It's Thanksgiving and Joseph Tyler, one of the members of Cindy's church, has organized a new charity that provides homeless people with rescue dogs to love and care for. But one by one, the homeless recipients are being murdered and their dogs stolen. Could an overly competitive millionaire with his prize-winning pooches and a grudge be behind the crimes? Or could it be someone much closer to Joseph who has something sinister to hide? Cindy and Jeremiah must rush to find a killer before he strikes again.
     

Debbie Viguie's love for writing brought her from working as a church secretary to a successful career writing supernatural fiction. She is the author of the Psalm 23 Mystery Series. The first of the series, The Lord is My Shepherd  released in March of 2010. She's also written Midnight Pearls, Scarlet Moon, and Charmed: Pied Piper, and the young adult Sweet Seasons series. She also is coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Wicked book series. Debbie graduated from the University of California at Davis, where she majored in English. She and her husband, an attorney, live in Hawaii.

Favorite Verse: Matthew 6:34  - Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

 Our Interview with Debbie Viguie

What is your favorite Bible verse and why?

Matthew 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

This verse is both comforting and challenging.  It is far easier said than done, yet when we do stop worrying so much the benefits for our spiritual, physical, and mental health are tremendous.

What inspired the concept for writing the Psalm 23 Mysteries Series?

I worked as a secretary in a church for two years.  Being there early in the morning when the place is deserted can be a little odd and sometimes downright spooky.  A while later when I was thinking of writing a mystery series this just seemed like a natural choice.

How did you choose the setting for your story?

The setting of the church pretty much took care of itself as an integral part of the plot.

Is any part of I Shall Not Want factual?
  
No.

How closely is I Shall Not Want based on your real life experiences? 

I like to explore some of the kookiness that is inherent when you work at a church and although not directly based on my own experiences, it is certainly inspired by them.  As far as the more serious aspects of the story, very little.  Although when I was in high school my school did participate in one of those food drives for needy families where you provide them Thanksgiving dinner.

How long did I Shall Not Want take you to complete?

It took me about five months to write it.

What is the symbolism for the title I Shall Not Want?

It symbolizes both the plot of the book and the holiday that occurs during the course of the events.  Thanksgiving is a time for celebrating the harvest, for giving thanks for what God has given and for His provision.  The book addresses some of the problems facing the homeless who, unlike most people, are in want constantly. 

Do you have a favorite character in I Shall Not Want? Why?

Jeremiah.  I love strong, male leads.

What aspects of being a writer do you enjoy the most?

I love coming up with the initial concept of a story.  I find it so exciting!  It’s the same kind of feeling when I first see the cover.  I also really enjoy interacting with fans.

What were your favorite books as a child?

Snow Dog by Jim Kjelgaard  (I’ve read it more than 200 times)
The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey  (It made me realize I wanted to be a writer)

What is your writing style?   (Do you outline? Write “by-the-seat-of-your-pants?   Or somewhere in-between?)

It’s usually somewhere in between although I have gone to both extremes before.  Usually I have an idea of what action has to happen in each chapter, just a thumbnail sketch, and then I just run with it.  Sometimes things change in the actual writing and that’s always exciting.

Do your characters begin to take on a life of their own as you write?

When things are going well they do.  Suddenly they are off doing things I had never intended for them to do but which seem perfectly natural and completely in character when looked at objectively! 

What other new projects do you have on the horizon?
  
I’m working on the third book in the Psalm 23 Mysteries series: Lie Down in Green Pastures.  I’ve got a few other things in the works, but that’s the manuscript I’ve just submitted to my fantastic editor.

Who was the person who influenced you the most with your writing?

My favorite author, Zane Grey.  He was an incredibly prolific western author who died decades before I was even born.  Everything he wrote, though, was very passionate.  All his stories were love stories in a way.  Sometimes the love story was between two people, sometimes it was between a farmer and his land, a pioneer and the forest, even a man and the wild horse that continuously eluded him.  And he got inside the heads of both his male and female characters and described feelings and thoughts and would replay scenes from each person’s point of view.  His writing not only inspired my own, but also helped me understand what I was looking for from life and what kind of man I wanted to marry.  My husband, by the way, would have made a fantastic Zane Grey hero!

What message would you like your readers to take from I Shall Not Want?

Judge not lest ye be judged.  Avoid making assumptions about other people.  It’s easy to do and we’ve all been guilty of this and all been victims of this.  It’s never a good thing and it can cause a lot of harm and build barriers between people that don’t need to exist. 

What is your greatest achievement?

There are so many achievements that I consider to be profound things in my life that it’s hard to choose!  Professionally, it’s making the NYT Bestseller List.  Personally, it’s finding and marrying my soulmate. Spiritually it’s understanding and accepting the work that God has set out for me.

What is your goal or mission as a writer?

To shake people out of their lives and let them escape for a while and feel the strong emotions that aren’t always present in everyday life.  I want them to escape their problems and come laugh, cry, be delighted, entertained, and terrified by the problems facing my characters.  And ultimately I want them to feel like if everything can work out in the end for those characters, it can work out in the end for them.

What do you do to get away from it all?

I go to Disney with my husband and have some serious park time.  We are huge theme park fans.  We’re also huge movie fans and so we get out to the theater as often as we can, sometimes even seeing two or three films the same day.

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