CONGO DAWN - Jeanette Windle - One Free Book

Welcome back, Jeanette. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?

I always have half a dozen more stories bubbling in my head that I hope to write if the Lord tarries and permits. And I continue in my "day job" as a missions journalist, editor of a missions magazine, and a ministry very dear to my heart: training and mentoring Christian writers in two languages on five continents (most recently Mexico and Kenya). But I can say honestly that I've given up looking too far into the horizon just because God's path for my life so often takes completely unexpected twists and turns. My focus has zoomed in on rounding the next curve in the road: finishing that next book, article, speaking engagement, ministry trip to the absolute best of my ability while looking forward with anticipation to what new surprise God may have for me on the horizon.

Tell us a little about your family.

I am married to a fellow missionary kid, Dr. Martin Windle, currently serving as president on an international ministry organization, BCM International (www.bcmintl.org). I have four adult children, three sons and a daughter, ranging from age 21-30. My middle son and our daughter, the youngest, are adopted from Bolivia, where we were then serving as missionaries. Our oldest is in his final year of law school on full scholarship from the Bill Gates Foundation in Public Service Law. Our middle son works in Nevada. Our youngest son is currently a combat medic with the 2nd Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, NC. Our daughter is a wife and mother in Lancaster, PA. Forgive me if I don't mention their names, but one commitment my husband and I made to our children long ago (birthed from our own too-public upbringing as missionary kids!) was to preserve their privacy in print and speech.

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

I am an avid reader, both fiction and non-fiction. Like food and drink, reading is part of my regular  intake, no matter how busy I get. Perhaps the biggest impact writing has on my reading habits is that I do minimal fiction reading when I am at full-throttle writing a new novel. Instead I read enormous amounts of non-fiction material on the particular country setting where I am currently writing. Most recently for instance with Congo Dawn, I read at least 20,000 pages of history, current events, political/social/economic background on the Congo region as well as collateral subjects such as conflict minerals, private military companies, the inside-out of multinational corporations. Once I finish a manuscript, I will admit to indulging myself in a surfeit of fiction (including many waiting titles from CBA author friends) before I begin my own next writing project.

What are you working on right now?

After seven consecutive adult international intrigue titles and a children's international mystery series, I am actually buried currently in a project that is very much outside either of those boxes, more The DaVinci Code meets Michael Crichton's Timeline than anything I've written to date. Set alternatively against a near-future and pre-diluvian Earth, Deluge is a story that has been bubbling for years, and I am excited about where it is going. But I hope I won't be leaving you in too much suspense if I reserve the details until I am much further along.

What outside interests do you have?

Outside of writing, I've been in full-time ministry for thirty years now as a missionary, missions journalist, speaker, and trainer/writer for indigenous Christian writers on four continents.  While technically "work", traveling to new corners of the planet and meeting new people is one wonderful side benefit. Whenever possible, I try to squeeze in some sightseeing in each new country. And when I do have spare time, I'll admit you can usually find me with my nose in a good book.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

My settings choose me more than the other way around. Seriously, every time I've finished writing about one country, God has brought people and circumstances into my life that lead me to a new country, new story-line, and new spiritual theme. For Veiled Freedom and Freedom's Stand, set in Afghanistan, God opened the doors to so many 'boots on the ground' sources in Afghanistan as well as being able to travel there personally. When I finished Afghanistan and began brainstorming my next novel, unplanned and unexpected contacts with some of the planet's most incredible missionary pilots and jungle medical volunteers opened doors to writing Congo Dawn, set in the war-torn Ituri rainforest conflict zones of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. I'm excited to see where God leads next for settings of future titles.

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?

Shem's wife (as in Noah's daughter-in-law, the eventual maternal ancestor of Jesus Christ). As to why, her POV figures strongly in my current work-in-progress, and I have so many questions for her. What was it like to marry into a clan of known crazies? To face giving up all known civilization and technology to raise children in a stark, primitive new world? What drew her to Shem: romantic love, his faith in Elohim, Creator of All, or both?

