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Nov 18, 2013
I'm excited today to interview Robin Patchen, author of the new Christmas novella, Faith House.
Here's a bit about Robin:
If time
and money were no object, Robin Patchen would travel constantly. Her goal is to
visit every place in the entire world--twice. Because, as you know, the first
time, you don't know exactly what you want to see. So you flit from one tourist
attraction to another and enjoy every minute of it. But it's always on the last
day that you find the best thing, and you don't have enough time to explore it
properly, and you wished you'd discovered it first (but even if you had, you
wouldn't know it was the best thing, because you hadn't seen everything else
yet). So you have to go back a second time. It's just logical.
Alas,
time is short and money is scarce, and Robin's family doesn't want to follow
her all around the world, so she does the next best thing: she writes. In the
worlds she creates, she can go back to the best places time and again. And when
they're not perfect, that's all right--she just edits until they are.
In the
real world, Robin is married to the man of her dreams, Edward, and together
they have three children, Nicholas, Lexi, and Jacob. Her family is a close
second on her list of priorities after her relationship with Christ.
So
that's Robin's life: God, husband, children, and made-up worlds where she has
complete control. Who could ask for more?
Here's a bit about Faith House:
When Hurricane Sandy destroys Sadie’s home, she’s determined to restore
it. She promised her dying grandmother she’d never abandon the house
that is the only link to Sadie’s schizophrenic father—a man who
disappeared twenty years ago.
Max has loved Sadie since grade school, but their mutual friend died when they were teens. A decade has passed, and he’s finally found her. This time, he won’t lose her—not to a flooded house hundreds of miles from home, or to her false hope as she awaits her father’s unlikely return.
When Sadie discovers her house is underinsured, she faces an impossible decision. Can she trust God enough to let go of her only connection to her dad? Can she trust Max enough to let go of her heart?
Max has loved Sadie since grade school, but their mutual friend died when they were teens. A decade has passed, and he’s finally found her. This time, he won’t lose her—not to a flooded house hundreds of miles from home, or to her false hope as she awaits her father’s unlikely return.
When Sadie discovers her house is underinsured, she faces an impossible decision. Can she trust God enough to let go of her only connection to her dad? Can she trust Max enough to let go of her heart?
And now the interview! You live in Oklahoma, Robin, so how
did Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast, touch you so deeply?
Living
in Oklahoma, I’ve had ample opportunity to witness natural disasters. We have
tornadoes every year, some that leave total devastation in their wakes. I’ve
known families who’ve lost their homes in the storms, even families who’ve lost
loved ones. And each time, like everyone else, I pray and I cry and I try to
help.
But even
the most destructive tornadoes, like the one that hit Moore this past spring,
don’t do nearly the damage Hurricane Sandy did. Perhaps it was the length of
the storm, seeing the pictures on the TV for a couple of days, that affected me.
Perhaps it was the thought of all those hundreds of thousands of people trying
to survive it. When there’s a storm in Oklahoma, it’s confined to one or two
relatively small areas. But I thought about the people living in the places
worst hit, and I thought, their neighbors can’t help. They were hit, too. Their
churches are flooded. Their schools are damaged. The grocery stores have no
electricity, the gas stations have no fuel. So where do you turn for help? When
your insurance company can’t handle the calls because thousands of others are
clogging the phone lines, when your bank isn’t answering because their phones
are down, too—what do you do?
And then
I saw the photographs in the days following the storm, home after home after
home, flooded, moved off its foundation, or broken to bits. Each one of those
houses represents a person, a family, a story. I don’t know why it impacted me
like it did, but I couldn’t get the images of those homes out of my mind.
What is Sadie’s biggest fear?
Sadie fears she will develop schizophrenia like her
father and grandfather did. She is terrified of losing her grip on reality, of
losing her ability to control her life. So she tries to control everything,
gripping the things that matter to her life a child with a security blanket.
She’s terrified of letting go of any thread, afraid perhaps that will be that
thread that leads to her own madness. She desperately wants to find her father,
because she believes if she can only be with him again, she will feel secure,
like she did when she was a child, long before her father left and she
discovers his mental illness.
What do you like most about Max?
