Blogside Chat | Author Lisa Carter

I'm super excited to host author Lisa Carter, author of Carolina Reckoning, for today's Blogside Chat!

i blog 4 books: Lisa, welcome! Who encouraged your love for reading and/or writing when you were growing up?

Lisa Carter: My mother is an avid reader and read to us every night when we were children. Over my growing up years, she continued to provide a plethora of reading material, notebooks in which to scribble, and the freedom of golden summers (perhaps unknown to today’s rushed/harried/ overscheduled children) in which to dream dreams and create storyworlds.

ib4b: It seems like most authors have quite an interesting journey to publication. What did you do in your “former life”?

LC: I have a Master’s in education and I’ve taught at the collegiate, high school, and middle school levels. After my children were born, I worked part-time hours as a preschool music teacher. But I’ve also in the course of my life—“put in” tobacco; written ads, copy for websites, college and high school textbooks; created state-wide end-of-course exams; coordinated weddings. And oh yeah, there was that one time I worked as a staff docent at an antebellum mansion . . .

ib4b: What do you hope readers will take away from reading Carolina Reckoning?

LC: In Carolina Reckoning, Alison wrestles with issues of forgiveness and faith in a world where everyone she’s ever loved has abandoned or betrayed her. Like many, she longs to find Someone, anyone, she can rely upon.

I wrote Carolina Reckoning for those who’ve felt alone or faced an unknown future. For those who’ve felt abandoned and betrayed by a friend, spouse or family member.

But in the midst of pain and disillusionment, Alison discovers a Savior and Father God who is always faithful and true. Enough for every need. I am excited about proclaiming that message to readers. It is the story, in a small way, of my life. My own journey, like Alison, toward faith.

Carolina Reckoning is ultimately a novel about hope and that true hope, forgiveness and love will be found in Jesus Christ.

Coupled with a cast of quirky characters for which the South has a well-deserved reputation.

What can I say? We are a fun group.

Carolina Reckoning is a little bit of sweet tea plus a whole lot of southern magnolia. :)

ib4b: Which of your characters do you most identify with? Are your characters based on specific people in your life?

LC: My parents divorced when I was nine year’s old. In many ways, I identify most with teenager Claire who also loses a parent, albeit to death. But like Claire, I was angry at everyone, most of all God, when my world fell apart.

As a teenager I came to a crossroads—to carry an anger that in the end harmed me more than anyone else or to choose to forgive. To forgive someone who’d never asked for my forgiveness nor deserved it. But to forgive anyway, like God had forgiven me. Because unforgiveness brings its own reckoning. It isn't how God wants us to live. And God's way is always the best way.

And with two teenage daughters, it wasn’t too hard to recreate the tone/humor/emotional roller-coaster of Claire and Justin’s adolescent experience.

ib4b: The Alison character has past pains, present wounds, and an uncertain future. A lot of readers can relate. What is your advice to them? Can then learn something through Alison’s experience? Is that teaching/learning aspect always visible in fiction?

LC: Like Alison, I watched my mother wrestle with feelings of anger, forgiveness, and faith. And emerge triumphant on the other side of pain. I, too, longed to find Someone upon whom I could rely. And at the foot of the Cross, I discovered a Father God who is always faithful and true. He is enough for every need, past, present and future.

My mother’s life story—of courage, independence, and faith—is a testament that God is, indeed, enough for every need.

I hope Alison as a single mother infuses readers with the hope that despite less-than-ideal circumstances their families, too, can rise to become more than they ever dreamed possible.

ib4b: What’s next for you? Where can our readers find out more about Lisa Carter?

LC: Aloha Rose, a contemporary romance in the Quilts of Love line, releases November 19 followed by two additional romantic suspense novels in 2014. Beneath a Navajo Moon releases in March and Under a Turquoise Sky in September.

I love to connect with readers at my website, Goodreads, and Facebook. For behind-the-scenes photos, visit the Carolina Reckoning board on Pinterest.

---

About the Author

Lisa Carter is the author of Carolina Reckoning and Aloha Rose, and a writer and teacher whose articles have appeared in FamilyFun, Thriving Family, MomSense, and Christian Parenting Today. She is a frequent speaker and vocalist at women’s ministry events and has taught at the collegiate, high school, and middle school levels. Lisa is a member of ACFW, RWA and Sisters in Crime. When she isn't writing, Lisa enjoys traveling, quilting, and researching her next romantic adventure. She and her husband have two daughters and make their home in Raleigh, North Carolina.

About the Book

Alison wanted her cheating husband gone, not dead...

When 30-something housewife, Alison Monaghan discovers proof of her husband's infidelity in a photograph with a mysterious woman, she must decide how to confront Frank when he returns home from work. Despite the influence of her best friend Valerie, a strong Christian, Alison remains aloof from God and is determined to handle this crisis her own way. But Alison may not get that chance. Frank never makes it home. Soon his body is found on a lonely back-country road in antebellum Weathersby Historic Park where Frank served on the board of directors and where Alison, with a degree in landscape design, was a volunteer garden docent. 

Homicide detective Mike Barefoot, a Cherokee native from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, immediately puts Alison at the top of his suspect list. He finds himself drawn to her--and not just because she had motive for the crime. As an army veteran, Mike usually keeps his emotional walls high. And as a detective, he knows not to get involved with murder suspects. So why he is so attracted to Alison? Can he fight his feelings for her—and the stirrings in his heart toward God?