Ethan Clark has been getting picture text messages on his cell phone for weeks. He can’t find out who they’re from (and he’s a cop, so he’s put a trace on the number) but they’re disturbing. They always feature part of an infant – a tiny foot, a chubby little hand, the curve of a child’s cheek – and he’s on his last nerve when he receives one more message. Only this time it’s GPS coordinates. When he investigates the location, he finds an abandoned toddler. Only it turns out she’s not abandoned… she’s a kidnap victim. Now it’s up to Ethan and child services worker Kelsey Rogers to unravel the truth behind their little Janie Doe before the kidnappers get away from them completely.
WHAT LED YOU TO WRITE THE BABY’S BODYGUARD?
There were several themes in The Baby’s Bodyguard that I was very interested in. One was dealing with loss and being able, with God’s help, to move beyond it. The other was the issue of child trafficking that I felt kept coming up at that time in my life. I wanted to write a book that would deal—at least on some level—with the personal side of that issue and remind people that the United States is not immune to the issue of child trafficking. And finally, the book dealt with some sticky issues of adoptive families, but hopefully dealt with them in a sensitive way.
STARTING OUT, WHO WERE THE AUTHORS WHO INSPIRED YOU? WHO INSPIRES YOU NOW?
When I first started writing, I didn’t know that there were authors who wrote from a Christian worldview. I read, and still read, a lot of secular romance and suspense as well as Christian fiction, but I’m so thrilled that readers have such broad choices now! I’m often found reading a historical romance in my “time off” for recreational reading.
HOW DOES YOUR FAITH INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING?
My faith is very personal to me. I’ve had ups and downs and gone through trials, like everyone, and I try to incorporate those into my characters, too. My characters may be larger than life cops or FBI agents, but their faith should be just as real or desperately needed to them in their moments of weakness as mine is to me.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN YOU WANTED TO BE AN AUTHOR?
I started writing my first real manuscript when my daughter was six—she’s fifteen now. I thought then that writing books would be the best job ever. I’d get to stay home in my pajamas and create stories for fun and get paid to do it! It doesn’t exactly work that way. I do stay home in my pajamas a lot … and it’s true that writing is the best job ever … but there are days when it really is a job, especially when the characters are not being cooperative and I can’t figure out why!
WHAT DO YOU MOST HOPE THAT READERS GET FROM READING YOUR WORK?
Of course I hope that readers will be spiritually uplifted, but I also hope that they will be entertained. That they will be able to put away the stresses of their day and enter a different world of romance and suspense, a world where there is always a happy ending.