Enduring Justice by Amy Wallace

I recently finished Enduring Justice and loved it just as much as the first two in the Defenders of Hope series. All three books have ministered to me in some way. And you just can't put these stories down! Amy Wallace weaves deep characters with real issues and struggles. These are stories and characters that linger with you. I can't recommend them enough. This is definitely one of my favorite series of books. And you can win all three! Check it out...


About the book:
A painful past...
Hanna Kessler’s childhood secret has remained buried for over two decades. But when the dark shadows of her past threaten to destroy those she loves, Hanna must face the summer that changed her life and the man who still haunts her memories.

A racially-motivated killer...
As a Crimes Against Children FBI Agent, Michael Parker knows what it means to get knocked down. Difficult cases and broken relationships have plagued his entire year. But when the system fails and a white supremacist is set free, Michael’s drive for retribution eclipses all else.

A life-altering choice...
A racist’s well-planned assault forces Hanna and Michael to decide between executing vengeance and pursuing justice. The dividing line between the two is the choice to heal. But when the attack turns personal, is justice enough?

Read an excerpt here.


About the Author:
Amy Wallace is a freelance writer and self-confessed chocoholic. She is a graduate of the Gwinnett County Citizens Police Academy and serves as the liaison for the training division of the county police department. Amy is the author of Ransomed Dreams, the first book in the Defenders of Hope series, and a contributing author of several books including God Answers Moms’ Prayers, and God Allows U-Turns for Teens. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Georgia.

About the Contest:
Enter to win all THREE BOOKS in the DOH series by signing up for Amy’s Dark Chocolate Suspense Newsletter and then leave a comment on this blog tour post (http://peek-a-booicu.blogspot.com/2009/04/enduring-justice-blog-tour.html). It’s chock full of insider info on the writing world, a thought-provoking devotion, and easy but yummy recipes. If you already subscribe to the newsletter, just leave a comment saying so on the blog tour post! The winner will be chosen at random on 5/8/09. Two runner's up will also be chosen to win a copy of Enduring Justice. (I love Amy's newsletter. She always includes the best recipes too!)


Out of a five meow rating, Smudge gives a full five mews for this series and each book in it. Hope you get a chance to read them all!

An Interview with Amy Wallace

Today it's my absolute delight and pleasure to have one of my favorite authors here. Amy Wallace is the author of Ransomed Dreams and Healing Promises. These books are two of my favorite stories and I can't wait to read Enduring Justice, book three in the Defenders of Hope series (Spring '09). (Btw, there are some spoilers in the first chapter of Healing Promises so you might want to read Ransomed Dreams first.)

Now here's the best part. One very special commenter will win a Healing Promises Gift Pack, which contains a signed copy of the book, Healing Promises, a Healing Promises mug, and a Starbucks gift card!

Amy, you touch on some pretty powerful struggles with your characters. What’s the “story” behind this story?

Healing Promises grew out of a painful time of wrestling with God and doubting His goodness during two very intense experiences. One was attending a friend’s funeral after three years of praying for healing. My faith was rocked to the core and I struggled to pray for a long time after my friend died. The second difficult season was that of losing a baby before becoming pregnant with my third daughter. Both dark nights of the soul took me to the end of what I understood about God. As I worked on Healing Promises, I went back to those memories and poured into the pages all the pain of those moments as well as what God taught me and the grace He lavished on my wounded heart.

Clint’s character is so deep and real in his struggle to trust God through his cancer treatment. And what a challenge that must have been to write! How did you handle that?

I had an amazing group of people praying me through the writing of this story. And four very dear friends who shared their cancer journeys with gut-wrenching honesty and gave me the privilege of mixing my tears and prayers with theirs.

Sara’s constant feeling of failure, no matter how much she actually helped or accomplished, is true for so many Christians. What was your motivation to show her struggle?

Not until writing the end of this book did I realize how much of my life and my struggles appeared in Sara’s story. It would have been easier to sanitize Sara’s pain and rework her issues. But my mentor taught me that bleeding into our writing and letting the Lord work within the mess of our lives and our stories is the only way to fashion words that will capture people’s hearts and point them to the Lord.

