Author Profile Interview
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
LOL! Are you sure about that? Mel and I have been married almost ten years, we started writing on our first blind date, set up by our pastor. Mel works as an ER physician in an emergency department at a hospital, and I stay home and write, here in a lovely small town in the Ozarks.
2. How did you become a novelist, and did you always want to write?
Cheryl: I have always wanted to write, as has Mel. However, medicine took over Mel's life at the age of ten, while I continued to develop my passion for writing. I sat down and started my first novel at the age of 29, and just never stopped. Of course, it took fourteen years for a novel to sell, but then they continued selling after that.
3. What do you think is significant about Christian fiction?
It is changing and growing. I see Christian novelists as being incubated in the warm, nurturing environment of CBA, but the days of comfort for some of us may be drawing to an end. We are ready to be read by unbelievers as well as believers if the message of Christ and His tender love for us is to spread to those who most desperately need it. I don't want to bash people over the head with my bible, I want to simply show them how powerful God's love is for them.
4. How do you hope your readers react to the stories you write?
With joy. With excitement. With a deeper desire to know the God I serve. Then, if they're interested in reading the next book we have published, that'll just be icing on the cake for us.
5. What responses to your novels have affected you the most and why?
The responses we receive are wonderful, but the one we most want to see--the "aha" moment of sudden understanding of God's love for the unbeliever--hasn't come to us yet. It's our hope to see this kind of letter someday. However, we have had letters from readers whose lives were impacted because of something we taught them about medicine. That's a wonderful feeling!
6. How has being a novelist impacted your relationship with Christ?
I think the question to ask ourselves is how has our relationship with Christ impacted our writing. We are Christians who write novels. If we are living what we believe, then that Christianity will simply be revealed from the pages, and the message will reach those who need it, whether it be to remind Christians about a spiritual truth, or communicate God's love more completely.
7. Other than writing great novels, what other goals do you have for your life?
Pleasing God, impacting patients with hope.
8. What do you like to do in your spare time?
We love to hike, travel--though that is almost always connected to our jobs--and spending time with friends.
9. What can you tell us about your latest novels?
Our latest novel, Note of Peril, is a launch book for the Love Inspired Suspense line of books from Steeple Hill. Two books will come out every month, and the editor for this line is Krista Stroever, who is phenomenal, a Princeton grad whose passion is to produce fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat suspense.
10. What stories can your fans expect from you in the days ahead?
We intend to keep producing suspenseful books with romance and a whole lot of fun characters. Oh, and there will be medicine involved somewhere.
|
|
