Come April 1^st I will have been working on Daughter of Light a little shy of eight years. As I draw near to my release date, I thought I would share with you how I came up with this story…

Rowen (my main character) did not start out with the ability to see inside the soul. I actually created her to be a healer. I was annoyed by the “healing” I saw constantly in fantasy: just place your hands on someone and heal them. Tada!

I asked myself what would it be like if healing cost you something? What if, instead of healing someone, you absorbed the person’s pain, sickness, or wound? Would you do it? Really?

I wanted to explore the psychology behind this answer: What would it feel like? Who would you choose to heal? How much fear would you feel? Would you ever do it again? I wanted real answers, not “this is what the hero would do” answers.

But as I began to write Rowen’s story, I realized she needed something more than this. But what? Then I read a story about a woman who microwaved her baby. I read the headline, horrified. Why would anyone do that? What this woman thinking? What inside of her made her do this?

That made me think. We never see most of the evil in this world. Why? Because most of it is never acted out. But it’s still there, inside of us. What would it be like to see inside of people? What if you were burdened with that ability…and never knew it. Until the moment you touched someone?

What would you see inside the human heart?

This is Rowen’s gift and burden. To see what only God sees, and to reflect it back. To reveal the truth.

Her story begins April 1^st.