Isaiah 7:4(MSG)
Listen, calm down. Don't be afraid. And don't panic...
Today, I count it an honor and a privilege to welcome Erin Healy to my blog!
She is a best selling author and passionate lover of Christ. Her soon to be released book: Stanger Things is sure to capture your attention and bring an awareness to the horrific world-wide illegal industry known as human trafficking. At the end of her interview, she has given us a link to read the first two chapters of this not yet released book, Stranger Things! Also, don't miss the chance to get this book free by signing up for the "free book giveaway raffle" . You may also sign up on Erin's Facebook Page!
Erin Healy has already published seven books to date:
House of Mercy
The Baker's Wife
The Promises She Keeps
Never Let you Go
Books coauthored with Ted Dekker:
Kiss
Burn
Erin Healy’s latest supernatural thriller,
Stranger
Things, comes to stores on New Year’s Eve.
Library
Journal says: “Serena
Diaz’s teaching career came to an abrupt end when a student falsely accused her
of sexual misconduct. Seeking solace in the woods, she discovers that a gang of
sex traffickers has taken over a vacant house. Serena is almost captured by one
of the criminals but is saved by an unknown man who has been shadowing her. He
is shot, and Serena escapes with her life. But she is drawn to know more about
this stranger who died for her. What follows is a suspenseful story of danger
and pure evil. Whom can Serena trust in a world that seems intent on serving
its own self-interests? VERDICT Healy
(Afloat; coauthor with Ted Dekker, Burn and Kiss)
has written an edgy, fast-paced spiritual thriller that will please Dekker
fans.”
The following are questions that I had the opportunity to
ask Erin about her novel and more.....
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How
was your idea for Stranger Things
born?
Two years ago, during a Good Friday service, my pastor
(Kelly Williams of Vanguard
Church, Colorado Springs) asked the congregation:
“If a complete stranger died while saving your life, wouldn’t you want to know
everything you could about that person? Wouldn’t you want your life to honor
that person’s death?” He challenged us to consider Jesus Christ in a new
light—as a stranger, as a savior we might not know as well as we think we do.
This idea has roots in Romans 5:8—“While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.” Before I ever had the chance to know Him, while He was a complete stranger
to me, Christ died for me. The Message translation says “when [I
was] of no use whatever to Him.” Why would He do that? Have I investigated Him
thoroughly enough to connect my own life with His purposes? This is all
background, though. Stranger Things
isn’t an overtly Christian tale as my previous novels have been, but it’s a
parable about these questions.
Stranger Things sounds
like a pretty dark read. Why did you choose to write about sex trafficking?
Human trafficking (of which sex trafficking is a
subcategory) is the world’s third-fastest growing illegal industry behind drugs
and weapons. It is the most horrifying kind of modern captivity I can imagine,
and my research proved that even my imagination fell short of reality. I picked
it because it’s a real contemporary crisis, but also because it profoundly
symbolizes the kind of bondage that Christ came to end (Isaiah 61:1-3). Freeing
the captive, physically and spiritually, is a high calling for followers of
Jesus who want to express their gratitude for His sacrifice and demonstrate His
love through the continuation of His work.
What does all
this have to do with the “thin places” that you’re always talking about?
The traditional (Celtic) definition of a thin place is a
physical location in the world where the division between physical and spiritual
realities falls away, a place where we can see the greater truth of our
existence. In my stories, I use the term “thin place” to define moments when a
person experiences a sharpened spiritual awareness about what’s really going on
in his or her life. Stranger Things is the first novel in which I’ve combined both
ideas. The thin place is a physical location, a burned-out house in a sparse
terrain, where Serena discovers her purpose. “There are places in the world
where you will encounter things so real that you will be surprised others don’t
have an identical experience,” Serena’s father tells her. “But then you will
realize that the clarity given to you is a gift from God. Perhaps this gift is
just for you, maybe also it will touch the lives of others.”
Did anything
surprise you while writing the novel?
I started with intentions to write about an Asian-based
trafficking ring, but in the course of my research was distressed to learn just
how close to home the problem lies. Though it’s impossible to get a precise
count of how many people are victims of sex trafficking in the US, most
estimates fall between 100,000 and 300,000 (mostly women and children). Since I
learned this my own awareness has expanded, and I’m happy to see just how many
efforts are already underway—not only in the US—to end this atrocity. The
Polaris Project is a great place to begin
learning about global human trafficking.
I hope the novel is layered enough to meet each reader
individually. Maybe some will be challenged to investigate Jesus Christ
further. Maybe some will use their new awareness of trafficking to do something
about it. (I’ve joined the prayer team of a local home for girls rescued from
sexual slavery.) To date my favorite response to the book was from the person
who found herself looking in a new way at the strangers who surrounded her. She
felt unexpectedly protective and concerned, on heightened alert to ways in
which she might be able to help them. In other words, ways in which she might
be able to do what Christ did for her. So many opportunities! If we all moved
through the world with eyes like that, what might change for the better? I love
to think of all the possibilities.
What made you
chose Christian fiction as opposed to nonfiction as the primary focus
for your writing platform?
Fiction is my first love in
reading choices, and when I became a book editor I quickly gravitated toward
editing novels. I started writing while editing Ted Dekker's novels. He invited
me to write two books with him, and that was the beginning. I guess my path as
always pointed toward fiction.
What one piece of advice would
you give to someone who is interested in becoming an author?
If you go into writing aiming
to be successful, brace yourself for a real challenge. The percentage of
hard-working, good writers who are successful from an economic, numeric, or
literary point of view is excruciatingly small, though they do everything
“right.” If you go into writing because you have something to say and you
believe God called you to say it, you’ll have to set aside empirical notions of
“success,” because God’s definition of that word is largely hidden from us
earthlings. He is the Master Creator of us creative types. We will always be
His apprentices, and never the master. His opinion is the only one that
ultimately counts. So you have to consider—when the rejections stack up,
reviews are harsh, and you’ve only sold ten copies of your self-published work—if
the ten people who bought those copies were exactly the people who needed to
hear what you had to say. Maybe your book was for the person who borrowed it
from the library and didn’t pay a cent. Maybe your book was just for you, to
learn something about yourself in the process of writing it. Someday you’ll
know. But probably not today.
It's obvious from your writing
that you have the hope of Christ within you! Is there one particular
verse in the Bible which you find consistently encouraging when you are
in the midst of a trial?
"Be careful, keep calm, and don't be
afraid. Do not lose heart ..." Isaiah
7:4. The prophet Isaiah is speaking to King Ahaz of Judah, who is
about to be overrun. The king's temptation is to save his own skin by making an
unholy alliance with his enemies, and Isaiah is saying: don't do anything
stupid, don't be rash. God promises that your worst fears will not come to pass
(verse 7). Whenever I'm worried or upset, my instinct is to try to find the
fastest way out of it. It's so easy to do dumb things when we're afraid. But
over and over throughout the Scriptures is this wonderful chorus: fear not.
So I remember Isaiah 7:4 and try to rest in God's wisdom rather than in my own panic.
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Wow! Thank you so much Erin, for visiting with us about your new book, Stranger Things and for encouraging us to never lose heart, because He is with us! Your passion is contagious and I cannot wait for the release of your new novel!
If you would like to read the first two chapters of Erin's new book: Stranger Things, you can do so by clicking here. Again, don't miss the opportunity to be included in a drawing for a free copy of the book that will be shipped to you after January 1, 2014, should your name be drawn! You can enter your name each day this week, Dec. 2-6 (Monday-Friday) by visiting Erin's blog!
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