Can you share some examples of how your faith impacts your storytelling?
My faith impacts everything I do. I want to glorify God in everything I write, so I’m always thinking of how God has worked in my own life to turn evil into good.
That doesn’t mean that my books have pat, sappy, unrealistic endings. People die, some suffer, and they don’t always get what they want. But the main characters usually come out stronger and with a deeper faith than they had before, and there’s demonstrable evidence that what the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good.
What sort of reader are you thinking of when you write?
I’m always thinking of the appetite of the suspense reader, even when I’m writing something in a different genre. I want my readers to feel surprise or suspense on every page, and I want them to race to finish a chapter so they can close the book, only to find that they can’t close it. They have to start the next chapter to see what’s going to happen next.
In terms of demographic, I like to think I have readers who are young and old, male and female, believing and unbelieving. There’s tremendous power in story, and I want to use whatever power I have to make people think deeply about issues in their lives, and challenge them to see other sides and sift through all the noise to figure out what they believe, and why they believe it.
What do you hope readers come away with after reading Smoke Screen?
I hope readers will come away with a sense of hope. God may allow us to go through some terrible things, but He’s there with us as we endure it, and when we come out on the other end, we will be stronger and have deeper faith, and a better understanding of who we are, and how God works.
Life is a puzzle, and it’s not until all the pieces are in place that we can see how it was all planned out. God is the ultimate author of our faith, just like I’m the author of my novels. I want my books to reflect that real-life principle.
Visit Terri Blackstock’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/terri-blackstock
Smoke Screen
Terri Blackstock
Thomas Nelson
One father was murdered. Another was convicted of his death. All because their children fell in love.
Nate Beckett has spent his life fighting wildfires instead of the lies and rumors that drove him from his Colorado hometown. His mother begs him to come back now that his father has been released from prison, but it isn’t until he’s sidelined by an injury that he’s forced to return and face his past. But that means facing Brenna too.
Fourteen years ago, Nate was in love with the preacher’s daughter. When Pastor Strickland discovered Brenna defied him to sneak out with Nate, the fight between Strickland and Nate’s drunken dad was loud—and very public. Strickland was found murdered later that night, and everyone accused Roy Beckett. When the church burned down not long after, people assumed Nate set the fire to get even for his father’s conviction. He let the rumors fly and left town without looking back.
Brenna is stunned to learn that the man convicted of murdering her father has been pardoned. The events of that night set her life on a bad course, and now she’s fighting a brutal custody battle with her ex and his new wife where he’s using lies and his family’s money to sway the judge. Brenna is barely hanging on, and she’s turned to alcohol to cope. Shame and fear consume her.
As Nate and Brenna deal with the present—including new information about that fateful night and a wildfire that’s threatening their town—the past keeps igniting. Nate is the steady force Brenna has so desperately needed. But she’ll have to learn to trust him again first.