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How did you choose to write about three black generations?

I’ve always been very fascinated with the issue of slavery and how the world can justify that. My ancestors owned slaves so I was raised with these stories. My family either feel complete anti-bigotry there are those who think we should have won the Civil war. I fell in the First group. I fell in love with Gone With The Wind when I was ten years old. When I had the opportunity to actually write this. It was one of those stories I just started and had hidden in my heart and never thought that I would actually have the opportunity to present it to anyone. This is my passion. I'll probably never write anything quite like this again. You know Jesus didn't say, "love your neighbor as yourself as long as they're the same color as you."

How did you break down the time-line for the series?

In the very beginning, I didn't know when Andy went into the house who Cat was going to be to him, it just evolved. I discovered this book as I wrote it. It was the most amazing thing. Once I realized how the relationships were all going to fit together, then there came the crafting, the time frame. This was set in the 1940's, before the civil rights movement in the deep south Nothing really changed since the Civil War, federal laws not withstanding, blacks were treated poorly.

It started at that point. Andy was someone who was running from the memories of who he was, his past. He had begun his life there but he had done something better. Andy didn't want to be stuck with the mind set that “I'm not as good as you are.” Going into this house to interview what he had thought was a white Southern belle woman, to him, he went in there with this, "what am I doing here, why are you calling me to come do this?" This story changed. Andy changed a lot in my thought process. You start out on the very surface level and then it goes deep. You get to know who these people are and what propels them forward and his goals, and why he thinks the way he thinks to go into this history. As we went into Cat's history and saw what drove her and then their histories kind of melted into one. You could see why he became the man he became. Her salvation became his salvation. Her redemption became his redemption. She wanted to make things better for Andy because she saw herself in him. She had made so many mistakes in her life. She wanted to do one thing right. So Andy was her project, her salvation. Cat never really becomes the person she could be. But that's real life. She lived on this surface of "I have to live, I have to get by" attitude. Even at the end of her life.

How did you choose your characters?

Usually I can answer this question but this one I just don't know. I had this passionate moment where I sat down and started writing and just saw this black man walking up to the house and that's how the story took off. It was just one of those things

Do you prefer to write romance, suspense or contemporary fiction?

I really love the funny, clear first person series that I'm doing for Warner Faith. That ones probably the easiest. Of all the books that I've written I love The Color of the Soul. It's my passion. It was really heart wrenching to write. I don't know if I could sustain that. I've had such a crazy deadline this year that I finished this one and went in to another historical romance with Heartsong that was very deep. It dealt with the subject of rape. That one's called Beside Still Waters. It comes out in December. It was also a passion of mine. I would probably say that those two books were probably the two that took me deepest into probably; because I'm a very light, funny kind of person, and I like that being crazy and fun, but these two books took me into just some deep places of thought . It was tough going from The Color of the Soul into Besides Still Waters.

What are some of the challenges you face as an author?

More time to get it all done. We've got four children and we’re in the process of buying a bigger home. Right now I don't have an office. So anything I do, I do in my kitchen. I either write at my kitchen table or I write in the recliner. There's really no place to go for just quiet especially in the summer time. I've been on such crazy deadlines, day and night so it's probably time in getting it all done is the biggest struggle that I face.

I have good friends and my family is so supportive. They understand what I've got to do to fulfill these deadlines. Sometimes I think that I can either be the mom I want to be or I can write the books I want to write. But not both. It's a really difficult choice. I'm pulled in these different directions.

I'm now in a place where I can breathe and God's just dealing with me about some priorities and what's the most important things in life. Taking it a little bit easier and not over committing. I don't need to go full speed ahead. I can take a little time and just slow down. I can do it better and take time with my family that I haven't been able to take. My husband was in Kuwait for a year and he's been home since December but since that time I've had about 1 1/2 years of constant back-to-back deadlines, so we really haven't had a chance to reconnect.

God has really blessed us with this relationship. It's just a very comfortable relationship. He doesn't make demands on me and I don't make demands on him. We love each other and love to spend time together and we have a lot of fun when we have those moments together. But we could just easily go a week without talking because we're on a different schedule. It doesn't affect us in terms of our relationship. The relationship is there, it's tight, it's committed. It's built on God.

How long did The Color of the Soul take you to write?

I wrote the first five chapters before I ever submitted a proposal. Then I wrote the rest of it in six weeks. It was a very quick. This is one of the things I wish I had had more time to do some more with the book to develop it more. I feel a little disappointed in myself in the book. I feel it could have been deeper.

How many more books are in the Penbrook Diaries Series?

We have two more planned but the second and third will not be like this one. We have a couple of historical romances for the sequels. They won’t have the same type of feel. I’m going to have to search deep to find those themes to make it a satisfying read to people who read this one and expect. I’m just seeking the Lord as I think about the plot lines and where I’m going to go with it. I do want to make it what He wants it to be. Color of the Soul is what He wanted it to be.

How much research did you have to do for the Color of the Soul?

It didn’t take as much as you might think because, since I was a little girl, I’ve been a deep student of the Civil War era. I read everything I can get my hands on about that time period. Once I chose the location, the location is loosely based around Georgia. I just did a lot of research; I did read All Roads Lead To Rome. I just caught some of the nuances of the area.

