Author: Steven James
Submitted: November 28, 2012
Tell us a little about yourself. Im a novelist living in Tennessee near the Appalachian mountains. I grew up in Wisconsin and this is my first novel set in that part of the country. It was refreshing to return to my home state for the setting for this novel.
What was your motivation behind this project? Over the course of the last four Patrick Bowers novels, Ive made a lot of promises to my readers about the trajectory of Tessas life, Patrick Bowers love interests, and the villains and their relationship to Bowers. This book was my chance to fulfill some of those promises.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? With each of my books I let a question drive the narrative forward. With this book the guiding question was, What does it mean to forgive yourself? Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us to forgive ourselves (just to forgive others and receive forgiveness from him), so whatever forgiving yourself means, its not a very big priority for God. Yet, people today talk about it all the time. I wanted the story to explore this issue and I hope that, as a result of their journey through this story, readers will examine the concept of forgiveness in a fresh light for themselves.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I realized something I already knew but seem to so easily and so often forgetthat God loves me as I am and forgives me for what Ive done (and what I will do). Spending ten months thinking about the need of and power of forgiveness changed the way I look at it forever.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? I love a myriad of different authors. As far as artists go, I enjoy listening to The Waiting while Im writing. Everyone in my family loves their music.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: While the other Bowers books tend to focus more on Patricks quest to stop serial killers, this one deals with a terrorist threat and has been compared to Tom Clancys novels. If you like high concept, multilayered thrillers, youll love The Queen.
