Interview with author Anne Baxter Campbell, plus giveaway

Interview with author Anne Baxter Campbell – 

 Anne Baxter Campbell is a mom, grandma, great-grandma, friend, and writer who seeks to love God more than all of these put together. She lives in Northern California with the sweetest dog on earth and one queenly cat.

Welcome, Anne Baxter Campbell! We’re spotlighting your book, Blessed by Time, a book I find fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it before. Give us the back-cover story.

Thanks for the invitation, Peg. You are such a blessing!

The back cover says:

A child’s faith, a woman’s grief, and a man’s search.

Sarah Johnson is a woman deep in grief over the loss of her only child, three-year-old Tamara. Six months’ time hasn’t lessened the pain. She left for work one morning and hasn’t been seen since. Her husband Paul, professor of languages and counselor at Arizona State University, also grieves, but he’s moving on. How far on? When Sarah disappears, he’s suspected of getting rid of her in favor of a luscious redhead. How can he convince the police he’s innocent? And where―or when―on God’s green earth did Sarah go?

I've read this book, and loved it. I'll be reviewing it in another post later. What inspired you to write Blessed by Time?

That’s a really good question, but I’m not sure I have a really good answer. As long as I can remember, I’ve loved books about time travel. And I’ve always thought it would be especially great to go back to the first century and meet Jesus. And then there’s that passage in Matthew 15 about the Canaanite woman....

Ah. So how did you come up with this premise? What genre does it fall into?

I probably slipped into this premise by accident―due to my time travel fascination and my love of the first century history. As to genre, I’m not positive where the publisher (Elk Lake Publishing House) will land it. I’m sure the first label will be Christian fiction, but the next callout could be fantasy (due to the time travel) or women’s fiction (due to the nature of the book).

What surprised you the most during the writing of this book?

That a villain might turn his life around.

I loved the way you handled that. What kind of research did you have to do?

This isn’t the first book I’ve written about things in the first century, so I’ve amassed a bunch of research on that time period, from the internet to a few books, all about foods, customs, apparel, Jewish laws, etc. I just had to do a bit more on Tyre itself. Fascinating city, by the way. You should look it up!

I'll do that! What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

My aim is always to walk the readers just a step or two closer to the Lord who loves them so very, very much. Also―there’s hope for marriages that seem to be failing, especially the ones who have suffered the loss of a child. I’ve heard estimates from sixteen percent to eighty percent. Even one percent is too many. Maybe some couple will see themselves in the place of Sarah and Paul and seek help―both from God and from a counselor.

I pray you're right. If you had a choice, what would be your ideal writing place?

Right where I am right now―in my living room in a recliner by the fireplace with my laptop and my dog, Meggie Wigglesworth.

Sounds pretty cozy to me. What ministries are you involved in … and why?

Oh, my! Well, quite a few, really. I’m a lay speaker in my church, and once a month I travel to a small church in little town about forth miles to the south, Maxwell, CA. They don’t currently have a pastor, so five of us have been sharing the load. In June, they get an official pastor, but he also serves four other churches, so I’ll keep helping out as needed.

And then there’s a little widows’ group I began. We call ourselves “US,” which stands for “Unintentionally Single.” We meet monthly at a café for lunch. You might think that this would be a tough venue for women who occasionally suffer a round of the weepies, but it hasn’t been that way. We talk a lot, laugh a lot, and hug a lot.

Other than that, I’m on a couple of committees at my church, on the Grand Jury for my county, and play pinochle sometimes at Senior Citizens. Not that playing pinochle is a ministry.

Ha! I've never played pinochle. What talents do you have, aside from storytelling, that is?

Lessee, talents, talents, talents. Hm Do I have any? Well, maybe speaking, although a lot of butterflies accompany me wherever I do speak. I enjoy singing, but my voice isn’t all that dependable anymore. Frogs in the throat, you know.

Yeah, I know, same here.Did you have/do you have a day job? How did it influence what, or how, you write?

I did have a job, or career I guess. I was an engineering technician, from which I retired a few years back. Lots and lots of writing and research, which has stood me well, except sometimes I want to put too much technicality into the prose. Oops. It’s a lot more fun, though, to write fiction than technical papers and letters.

Oh, I'd have to agree with that! Finally, Anne, tell us about your next project.

I have hopes it will be a book about a teenager and her family. It was published before by a different publisher, but they took it off line. I’ve submitted it to Elk Lake, but they haven’t decided yet to publish it. I call it Once Upon Some Holidays. It begins on a Christmas Eve where the teenager (Jillian) has been grounded, but instead of another day of trying to talk her Mom into letting her go to a class party, she’s confronted by a disgruntled angel. Her guardian angel, in fact, called Harold because God thought it was cute when, as a little girl, Jillian had thought the old song went, “Hark, Harold the angel sings.” The angel informs her she’s a spoiled brat and he’d just as soon be in the company of Hitler, Stalin, or Kim Jong Un.

Oh, my goodness! I think I might like to read that one. Thank you, Anne. It’s been a pleasure visiting with you.

Readers: Blessed by Time will be available on Amazon Friday, March 30!

Thanks, Peg. The questions have been fun―and thought-provoking for me. You got my old synapses snapping. By the way―I’d be willing to give a free signed book to one of your readers. Anybody wanta take a chance on me?

We sure do! And here's how:

Simply leave a comment below—with your contact information—and answer the (optional) question: What things grab you on a book cover?

Giveaway ends one week from today, April 3. 2018, at Midnight CDT. Winner will be drawn on the 4th, and notified via email.