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

I've often wished I'd known before I jumped so blithely into writing novels just how difficult it would be, wrenching heart and soul and mind to pour out a story and its spiritual theme on printed page. I would certainly never have had the courage to start on such a long, strenuous, hair-pulling, heart-rending journey, had I seen the road ahead. Even more so the equally arduous process of getting a book actually contracted and published once it is written.

So while I do wish I'd known, I'm glad as well that God only let me see each next step (isn't that the way God works in so many areas of our lives?). Now that I do know just how hard writing a novel is, I constantly ask myself in the first stages of each new book what in the world I think I'm doing dragging myself back into the arena to start all over again. Then I get far enough in the new book that I can't turn back, and after another long, arduous journey, somehow another book is born.

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

Each of my novels is birthed from the particular point along my own spiritual journey at which the book is written, so that the spiritual truths with which the protagonists are wrestling are also the lessons God has been teaching me. Most recently, the height and breadth and depth of God's love despite all seeming evidence to the contrary of this planet's darkness and suffering. 

In Congo Dawn, the protagonist asks a question: 

“I would give my own life to stop the pain I’ve seen. To stop little girls and boys from being raped. Or just as bad, forced into armies where they’re turned into killers . To keep families from being torn apart by war. Children dying of preventable diseases for lack of a dollar’s worth of medicine. So am I more compassionate than the God who created all these people, created all this beauty? How can an all-powerful God who claims to love humanity look down on our planet and watch such unspeakable things happening, innocent people hurting and dying, bad guys winning over and over again, so much suffering, without it breaking his heart?  Without reaching down and putting a stop to it?"

Coming to grips with that question in my own life as well as that of my fiction protagonist has led inexorably to a very simple realization. I am not more compassionate than my Creator. Any love I can possibly feel or show is a dim reflection of our heavenly Father's love.

So if I begin with the recognition that God is truly love, that He loves us far more than we can love others, then I must also accept (whether or not I will ever fully understand it this side of Heaven) that the coexistence of a loving Creator with human suffering is no oxymoron, but a divine paradox those refined in the fires of adversity are best equipped to understand. However dark the night, our heavenly Father really does know what He's doing. His ultimate plans for our lives and for all His creation are not only birthed from immeasurable love, but they will not be thwarted.

What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?

I wish I had three good answers to this--or even one. The truth is that one can read every writing book, work diligently at developing one's craft, jump through every hoop listed in the CBA or ABA writers market guides, and still not find success as a writer. Which is why I'd like to share instead what I call the "But God Factor".

My own publishing story (too long to tell in full here) was perhaps like many, writing that first juvenile mystery series, submitting to publishers, receiving encouragement, rejections--but no contracts. Except that I was sending my submissions hard-copy from the mission field. I'd run through every lead by the time we came stateside for a three-month ministry trip. I remember vividly asking God to either open a door or close it completely so I would not waste more time on writing that could go into other ministry.

We were at a final missions conference before heading back to Bolivia when I received a call. To my astonishment, it was an editor of Questar Publishing, recently merged with Multnomah Press, who'd already sent me a rejection, saying they didn't publish juvenile. The caller informed me that in the merger they'd found tucked away in a drawer some wonderful children's mystery-suspense chapters. They'd called a phone number on the proposal (my in-laws) and had been given my contact info at the missions conference. Would that proposal still be available for a new juvenile fiction line?

Would it! The contract arrived just as we headed back to Bolivia, the beginning of my CBA career. That out-of-the-blue phone call at a missions conference would far be too improbable for fiction. Which simply goes to show that one can follow every guideline, jump through every hoop. But in the end, delightfully, unexpectedly, there is always the "But God Factor" that turns all our own plans and efforts on end.

