 Today I am pleased to welcome husband and wife team, Danny & Wanda Pelfrey. Danny comes from a ministry background, and Wanda taught school. They are graduates of Atlanta Christian College (now Point University). Danny has a Masters from Kentucky Christian University. They have authored 14 books, including six mysteries with a message. Today they are talking to us about their latest book, A Night to Remember. And they are giving away one print copy in the States and one eBook everywhere else. Danny & Wanda, welcome to I & R!  How long have you been writing? Danny: I have been writing for most of my adult life. Inspired by my wife's love of the craft, I started writing articles for various publications. My first book was One-Way Choices in a Wrong-Way World, published by a traditional publisher, Accent Books, in 1991. A few years later, I wondered if I could write fiction. It was then that I started what became OUT OF THE DEPTHS, our first mystery novel. The work on that story continued for almost fifteen years as I regularly got it down and then put it up again. After finishing it, we used a self-publishing company to get it out. Shortly after that, my wife, Wanda, and I got a contract from CrossLink to publish our next mystery novel. Since that time, they have published six of our books. How many books have you written? Danny: I have written three non-fiction books, and with my wife as co-author, six "mysteries with a message." My wife, Wanda, wrote a book entitled Making the Most of Your Child's Teachable Moments and a ton of curriculum and teaching-type booklets. What is the hardest thing about writing for you? Danny: Being an old non-fiction writer, learning to write dialogue has been a learning process for me. A common criticism from reviewers of our first two or three mystery novels was, "love the story, and the characters are great, but the dialogue is a little stiff." I think there was an improvement with each book, and with the last two, that weakness has been near, if not totally, eliminated. Do you travel to the places you write about? Danny: I have always heard that one should write about what he knows. That being the case, we decided to set our mystery novels in our hometown of Adairsville, Georgia, a town of five thousand people in the northern part of the state. The setting has almost become one of the characters. We have heard comparisons from readers to the Mitford series. With that setting, there is no need to travel. We are there day after day. It is not unusual for our protagonist to take a trip to some out-of-state location. When that happens, it will most likely be to a destination where we have spent some time, such as Cape Cod in one of the books. The Cape is one of our favorite vacation spots. What inspired you to write this book? Danny: The story of A Night to Remember is actually the story of "Nate and the Kid." Nate is an old, retired baseball player currently seeking a political office and a spunky adolescent girl called "The Kid." When we lived in New Philadelphia, Ohio, we were just a few miles from Newcomerstown, the hometown of baseball great Cy Young. I often heard stories about the old baseball player and Jane called The Kid. The young girl was allowed by the state police to have a driver's permit at fourteen years of age to chauffeur the baseball legend around when he was up in years. I began to ask that old question that leads to so much of our fiction, What if…? Wanda, how does the writing process work when you are both working on the same book? Do you write some chapters and your husband others? How much of the book is your voice? Wanda: Danny is the storyteller. He is the one with the wild imagination! He worked on the first mystery for years. When he decided he wanted it to be an inspirational mystery, he gave it to me and asked if I could weave in an inspirational message. Out of the Depths was the result. Since then, he usually writes two chapters and hands them over to me for suggestions and, of course, editorial work. I feel the fact we talk about the characters as if they were actual Adairsville residents probably helps in the creative process. "There goes Charlie," is often a comment by one of us when we see an Adairsville police car go by. We are a little concerned that, one day, we will find ourselves unable to distinguish between the fictional and real Adairsville. Danny, which character in the book do you like the most? Danny: That's not an easy question to answer as I created each of them. Of course, some were developed for us to dislike, some are simply supporting people, and some are just incidental to the story. Of course, I love Kirby and Riley, the Gordan siblings, who are the protagonists. Amos and his wife Carol, the older couple who are sort of adopted parents to the Gordans, will always be favorites of mine. But I think Trish, Riley's friend from college, is my favorite in this story. She is funny, with a lot of hang-ups, and a fun person to be around. She is sort of the sidekick who keeps things lively and real. She is reluctant to go where she is uncomfortable, but out of loyalty, she is there when needed. I like her so much I am looking for a way to weave her into the next story. Wanda, do you have a favorite character? Wanda: In A Night to Remember, my favorite character probably is Trish. I love the fact that she is so honest about herself and sees her need for spiritual growth while, at the same time, can be very fun-loving and funny. Do you have any other books in the works? Danny: A Night to Remember is the second book in the Adairsville Heritage Mystery series. As with the Davis Morgan series, we plan for it to be comprised of four books. So, there are two more yet to do. Our publisher has never given us a contract for a complete series. It has been one book at a time. He has accepted six of our proposals. We hope he will hang with us for at least two more. Additionally, I have been pondering a non-mystery that perhaps I will be ready to do when the Adairsville Heritage series is done. Then, there is also the possibility of a couple of other non-fiction books. Can you tell us how you came to know the Lord? Danny: In my mid-teens, I returned to live with my parents in Adairsville after living with my grandparents for several years. A friend named Joe invited me to visit his church which I did time and time again. I got to know George, the young preacher of that church. He took me under his wing and became a real friend when I needed one. Through the influence and teaching of Joe and George, one Sunday night at the end of the service, when the invitation was given, this shy boy of sixteen let go of the pew in front of him and walked forward to accept Christ. Since then, much of my life has been spent trying to lead others to make the same decision I made in that little North Georgia church that evening. In 2020 CrossLink released my book, Whatever Happened to Evangelism, which chronicles that effort. Wanda: I grew up assuming I was a Christian until, one day, I realized it was not something one inherits. I trotted up the hill to my Grandmother Penfield's house, where she opened her Bible and guided me down the road to becoming a Christian. I made my confession of faith the Sunday after my twelfth birthday in a small church here in Adairsville. That afternoon much of the congregation drove to Resaca, GA, to another small church, which had a baptistry, where I was baptized. That is awesome! Thank the Lord for Grandmother's! Thank you both for sharing with us today. And now, Dear Readers, if you would like to win a copy of A Night to Remember just fill out the form below! This giveaway will run until September 21, 2022. One print copy will be given to someone in the U.S. and one eBook will be given to someone outside the U.S. Winners will be announced here, on Facebook, and will be contacted via email. Congratulations to April Berger! |
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9/14/2022
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