Who was your favorite character?

They’re all me so, every single one of them, even the evil characters. They’re all just parts of me. I love Cat. I think Camilla is probably my favorite of all the characters. Camilla got a raw deal. She was raised to be this little spoiled thing and Cat was the one her mother loved. People overlooked her because Cat was such a force. Cat’s the one who took charge, the one who everybody admired and Camilla had really good qualities. She loved Shaw as a friend. Those two are my favorite characters.

You said the characters are “All me,” how personal are your novels?

I struggle with masks as I’m sure most people do. Who is the real me and how comfortable am I stripping away the layers from the shell that I’ve put up just to protect myself? Who am I really if I take away all those layers of cover up? which is the soul, who I am? This book can take any issue. I could have taken an overweight heroine. I could have taken any race. I could have taken a child of abuse. It’s the human condition, it’s who we are and we protect ourselves any way possible. The vulnerable among us are the ones that make a difference in the world. The people who seem to put themselves out there, the people who are willing to take away the layers and bear themselves open. That’s what Jesus did, He laid his life down and He laid down who He was and that’s why He could make a difference because He didn’t hold anything back. I think that that’s where I’m coming from. Take off the layers, take off the mask. Let people see into who you really are and then you can make a difference in the world.

Do you other projects coming that you can speak about?

I have the two more books in the Penbrook series and have another Heartsong, that’ll be coming out. Then there’s the Claire series with Warner Faith that’ll be coming out in January 2006. The second one comes out in June 2006 and the third one comes out in the following series. We’ll see what happens after that.

Who is the person who most influenced your writing ?

Probably Jeannette Oke. When I started reading her books, I was just ten or eleven. It was when the first one came out, Love Comes Softly, in 1979 I read them over and over, and through the years I went through different levels because of my maturity level. As I got older, I would see the things that Janette Oke was bringing out like, with Marty, her willingness to surrender, to be the wife she was suppose to be. I remember when I was a young mother, twenty-one or twenty-two, I was reading the book again and I remember thinking, “God, she is trying to be a proper wife, a Godly wife, a good wife to this man who took her off the prairie.” It impacted me as a wife. I think that day I got up and cleaned my house. It was just one of those moments. Then, when I started writing, I was thinking about that moment, how that had ministered to me. I remembered telling the Lord, “God, if one thing came out of my writing, as a Christian author I want people to take away a message, the message that You have for them in every book.

What message would you like your readers to take from The Color of the Soul?

There are a couple of things I want them to take away. I think people are going to take away whatever God wants for them personally, everybody is so individual, I mean they’re probably going to see things that I never would have thought of that God just threw in there for certain people. Mainly just to be real. Strip away the masks. Be who you are. Be who God created you to be. Don’t be afraid to be who you are because when it really matters, the most good you can do in the world is through your vulnerability. Just through opening yourself up, just being who you are. People can see through a façade, they can see through it easily. That’s one thing.

The other thing, probably more of a gut thing is more of an obvious level is, Jesus told us two things “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your mind.” Secondly, “love your neighbor as yourself.” There’s no excuse for prejudice, none what-so -ever. I don’t care what the black people did. I don’t care what the white people did on either side. There’s no excuse for prejudice. We’re Christians. I believe fully that we’re going to stand before God and He’s going to say, “How could you have despised your brother because of the color of his skin. How could you have despised your sister because of the curls in your hair or the straighten of her hair or the lightness or the darkness of her skin. I think that the church is going to have to get real and realize that it has to start with the church because we’re the ones that have the love of God inside us.

What is your goal or mission as a Christian writer?

I used to think that my mission was the church, I’m called to write to Christian women, I always said that, and all my friends said “I want to cross over to the ABA. I said no, I’m called to the Christian community just to take it deeper. I still feel that in some aspects but I also feel that in the CBA, we are not necessarily reaching the weaker Christian readers that we need to be reaching. They’re not reading Christian fiction. It’s almost like the strong Christians are the ones that won’t read off the secular shelf. That’s where I feel like God is calling me. That’s where I feel like I’m headed is a cross over and I’m hoping and I’m praying that wherever God leads me and if He leads me to stick with romance, then I’ll stick with romance. It’s just a matter of when you feel that nudge towards something and you just have to go with it even if it’s not necessarily a popular move or maybe the popular thought. My agent wasn’t even crazy about me doing the historical series ‘cause we wanted to go in a different direction with my career but I really felt like this was God.

What is your Favorite Bible verse?

Right now Jeremiah 33:3 has sort of been the scripture that won’t let me go.

What are your favorite books? I loved the Trixie Belden books growing up. Right now I love anything by Athol Dickson, an amazing Christian author. Shelley Bates, Susan Warren. Lisa Samson. I don’t really read the classics, except for The Tale of Two Cities.

Related Authors

• Tracey V. Bateman

• Susan May Warren

Related Books

• Beside Still Waters - H S #676 (Mass Market)

• Color Of The Soul, The (Trade Paper)