H. L. Wegley Interview

Q: How did you get your start writing fiction and what genre do you predominantly write in?

A. After retiring, I wrote my childhood adventure stories for my kids and grandkids and self-published them as a book, Colby and Me: Growing up in the ‘50s. When I took a little creative, artistic license in telling some of the stories, usually at the expense of my childhood buddy, Colby, I found that the creative aspects were fun, almost addictive. Soon, I started a novel. Though it was a great story, I didn’t know how to make it come alive. I finally figured out that “come alive” means learning the craft of writing fiction. To fix my flat story, I took a novel writing workshop, where my story was critiqued. I rewrote it. Then I discovered ACFW, thank goodness, and ran the story through the big critique group. I rewrote it again and renamed it Hide and Seek. A few months later, I had a contract for Hide and Seek, and I was hopelessly addicted to writing fiction.

Q: What does your writing space look like?

A. I know! I know! It’s a pigsty … or maybe a variation on Where’s Elmo called How Many Computers Can You Count. But, when I have multiple projects taxiing across the tarmac like a fleet of Boeing 737s, I have no choice but to become a pilot. Take one project and pile it here. Take another one and pile it there. One of these days I can, hopefully, clear out part of my 2,000-volume apologetics library (which sits just to the left of the picture) and create some more filing and work space.

Q: In this busy world, how do you find time to connect with God and how does this impact your writing?

A. My wife accuses me of modifying my devotions to fit whatever story I’m writing. And to a degree, she may be right. But I found that writing about people of faith, as well as about people who need Jesus but haven’t yet come to faith, takes me into nearly every book of the Bible, every major theme God speaks on, and forces me to defend all of my beliefs. As long as my writing continues to draw from the entire counsel of God, I’m inclined to structure a good portion of my time spent with Him around subjects covered in the stories I’m writing. I’m not recommending that every author take this approach, but when I’ve done it, my writing seems to pack more spiritual punch.

Q: What part of a writing career do you find most difficult?

A. Without a doubt, activities related to marketing my work are the most difficult thing for me. I dislike doing it so intensely that not only is it hard for me, but it takes up a disproportional amount of time because of the internal struggle that I go through. It’s not that I dislike interacting with people, but I do dislike it when I know that behind the curtain is the goal of selling them something for my profit. If I could just forget about the book-selling part and simply connect with people, it would make things easier. But agents and acquisition editors keep asking questions like,” How many copies did your last release sell?

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, Moon over Maalaea Bay?

A. I would love to. Moon over Maalaea Bay is a short book researched and written in only about six weeks, but it’s one of my personal favorites. Since I originally intended to end a three-book series using this story, I wanted to give my hero and heroine a Maui honeymoon. But seriously, how does a honeymoon in a tropical paradise where there’s almost no crime become a thriller? The answer—have the bride abducted on her wedding night, early in the evening. It will drive her new husband nuts. Though it was cruel, especially after what I had already done to my MCs in books 1 and 2, that’s what I did.

Bright (IQ 200), beautiful Jennifer is abducted by an international trafficking syndicate for revenge. A middle-Eastern prince who collects women wants to buy her for what she looks like. Agents from a terrorist-funding nation want to buy her for what she knows. The US government wants her rescued because, in the wrong hands, she’s a national security problem. As the clock ticks toward the sale, her husband, Lee, and the FBI take drastic measures to find Jennifer, albeit for different reasons and using different approaches. As the worry drives Lee insane, the action in the story follows suit.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?

A. When my wife and I retired, both from high stress positions, we spent six weeks in Maui to wind down. I took 18 GB of photos, including panoramas of nearly every beach on the island. Maui, even with its crowd of tourists, is such a beautiful part of creation that I knew, if I wrote a novel, I would like to set it there. I guess the third time’s the charm—book 3, Moon over Maalaea Bay.

Q: Tell us a little about your main character and how you developed him/her.

A. Jennifer Akihara, now Jennifer Brandt, my heroine for most of the series, needed to be bright, Einstein-level bright, in order to do the work I had in mind, turning intractable problems into computable algorithms that could be used for data mining of Internet traffic to find terrorists, criminals, and other dangerous sorts of people. She needed to be small, 5’2″ 110 pounds, to make people underestimate her. I saw a few Japanese-Hawaiian ladies who resembled what I had in mind for Jennifer, so I gave her that race and ethnicity. Then I put a heart of compassion for the oppressed in her and gave her a grandfather with a 6^th-degree black belt in karate and, of course, some of the Karate rubbed off on Jennifer. Initially, I put a huge stumbling block in her life that caused her to be self-reliant and agnostic. I’ve often wondered what thoughts go through the mind of a brilliant person when they catch that first glimpse of who God really is and how little they actually know. After creating Jennifer, maybe I now have an inkling. Oh, I removed the agnosticism before the end of the first book.

