Interview with Author Crystal Walton

02/19/201807/05/2018 / CAstfalk / Leave a comment

I discovered Crystal Walton’s well-written romances last year and am eagerly awaiting the next book in her current series! They are realistic, sweet, and filled with hope!

Your contemporary, clean romances are so fun to read! How did you choose the genre, meaning why “clean” and not mainstream romance, why “clean” without being Christian or inspirational?

Often in mainstream romance, a romance novel’s sole focus hinges on graphic sexual tension, which to me, ends up leaving romance feeling stilted and devalued. I prefer portraying romance as the beautiful, hard, sacrificial, painful, messy, redemptive gift that it is. Yes, that’s going to include physical attraction and real-life temptations and struggles. But it’s important to me to balance that out with a very real emotional connection between the characters themselves, and consequently between the characters and the readers.

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Author Interview with A.K. Frailey

12/18/201708/17/2018 / CAstfalk / Leave a comment

Melchior: Vengeance Is Mine is a sweeping saga that shows the generational effects of our choices. The tapestry of interwoven characters was rich and well done, in my opinion. I’ve seen written that during the development of the novel, your husband passed away. How was the novel’s development affected by your grief, and how did that grief affect the novel?

Writing has always been a bit if an escape from reality and yet an opportunity to look at life—my life as well as life in general—from a fresh angle. John suffered the effects of Leukemia for four years before he passed away, so my writing during those years shadowed that reality. Many questions arose while I watched the man I loved suffer and die. At the same time, God’s grace remained tangible and held me together far better than I realized during the ordeal. The dual reality of grief and comfort, testing and surrender, informed the complexities of the novel. I realized I could no longer simply tell a “story.” Rather, I reflected through character, plot, and setting something of life’s mystery, which pointed to something beyond me as a writer and humanity as a whole. That is the core of Melchior’s journey—to realize that he didn’t have to understand God or even himself; he simply needed to allow God to grow inside him no matter what was happening around him. Continue reading →

Interview with YA Author A.J. Cattapan

10/16/201711/04/2017 / CAstfalk / 1 Comment

Seven Riddles to Nowhere includes one of the most original, intriguing minor characters I’ve come across in a children’s book. Old Man Englebert uses an electronic voice box, something I remember quite vividly from my own childhood. Several men that inhabited the smoky fraternal clubs my dad frequented used them, and they left a lasting impression on me. What inspired the character, whose voice provides an interesting contrast to the protagonist Kam’s selective mutism?

I have to admit I never thought about what an interesting contrast Old Man Engelbert’s voice box is to Kam’s selective mutism! The truth is that I just wanted to make the man seem as scary as possible, and somehow the idea of an electronic voice box popped into my head. Maybe it was all those years of watching Star Wars movies with my brothers and listening to Darth Vader’s scary voice. Continue reading →

Interview with Author Michelle Buckman

08/21/201707/20/2018 / CAstfalk / 4 Comments

Turning In Circles is permeated with what is – to me, anyway – a Southern fiction voice. What characteristics do you see as setting Southern fiction apart from general fiction set throughout the United States? (Because I wouldn’t necessarily call everything set in the American south, “Southern fiction.”)

Because I was born in New York and raised in Canada, I arrived in North Carolina as an outsider when I was at the critical teeny-bopper stage. That experience permitted me to observe the South from a different perspective than those who have always lived here. There is a difference in mannerisms, in how families interact, in how people interact in public, and even in the social structure of small communities. Continue reading →

Interview with YA Author Leslea Wahl

06/19/201707/25/2018 / CAstfalk / 2 Comments

Unlike many YA books written for adults, yours seem to be truly aimed at teens. While neither The Perfect Blindside nor An Unexpected Role take on big, controversial issues, they focus on natural concerns and problems that are, in fact, important to teens, both personally and spiritually. What inspires you to write for teens?

