Christian Fiction Monday

I have been writing fiction for almost 27 years, the first 16 for the general mass market and the last 9+ for the Christian market. And one of the greatest blessings of my career has been the wonderful community of Christian writers I’ve come to know and who have become my friends. While I know that none of us are immune, simply because we’re believers, from such things as envy or ambition, I also know that the fellowship we enjoy is special. We lift one another in prayer. We encourage one another when someone is down or struggling. That’s a blessing, indeed.

So let me introduce you to my friend Tamera Alexander. She is a wonderfully talented writer whose first three books have been met with popular and critical acclaim.

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TAMERA ALEXANDER is the bestselling author of Rekindled, Revealed, and Remembered, the three-part Fountain Creek Chronicles historical series with Bethany House Publishers. Alexander’s books have won multiple awards, including Romance Writers of America’s 2007 RITA®, the 2007 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, 2007 Bookseller’s Best, and Library Journal’s Top Christian Fiction of 2006.

Tamera and her husband, Joe Alexander, have two college age children, a seven-pound Silky named Jack, and make their home in Tennessee. Tamera is currently working on her fourth novel, part of another three-book historical series with Bethany House which is set in the Rocky Mountains of the Colorado Territory.

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About Fountain Creek Chronicles:

This bestselling three-book series (Rekindled, Revealed, and Remembered) features a different historical romance in each novel. In the late 1860s, Colorado Territory is a wild and untamed land. Nestled within its mountains and sustained by one of its major creeks, three couples find adventure and love on the frontier. Each person will be called upon to stand on nothing more than faith, risk what is most dear, and turn away from the past in order to follow God’s plan for the future.

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A QUICK CHAT WITH TAMERA:

What makes you feel alive?

A fall day when the air is clean and the leaves so crisp and splashed with color that you just have to stop and try to take it all in, which you can’t, of course. And you realize there’s no “reason” why those leaves had to change those colors in order for the plant or tree to go dormant. God did it to show his glory, his artistry. How magnificent.

How does something worm its way into your heart? Through tears, truth, humor or other?

Tears and humor. Used together, they’re a powerful tool!

Where would you most like to travel —– moon, north pole, deep seas, deserted island, the holy land or back to a place from your childhood, somewhere else? – and why.

I would time travel, does that still fit? Back to the era in which I write and specifically to some points in European history. Especially those in France. And to Biblical times, of course. 😉

What is your favorite word?

Forgiven.

What word annoys you more than any other?

Can’t.

Super power you’d love to borrow for awhile? 

Ability to read minds—as long as no one else could have that super power around me. 😉

Favorite chore

Vacuuming. It’s a sickness, I know. But I love things neat.

Grammatical pet peeve…sound off.

People who don’t like semi-colons. Semi-colons are wonderful; they serve a real purpose in our language and shouldn’t be ostracized from fiction. 😉

Which compliment related to your writing has meant the most and why?

This one:

Your book (Rekindled) helped me to begin loving my husband again. Maybe to start loving him to begin with. I’m trying to get rid of the high expectations I’ve held for the past fifteen years because they’ve only led me to disappointment. We’re seeking counseling and are trying to rebuild our marriage. Your writings gave me the courage to take that step, and helped me to know that God could make that happen. Thank you.

If I never write another word or get another reader note about my books, I’ll die a happy woman. 😉

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To which I add, Amen!

-rlh-