Max is that geeky guy from high school, the one none of
the girls wanted to date and most of the guys either teased or ignored. Super
smart, incredibly kind, and always overlooked. But now, a decade after high
school, Max is handsome and successful—a great catch for any girl. But he’s
never quit loving Sadie, the girl he fell for when he was twelve years old.
What I like best about him is that he would do almost anything for, but when
she asks him to do something he knows will be bad for her, something he knows
God is not behind, he refuses. He risks losing Sadie to obey God and,
ultimately, to take care of the girl he loves.
A portion of each sale is going to
help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
How will this happen? There are so many great
organizations still working to help clean up and rebuild the areas hardest hit
by Hurricane Sandy, it’s been difficult to decide where exactly to donate the
money. But because my book focuses specifically on homes destroyed, I’m going
to donate to Habitat for Humanity’s Hurricane Sandy fund. See their website
here: http://www.habitat.org/disaster/active_programs/Superstorm_Sandy.aspx
Which Bible verse would you most
ascribe this story and why?
In Faith House, Sadie
needs to learn to trust God and surrender to his plans for us. There are a lot
of scriptures that address that, but that one that comes to mind is Romans
8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he
not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” In light of the fact
that God surrendered his only son out of his great love for us, how can we
doubt that he will take care of everything else in our lives? This is an issue
I struggle with, especially lately as I watch my teenage kids dealing with some
serious issues. I want to rescue them, to shield them from everything bad in
the world, but knowing how much God
loves me, and how much he loves my kids, I have to daily remind myself to trust
him. He knows what he’s doing.
What do you hope readers will take
with them from Faith House?
Greater faith. Every
time we decide to trust God, not ourselves, we build our faith. My hope is that
this book will encourage readers to take one step of faith, that will lead to
another, and then another, that we would all be more faithful believers.
What are you working on now?
The one I’m writing now takes place in Oklahoma and
begins, oddly enough, with a tornado scene. I guess I’m drawn to the natural
disaster thing.
Where can people connect with you?
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5187882.Robin_Patchen
http://www.quidproquills.com/
Robin is a member of the Quid Pro Quills, the American Christian Fiction Writers critique group I belong to. We've known each other for a couple of years now and believe me - she can write! She also keeps me in line as our group's queen of punctuation.
http://www.quidproquills.com/
Robin is a member of the Quid Pro Quills, the American Christian Fiction Writers critique group I belong to. We've known each other for a couple of years now and believe me - she can write! She also keeps me in line as our group's queen of punctuation.
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20 comments:
Thanks for hosting me, Pegg! Love your blog.
Robin, Nice interview. You know how much I LOVED FAITH HOUSE. Can't wait to read what comes from your pen next!
Great interview! I think it's great that you're donating a portion to the victims. You have a beautiful, compassionate heart for others. Can't wait to read Faith House!
Great interview, Robin! I can't wait to read my copy of Faith House!
Thanks for opening up here and sharing a bit of yourself with the readers.
Read this book last weekend--it is fabulous. So well-written and packs an emotional punch. I love Christmas stories and this is a great one!
Thanks, Sharon. I'm sort of looking forward to what comes next myself!
Thanks, Lacy! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks, Janet. I hope you enjoy it.
Okay Robin, I've have my copy of Faith House and looking forward to reading it. You're a great author and I'm looking forward to many more Robin Patchen novels.
Love the sound of this book and can't wait to read it.
Cool interview, Robin! Got my copy of your book ready and waiting for me! : )
Fantastic interview! Very well done and the book looks soooo good!
Thanks, Karla. I hope the book is as fun to read as it was to write!
Thanks, Erin. I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks, Linda!
Thanks, Terri!
Thanks, Candice. Doing all the research for this book really opened my eyes to the plight of the victims of this hurricane. I can't imagine what they've gone through, not even after trying to imagine it through the eyes of my fictional character! If I can do a little something to help, then that's what I'll do.
Loved how your characters compassionately presented the challenges facing the physically and mentally displaced. Thank you.
Sounds like a great book, Robin. Hurricane Sandi touched me too, since I grew up in that area and remember seeing the destruction caused by many hurricanes first hand.
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