My oldest child was always an avid reader, and when he was in middle school he began searching for YA books. It was difficult to find fun, adventurous books that he wanted to read that also reflected the values we were trying to instill in him. So many YA books contained things that weren’t appropriate. I kept wondering why someone didn’t write adventurous books for teens with good messages. At the time, I didn’t know God would call me for this task! But shortly after, the idea for The Perfect Blindside just popped into my head. Since then I’ve concentrated on creating intriguing mysteries that can also encourage teens to grow in their faith through their underlying messages. Although I do have to say that even though my books are about teens I have a lot of adults that have been enjoying them as well. Continue reading →

Author Interview with Robin Patchen

03/20/201707/27/2018 / CAstfalk / 2 Comments

Robin Patchen has released the second book in her Hidden Truth series, Twisted Lies. Robin is a fellow 10 Minute Novelist, and a terrific writer and editor. I can’t wait to get started on the Hidden Truth series!

She thought they’d never find her. And then her daughter vanished.

Marisa Vega’s life as an adoptive mom in a tiny Mexican village isn’t what she’d dreamed while growing up in New York, but as the target of a man who’s convinced she stole millions of dollars from his financial firm, Marisa believes hiding is her only way to stay alive. When her daughter is snatched and held for ransom, Marisa must discover who really stole the money in order to rescue her.

Months after being kidnapped, tortured, and left with PTSD, Nate Boyle is ready to live a quiet life in rural New Hampshire. When the source of his breakout newspaper article—and the woman who haunts his dreams—begs for help, he gets pulled into a riddle that’s proved unsolvable for nearly a decade.

Can Nate and Marisa unravel the years-old mystery and bring her daughter home?

Maybe it’s merely my perception, but it seems there’s been a surge in Christian romantic suspense, which includes your Hidden Truth series and Finding Amanda. The best-written books in that genre, in my opinion, are those able to resolve the mystery, develop the romance, and deliver a cohesive faith message, perhaps while developing a series-long arc for the main characters, without short-changing or rushing any of those aspects. It’s a lot to juggle. What appeals to you about the genre?

I love suspense. It’s probably my favorite genre to read, because I love to see how characters react under pressure and in fear. I think we can all wear lovely masks when we feel safe, but when our lives are in danger—or worse, when the lives of the people we love are in danger—the masks fall off, and we show the world, and maybe discover for ourselves, who we really are. Continue reading →

Interview with Romantic Suspense Author Therese Heckenkamp

01/16/201701/21/2017 / CAstfalk / 5 Comments

Frozen Footprints, a Christian suspense thriller, includes some rather dark moments with a seriously-disturbed villain. The story, however, is never without hope. How do you balance the darkness and the light so that you allow the reader to contend with the horror your characters experience yet leave them with a satisfying, positive ending?

While writing, I strive to find some positive moments amidst the hardships, even if they’re brief. Most readers will understandably give up on a story that goes too long without some kind of goodness or possibility of goodness occurring. Even if it appears to vanish for a time, there has to be some type of hope if I don’t want to end up with a novel of despair. (And I don’t! There are plenty of those out there.) How to bring in that lightness? It may be with another character, a positive perspective, a note of humor, an unexpected kindness, or a glimmer of faith. Similarly, a change in situation, or some form of comfort found in an unlikely place, may bring relief or an inspirational moment. Continue reading →

Contemporary Romance with an Inspirational Twist: Author Interview with Nicole Deese

11/21/201612/05/2016 / CAstfalk / 2 Comments

The Promise of Rayne is such a well-written, tightly-woven novel. One of the things that struck me most was how well the themes, faith messages, and character resolutions were integrated in the final chapters. How hard do you work at that and how much comes about through the mysterious process of creation?

Ya know, I often have a theme in mind before I type the words Chapter One. That said, I never fully know how that theme is going to play out until after I near the halfway point of my first draft. In The Promise of Rayne, where one of the major plot themes in the book is love your enemy, I honestly didn’t know (insert the big twist/spoiler here!) when I started writing. Like, I had no clue! So, I think for me it’s about 50/50. I usually start with an idea of what I’d like to see happen during the big climax moment of the book (usually around the 75% mark). But as I write, and as I discover more about my characters and their individual wounds, personality types, and journeys, that little idea will eventually take on a whole new shape. Continue reading →

Carolyn Astfalk, Author

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