Robin Shope Interview

Q: Please tell us a little about yourself and your new book, The Candidate.

I am the Special Ed. Coordinator at a county juvenile facility in Texas. I work with at-risk teens that are in trouble with the law. The charges range from possession of drugs, to drug trafficking, to various degrees of felonies. This job fulfills me and I know this is where the Lord wants me to serve Him. I have been married for thirty years and my husband and I have two grown children. Even though my husband is in business, he takes overseas missions trips each year. This Oct. he will be in India for a season. Our early years of marriage we spent overseas as missionaries.

The Candidate is the last installment of a trilogy. To explain a bit about this one, I have to brief you on the other two, but it is not necessary to read the other two in order to enjoy the third book. All three are complete works in and of themselves, with returning characters. The first book, The Chase, is mainly set in my picturesque hometown of Delavan, Wisconsin. The heroine, Jill Lewis returns home in shame after loosing her job as a Washington political investigator. There she meets a love interest that turns out to be someone she didn’t expect. A turn of events takes the readers back to the nation’s capital where most of the second book, The Replacement, takes place. However, The Candidate is clearly my favorite for many reasons. Jill discovers who she is in the Lord and that makes her strong and attractive. The book opens with Jill buying her town’s paper. Soon Jill is on a new case. There is a drowning accident on the lake. The victim turns out to be the aide of an unpopular congressman running for re-election. And the drowning turns out to be a murder. Jill’s love interest from the first book is soon on the scene to help her solve this case. The Candidate is filled with romance and mystery and folklore.

Q: What was it like working with Susan Wales on this book? How did the partnership come about?

One of Susan’s books, a collection of short stories, was about to go to press. Her publicist ran across one of my short stories in Christianity Today, Mom’s Last Laugh. She contacted Susan and told her to get permission to use that story in her book. Susan did and a writing partnership began that guided us through three novels.

Q: Where did the idea/inspiration for The Candidate come from?

I wanted to use the town’s history to tell this story. Delavan is known as Circus Town because in the early part of the century, Barnum and Bailey used to winter there. I took this fact and invented a one hundred year old unsolved mystery . . . a cold case. Then I tied it into the present day murder on the lake. Then I gave it to Jill to solve.

Q: How did your former work experience aid you in writing The Candidate?

Everything I write is partly based on truth and loosely based on people I know or have known. I love to figure out what drives people to act the way they do . . . to tell lies, to covet, to even murder. What is their trigger? Their motivation or reason for doing what they do? Without God, we are at the mercy of our own greed.

Q: What type of research did you do to make this novel seem so real?

There is a cast of characters, er people! First, I interviewed the town’s historian, Gordon Yadon, who is by the way, one of the people in my book. The Internet was a useful tool to get to know the towns past, the water levels of the lake at various times of the year, the weather and how that effects the thickness of the ice as well as thawing, boats, and how investigations work. My brother used to be a detective for Walworth County and I used his expertise. A Denton County Coroner explained autopsies and what goes on in the Decomposed Room. I was invited to see a real autopsy but turned it down (couldn’t stomach it but don’t tell him). Reading through police records of real murder victims proved to be most helpful. Even a high school chum who does underwater exploration for the Great Lakes Region was most obliging in describing what it is like underwater and relayed information about maritime laws. Susan’s cousin told us about scuba diving technical terms and the equipment. Everything worked together to construct an unusual storyline, an unanswered secrecy and idiosyncratic characters.

Q: Are there more books coming by you both?

Susan and I are working on separate projects at the moment.

Q: What is next for you as an author?

I have an article in the Oct. 2007 issue of Christianity Today and a short story in Chicken Soup for The Soul Christmas, out this holiday season (second story from the front). Recently, there is very exciting book news for me. I hope you will interview me again so I can tell you all about it.

Q: What tip would you share with other aspiring authors interested in writing Christian suspense?

Know your genre. Read a lot. Create interesting characters. Make your villain have some redeeming features and let your heroine have a flaw or two. Be sure to do your homework so all your facts are correct. Join a writers group and let your work be critiqued. There is such tough competition so my best advice is to have it edited before you submit it to a publisher. And always . . . Commit all your ways to the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.