So instead of advice, let me leave this one encouragement to my fellow writer-in-Christ. Do we need to understand the market? Perfect our craft? Follow editorial procedure? Yes, of course. But we are not only writers, but children and servants of God, called and gifted by Him to do the works to which He has called us. I don't know God's plan for your writing gift. But I know He has one.

So write what burns within you, not just what may fit the market. And when you've done all you can to be a writer of excellence, trust God to open the right doors for your message. After all, who could ever predict a dusty manila envelope in a back drawer of an abandoned publishing warehouse to be the launch of a writing career.

Tell us about the featured book.

If absolute power breeds absolute corruption, what happens when a multinational corporation with unlimited funds hires on a private military company with unbridled power? Especially in a Congolese rainforest where governmental accountability is only too cheaply for sale and the ultimate “conflict mineral” is up for grabs?

Set in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's war-torn eastern Ituri rainforest zone, Congo Dawn confronts former Marine lieutenant Robin Duncan with just that question. A veteran in handling corruption and conspiracy, Robin has never had any trouble  discerning good guys from bad. But as her private security team tries to track down an insurgent killer, Robin faces a man who broke her trust years ago and discovers that gray areas extend deeper into the jungle than she anticipated.

As a vicious global conspiracy emerges, run by brutal men who don’t leave witnesses alive, Robin must decide if there is anyone left she can trust. And where is God in the suffering and injustice? How is it followers of Yesu (Jesus) caught in the crossfire can still rejoice when everything they hold dear is ripped away?

Please give us the first page of the book.

PROLOGUE

Ituri Rainforest, Democratic Republic of Congo

Paradise Lost.

That translated piece of literature written by a long-ago foreign poet had been a favorite of Jesuit monks who’d taught a Congolese orphan boy his letters and their language many years ago.

Perhaps because they’d felt just so at their exile to his own country.

“Baba. Father. Have you not understood what I said? With these we can now make a paradise out of our home.”

Father and son stood on a stony outcropping that thrust skyward over the rainforest canopy, one of dozens of the strange rock formations that rose like termite mounds above the treetops, their stony composition bearing no apparent relation to the sandy soil or red clay that made up the jungle floor. Burial mounds of the Ancient Ones, tribal legends avowed before pale-skinned foreigners arrived to teach terms like igneous and volcanic anomaly.

“Baba, do you not see what a miracle this is? As great a miracle as finding you alive again. The Almighty at last has chosen to shower favor upon us. This place, our people, will never be the same again.”

The tall, ebony-skinned youth was dressed incongruously for this place in collared shirt, slacks, and such shiny black shoes as his feet had never known during their growing years. But anxious, dark eyes and beaming smile were the same, though he now held out a handful of gray pebbles rather than the schoolwork of his boyhood. In years past, his father could have responded with unstinted praise, but now he shifted his own bare feet to look down over the cliff edge.

The clearing below stretched to the banks of a wide, lazy river, its water the dark tannin shade of tea, a drink the Jesuit monks had taught the older man to enjoy. Several dozen thatched mud-brick huts occupied the highest ground, beyond the reach of wet-season flooding. Women wrapped in the colorful lengths of homespun cloth called pagnes stooped among cultivations of cassava, maize, beans, yams, and peanuts. Others moved along a path from the riverbank, their graceful sway balancing pottery water jars on top of their heads.

Children too young for work or school scampered among banana plants, playing some game of running and hiding. On the river itself, a pair of hand-hewn wooden pirogues drifted lazily toward a bend where the watercourse disappeared back into untamed rainforest. Several village men, naked except for the same loincloth that was the older man’s sole dress, stood precariously on the canoe rims to cast fishing nets woven of thin, supple lianas. Drawing the nets from the water, they removed a few catfish and eel, then cast the nets again.

Paradise Lost.

There was a time when such had been the older man’s own opinion of this remote jungle locality. When this place had seemed to him an unjust and cruel exile . . .

How can readers find you on the Internet?

