I’m up to my forehead in book edits on Informed Consent right now, so rather than write a rant on the current stem-cell-research bill, I'm going to introduce you to Montana author Tricia Goyer, and let her do the talking.

Four years ago, Tricia was named writer of the year at the Mt. Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference. Two years ago, her book, Life Interrupted, was named a finalist for the ECPA Gold Medallion Award, and her novel Dawn of a Thousand Nights won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ (ACFW) Book of the Year in the long historical romance category. Today I want her to tell you about her latest novel, A Valley of Betrayal.

San: Tell us a little more about yourself.

Tricia: I write parenting books. I write children’s books. I am a novelist. I am a journalist. I am a mentor. I am a wife. I am a mom. I am a home-schooling mom. I am scattered and confused. Okay, I’m not confused, but others are when they try to put me in a box. But I am scattered. Mostly I mentor teenage moms and I home-school my kids. Oh, yeah. I write lots of books, too.

San: Tell me a little about A Valley of Betrayal. You set it in the time of the Spanish Civil War. Isn’t that an unusual setting for a Gen Xer?

Tricia: When I was researching another novel, Arms of Deliverance, I read an autobiography from a man who was a B-17 bomber pilot over Europe. But before that he was an American volunteer for The Spanish Civil War. I had never heard of this war, which happened right before WWII in Spain. I started researching, and I was soon fascinated. Some people call it “the first battle of WWII” because it’s where the Nazis first tried their hand at modern warfare.

I started by researching this time in history, briefly, then I started thinking of unique characters who had an impact during that time. Characters from my other novels have been medics, war correspondents, artists, prisoners. To me it's the people that make the story (and history) come alive. So for this series I dove into the lives of an American artist, a few international volunteers, a Basque priest, and a German pilot. I research the real people first, and then the plot for my novel builds. Soon, I have to make myself stop researching to start writing. Research can be addictive!

San: How did you end up writing historical fiction?

Tricia: I never planned to write historical fiction. I wanted to write contemporary romances. Then in 2000, I was with two writers in Austria who were researching books, and I was along for the ride. But I was the one who got a novel idea—after talking to an Austrian historian. The historian’s true stories about the liberation of Gusen and Mauthausen concentration camps sparked my novel idea. The idea led to attending two WWII reunions and interviewing veterans. The veterans’ stories led to more novels. The rest, as they say, is history!

You can learn more about Tricia here:
http://triciagoyer.blogspot.com
http://genxparents.blogspot.com
http://www.shoutlife.com/triciagoyer
www.triciagoyer.com

You can buy A Valley of Betrayal here.