Marta Perry Interview

Q: How long have you been writing and what other careers or jobs have you had?  

A. I’ve been writing for more years than I care to count! I used to combine writing with my career as a Christian Education Director, but eventually I retired from my position in order to write full time.

Q: Do you write in only one genre and if so which one and why? If not, which ones and why?

A: I began writing with children’s stories for Sunday School curriculum and eventually moved to writing magazine fiction for teens and adults, both inspirational and secular. However, I always knew that I wanted to write adult book-length fiction, and I eventually moved into writing both inspirational romance and romantic suspense novels. I love doing both, and I find it refreshing to switch from one genre to the other.

Q: How does your faith play into your writing? 

A. I wouldn’t be writing at all if not for God’s guidance. Throughout my writing, I have felt the Lord’s leading in what I write and when I write it. At times, I have resisted and tried to follow my own will, and that has never gone well. In fact, sometimes God has not only opened a door for me, He has booted me through it!

Q: How do you choose your settings for your books?

A. I always try to write settings that I know and love. Some of my books are set on the South Carolina coast, where my husband and I have a vacation home, but most are set in the Pennsylvania countryside where I have lived for most of my life. I feel that I can write in a genuine way only when I know the setting intimately, because the setting has such a profound effect on the characters.

Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up?

A: I’m sure I borrow traits from people I know sometimes, but if so, I’m never aware of it. My characters are the creation of my imagination, and I’m not sure I could write about them if I were thinking of a real person while writing.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book releases, Search the Dark, a romantic suspense novel from HQN Books and Danger in Amish country, an anthology from Love Inspired Suspense? 

A:SEARCH THE DARK is the second book in a romantic suspense series that started in January with HOME BY DARK. The series revolves around three women who spent one eventful summer together when they were ten. Now adults and brought back together again in the same small Amish community, they find that their combined memories will lead them to the unraveling of some deadly secrets from the past.

DANGER IN AMISH COUNTRY is an anthology of three inspirational romantic suspense novellas, all with Amish settings. In my story. Fall From Grace, an Amish teacher finds danger and love when she attempts to protect a small child who has unwittingly witnessed a murder.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for these new books?

A: For Search the Dark, I returned to a theme that I find intriguing—the secrets of the past coming back to haunt the present. And I loved the idea of pairing up the good girl who always fulfills everyone’s expectations with the bad boy who loves nothing more than flouting them! Their romance includes plenty of fireworks before they can hope to find their happy ending.

In the Danger in Amish Country novella, I was initially fascinated by an image I’ve seen for years—an outcropping on a country road near where I live that has an uncanny resemblance to a man’s face. As my imagination played with the image, I began to see a body tumbling from the top, and I tried to come up with the least likely person to witness and understand what he or she had seen. The story unrolled from there.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from these stories?

A: With both of these stories, as with all my books, I hope readers come away thinking about the power of love to transcend both the past and human frailty.

Q: Tell us what you like about the main characters of this book.

A: I especially like the character of Meredith in SEARCH THE DARK. She is the classic good girl, staying in the small village where she grew up to take care of her widowed mother, sacrificing what her future might have been because of her duty. I tried to show, through her character, both the pitfalls of her choices but also the very real strength of her character.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?  

A. I’ve just finished work on ABANDON THE DARK, the third book in the romantic suspense series. I really loved winding up the series with some twists and turns that I hope the reader won’t foresee. With that completed, I have a full slate with three new Amish romance novels for Berkley, another three-book suspense series HQN Books, and an Amish Christmas novella for Love Inspired.

Q: If money were no object what vacation would you like to take and why?  

A. Since I just returned from a delightful vacation, I’m not currently dreaming of another! My husband and I took a cruise with two friends from Boston up the northeast coast to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, then down the St. Lawrence Seaway to Quebec City and on to Montreal. The scenery was wonderful, and I loved learning more about the culture and history of an area I hadn’t visited before.

Q: What is the silliest thing you have ever done?  

A. Probably sitting in a tree stand with my teenage son waiting for the sun to come up so he could hunt deer!

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet? 

A. Look for me on Facebook at Marta Perry Books and at my website http://www.martaperry.com. Readers can email me at marta@martaperry.com, and I’ll be happy to send them a signed bookmark and my brochure of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?  

A. Thanks so much for inviting me!