I would like to invite any reader interested in knowing more about Congo Dawn, my other titles, or my own life journey to visit me at my website (www.jeanettewindle.com ) or contact me directly at jeanette@jeanettewindle.com . I am also delighted to participate with local book clubs or discussion groups through Skype video or online chat conference.

Thank you, Jeanette, for sharing this new book with us today.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Congo Dawn - paperback
Congo Dawn - Kindle


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

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FREEDOM'S STAND - Jeanette Windle - Free Book

Welcome back, Jeanette. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

If there is one interview question I receive frequently, it is why write about such controversial subjects as the international counternarcotics war, Marxist guerrillas in Latin America, the Islamic fundamentalist threat south of our borders, or the cry of the oppressed in hostile nations. The answer is actually simple. We as writers are told to "write what we know". I write about the world I know, a world well outside of safe American borders. I grew up the daughter of American missionaries in rural areas of Colombia that are now guerrilla hot spots. My own childhood was spent canoeing up and down the jungle rivers, flying in small propeller planes or driving the high mountain passes to boarding school in Venezuela, hiking up the Andes and into Amazon jungles. After Bible college in yet one more country not my own, Canada, I married another missionary kid, then spent 16 years with my husband as missionaries in Bolivia, one of the world’s top-five most corrupt countries, where I had the dubious privilege of watching from the front-row the development of a 'narco-democracy' which birthed my first adult political-suspense novel, CrossFire.

From there we were called to mission leadership with a ministry that serves in more than fifty countries on five continents. As result, I have now lived in six countries and traveled in more than thirty, including some of the planet’s more difficult corners.  If not an average American lifestyle—and certainly not always comfortable or safe—I will say it has proved the best possible for an investigative writer. Those places and people and the spiritual lessons God has taught me along the journey have spilled over to become the themes of my books. If those themes sound more troubling than joyous or peaceful,  let me assure you they are not because we have a heavenly Father who loves His children passionately. And whatever the storms raging around us, whether personal, political, economic, fears of terrorism or of war, our ultimate peace and joy lay in understanding that our safety, as well as the safety of our families and our country, are not and never will be in the absence of the storm, but in the presence of a loving Creator who in the midst of any storm cradles His children safely and tenderly in the palm of His Almighty hand.  If I did not have that absolute assurance, I would not have the nerve to research, much less write, the stories that I do.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

I should say my wedding, but in truth that was a rather frazzled day. I was a missionary kid recently graduated from Bible college in Canada, having to plan on my own an American wedding--I'd only ever seen one--in Tacoma, WA, where I'd rarely been. My parents arrived the day before the wedding from Colombia where they served as missionaries, my in-laws from Montana. So despite the joy, that day itself is a bit of a blur. Which leaves hands-down as my happiest day December 25, 1982, when I woke up with stomach cramps at 6 AM on a 40-below-zero winter day in Riverton, WY. Two hours later my first-born son Michael made his appearance, the best Christmas gift I've ever received beyond God's gift of a Savior.

How has being published changed your life?

I don't know that it has particularly, since I continue in full-time ministry and missions journalism, while writing the occasional suspense novel for Tyndale House Publishers on the side. Perhaps if there has been one change, it is that publishing mainstream novels has provided the credentials that result in speaking at a lot more writers conferences and workshops, both in North America and in training Christian writers around the world.

What are you reading right now?

Lots of books related to Africa, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo, where my current work in progress is set. Fiction-wise, I've been taking full advantage of those free downloads of CBA titles onto my new Christmas Kindle, which has allowed me to get to know many new talented Christian novelists.

What is your current work in progress?

I am currently writing a novel set in the Ituri rainforest of northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, working title Congo Dawn.

What would be your dream vacation?

My husband and I spent one night with a ministry team in a rustic hardwood lodge right on the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka on our way to dedicate a new conference ministry center in that country. We arrived after dark, so could just barely see the waves crashing against wood pilings below the lodge deck, an ocean glimmering under a thin moon and pale stars. The next morning we left early enough to experience as we drove away the incredible color spectrum of sunrise over that gently rolling blue-green expanse of saltwater. Ever since I've wanted to go back to that site for an actual vacation. Maybe someday!

