POINT OF ORIGIN - Lisa Harris and Lynne Gentry - One Free Book

Dear Readers, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this second book in a series by two of my dearest friends. Their books are powerfully spiritual suspense novels about true-to-life events. I’ve known about both of these books while they were planning and writing them. Little did they know that this book would release when a world-wide pandemic was in full force, which makes this story almost prophetic. I haven’t received my copy yet, but it will go to the very top of my to-be-read pile. You won’t want to miss it.

 Welcome, Lisa and Lynne. This is your second collaboration. How did this story come about?

We’ve always been fans of Mercy Ships and have followed their work for years. One day Lynne was scrolling through her Facebook feed and saw a Mercy Ship story about a boy suffering from a disease that had morphed his body into the shape of a Z. His before and after story was amazing. Because volunteers had dared to bring medical care to a third-world country, this boy had received the gift of straight legs. While all of this good was going on, pirates were really upping their attack game on passing ships and a deadly Ebola outbreak had made its way to the States and set off global panic. The three elements collided and PORT OF ORIGIN was the result.

James and I have loved the work of Mercy Ships since the beginning. Another dear friend of mine was on one of the first two. She shared miraculous stories that God brought about for their team. How did you feel as a team because your story so closely resembles what is going on right now?

The concept of a killer virus on a medical ship was actually fleshed out in a 2009 book series proposal we were shopping. When we didn’t get the opportunity to finish the series, we set the project aside. In 2017 we released the first book in the series (Ghost Heart). That book did so well we decided to write the rest of the series. Due to life setbacks, we didn’t finish the book until December of 2019. Last year, Covid-19 wasn’t even a blip on the map. All of our research was based on a combination of the 2014 Ebola outbreak and pure speculation. Imagine our surprise when, just a month after the book was finished, we started hearing of a rogue virus causing cruise ships to port with hundreds of ill passengers. The day the military medical ship sailed into New York City’s port to rescue the dying, we thought we would cry.

One way our story differs from our current world crisis is that we believe in hope. No matter how dark any of our struggles seem, we believe God is sovereign and He is in control. Port of Origin, while eerily close to the times in which we are living, is filled with wonderful, brave people, and lots of hope.    

How did collaborating with this team impact you?

LYNNE: First, we decided we wanted our hero and heroine to each have a distinctive voice. The easiest way to achieve their separate voices was for each of us to choose which one we wanted to write. Next, it made sense for Lisa to write the scenes involving African characters since she lives there. Because of my connections to the medical world through my daughter and my husband, I did the research and writing for those scenes.

LISA: Once we decided on who was going to write which characters, it allowed us to focus on that part of the story line, and one each specific character’s backstory and personalities. Watching the story come together was really exciting.

What is the hardest thing about writing as a team?

When we began to delve into the research, we were really surprised by what we found. For example, it was sobering to discover that vast amounts of money have been made by the stripping of Africa’s natural resources, but little of that financial gain has trickled down to Africa’s impoverished population. As individual writers, Lisa and I don’t always see things the same way. But in the give and take of coming to a workable solution, we’ve both been surprised by how much we’ve grown. We’ve really come to appreciate each other’s strengths. And we’ve both come to realize that we need a really good editor because neither of us will win any awards for grammar.

What are you reading right now?

LYNNE: I always have a book going. I just finished JoJo Moyes’ Giver of the Stars. Such a fascinating and rich story set during the Depression. I love Paulette Jiles and have recently finished News of the World and The Color of Lightning.

LISA: I’ve just started James R. Hannibal’s The Gryphon Heist.

I always love to see what book the authors I interview are reading. They give me ideas about what books I want to read. How did you choose your characters’ names?

We love our character names to have meaning. We do a lot of searching through name lists and when something rings a bell, we look up the meaning. For example, our hero Josiah is a broken man. We picked this name because it means Jehovah heals. Sometimes we love to honor people we know and use part of their name. When you read our books, you’ll find them sprinkled with tributes to people we love.

Would you want to work on another book together?

We are. We’ve got two more books planned for this year. Lethal Outbreak releases in the Dangerous Deceptions box set with 7 other new books by award-winning authors on October 13. We hope to release Death Triangle, the fourth book in the series, by the end of 2020 or early 2021.

What do you want to tell us about the book?

Two fathers go to war to save their children. If the woman in the middle can’t convince them to work together, the winner of this conflict will be a deadly virus intent on destroying the world. 

Please give us the first page of the book.

Off the Coast of Cameroon, Central Africa

Since ancient times, the sea had been generous. Tuna. Sardines. Ocean prawns big as a man’s hand. But those days of plenty had vanished in the wake of the foreign trawlers whose illegal fishing practices were destroying the coastline’s natural resources. Dabir watched the moon slip behind a veil of clouds, leaving him and his brothers to navigate the vast Atlantic in an eerie shroud of darkness. From his position at the end of the boat, he could see little beyond the shadowy silhouettes of his father and his two younger brothers.

                       

He stopped rowing for a moment as he waited for the sharp tug of the nylon fishing net that would signal the night’s first catch. A wave smashed against the side of the narrow craft, reminding him of the dangers of straying too far into the open waters. He searched for the light of the trawlers that swept the sea’s floor with their ghostlike underwater lights while their wide metal jaws devoured everything in sight, but tonight there was no sign of the floodlights used to lure the fish into their nets. Which meant the deadly boats could be anywhere, trying to avoid the overworked coastal patrols searching in vain for those illegal vessels that strayed into the zone reserved for the smaller vessels. All Dabir could do was pray his father’s boat steered clear of the stealthy trawlers that prowled the darkness. And pray that they would catch enough fish to feed their family another day.

Where can our readers find you on the Internet?

Together we have a Harris/Gentry Suspense Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/harrisgentrysuspense/?ref=bookmarks

LISA: www.lisaharriswrites.com

Twitter: @heartofafrica

Facebook: AuthorLisaHarris

LYNNE: www.lynnegentry.com

https://www.facebook.com/Author-Lynne-Gentry-215337565176144/

https://www.instagram.com/lynnegentry.author/?hl=en

Thank you, Lynne and Lisa, for allowing me to help you market your books. I know my blog readers are as interested in them as I am.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Port Of Origin: A Medical Thriller (Agents Of Mercy) - Paperback
Port Of Origin: A Medical Thriller (Agents Of Mercy Book 2) - Kindle
If you missed the first book in the series and want to read both of them:
Agents Of Mercy (2 Book Series) - Kindle

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