An Interview with Lisa T. Bergren

Here's a series that looks absolutely fascinating, and I'm glad I can feature best selling and award winning author, Lisa T. Bergren's books, even if I don't have time at the moment to read them. That means I have to find a nice home for these two yummy books. Leave a comment, picking a number between 1 and 100. The winner will get BOTH books!













Now about Lisa...
Lisa Tawn Bergren is the author of 28 books, with over 1.3 million sold. She is a publishing consultant, writer, Bible study leader, mother and wife. Her hobbies include travel (mostly from an armchair), reading, watching movies, cooking and exploring with her family. Lisa's most recent books include The Begotten, The Betrayed, God Gave Us Heaven, What Women Want and The Busy Mom's Devotional. She resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado. To sign up for her monthly email (which includes a new, unpublished devotional) go to www.LisaTawnBergren.com and join her newsletter list.

Give us a glimpse of The Gifted series.

This is a supernatural suspense series set in medieval times, pre-Reformation, pre-Renaissance. It’s about a group of people who have profound spiritual gifting (healing, prophecy, wisdom, faith) who are in search of the lost letter of St. Paul, another letter he supposedly wrote to the Corinthians (an actual biblical mystery), but this letter has a non-Pauline prophetic bent. And in the margins, over the centuries, this secret letter has been passed along and protected by monks, some of whom added their own prophetic illuminations—drawings of the characters that appear centuries later. There’s the beautiful healer, a handsome knight, the wise priest, the child who can discern good from evil—characters that we both empathize with (when they fail) and wish to emulate (when they succeed). It is an epic story of good vs. evil and the desire to do what God calls us to do.

Where did you get the idea?
I read Da Vinci Code and stayed up all night reading it. In the end, I was grieved and angered at the heresy presented there. I set out to find a true biblical mystery, and two scholarly friends told me about the "lost letter(s) of Saint Paul," written to the Corinthians. At the same time, was profoundly influenced in watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on film. So when Publishers Weekly referenced both Da Vinci Code and LOTR, and compared my book, The Begotten, favorably, I was thrilled!

What truths from this series are most relevant for people today?

The main theme for The Begotten is really embracing God's supreme love, and finding total healing through it. The main theme for The Betrayed is perseverance and faith through trial. I'm thinking those are truths I need to be reminded of every year...and hope readers are ministered to through those lessons (even in the midst of a fast-paced read!)

What did you enjoy about writing these two books?

I love getting lost in this group of characters. They begin to feel like family to me, and alongside them, I learn more about the God we serve, battle evil, travel the world and inspire others, as if I'm in each of their heads, living each of their lives. Oh, and I got to go to Italy THREE times (and the South of France for a bit too) to research for this series--how cool is that?!?

Are there plans for more books in this series?

I'm currently at work on book #3, The Blessed. I think it ends there, but man, it's hard to say goodbye to such compelling characters! Blessed comes out next fall.

Don't forget to leave a comment and pick a number. These stories look fabulous!