One part I really could relate to was Sara’s role as Clint’s wife, especially in such a difficult time and through her own emotional struggles as well. Marriage is a challenge even in the best of circumstances. What holds this fictional couple together in such a difficult time in their lives and relationship?

The only thing that holds real-life together—the all-powerful and infinite love of our amazing God that never lets go of us. I think the various storms Clint and Sara faced together in the past as well as their deep love and respect for each other also provided some strong glue to their relationship.

There were definitely some hanging threads there with Michael and Hanna. Will we get to see their story in book three?

Absolutely! Enduring Justice is Michael and Hanna’s story as they learn that the difference between executing vengeance and pursuing justice is their choice to heal.

What has been the most difficult aspect in writing this series? The most rewarding?

The most difficult aspect has been pouring my soul into these stories and then having to let them go and trust that God will accomplish His good purpose for them.

The most rewarding has been pouring my soul into the pages and watching God touch hearts and do amazing things beyond what I could have asked or imagined.

One line in the book is so powerful. “Are you depending on circumstances or people?” Can you give blog readers a glimmer of this most important message?

It’s been said that trusting God on sunny days when life is cruising along is easy. But it’s a far different scene when storms are raging and God asks us to step out of the boat—the one we’re sure is the only thing keeping us safe.

I’ve watched God pry things from my hands that I knew were His will for me and His gifts. The problem was I kept looking to those people and circumstances for my peace and okayness. It’s God’s amazing grace and love that breaks our hold on the things that can’t keep us afloat when life turns stormy, so that we’ll cling to His hand instead. The hand that holds tight even when the waves roar and enables us to walk on water with Him.

Wow, great stuff, Amy. Thanks for sharing with us.

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win that gift pack. Also, check out Amy's AMAZINGLY cool website, where you can sign up for her newsletter, Dark Chocolate Suspense. You really don't want to miss that. Amy shares wonderful stories in her newsletter, and the most tempting recipes!

Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace

It is my great pleasure to have Amy Wallace here to share about her amazing new book, Ransomed Dreams, book one in the Defenders of Hope series. Definitely in my top five list so far for the year. This is a book you don’t want to miss out on so be sure to leave a comment. You could win a signed copy of her book.

Amy Wallace is a wife, homeschool mom, writer, youth Bible study leader, and an avid chocoholic. Go to her website featuring heart chocolate. I promise you’ll drool. But her favorite description of all is daughter of the King. Come meet this wonderful woman of faith.

Amy, I’ve read in other interviews that your new book, Ransomed Dreams, was birthed from a dream. Did you do any writing before that?

I’ve penned tons of journals since I was a young teen, and I often wonder if they shouldn’t be kept locked away somewhere. ;-) Professionally, I did have some poetry published when I was in high school, and then before the contract for Ransomed Dreams I was honored to be a part of a Chicken Soup anthology, in one of the Cup of Comfort books, and also in two God Allows U-Turns books.

Your prologue is very intense, very emotional. How did you manage to write it and work through it?

I prayed…a lot! It was painful to write, rewrite, edit, and edit some more. Each time I cried. But it’s my prayer that my walking in Gracie’s shoes will give the readers a powerful connection to Gracie and to hearing God’s whispers through her.

Your characters are incredibly rich. Even your antagonists have a three dimensionality without losing their depravity. How do you go about developing your characters? Do they come alive as you write or do you develop character sketches beforehand?

I have to answer this question carefully because I made the mistake once of telling a reader that I liked my bad guys and could, in some ways, relate to them. She looked at me like I’d grown a third head. I think the key to writing three dimensional characters is to craft their back-story in such a way that there’s something you can relate to and understand in them. Even the bad guys. For instance, I totally get Gordon’s love for his brother. While I wouldn’t take the path Gordon chose, I could write his passion and belief in his plan because I connected with some part of his personality. While none of my characters are completely “me” they all have something in their stories that resonated with me. Doing the Snowflake character charts helped me figure that out and craft story people that came alive as I typed.

