Thank you for joining us for part two of our interview with author Linda Paulson Adams. If you missed part one, click here.
Linda, when we left off yesterday, we had just learned about your speculative fiction series which takes place at during the End Times of the world. How did you get the idea for this series?
The main character is Alyssa Stark, a young woman from a challenging family background. I wrote one chapter (which appears near the end of Prodigal Journey), which includes a scene where Alyssa is healed from an injury by an apparent miracle. I had to know more about her. Who is she? Where is she going? What happened to bring her to this point? As I went along, it felt like I was discovering her story, more than creating it from scratch.
At first I thought it would be one book. As I developed the story, I soon realized it had the structure and story arc of a full-fledged trilogy–and that it would probably take that many pages to finish.
Your books include many unique descriptions of how things will be at the end of the world. How much of that came from research and how much came from your imagination?
Good question! I did massive amounts of research at the beginning. I’m brushing up on it as I get into the nuts and bolts of the third volume. For references, I used the Bible (Old and New Testaments) as the main source, along with many other doctrinal works on the subject.
I’m the first to say that it’s never been my intent with this series to write out “what’s really going to happen.” First of all, there’s no way to know that without a vision from God. Right? And second, I’m just out to tell a solid, entertaining story that maintains plausibility.
So, yes, the research is very important, and goes into the foundation of the plot, but a good healthy dose of imagination goes right along with it. I feel that’s the significant difference between my series and others out there, such as the popular Left Behind series, which take a hard literal interpretation of scripture. I’ve read other novels on the topic that get difficult for me to follow, because it seems the authors are trying to squeeze in every possible event. That’s not my style. My novels are very much character-based, and set locally in one area (the US Midwest). If something goes on in another country, the characters can hear about it on the news, about the same as we would. But tempting as it might be, I won’t contrive an unreal, hard-to-buy situation just to take a character somewhere to witness some prophetic event unfold. I’d rather show you ordinary characters, pulled from more or less ordinary lives, who are called upon to do extraordinary things.
So, what I do–rather than try to put too many events into a chronological order that winds up feeling forced and unnatural–is to take things found in scripture and come up with a practical, conceivable storyline that I can fit them into. I take into account current events and circumstances, and let my imagination go.
For example, the Revelation of John mentions a locust with power to torment men five months, where men will “seek death and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” (Rev 9:6, KJV) In a world with Dr. Kevorkian and plentiful ethical debates over the voluntary termination of life, I read that verse and wonder how that situation could exist. The seeds of my idea are in the first book, (Caldwell’s research), and you’ll see it come to fruition in the final volume. Sure–maybe someday lion-like beasts will ascend from a bottomless pit and sting people with scorpion tails. I’m not saying that can’t or won’t happen (after all, I’m not a prophet). But for my purposes, it works to use a symbolic interpretation here. Maybe John was describing helicopters spreading biological warfare… or perhaps a genetic engineering project gone awry.
Fascinating thoughts, Linda! I’d like to continue our chat tomorrow.
In the meantime, everyone, be sure to check out Linda’s website for more information about her and her work.
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