INSPIRATIONAL SUSPENSE?
I’m Lisa, and I’m thrilled to be a part of the Keep Me In Suspense venture. I recently sold book one in my Cozy Crumb Mystery series to Barbour publishing’s new mystery line. Recipe for Murder will be released this coming February. I’ve always loved a good mystery, so getting the chance to write one has been a blast.
After I received my contract, a friend of mine asked me how a murder mystery could have a strong spiritual theme. It was a good question, because honestly, I had to ask myself the same question.
How do you combine a good old-fashioned murder mystery with a strong spiritual theme? The answer quickly became clear to me. I want my books to not only to entertain and present my readers with the best cozy I can write, but to remind the audience that God is good. No matter what the world might throw at us, or what measures Satan might use to attack us, God is in control, and His word still holds true today.
Look at the world around us and you will see all the pain and suffering that people endure everyday, from illness to natural disasters, to poverty, to AIDS. . .The list could go on and on. Working in southern Africa has opened my eyes to many of these very things. Everyday I’m faced with issues like poverty, children who have lost family members to AIDS, high unemployment, crime, and the very fact that life is full of sorrow and struggles.
How can we KNOW that God is still in control when He seems so far away and everything seems to be going wrong in our lives?
Psalm 46 speaks very powerfully on this subject. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Then in verse 11 continues to say, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
In a mystery, life is often turned upside down overnight by a sudden turn of events. Fear, confusion, and despair become emotions that often mirror reality. What happens when the coil begins to squeeze in around the protagonist, there’s a villain on every corner, and solving the ‘mystery’ becomes a matter of life and death?
And what about in our own lives. Do we ever feel despair over our children, job situations, sickness, or depression? Authors of inspirational fiction desire to bring a message of hope to the world using stories to communicate that no matter what happens around us, God is still in control.
This will be the message of my stories.
Have a blessed day!
Lisa
After I received my contract, a friend of mine asked me how a murder mystery could have a strong spiritual theme. It was a good question, because honestly, I had to ask myself the same question.
How do you combine a good old-fashioned murder mystery with a strong spiritual theme? The answer quickly became clear to me. I want my books to not only to entertain and present my readers with the best cozy I can write, but to remind the audience that God is good. No matter what the world might throw at us, or what measures Satan might use to attack us, God is in control, and His word still holds true today.
Look at the world around us and you will see all the pain and suffering that people endure everyday, from illness to natural disasters, to poverty, to AIDS. . .The list could go on and on. Working in southern Africa has opened my eyes to many of these very things. Everyday I’m faced with issues like poverty, children who have lost family members to AIDS, high unemployment, crime, and the very fact that life is full of sorrow and struggles.
How can we KNOW that God is still in control when He seems so far away and everything seems to be going wrong in our lives?
Psalm 46 speaks very powerfully on this subject. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Then in verse 11 continues to say, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
In a mystery, life is often turned upside down overnight by a sudden turn of events. Fear, confusion, and despair become emotions that often mirror reality. What happens when the coil begins to squeeze in around the protagonist, there’s a villain on every corner, and solving the ‘mystery’ becomes a matter of life and death?
And what about in our own lives. Do we ever feel despair over our children, job situations, sickness, or depression? Authors of inspirational fiction desire to bring a message of hope to the world using stories to communicate that no matter what happens around us, God is still in control.
This will be the message of my stories.
Have a blessed day!
Lisa
posted by Lisa Harris at 1:50 AM
1 Comments:
Lisa,
It is so nice to see other authors who feel the same way I do about cozy mysteries! I love that Barbour has opened the door to allow a spiritual thread to be woven into our stories as well. Keep up the great work!
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