Fay Lamb's in the Interview Chair

Howdy y'all! Crystal, here, and I've got Fay Lamb in the hot seat today. She's giving us a sneak peek into her coming release Storms in Serenity and tattling a bit on herself. Interested? Hope so. Here we go.

Fay, tell us a bit about yourself.

Where to start? Let's see. I am an author, an editor, and a writing coach. I currently have two series with two books each released. My Amazing Grace series is romantic suspense and Stalking Willow and Better than Revenge are the releases; my romance series is The Ties That Bind, and Charisse and Libby are the two novels released in that series. Oh, and I have dabbled in non-fiction as well with my book The Art of Characterization. My contemporary fiction, Storms in Serenity will soon be released, and it is the first book in my Serenity Key series.

Congratulations on your coming release Storms in Serenity! What is your story about?

Storms in Serenity is a modern-day retelling of the aftermath of David's sin with Bathsheba.
Here's the blurb: A hurricane has Serenity Key, Florida, in its sight, but the town is already dealing with another storm brewing on the island, and it has nothing to do with atmospheric pressure. Jake New has a secret he’s guarded for thirty years, and a spiritual tempest is about to lay it bare.

When the daughter he has never met is reported missing, apparently the victim of a hideous crime, and the lives of others he loves begin to unravel, Jake learns that the sins he thought so personal aren't so private after all. The consequences are wreaking havoc in ways he never dreamed possible.

God is the only one Who can calm the storms, but can Jake and the island he loves survive until He does?

This sounds like such an interesting, fast-paced read. I love a good page-turner. Where did you get the inspiration for your story? What is one thing you hope readers will take away from your story?

Well ... would you believe that I started this story when I was fifteen years old. I'm now mumble...mumble years old. Only kidding. I started this story thirty years ago (I'll let your readers do the math). The characters grew up with me. They were my constant companions for years. The novel began as little vignettes in a journal, until I got serious about my writing career. At about that time, God began to show me that if I had any talents, they came from Him, and I realized I needed to hone what He'd given to me. I used Storms in Serenity to do just that, writing and rewriting, and writing again. I can't tell you how many critiques and edits its gone through, but early on I realized that God was teaching me a lesson about sin.

In Storms the sin happens to be infidelity. That is the one sin that we often believe hurts no one but those involved. David's life after his sin shows us very clearly that this isn't true. His family suffered because of what he did. Now, I'm not sure if his children's actions can be attributed to David's example, but we do know that God wielded a sword over David's family after that sin: one son raped his sister. The full-brother of that sister retaliated by killing his half-brother; that same son who killed his brother tried to usurp his father's kingdom and his actions were not hidden in a bedroom; even while David lay on his death bed, a son was vying for his kingdom. David sought rest from battle on that rooftop that fateful day, and sadly he never had peace in his family after that day.

David's life, if anything, shows that sin is never secret, and that sexual sins, even when behind closed doors, can have far-reaching consequences. I wanted to portray that truth in story, but I also wanted to share with the reader the hope we have when we fail. That hope lies in God's goodness toward us, His ever-faithful love.

Such a wonderful message to interweave into a story. What made you pick Florida for your setting?

Well, the story was always set in Florida because at fifteen I knew only two places. My hometown in on the East Coast of Central Florida where I am the fifth generation to be born and a small town in Eastern Kentucky where my mother's family have roots and where I spent some summers with my grandmother who lived there. I always knew a hurricane was going to be a mirror to the swirling spiritual storm, and well, hurricanes in Eastern Kentucky aren't very plausible.

Do you have a favorite scene in the book? If so, can you tell us a bit about it?

I'm going to sound really goofy when I say that almost every scene in this book is my favorite. This book is very complex and involved with character and plot. As I mentioned above, there is a swirling effect as the reader gets insight into all of the lives that are harmed by this man's sin. Each story is building within the swirl of the spiritual storm.

But ... if I had to pick my favorite scene, it would have to be a scene between Jesse and Blanchie Crum. Jesse was a carouser, a drinker, a gambler, a womanizer. Trouble is, he was married to Blanchie while he was doing all those things, and Blanchie divorced him, hoping that it would gain his attention. Not to give away too much of the story, but Blanchie's filing for divorce and the death of his best friend's wife, shakes Jessie up pretty badly, so this preacher's kid starts to turn his life around. While he's getting his life back in order and trying to prove to Blanchie he can be the man she needs, Blanchie starts dating another man.

My favorite scene is one in which Jesse comes to visit Blanchie after her date with the other man, who has become a very good friend to Jesse. After all the years of lies, of treating Blanchie so badly, the two have an honest moment with one another. Jesse is cleansing his soul, but he's hurting Blanchie with what he has to say.

If that's not bad enough, at the end of the scene, this man who hates gossip, lets some news escape, and this sister-in-law who overhears is devastated by what he has to say--one more casualty to a thirty-year-old sin.

The scene just flowed so smoothly for me, and I love the honest reaction between the husband and wife and the overall feeling that I so badly want them to come together, but like Jesse, I really like Blanchie's new beau. He's quite a guy as well, and I'm not telling who gets the girl.

Wow! Just that description gives me a glimpse of that swirling storm within and without. What do you plan to work on next?

I am working on the third novel in the Amazing Grace series. It is a romantic suspense entitled Everybody's Broken. One man's death has left several people broken, trying to understand his life while they are trying to find out who murdered him.

Where can readers connect with you? Where can readers buy your book?

Storms should be released very soon, and it will be available on Kindle, at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other book retailers along with any of the other titles.

I can't say enough how much I love to connect with readers. To make it easy for them to find me, I'll share all my links:
http://www.faylamb.com (Website and blogs: On the Ledge, The Tactical Editor, and Inner Source)
http://www.facebook.com/fay.lamb (personal Facebook page) 
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorFay (Facebook Author Page)
http://www.facebook.com/TacticalEd (I'm the Tactical Editor, sharing self-editing tips) http://www.twitter.com/FayLamb (Twitter) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1482814.Fay_Lamb (Goodreads) https://www.pinterest.com/faylamb/ (Pinterest) 
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+FayLamb/posts (Google+)

Last but not least, there's one thing I love to ask those I interview. Apart from writing, what is your favorite creative outlet?

I love to tat. It took a dear ninety-three year old woman (at the time) an extra class to teach me how to move that shuttle through my fingers to make picots and knots. She actually wouldn't let me give up, and in the last few minutes of that extra class time, it clicked, and I still love to find the time to sit and tat a doily, a motif, or even a tatted cross bookmark. She went to be with the Lord after her 100th birthday or thereabouts, but there isn't a time that I pick up a shuttle that I don't think of Lillian.

Ask me to sew, to crochet, or to knit, and I'm lost. I never learned. I guess because I didn't have a persistent elderly woman insisting that I could do it even while I proclaimed I'd never get the hang of it.

Tating is one skill I haven't had the chance to learn yet, but it sounds so cool. And what a great memory! Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Fay. I enjoyed getting to know about you and your new story, Storms in Serenity. 

Let's keep this discussion going, everyone. Have you ever read one of Fay's stories? If so, what was your favorite? If not, what do you find most interesting about Storms in Serenity?

(Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway for our bi-monthly drawing. Check the Weekly Windup on Monday to see if you're the winner. For more information on our giveaways, click on the Prizes Galore page.)