Meet Lisa Bergren

Lisa Tawn Bergren is the author of twenty-eight books with more than a million sold. Her recent books The Begotten and The Betrayed will soon be featured at Target stores nationwide in the "Breakout Books" section.

To sign up for her monthly email go to http://www.lisatawnbergren.com/ and join her newsletter list.

Here's what she says about her latest series:

I loved getting lost in the mystery and adventure of these characters’ lives. I came up with the series concept after reading The Da Vinci Code, and thinking long and hard about the things I both loved (pacing, mystery, suspense) and hated (heresy that made me want to throw it against a wall). I also was heavily influenced by the Lord of the Rings trilogy on film—the grandeur of an epic story, with a cast of characters, deeper symbolism, adventure. So I started talking to my friends who know Scripture, and I asked them about a good biblical mystery. Two mentioned the “previous letters” mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians, and I was off and running.

Considering that Paul talks a lot about spiritual gifts in his letters to the Corinthians, I gave my characters all the unique and powerful spiritual gifts he mentioned in the Scriptures—healing, prophecy, wisdom, faith, miraculous powers—and placed them in perilous times, the 14th century, pre-Reformation, pre-Renaissance. My Gifted are hunted both by the Church, who seeks to control them, and forces of evil, who wish to kill them. All in all, I think it makes for a classic Good vs. Evil read—with inspiration and application for us in the 21st century.

The Begotten was a finalist for this year’s Christy Award, one of three finalists for the Best Suspense of the Year award. Here's a Q and A I had recently with Lisa:

How and when did you come to faith?
I say I've always been a Christian--raised in the Church, solid foundation, etc--but I had a profound come-to-my-knees reformation at the age of 21. I left my job (okay, brace yourself--I was bartending), and went to Israel and Egypt for a month to see where God wanted me to go. I traveled with my cousin, who was studying the path of Saint Paul, and came home knowing I wanted to work in an industry that had helped call me back to the fold. I started writing, found a job with a Christian music company, and God kept opening doors. He's faithful!

What has your writing journey been like?
Always a new adventure, something new to explore, a fresh challenge. I make my publishers tear their hair out because I won't settle into a genre (I don't recommend it--it's hard for them to market you and therefore it makes it hard to make living money.) But I'm happy. I like going wherever God leads me. If he chooses to bless, he will bless. A good example is that I spend a good 6-18 months writing a novel. I pour my heart and soul into them. But you know what my best-selling book is? God Gave Us You. A children's book that God gave me in the middle of the night years ago, and that I wrote in three hours. It's sold over 750,000 copies. Amazing. And it has God's fingerprints all over it. We can have our plans, but when he calls, GO!

What tips do you have for aspiring suspense writers?
A tip I learned this last summer from Donald Maass--make sure there's tension on every page of your manuscript. You want your readers crazed, they're so anxious to find out what happens--on either a plot level, character level or both. And when things are getting slack or slow, throw those characters up against a wall. Ask yourself, "What is the worst possible (but feasible) thing that could happen right now to them?" Then do it. Now you have all kinds of tension to work through!