I’m so delighted today to be chatting with Sue Russell, the author of the brand new The Wounds of Time. I wanted to ask Sue what inspires her and how she brings her faith into her writing – as you know, this is one of my passions when it comes to writing.
I loved this book. I had the pleasure and privilege of working on the formatting and cover design, and it was such a pleasure to read it, too. Having read some of Sue’s other books, including A Vision of Locusts, The Healing Knife and The Thorn of Truth, I had high expectations – and they were more than met. The main character, the slightly eccentric and very cool Janet, is a clerk in a legal chambers. She’s got some stuff in her past she hasn’t faced up to, and it all comes bubbling up through a succession of difficult events and health issues, and so she has to face things in her past and in her personality full on. It’s so well written, the characters and the settings well drawn – one of those books that draws you in so you don’t want to put it down. You should read it!
Here’s Sue’s thoughts on the questions I gave her:
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
If you are under 50 I am old enough to be your mother. I have been making up stories since I was very young, but have only been getting down to it properly for the past 20 years.
I live in the south of England with my husband and my elderly dog Rosie. We have an ancient farmhouse in France which we visit as often as we can. I am blessed with two marvellous grown-up daughters.
I have had a very interesting life (so far) and have many interests – though books are probably at the top of the list. I also love music (listen, play, sing), nature (especially birds, trees, mountains), gardening, and hanging out with friends and family for meals and foolish fun.
You have a new book out next week! Tell us what it is called, what it’s about, and what led you to write it?
The newest book is called The Wounds of Time. It’s about a one-off woman called Janet and how her life changes over the course of several months in 2017. I wrote it as part of a kind-of series. Janet appears in book two, The Thorn of Truth, as a secondary character, but I knew she had a story to tell. The first book, called The Healing Knife, was written as a stand-alone, but the editor of the publisher I was with then asked me to write another, and between us (and others) we conceived the idea of using the same backdrop but pulling a secondary character through to become the protagonist of the next book. While each story is separate, characters from the previous book reappear, so Janet is already on the scene.
The Wounds of Time has some very gentle, non-invasive Christian elements which I think you have done really well. Tell us a little bit about how you write your faith into your books.
Where faith comes in depends on the characters and their own journey. For example, Janet is wary and sceptical, but others around her question her attitudes and quite gently put forward their own ideas. In other stories the faith element is more overt. For example, if the character is a pastor, it would seem natural to have them reading the Bible. My purpose is not to convert! That’s not my job and I avoid a heavy hand. I’d like to think that for my characters faith is either an integral part of their life, or part of a search, or something they are currently questioning, ignoring or challenging.
Thank you so much, Sue!
You can grab a pre-order of the ebook of The Wounds of Time on Amazon right now, and the official launch is on the 21st March.