How do you choose your settings for each book?

I don't really. They seem to kind of choose me. Seriously, every time I've finished writing about one country (most recently, Afghanistan in Veiled Freedom and Freedom's Stand), God has brought people and circumstances into my life that lead me to a new country, new story-line, and new spiritual theme. Most recently input from some of the planet's most incredible missionary pilots has opened the door to writing my next book in the war-torn Ituri rainforest of northeastern Congo.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

One of my three adult sons, for the reason that all three (like their parents before them) have spread their wings to fly far away from home. One is a Navy medic in Sicily right now, another heading to Mumbai, India, on a humanitarian project, the third working in western USA. I can think of no particular famous person currently alive with whom I'd go out of my way to spend an evening (the brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we work in more than 50 countries around the planet are far more interesting, and I always count it a privilege to spend time with them), but I'd drop anything if one of my sons was passing through for an evening.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

None. Which sounds more self-denying (or boring) than reality, because while I truly have no time for other hobbies, much of what I do in my daily life is exactly what I would choose if I did have time. I love traveling to other countries, visiting with and getting to know wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ I meet there, writing articles about their ministry as a missions journalist. I love the incredible variety of human beings with whom I come in contact, their stories, their dreams. I love trying new foods, seeing new places, enjoying new experiences. I love teaching God's Word and Christian writers conferences in different cultures, working with indigenous Christian writers around the planet in developing their gifts. Bottom line, who needs hobbies when you can do what you love and call it work! When I do have absolutely nothing on my schedule, I will admit I can't think of anything better to do than curling up with a good book (or my Kindle these days).

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Read, read, read and write, write, write. It is the saturation of mind and heart with good literature and prose that creates good writers as well as the practice of the craft. Any would-be writer who cannot tell me what they are currently reading or say they don’t care for reading but just want to write are immediately crossed off my list as serious potential writers.

Also, writing is hard work, not just inspiration. It is, in fact, a mind-numbing, hair-pulling, excruciating process of creation to which the birthing of ones own children pales. I always tell want-to-be writers, if you can keep from writing, do! It’s a hard, unforgiving field. If you have to write, whether it’s published or not, then you’re a writer, and like a musician or artist, you can’t be anything but. And it does feel wonderful after all the work of birthing the world and characters and message of a new book to hold it in your hands and see the finished product.

Tell us about the featured book.

Freedom's Stand is the sequel to 2010 Christy Award and 2010 CBA [formerly Gold Medallion] finalist, Veiled Freedom, set in contemporary Afghanistan. Veiled Freedom brought together on Kabul's dusty streets a disillusioned Special Forces veteran, an idealistic relief worker, and an Afghan refugee, each in their own personal quest for truth and freedom.  Returning in Freedom's Stand, they soon discover that in a country where political and religious injustice runs rampant, the cost of either may be higher than they realize. Will any one of them be willing to pay the ultimate price?

Beyond an engrossing story, Veiled Freedom addressed the critical question of what is true freedom. Can outsiders ever truly purchase freedom for another culture or people? With that in mind, the question Freedom's Stand addresses follows inevitably: once you've found that true freedom, how far will you go in sharing that freedom with others? A far from rhetorical question in the context of Afghanistan.

Please give us the first page of the book.

PROLOGUE

PASHTUN TERRITORY, AFGHANISTAN

The girl was breathing hard as she climbed steep outdoor stairs, carrying the basin of dirty water in which she’d been scrubbing vegetables. Sliding the basin onto a flat rooftop, she scrambled after it. She was high enough here to see out over the compound’s mud-brick perimeter wall. A narrow river gorge ran between two gently rising mountain ridges. The compound sat halfway up one flank, its crenellated exterior fortification curving out from the mountainside to enclose an area large enough for a buzkashi tournament, the Afghan free-for-all version of polo.

