I want to introduce our brand new Suspense Sister, A.D. Lawrence. She is one of the most talented people I've ever met! She can crochet (you should see what she made me!), she can play the piano, and boy, can she write!
You'll love getting to know her. And watch for her upcoming book, THE PURPLE NIGHTGOWN!
Here's Amy:
Hey, Ya’ll!
I’m super excited for the opportunity to introduce myself and talk suspense with such a fun bunch.
I’m A.D. Lawrence, and I write Christian suspense. My debut novel is releasing on March 1st as part of Barbour’s True Colors series. It’s titled The PurpleNightgown if you feel the urge to check it out.
While writing has always been a dream of mine, true crime drew me like a siren song from the time I was eleven. My parents weren’t huge fans of us watching cartoons, so I grew up on things like Forensic Files, Dateline, and Body of Evidence. From the time I was a teenager, I wanted to get inside criminal minds and figure out how they operated. Come to think of it, that might have been one of the plethora of reasons I didn’t have many friends growing up. While I was reading about John Wayne Gacy and developing a healthy fear of clowns, other girls my age were dishing about makeup and boys (not sure if that’s what they really talked about since I spent a good deal of time reading in my room, but that’s what I assume based on my limited knowledge of normal people from shows like Lizzie McGuire.)
I gave up my dream of writing for about a decade, figuring it was just that … a dream. I mean, how many people get to spend their life doing what they love? So I holed up in my house, watching Investigation Discovery, and thinking I’d try applying to the FBI--because that is so much more realistic. One day a few years ago, a friend of mine told me about a book she was writing. Her excitement breathed new life into the desire I thought had died. Turns out it was just lying dormant until God was ready to use it. I tried a few genres and learned that I’m terrible at writing anything romantic. You might be thinking, “Oh, you can’t be that bad.”
Trust me. I’m the least romantic person on the face of the earth. Those initial emotion-charged scenes are painful to read and they’ll never see the light of day. But through trial and error, I realized that my love of crime might translate into something usable in the story world. When I started writing my first suspense novel, I got this overwhelming feeling that I’d found God’s calling for my life. Even though so many people thought my fascination with investigations, serial killers, and all things crime was disturbing, God didn’t give me that inclination for nothing.
Isn’t it a comfort to know that the quirky, misunderstood parts of us are useful to God? He made us as we are for a reason. To equip us for a task only someone with our talents and interests can accomplish. We just have to be willing.
What is something you love that makes you unique? Let me know in the comments for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card. I look forward to your responses and can’t wait to get to know each of you better.