Author Patti Lacy shares about her novel
The Rhythm of Secrets (Kregel).
WHAT WERE YOUR GOALS IN WRITING THE RHYTHM OF SECRETS?
Chris, on the morning of July 8, 2007, I opened the Chicago Tribune. Coffee sloshed on the table…and I didn’t care. Gail Rosenblum’s article about Sandy Sperrazza, a mother giving up…and then reclaiming…her baby grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let go. The idea for my third novel rustled right there in the pulpy pages, begging to be SET FREE!
Stories of two Vietnam veterans, a Moody Bible Institute student, and a brave pastor’s wife collided with the fictional character of Sandy. I time-traveled to my beloved N’Awlins during the 1940s, headed north when things exploded down South, and jetted to Thailand for a tumultuous climax. My prayer is that The Rhythm of Secrets shows God’s mind-boggling display of grace through faith in Jesus Christ…and the horrific price that must be paid when legalism attempts to smother that grace.
SO MUCH OF YOUR FICTION SEEMS TO BE ROOTED IN PLACE…DO YOU INTEND FOR THE LOCATION TO BE ANOTHER “CHARACTER” IN YOUR STORIES?
Aye, so ye noticed that my first novel, An Irishwoman’s Tale, highlighted the wondrous cliffs of County Clare. The second, What the Bayou Saw, took y’all to the murky bayous of Louisiana during segregation’s dark reign. In The Rhythm of Secrets, not only did we time travel, but a whirlwind world tour carried y’all from New Orleans, that city that has alternately swelled and shredded my heart, up to Chicago, with its wild contrasts, ending in Thailand, a breathtakingly beautiful city with breathtakingly awful issues of sex slavery.
HOW DOES YOUR FAITH INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING?
I wouldn’t be able to write A WORD without the Holy Spirit’s whisper. In 2005, God led this community college instructor to capture on paper the amazing story of my best friend forgiving not one but two dysfunctional mothers. My prayer is that each book captures God’s truths. Only through His guidance can this feeble, racing-thoughts-plagued, fifty-five-something woman ever complete a sentence, much less a novel!
WHEN YOUR BOOKS COME OUT AND YOU START GETTING FEEDBACK, HOW DOES IT AFFECT WHAT YOU WRITE NEXT?
Not at all. Okay. I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t hurt when my books get less-than-stellar reviews—or no reviews at all . Oh that I will only long for accolades and instructions from God. Oh that I will tell His stories. I pray one day, when I lay them at His feet, He will say, “Well done.” That will be enough. Nay, eternally more than enough.
WHAT DO YOU MOST HOPE THAT READERS GET FROM READING YOUR WORK?
That the truths expressed in Romans 8:28, God working for good in the lives of those who love Him, who call on His name, will infuse all my books. That God, in His perfect plan, will transform lives that have been shattered by rape. Incest. Addiction. Unbelief. Pride. Legalism. Sex out of wedlock. Racism. I pray that readers will put down my book and say, “Aha. I am challenged to follow God in ________ area of my life.”