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing this book? Least?

A. One of the most enjoyable parts of writing the story was taking a 15-year-old girl, a genius, that Lee and Jennifer plan to adopt, and putting her in danger. The girl, Katie, is a new Christian but very bright and absolutely fearless when people she loves are in danger. When she flies to Maui to help find Jennifer, the action explodes. In this story my editor and I were grooming Katie to take center stage in the final book of the series.

What did I enjoy the least? This book went so smoothly through the publication cycle that I enjoyed everything until the marketing activities started.

Q: What is the main theme or spiritual message of this book?

A. A theme that runs consistently through the story is Jehovah-Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, our Protector. Without his protection, I doubt that any of the MCs could have survived the events of the story. One of my main characters, 15-year-old Katie Lloyd, expresses this theme when she describes being hit by gunfire while underwater:

“I dove into the water and the bullets from… I think it was an AK-47, bounced off my back. They just bruised me.”

Agent Peterson blew out a blast of air. “Bruised you?” He held Katie’s gaze and shook his head. “Do you want me to tell you what the odds of that are, young lady?”

Katie gave him her impish grin. “It doesn’t matter. Odds never matter with God.”

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A. You’ve probably noticed that the Cold War is reheating, but so far that hasn’t led to anything like the incidents that spawned the great espionage thrillers of the 1960s through the early 1990s. I hope to change that. I’m currently putting the finishing touches on an espionage thriller, or a high-action romantic suspense story, depending on how you choose to view it, where wheels placed in motion during the Cold War put a young woman in danger. My beta readers and critique group say it’s by far my best writing yet. Who am I to question their expert judgment? J

When Alisa Petrenko’s father is murdered, he left her alone in the world with a set of journals documenting his secret past, an assassin on her trail, and instructions to run for protection to a family she hardly knows. She’s forced to trust a young man with her life, a man she believes she must never trust with her heart.

Q: If you could have dinner with 2 people, who would they be?

A. Since I’ve already gotten an invitation to a dinner with Jesus, the marriage supper of the Lamb, I would choose two very different people, Charles Darwin and Elisabeth Elliott. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what Elizabeth felt and thought as, not knowing what to expect, she walked into the Auca village with her two-year-old daughter, Valerie, to live among the people who killed her husband? She recorded some of it in her book, The Savage My Kinsman, but I’m sure there’s more to tell. I would also love to sit down with Charles Darwin and describe to him that universe which exists inside a cell’s nucleus—to tell him about DNA and how genetics really works, and that basing his theory on morphology had no merit. Hopefully, I would be looking into his eyes when the lights come on and he places On the Origin of Species in file 13.

Q: Do you have a favorite hobby?

A. I used to be heavily into competitive sports. I pitched fast pitch softball and played a lot of racquetball. But after breaking a wrist, hyperextending an elbow, and having rotator cuff surgery, all on my favored right arm, I’m more into reading, music, a little photography, and hiking Olympic Peninsula beaches. And snorkeling Maui whenever my wife and I can save up enough for the trip.

Q: What is the most rewarding thing you have ever done?

A. One of the most rewarding things has been my wife and I counseling young married couples. But, unfortunately, it has also been very frustrating, especially when one of them has a hardened heart. However, it is wonderful to see two people struggling in their relationship, but honestly wanting help, respond to what God has to say to them. Counseling is so easy and rewarding when both the husband and wife want help. And seeing what God can do in these situations has been incredible.

Q: Where can readers find you on the internet?

Web site: HLWegley.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HLWegley

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/H.-L.-Wegley/e/B00B1XMR56

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hlwegley

Pelican Book Group: http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=124

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/harryw51/4-triple-threat-pure-genius-series-book-4/

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?

A. The final story in my 4-book series, Triple Threat, releases in November 2014. 15-year-old Katie, the girl I mentioned he earlier, is all grown up, and her approach to stopping a large-scale terrorist attack gives the Incident Commander, the National Security Council, and the president a lot of heartburn.