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Interview with Jill Elizabeth Nelson on Reluctant Runaway
RW: How many books are in the series? JEN: Three so far, and that’s the end of this contract. I’d love to pick up the series again someday, though. My editor is very fond of Desi and Tony, so I think she’d be open to that. Sale—i.e., the popularity of the series—would drive that decision at the publishing house. RW: How did you come up with the idea for the series? JEN: Well, that’s a very interesting question, because it was a rather unique occurrence; it’s not the usual way an author comes up with a story idea, but this was an actual, sleeping dream. It had to have been somewhere deep in my subconscious. I dreamed that a woman in black snuck into an elaborate home and took a painting off the wall and put an identical painting back on the wall. And you know how dreams are—you often know some of the background without knowing how you know it. And I knew that she was taking the fake painting off the wall and putting the genuine painting on the wall. Which was a really bizarre thing for a cat burglar to do. And I also knew that if she was caught doing this reverse-larceny, not only she would suffer, but a lot of other people would as well. But before she could make her getaway, I woke up in a cold sweat. In my waking state I had to play with this idea and ask myself some questions as to why a woman would be doing this. And the answers to that turned out to be Reluctant Burglar. When Multnomah wanted a series, I built on that idea for the other two books. RW: Art plays a critical role in this series. Do you have a favorite artist or style? JEN: I’m really fond of garden scenes, I guess because flower gardens are really peaceful to me; I find them soothing. In particular I love one of the American artists I featured in Reluctant Runaway, Georgia O’Keefe. What I love about her work is how she takes a flower and makes it huge, so that you can see every detail of it. In Reluctant Runaway I made up a painting by Georgia O’Keefe that plays a special role in the story. RW: Do you do any art yourself? JEN: No, I’m afraid not. I took some art classes in college and did all right in ceramics, and I’ve dabbled in theater, but mostly I paint and draw with words. In that sense, I have something in common with my main character, Desiree, who adores art and would lay down her life for it, but is no good at it either. I use my words, and that desire is something the Lord placed inside of me, and it’s something I want to do to His glory. He placed stories in my heart, and I have a whodunit kind of mind, so writing romantic suspense really suits me. RW: How did you research the series? Did you communicate with the FBI? JEN: I did, and it was actually pretty entertaining. I went to Albuquerque, and I called the FBI office there before I went to visit, rather than just show up on their doorstep, and asked to speak with someone who would talk with an author. I was put through to the media liaison. His voicemail was interesting; it said, “Either leave a brief message or a detailed confession.” You can’t tell me they don’t have a sense of humor! But I didn’t have a confession, so I left a brief message and deliberately did not leave a callback number. I wanted to see what happened. Five minutes later my cell phone rings, and the caller ID comes up all zeros. I knew immediately that I was being called back by the FBI. It was the media contact, so we had a conversation on the telephone, and he answered my questions and saved my bacon on a plot point that would have been absurd and not at all FBI. When I got to Albuquerque, I went to the FBI office to deliver a thank you note. I visited museums first and then got a cab. Of course, the cab driver had no idea where the FBI office was—apparently they don’t advertise their location. So I gave him the address and told him what it was, and he looked at me and asked very seriously, “Are you in the FBI?” I should have said, “Yes, I’m a profiler, and I have vital information—step on it!” But do you know what my silly tongue said? I said, “No, I’m too fluffy for that job.” He thought it was good for a laugh, anyway. So we finally arrived at the FBI after a wrong turn and were both clueless. We drove up to the guardhouse, where a very patient man informed us that we needed to park in the visitor lot and then come to guardhouse with ID, leaving cellphone and camera in the car. Now, the guardhouse is outside this huge fortress of a building surrounded by an iron fence that’s about twice my height. So once I proved I was who I said I was, he let me through the gate, and I went inside the building. Inside, there’s almost nothing there. Everything’s walled off. There’s a guard on one side, and a full body metal detector, and then a reception area behind bulletproof glass. I went up to the receptionist and left my thank you note. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any farther inside that day, but I’m waiting for the call. Any day now, they’ll call me back and invite me for a tour, since I was such a nice author. And that was my adventure in Albuquerque. However, there are some good books out on the FBI. There’s one called Cold Zero by Special Agent Christopher Whitcomb, who was on the FBI hostage rescue team. There’s another one called My FBI by Louis J. Freeh, a former director of the FBI. There are other ones like FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. These are books for people who want to join the FBI, which they can get to help them prepare to become agents, so those are very helpful. I also have lots of books on art theft, museum security, cults, locations, stacks of internet printouts. . . so yeah, I do a lot of research, and I talk to experts in the field whenever I need to know details about technical things. RW: Is there a particular theme throughout the book? JEN: Definitely. I think the main thing that ended up in the book, though it wasn’t necessarily anticipated, was the generational consequences of choice. The choices our grandparents made trickle down into our lives and can have major impact, for good or for ill. I think Runaway addresses that on a lot of levels, both in the natural and the spiritual. Future generations can either carry on the consequences for good or for ill or can break it and change the direction for the following generations. That’s what really came out of my heart in this book. If any of us thought about it, we’d realize that’s how we talk about things anyway—that our grandfather did this, our father did that; that things run in our families. But there are some things that we, as Christians, need to take authority over and break. Because it should not continue to the next generation. But if we don’t get a handle on it and break it, then who will? We’re the ones with the Spirit of God. I wanted people to come away with a deeper understanding of our authority in Christ and our ability to change those directions. RW: One of the things I really loved was that you dealt with the occult; I haven’t read too many Christian novel that do this, but you tackled it and even used a cult that sounded a lot like Christianity. JEN: That was another thing on my heart—to show the difference between what TV shows Christian life to be like, and what it really is. My goal was to make this cult close enough to fool even a genuine believer, but weird enough to be really dangerous. One of my characters was just a baby Christian when she came up against this, so she wasn’t equipped to deal with it, and her church really dropped the ball. This young person got to be too much for her church, too needy. That happens sometimes, but there are churches out there that can minister to people with different needs. I deliberately pointed out that this happens, that even though other Christians may disappoint us or hurt us deeply, that doesn’t make Christianity false. It doesn’t mean you won’t find that love and acceptance in another Christian community. RW: Do you have a favorite character other than Desi and Tony? JEN: Oh, I’m pretty fond of Max, in all of the books. She’s a unique contradiction. She looks like a complete poof-head, but she’s a genius. One of the reasons I most like her is because what she looks like and what she is are two very different things. I’m also pretty fond of Steve, Tony’s ex-partner, the crusty retired agent. He comes in more in the next book, too. RW: Is there anything you can tell us about the next book? JEN: I’m really excited about Reluctant Smuggler. It doesn’t come out in October like the back of Reluctant Runaway says, though, it got reschedule to January. In that one we’re going to go to Mexico, where Desi and Tony will be confronting a very violent gang that traffics in antiquities, drugs . . . and human beings. |
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