Above the girl on the highest parapet, a teenage sentry squatted, an ancient AK-47 across his thighs. Catching his eyes on her, the girl pulled her headscarf higher across her face. But she did not stoop immediately to complete her task, stepping forward instead to the edge of the roof.

Today’s sun had already dropped behind the opposite mountain ridge, leaving behind a spectacular display of reds and oranges and purples above the sharp geometry of rock formations. Overhead, a rare saker falcon wheeled lazily against the first pale stars. Perched on a boulder across the river, a shepherd boy played a wooden toola flute, the rush of water over stones offering harmony to his plaintive tune. Behind him, a herd of mountain sheep scrambled over terraces where crops would grow when spring runoff overflowed a stream bed winding through the valley floor.

The girl saw little beauty in the scene. The narrow vista of this isolated mountain valley, varied only by white of winter snow and green of summer growth, was no less a prison than the compound walls. Just as the bright red and pink of poppy blooms within the compound enclosure below meant only backbreaking hours of hand-irrigating and weeding.

But today that would be finished. Before nightfall was complete, the compound gates that had slammed her inside—how long had it been? five winters now?—would swing wide. Perhaps her new home would be a town with markets and people and freedom to emerge into the streets. Perhaps there would be womenfolk her own age who would welcome her as sister.

Perhaps there would be books. Oh, to study again!

Will there be love?

Her searching gaze had finally spotted what she’d been seeking. A single track scratched the baked earth of the valley floor, paralleling the river bed. A dust devil moving along it was too large and fast to be the wind. A party of horsemen?

Then a vehicle separated itself from the whirlwind. A single-cab pickup, its bed crowded with human shapes, though still too distant to make out whether they were male or female.

One would certainly be male.

Her liberator.

Or new prison warden.

Her bridegroom.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

www.jeanettewindle.com


Thank you for another very interesting interview, Jeanette.



Readers, here's a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

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THE DMZ - Jeanette Windle - Free Book

Welcome, Jeanette. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

While everything in my novels is based on actual occurrences and the situation on the ground of the countries about which I write, it certainly doesn't all come from my own life. A good example: depictions of the Colombian guerrilla camps in The DMZ came not from my own experience, but from personal friends who did spend up to years in captivity.

However, one advantage of having traveled in thirty+ countries on five continents is that I can pull a lot of sights and sounds and smells from my own memory banks as well as research and interviews. More importantly, the emotional and spiritual threads of my novels and their protagonists have been birthed very definitely from the life journeys through which God has taken me and the spiritual battles and lessons involved. In The DMZ in particular, the missionary kid journalist returning to the guerrilla zones where she grew up was definitely birthed from my own life, the small Colombian town described the same one where I spent my teen years, now in the middle of a guerrilla zone.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

This is a hard question to answer because I am a cautious person, as is necessary for survival in the less-than-safe corners of the planet I've wandered, and the adventures of my life have been thrust upon me rather than ever being deliberately chosen. Other than the quirkiness of choosing to be a political-suspense novelist, of all the bizarre career choices to follow, perhaps shooting Andes river rapids on an inner-tube without helmet or life jacket is something I did routinely growing up that I'd never let my kids do. Though at the time, it was just a typical day's outing for a bunch of missionary kids at a South American boarding school--and lots of fun!

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

I don't recall ever really discovering that I was a writer. As a child I was too busy reading and writing to think about it. The missionary kid school I attended in the Venezuelan Andes put great emphasis on literature and proper composition, and we were doing term papers with footnotes by junior high. But that excellent grounding in the language arts was definitely the foundation of any writing skills I have today.

