One is an eighteen-year-old girl, sold into slavery as a child by her parents in Mexico, smuggled into San Diego and forced into prostitution. One is an eighteen-year-old boy who is headed to bible college. One is his sixteen-year-old sister. And one is a young woman who is a slave in Thailand. These four young people are surprisingly tied together, their lives interwoven to create a rope – a lifeline – that leads to freedom, rescue and redemption.
WHAT LED YOU TO WRITE DELIVER ME FROM EVIL?
Because most of my fiction is issues-related, my publisher and I were discussing what issue we’d like to take on in our next series. We discovered we were both passionate about exposing the evils of and fighting human trafficking, so it seemed the natural direction to take. Deliver Me From Evil is the first book in the Freedom series on that topic, with two more to follow (Special Delivery and The Deliverer) in 2012.
STARTING OUT, WHO WERE THE AUTHORS WHO INSPIRED YOU? WHO INSPIRES YOU NOW?
I loved reading Eugenia Price and Catherine Marshall. Of course, at that time there weren’t nearly as many Christian fiction writers to choose from, but they were two of my favorites (and still are). I have since added
several others to my list, including the Thoenes, Francine Rivers, and Patti Lacy.
HOW DOES YOUR FAITH INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING?
It is at the heart of everything I write because I see the world with a Christian worldview; therefore I couldn’t write any other way. Though I am always thrilled when unbelievers read my novels, I have no desire to write strictly for the secular market. I write what I consider faith-based or Christian novels, though I hope I do them in such a way that readers across the spectrum will read them.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN YOU WANTED TO BE AN AUTHOR?
From the time I discovered words—before I ever started school—I knew I wanted to write. My husband (then boyfriend) remembers the day in junior high school when I announced I was going to be a writer some day. I’ve tried my hand at a few other jobs along the same, and some fit better than others. But always I come back to arranging words on paper.
WHAT DO YOU MOST HOPE THAT READERS GET FROM READING YOUR WORK?
I pray they will recognize that a secular worldview is not the only option and that there is indeed a better one. I pray my stories will help them along the pathway toward the Father’s heart, whether they already know Him or have yet to be introduced to Him. I also pray my books will challenge them aspire to a more noble and selfless life.