Q&A - A Voice in the Wind

What made you decide to let Hadassah live in the first book of the series? Do you think it would have been preferable for Hadassah to die than to live in constant pain and be crippled for life?

I let her live because my editor, Karen Ball, was so upset by Hadassah's death in the arena that she called me and said she wanted to throw the manuscript across the room.! "You cannot let her die," she insisted. She wanted me to carry on the story in another book. What could I do?

Seriously, that was part of it. I had also done some research on the customs of that day, and discovered there was a law against dissection (once a person was dead) but not against vivisection (if the person was still alive). So I actually had an historically accurate reason for her to have lived.

As to whether it was better for her to die than live in constant pain—in terms of the story, it was better for her to live, even though it was much more difficult. The focus of An Echo in the Darkness was forgiveness. How many times do you forgive someone who has hurt you or who desires your destruction? I have had to deal with that question. And what that book taught me was that no matter what anybody does to me, what they say about me, or what their actions are, I am still called upon to forgive. And I learned that once you forgive someone, there are three things you don't do; talk to someone else about whatever it was you forgave; bring it up again to the person you've forgiven, or dwell on it yourself.

Hadassah models for me what true forgiveness is. I wanted the reader to despise Julia. I wanted to continue the story of Hadassah to show how God used her to reach Julia, the least likely one to accept Christ. We are not here for our own good pleasure. God leaves us here to be salt and light. He wants us to live our lives to draw the lost to Him. It did me good to remember those things, and to have Julia be the first one to reach Heaven. The angels sang when she accepted Christ and she saw them coming to take her home. Hadassah was left behind to continue being salt and light, to continue to suffer as she lived for Christ in this world. That's what the Christian life is about. All for Him. We are here for the sake of others who don't yet know their redeemer lives.

How does Hadassah remain true to her faith right up to the end?

Hadaassah was the one character who was living out a Christ-centered life, and that was the source of her strength. She was in prayer throughout the book; her entire focus was on God. That was the only thing she could do, living the kind of life she had.

When I wrote that book, the question that spurred me on was, how do you live out your faith among family members and friends who are not at all interested in the gospel? Through Hadassah, the answer came that it's not what you say, it's how you live that has the impact. Also, you don't need courage ahead of time. God prepares you and supplies you with the courage you need to face difficulties when you need it, not before.

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