I published my first short story in college, then put aside writing largely as I married, went into full-time ministry, the mission field, and had children. I wrote my first book literally out of boredom. My husband and I were the only Americans at the time in the southern Bolivia city where we were living. While my husband was on traveling through the Andes mountain for two weeks at a time. I was stuck at home with three preschoolers, no car, TV, radio. Once my preschoolers were in bed, I had only the handful of English-language books I’d read dozens of times. I finally decided if I had nothing to read, I’d write a book instead. That became Kathy and the Redhead, a children’s novel based on my growing-up years at an American missionary kid boarding school in the Andes mountains of Venezuela.

Writing the book reawakened in me the love of writing I'd laid aside, and I never stopped writing again, first as a missions journalist, then seven other children's books before making the leap to the adult political-suspense novels I write today.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I am an eclectic reader and will read anything of any genre as long as it is superbly written. Much depends what I’m currently writing. A few months ago my nightstand was filled with books related to Afghanistan, where my last two novels, Veiled Freedom and Freedom's Stand, take place. Now for the same reason, it is filled with non-fiction and fiction related to the Congo. I read several books a week and enjoy all the most recent best-sellers as well as re-reading or discovering classics. Because I read so quickly and am constantly out of reading material, I LOVE having other readers inform me of a book they have loved and which I’ve yet to read—so feel free to send me recommendations.

When it comes to inspirational reading, Max Lucado is by far my favorite with beautiful prose and deep spiritual content. In other areas a few favorites are: 1) historical fiction: M. M. Kaye, Kenneth Roberts, Leon Uris; 2) political/suspense: Frederick Forsyth, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Alistair McClain, Robin Cook; 3) Science fiction: J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, C.S. Lewis; 4) Mystery: Agatha Christie, Mary Higgins Clark, Mary Stewart, Madelaine Brent, Georgette Heyer; 5) Romance--I must say I'm still a sucker for a good Georgette Heyer, though all mine were tattered years ago; 6) Westerns: Louis L'Amour is the only one I read, but he is good enough to convert even a non-Western fan; 7) General fiction: Chaim Potok's The Promise and The Chosen; When The Legends Die--there too many to even begin to start. And, of course, the entire range of classics.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

Have I kept my sanity? Hmm, is this interview real or a figment of imagination? In reality, though I do enjoy traveling, speaking and other aspects of ministry, I need serious downtime completely away from other human beings to maintain my sanity. When I am off the road, I retreat into virtual isolation into my own home (my kids are grown and gone other than a 19 year old daughter who is rarely in the house, so it is just my husband and me). That is when I can read, pray, meditate--and write. Too much time spent on the run, and I lose my creative abilities as well as my sanity. Too much time in isolation, and I get restless for human input. Keeping a balance on both is always the challenge.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

The phone book. Seriously! Having spent much of my life in Latin America, the names that always jump to mind when I am trying to think of one for my characters are Spanish. To get variety and the right ethnic background for my characters, I often find myself skimming through the phone book. Though if it is an unusual background--Afghan, Iranian, German--I will also Google the country and read through the names of government ministers, etc. to get ideas of first and last names, then put together a combination of those.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

That is quite a question since I've never considered anything I've done a particularly noteworthy accomplishment. Beyond the delights and challenges of raising to adulthood four children while maintaining reasonable sanity, I would say that the achievements that bring me most joy--and they are hardly mine, but God's!--are the human souls, especially the children, I've seen come to Christ during thirty-plus years now of ministry. When I first opened a FaceBook account a year or so back, I was astounded to get an FB message from Bolivia, where we served in missions for sixteen years. The writer posted: "Do you remember when you were my AWANA commander in Sucre [Bolivian highlands]? When I was ten years old, you were the first person ever to tell me I could possibly become a pastor someday. I am sending you a picture of my church. I am now the senior pastor."

As a non-techie, I will admit to reluctance in jumping on the social network bandwagon, but I have been delighted to hear from so many children and adults with whom I've ministered around the world who are now serving God in ministry, as pastors, even missionaries--and who most astoundingly now have access to internet and FaceBook in their distant corners of the planet. They are one achievement I can look forward to rejoicing over face-to-face when we all reach heaven-side.

