn't lean on my own eyes even a little. I had to imagine every scene the way Sera would actually live it, through sound and touch and smell, and strip out anything visual completely.

That sounds like a fun writing challenge on paper. But in practice it was emotionally draining. I'd finish a scene and feel like I'd been holding my breath the whole time, because I was working so hard to stay inside her experience instead of my own and knowing that this will be my reality at some point.

The other layer of difficulty was that this is book seven. Closing out a series means keeping track of dozens of characters, their ages, their timelines, who was where and when, across seven books worth of history. Between staying faithful to Sera's blindness and keeping all those threads straight, this one asked more of me than any book before it.

Ask the blog reader a quirky question or two to encourage comments and engagement.

Oh, I have to give you this one, because it might be my favorite Connor moment in the entire book.

There's a scene where Connor is walking Sera home in the dark after asking to court her, and out of nowhere, he starts singing. The real hymn goes like this:

"I heard the voice of Jesus say,' I am this dark world's light; look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright.'"

Connor loves that hymn. He's also, by Sera’s admission, not a talented singer, and he cannot resist rewriting it to fit his own life. So, half a step off pitch, he gives Sera this instead:

"I heard the Lord say, stay the course, though the fence post leans to the right; a man who wanders his own good land is still within My sight."

She tells him it's not bad, and that is apparently all the encouragement Connor needs, because he immediately tries again, this time worse:

"I heard the voice of Jesus say,'Go fix that broken gate; the man who keeps his fences true won't find his horses stray.'"

By this point Sera is laughing so hard she can barely get out that he should have quit while he was ahead. That is Connor in one scene. Steady, a little ridiculous when he wants to be, and completely unbothered by his own terrible voice as long as it makes her laugh.

Now, here's my question for the readers. If Connor can turn a hymn into a song about fence posts and gates, what would you do with "Amazing Grace"? Take a crack at rewriting one line to fit your own life (your job, your family, your quirks, whatever) and drop it in the comments. I'll pick a favorite, and that individual will receive a signed copy of Vision of My Heart.

Share your social media and buy links!

You'll find many of my books already available in audiobook format on most major retailers, or you can listen for free on my YouTube Audiobook Playlist, where I always appreciate a reciprocal comment, like, and subscribe. You can see all of my books at heidigraymcgill.com/my-books, and if you're in the mood for something free, sign up for my free Christmas book or grab the series prequel. You can also find me on Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, Bluesky, Goodreads, and BookBub.

Thank you so much for having me, Christina. I always enjoy the chance to talk about Vision of My Heart and Sera and Connor's story.

You're welcome--and thank you for being a guest!!