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Frequently Asked Questions!
Here you will find answers to the questions sent to me via fans all over the world. Click on the title of the book to read the first chapter! Where do you get the ideas for your books? Nothing to Regret was the result of a dream. My grandmother passed away in July of 1999, and the weekend of her funeral I had a dream that I was an American GI flying over to Japan during World War II. It was a little strange, especially considering that in my dream I was a man, but what was even stranger was how clear and detailed the dream was. I realized that it would make a great jumping off point for a book. I hit the Internet, did some research, one thing led to another, and that's where Nothing to Regret came from. My grandmother was always a big support to me and I think she sent that dream from the other side. Strength to Endure came to me during Relief Society one day. The teacher was telling the story of a man who was on one of the death marches out of a concentration camp and as they passed through a village, someone came up to him and slipped a potato into his pocket. Like a bolt of lightning, the entire plot for Strength to Endure popped into my head. Season of Sacrifice, the first book in my Spirit of Elijah series, is largely based on my family history journals, and the second in that series, Test of Time, is based on my grandparent's loveletters. Faith Beyond Fear started growing in my mind after seeing a news story on someone who was lost in the mountains. I don't have a release date yet on these three books. Several of your characters die in your books. Why? My first two published books, Nothing to Regret and Strength to Endure, both take place during World War II. In Europe particularly, whole families were being torn apart and it was very rare for an entire family to make it through the war intact. I feel it would be very unrealistic to present a story where everyone was still alive at the end! It's fiction but even I can't push it that far! Believe it or not, the characters who have died were supposed to die. It was their time to go. I felt instinctively as I wrote who should stay alive and who should pass on. I know that I have angered several of my readers with some of those deaths, but the characters themselves chose their own outcomes. In Nothing to Regret, the main character fathers a child out of wedlock. This surprised me in an LDS book. Why was this in there? At the time, Ken, the main character, was not yet a member of the church. He had been taught to wait to have intimate relations until he was in love, and that's what he did. He used the knowledge he had at the time to the best of his ability, and when he found the gospel and learned that his action had been wrong, he was truly repentent and sorry. The child is central to the story. She is the catalyst that brings Ken around and gives him a focus and a direction. Her existence is necessary to the book. When I sign copies of this book, I write, "The power of the Atonement is real." To me, this is the main message of the book. The Atonement is there to heal us from sin and from pain, to ease the hurt of the things we have been called upon to suffer. Without sin and suffering, there would be no need for the Atonement. Ken's situation illustrates how the perfect love of the Lord can take an imperfect person and redeem them. When do you find time to write? Under rocks, behind garbage cans, in the couch cushions ... just kidding! But it is a challenge. When I wrote Nothing to Regret, my oldest was three and my second was just a baby. I was able to put the baby to bed, put the three year old in front of the tv, and get in about two good hours a day. But when Strength to Endure was underway, I had to get more creative. The kids were older and didn't take such long naps! My husband really helped me out during this time. He would watch the kids while I pounded on the keyboard. Nowadays, I'm doing most of my writing late at night while everyone is asleep. You do the best you can and take what you can get! Do you have any questions? E-mail me!
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