One of my favorite things about social networking is connecting with people I've not seen for a while. What is your favorite food?

I have no favorite foods, books, movies, colors, places, or anything else. One side effect of spending my life in a constantly changing landscape in dozens of countries is an enjoyment of the wide variety God has placed on this planet in all categories. On the flip side, I will admit I am easily bored by sameness and love to experience anything new, including foods.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Lack of time has by far been my greatest roadblock. As a missionary and journalist in full-time ministry, with small children in my earlier years as a writer, now simply with a busy travel and speaking schedule, it is not easy to block out solid chunks of time for writing, especially since I need absolute quiet and solitude to write creatively.

I wish I could say I have overcome it, but in truth I would have far more books written if I had. What I have done is to be consistent that every day I am not on the road or have some other scheduled conflict, I am at my computer by 7 AM, getting in a full day of writing on my latest major manuscript. I save smaller writing and edit jobs for when I am on the road and/or speaking since I can do these with more interruptions.

Tell us about the featured book.

The DMZ is set in the background of the Colombian guerrilla zones, where I grew up, and the astonishing true-life alliance between leftist rebels and Islamic extremist groups there. Its theme might be summed up by a statement made by one of the characters in the book: "Those who are not willing to bleed and die for what they hold dear will always be held captive by those who are."

A brief synopsis of the story: When the US loses three major military assets in Colombia within weeks, attention turns to the Colombian demilitarized zone, a Switzerland-sized piece of territory handed over to the guerrillas in the vain hope it would make them start talking peace. The death of three American environmentalist activists in the same area bring a UN inspection/media team to the scene, including environmental journalist Julie Baker. For Julie it is at once a career opportunity of a lifetime and a revisiting of old hurts and terrors as she returns to the place of her birth—and her parents’ deaths at the guerrilla hands.

As Julie’s probing unleashes a terrorist plot that spans from the rainforests of Colombia to the Middle East and thevery heartland of America, she must confront resurging issues from her own past. Does God have a right to demand our total sacrifice? Does He have the right to demand our sacrifice of those we love? "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds . . . If anyone comes to me and does not hate (count as of lesser importance) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple (John 12:24; Luke 14:26). Are these just words or a philosophy of life God seriously expects us to apply beyond our comfortable suburban neighborhoods?

When Julie’s own abduction sets off a time bomb that has been ticking under the figurative feet of the United States for more than a decade, her answer to these questions becomes the catalyst that will determine the future course of at least two countries, if not the entire world.

Sounds interesting. We have spent time on mission trips in Latin America. Please give us the first page of the book.

PROLOGUE
April 1991, the Persian Gulf:

He brooded.

The top floor of the air control tower gave a clear view of war’s devastation. Craters pocked the concrete runways. Where buildings once had stood, hills of rubble thrust up surrealistic silhouettes. The burned-out skeletons of troop transports and aircraft lay scattered like scavenger-stripped carcasses. Even at this distance, he could smell the noxious clouds belching upward at a dozen points on the horizon—the burning refineries and factories that once had fueled his war machine.

It was no consolation that other parts of his country—most of it, in fact—still lived untouched to fight another day.

Cold fury etched its acid through his stomach and up his esophagus. What enraged him most was that his one-time allies had done this. The Americans before had been only too happy to help him build the finest offensive force in the Middle East. They had encouraged him to turn that force upon his neighbor to the east. He had done what they asked—neutralized that neighbor who had been such a thorn in the Americans’ flesh as well as his own.

So why this?

The answer was simple. The Americans were treacherous, lying, greedy manipulators. A people without honor.

Well…they would learn that he was not some dog to be whistled for when they had a task to be done, then quickly kicked away when his objectives no longer matched their own.

Okay, I'm wondering abou this character. Thank goodness, my copy of the book is here. How can readers find you on the Internet?

http://www.jeanettewindle.com/

Thank you, Jeanette, for spending this time with us.
 
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