A huge welcome to fellow PelicanBook Group author Christine Lindsay! Christine agreed to 'sit still' for my 3-question mini-interview. Enjoy!
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| Christine Lindsay |
Your
book and you
What inspired you to write Sofi’s Bridge?
Sofi’s
Bridge was inspired
by watching how loved ones go through the steps of grief. We don’t take the basic
steps to grief recovery in the same order. Nor do all of us come out of our
grief in healthy ways. Throughout the basic steps listed below, some of us can
get stuck.
Below are the 7 basic steps in grief
recovery, and where each of my characters gets stuck and how the intertwining
of the characters’ individual grief creates the plot for Sofi’s Bridge. Often, the stages of grief are blurred, and people
can go through several steps at the same time. - Shock & Denial – Sofi’s younger sister, Trina, is stuck here for most of the story. Witnessing her and Sofi’s father drown results in Trina’s Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Her almost catatonic state puts her at risk of being placed in a sanitorium for the mentally ill.
Sofi is stuck in Denial. As the eldest sister, and due to the fact,
their mother collapses in her grief, Sofi doesn’t allow herself to express her own
sadness as she cares for Trina and their mother.
- Pain & Guilt – As Sofi bottles up her own grief, her emotions snowball into guilt; that she should forego all of her own ambitions to care for her loved ones.
- Anger & Bargaining – Neil (who is really Dr. Neil Galloway) is on the run from the English police for the murder of the man in Ireland. This man and his industrial neglect led to the death of Neil’s father. Neil’s anger turns into retaliation. It is while he is hiding under a fake identity at Sofi’s family home in Washington, that he notices the PTSS that Sofi’s sister is undergoing. As a doctor, he can’t turn his back on a person who needs his medical help.
- Depression, Reflections, Loneliness – While each character in the story goes through this stage of grief, this step is most exemplified by Sofi’s Mother, Rosella. Suffering the loss of her beloved husband in his drowning accident, Rosella buries and blurs her emotions under the influence of Laudanum. While pharmaceutical help is often needed through grief, some of us can get stuck there, and are unable to move on to healing.
The last three steps
in grief recovery set up the climax of the book and bring the story to a happy
and healthy conclusion.
- The Upward Turn
- Reconstruction & Working Through
- Acceptance & Hope
About
you
What
smell do you love most, and why?
The flowers in my garden. I’m an
avid gardener, and often the sensuousness of my garden is displayed in my
novels.
God
and you
Do
you usually insert a spiritual theme into your books? If so, do you have a
favorite?
Each of my books has a strong
spiritual theme particular to that story. My personal favorite though, is the
spiritual theme in Captured by Moonlight
(Book 2 of my trilogy Twilight of the British Raj). That spiritual theme is
dying to one’s own agenda that God may have full sway in our life to create His
agenda in our lives, only to discover that His agenda gives us the greatest
joy.
About Sofi’s Bridge
Seattle
Debutant Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister
who is suffering from shock over their father’s death. Charles, the family busybody,
threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium—a whitewashed term for an insane
asylum—so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to
the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect
them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the
handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man
whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult
to her own emotions? And can Neil, the gardener, continue to hide from Sofi
that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British
police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates
lies from truth and safety.
About Author Christine Lindsay
Irish
born Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction
and non-fiction. Readers describe her writing as gritty yet tender, realistic
yet larger than life, with historical detail that collides into the heart of
psychological and relationship drama. Christine's fictional novels have
garnered the ACFW Genesis Award, The Grace Award, Canada’s The Word Guild
Award, and was a finalist twice for Readers’ Favorite as well as 2nd
place in RWA’s Faith Hope and Love contest.
Purchase sites for SOFI’S BRIDGE: (Winner 2nd
place for RWA Faith, Hope, & Love 2009)
Barnes and Noble
Welcome, Christine! Sofi's Bridge sounds like an amazing book. Thank you for sharing the seven steps of grief.
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