Do you have a special soft spot for one of your characters?

Can I just say, “yes” and not elaborate? ;-) I totally fell in love with the kids in Gracie’s class, James especially, and with Steven and Clint’s friendship. I know that’s more than one, but it’s nearly impossible to pick a single character.

Tell us a little about your writing process. Do you plan out your story or does it stew in your head until your fingers touch the keyboard?

The writing process has been different for each story in the Defenders of Hope series. I’m a plotter, so I work from an outline with each story. But because Ransomed Dreams was a literal dream, after I developed Gracie and Steven and did my research (thinking about the story all the time) it pretty much flew out of my fingers without a detailed outline. Book 2 was harder because it’s a little more personal, and God keeps digging deeper into me as I write. With book 2, the story idea was pretty strong in my mind after writing RD, so I was able to develop a comprehensive outline. Book 3 has totally changed three times before I even started writing it. The outline for Book 3 is the most extensive outline thus far and this story is one that wakes me up at night with ideas.

Loved the references in your story to the Princess Bride and heart chocolate. What’s the story behind these two elements?

The Princess Bride background stems from my husband looking like Wesley and hearing him say, “As you wish” as a flirtatious jest. He isn’t serious when he says it, but I’m working on that one. ;-) The heart chocolate story is one of my favorite insider details. The phrase came from a dear friend of mine in response to something I’d written to encourage her. When my web designer hubby couldn’t make my beach themed author website work, I mentioned Heather’s heart chocolate comment. He ran with it and created a site I love. Then I received some invitations to speak and the heart chocolate topic was a natural spring board, especially for speaking to women’s groups.

Did you know your story would have a strong a theme of forgiveness or did that develop as you went along?

When I first thought about Gracie’s quest for justice, I knew forgiveness would have to be a large part of her story. Then, as a natural outcome of Steven’s back-story, he struggles with a completely different aspect of forgiveness, one I believe a lot of us wrestle with…that of trying to make up for past actions.

Another spiritual thread you touch upon is who we are in God’s eyes. This part of the book touched me so deeply and brought me to tears at the end. It’s such a powerful message. Can you share how you wound up including this in Ransomed Dreams as well?

Wow, Dineen! Your comment about being deeply touched overflows my heart with thanks. I find myself rereading the end of RD just to remember how God spoke to me as I wrote those scenes. It’s a reminder I need often. To answer your question, that message came out of my walking with God through some painful places and how I’ve come to experience His healing my wounded heart.

Okay, on a more personal level. So many of us struggle to truly accept God’s love. To truly believe how much we are loved and how deeply God expressed this through sacrificing His Son. What words of wisdom could you share on this most challenging journey of the Christian walk?

I agree that one of the most universal things we believers struggle with is accepting God truly loves us. We know God loves us, but for it to resonate in our hearts is often a hard fought battle with so many lies and obstacles from our pasts. My encouragement is to curl up with a teddy bear and picture yourself in God’s arms, or a place that is safe for you in God’s presence. Tell Him the lies that are eating away at your heart, ones like: “I’m not loveable” or “I’m a disappointment.” Let yourself feel the memories that drove those lies home. When you’re able, ask God what He says about you. He has so many good things, His words of truth, to speak personally to you.

When I first learned how to go to God in this way, one of my most pervasive lies was that I’m a disappointment. The powerful truth God whispered to my heart was this: “Amy, you are a beloved child with whom I am well pleased.” I fought that truth for a while, thinking God couldn’t feel that way about me. I still sometimes doubt it. But I know in my heart it’s true. And that one truth has changed so much about me from the inside out.

I’d love to talk about this more in depth with anyone who’s interested. You can also check out the Bible studies I’ve written related to replacing lies with God’s truth. They’re all on my Heart Chocolate discussion board for anyone to read and work though the study questions.

Amy, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your heart with us. I can’t wait for the sequel, to read Clint and Sara’s story!

Thank you for having me, Dineen! You’ve been awesome heart chocolate to me and I’m very thankful for your friendship and support.

Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of this fabulous book! I'll announce a winner next Tuesday. God bless!