Interview with Julie Lessman - Author of A Passion Denied

One of my favorite post of times past is the interview with Julie Lessman for A Passion Most Pure. I couldn't help but ask her to do another interview after I posted my review for the blog tour.

She is without a doubt one of the best authors on the scene today. Her writing exceeds all my expectations and she thinks like I would... Could a book be better than that?

Julie Lessman's Bio

Julie Lessman is a new author who has garnered much writing acclaim, including ten Romance Writers of America awards. She resides in Missouri with her husband and their golden retriever, and has two grown children and a daughter-in-law. She is the author of The Daughters of Boston series, which includes A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied. You can contact Julie through her website at http://www.julielessman.com/.

Julie, I always love having you here on the Daily Bee, such a treat. I think I've gushed to everyone that hasn't read your book and just about pushed it into their hands. There really is no one else with your writing style. You write so passionately about love and family, what was your family like growing up?
Gosh, Deb, in all the over 60 blog interviews I’ve done, no one has EVER asked me that question, which kind of shocks me. Way to put your finger on the pulse of an author, girl! First of all, thank you for your kind words about my writing style – that blesses me to no end. Secondly, you would think given how I write so passionately about love and family that I had lots of good experiences with both in my past, but unfortunately, the reverse is true … at least growing up.
I was #12 in a very dysfunctional family of 13 kids (3 brothers, 10 sisters … talk about PMS gone wild!) where depression, suicide, physical/mental abuse and mental illness were rampant. I was a really skinny drama queen that my brothers and sisters loved to tease. They used to call me “walking nervous breakdown” because frankly, I was a hoot to watch if they ticked me off. Like the time they picked on me and I ran outside and knelt in the snow, praying God would send them all to hell. Uh … see what I mean? I was not close to any of my family except my baby sister, Kate, who used to ask me to read my first novel to her over and over (written at the age of 12 after reading Gone With the Wind, which, incidentally, is the same novel that became my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure forty years later!). Once I gave it to my mom to read, but she gave it back to me the next day and said she couldn’t get past the first page because it was so “dry.”

Needless to say, my family growing up was NOT the O’Connors. BUT … the good news is that at the age of 23, Jesus Christ transformed me from a hard, Bible-burning, caustic agnostic into a woman who lived and breathed for God, channeling all that ridiculous drama into total passion for HIM! And because my life changed on a dime when I applied His precepts, He not only restored my relationships with my father before he died and my sisters and brothers, but He also blessed me with a man who makes me feel as if I am living in my own personal romance novel. And the icing on the cake is that He has given me an incredible family as well, with an amazing daughter, son and daughter-in-law who are as passionate about God as I am. So, YES, I can finally say in all honesty that my wonderful family and I ARE the O’Connors … uh, with a little less drama!

I knew there had to be something behind the O'Connors and not just a good imagination.

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In a Passion Denied, which character can you best relate to and why?
Well, you did it again – asked a wonderful question that allows me to talk about one of my favorite things about book 3 – the parent’s story, Marcy and Patrick. Every time I read their scenes, I sob my eyes out because I have been there. As inferred, Marcy and Patrick’s relationship is based on mine and my husband’s, which is tender, affectionate and communicative most of the time. But, there was this one particular moment in our marriage when I said something to my husband that wounded him to the core. So much so, that he literally shut himself off from me for days, as if his love had completely died. Suddenly I went from being a woman so secure in this man’s love that it was as natural as breathing, to having that love totally withdrawn as if a glass partition had separated us. The absence of his love jolted me so badly, that it was a physical ache and I thought I was going to die. We eventually talked it out and resolved it through my repentance and sorrow, but I will never forget how that feels to lose the love and respect of someone you cherish. Which is exactly how Marcy feels in the book, although she didn’t deserve it … but I did!

Reading about Marcy and Patrick really made me think about the price of Grace. To be so hurt and broken, yet be able to forgive and move forward. It's a priceless gift.

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I figure you could have picked Brady to have any "hang up", why this one?
Mmm … three for three today, Deb. You are asking the good questions! Ironically, Brady’s “hang-up” was not the original problem I had in mind. You see, John Brady was such a godly Billy Graham-type character that I strongly felt I needed to give him an equally bad past. So I had things like pornography and child molestation with his step-sister (which never really happened, mind you, but he was accused of it nonetheless), but my editor said those subjects were way too dark for an Inspirational novel. So even though I felt that the sister connection was something I needed in order to explain why Brady could not “love” Lizzie (the girl he saw as a “sister” despite his attraction to her), my editor asked me to revise it. And in hindsight, I now see that my publisher was right, and the story is not near as heavy and dark as it was before I made those changes.

Molestation and Pornography are deep real issues that a man like Brady could possibly have in his past. That is one thing I've noticed in the Christian Fiction world lately, as new authors come on the scene, it seems that real issues are being written about and not covered up like they used to. My life is far from perfect, why would I want to read about a perfect life that is unattainable? I thought you covered that part of Brady's life well.

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Were you ever unsure about putting "real" things in the book? For instance the issue with Patrick and Marcy or the very real indiscretions of Brady's past?
No, never, because it’s “real” things that teach us the biggest lessons in life, ESPECIALLY when God is involved. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Brady feels his past is unforgivable and Father Mac tells him that he knew a man who not only committed adultery, but murdered his lover’s husband. And yet, Father Mac says, this man is the only man God calls a man after his own heart. YES!! Three cheers for King David – a man of God who gives fallible people like me great hope. Because I have had more than my fair share of “real things” and dark failures in my life, and it thrills me to no end that God loves me and forgives me despite them all.
I asked this because I wondered what was going through your mind as you were writing about Brady's past... what would the readers think. Too much, too harsh or would they be drawn to it and see themselves mirrored in the pages of your novel.

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Brady was a mentor and inspiration to many. Who inspires you?
Right off the top of my head, I would have to say King David in the Bible for the very reason mentioned above and more. David was a man who loved God with such abandon that he didn’t give a rip if he made a fool of himself doing it. King David had an emotional relationship with God that was as deep as any father-son relationship I know. He worshipped God with everything in him and loved Him deeply, and was always grief-stricken when he sinned against Him. That’s what I want to be like – a real, down-to-earth, feet-of-clay woman who loves God with every fiber of my being and every word that I write. A woman after God’s own heart – oh, God, let it be so!

I really cannot think of a better example of Grace than King David. He was a murderer, a liar, deceiver, adulterer... and so much more, yet he knew he was all these things and a man so unworthy. He also knew the most important thing of all - Who to run to. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Psalm 8:4

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Thank you, Julie, for joining me today. It was a pleasure seeing a different look at you, as a person and author.

Leave a comment between May 7th and May 14th for a chance to win a free copy of A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed or A Passion Denied from Julie Lessman.

A Winner will be posted on May 15th - Luck of the Irish to you!