My Cozy Den: Author Stephanie Landsem

PLEASE STEP INTO MY COZY DEN AND WELCOME AUTHOR STEPHANIE LANDSEM AS OUR GUEST TODAY.

Stephanie Landsem writes historical fiction because she loves adventure in far-off times and places. In real life, she’s explored ancient ruins, medieval castles, and majestic cathedrals around the world. Stephanie is equally happy at home in Minnesota with her husband, four children, and three fat cats. When she’s not writing, she’s feeding the ravenous horde, avoiding housework, and dreaming about her next adventure—whether it be in person or on the page.

Stephanie is kicking off a blog tour of her latest release, THE TOMB, a Novel of Martha. Here’s what Stephanie has to say about it:

 

How did I come to write biblical fiction?

The Living Water series started with a question that kept nagging at me one Sunday after hearing John’s Gospel account of the woman at the well. Who was this woman that Jesus stopped to speak to on a lonely road in Samaria? I had heard the story many times, but when I heard the gospel read this particular Sunday, I couldn’t stop thinking about this woman. I wondered not only why Jesus had spoken to her and what her story was, but what had happened to her after her encounter with Jesus.

These wonderings turned into the story of The Well, the first book in the Living Water Series. But the questions didn’t stop there. When I sold The Well to Howard Books and agreed to write two more works of biblical fiction, I used the same approach for each one.

As I wrote the stories for The Well, The Thief, and The Tomb, A Novel of Martha, I asked myself these four questions:

1. What was it like to live in the time of Jesus? We can’t enter fully into a story until we’ve learned what was going on around us. What did people eat, what did they wear? What were their worries and their joys? The historical research within each story allows us to step into the world of our characters and live beside them, and beside Jesus.

2. What was it like to meet Jesus, the Incarnation, face to face? It must have been an amazing experience to meet Jesus. My favorite part of each story is when my characters meet the Son of God. I like to imagine what they would have felt, thought, and said to him.

3. How did meeting Jesus change the characters’ lives and the lives of those around them? Meeting Jesus had to have made an impact not only on one person’s life, but on their family, friends, and community. In each book of The Living Water Series, I explore how a single meeting could change the course of history for a whole community.

4. Did meeting Jesus lead to a happily-ever-after ending for my characters? We all know that being a Christian doesn’t promise us an easy life in this world. In real life, and in the stories I write, believing in Jesus leads to sacrifices and tests to our faith.

In The Well, The Thief, and The Tomb, I hope to immerse my reader in the time and place of first century Israel. Then, I want them to live with the character as he or she encounters Jesus and their lives are changed.

Ultimately, when readers finish one of my books, I hope that they can ask and answer these questions of themselves:

• What would it be like to meet Jesus?


• How would encountering Jesus change me, my friends, and my family?


• Would meeting Jesus myself lead to THE happily-ever-after, eternity with him in heaven?

You can reach Stephanie at the following:

• stephanielandsem.com


• https://www.facebook.com/stephanielandsem


• https://twitter.com/#!/stephlandsem


• http://pinterest.com/slandsem/

THE BLOG TOUR DETAILS:



Stephanie is hosting a blog tour giveaway from March 17th to April 1st.

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  1^st Prize: $100 Amazon Gift Card

  
  


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  2^nd Prize: $50 Amazon Gift Card

  
  


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  3^rd Prize: $25 Amazon Gift Card

  
  


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  10 more winners will receive an olive wood pocket cross from the Holy Land

  
  

To enter the giveaway, you can click on the tour button here, or go to the giveaway site at:

http://www.stephanielandsem.com/2015/03/blog-tour-giveaway/