fiction saturdays: interview with delia latham

 I’m psyched about today’s interview on The Literary Mama. Delia Latham is a multi-published (and multi-genre!) author whose latest novel, Kylie’s Kiss releases this month! I’m pleased to welcome Delia to The Literary Mama.

I can’t think of anything interesting enough about me to take up much space with this answer! All that needs to be said can be said very briefly. I was born and raised in a place called Weedpatch—a farming community in central California, near Bakersfield. Lived there all my life, until September of 2008, when hubby and I moved from California to Oklahoma, so I guess that makes me a California Okie!  J I love to read and write in our little country home, and I get a huge kick out of watching my husband play Farmer John. Of all my own multiple roles—wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and writer—I especially love being a princess daughter to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

What is Kylie’s Kiss about? 

It’s about a woman seeking the man who makes her heart sing and the kiss that takes her breath away, through a Christian dating agency called Solomon’s Gate. Here’s a blurb:

On a dare, Kylie Matthews lands smack in the middle of Solomon’s Gate—Castle Creek’s new Christian dating agency—and she finds herself revealing exactly what she’s waiting for in a relationship: “The kiss that steals my breath away.”

What she doesn’t reveal is her lack of self-esteem or her irrational reaction to facial disfigurement. Neither is applicable to her quest to find the perfect match. But that seemingly superficial malady becomes all-important when her first agency-arranged date is Rick Dale—a man who is everything Kylie is searching for. He’s handsome, smart, fun. Rick has it all…including an angelic six-year-old daughter with severe scarring on one side of her face.

Hard at work founding a therapy camp for young female victims of deformity or disfigurement, Rick wants Kylie to be a part of those plans. She’d love to say yes…but how can she, when every contact with the facility’s guests—and Rick’s own daughter—will make her violently ill?

 Kylie is ready to admit their relationship doesn’t stand a chance, but she’s forgotten that God makes a way where there seems no way. 

How did you know you were called to write? 

An author might write in the inspirational genre because he/she chooses to do so as an offering to God; or they might do it because they feel called to write. The latter is true for me.

I often tease that I was born with a pen in my hand. It’s almost true. God has been honing and shaping me to pen His messages all my life. I knew I was called because He wouldn’t let me not write. Every time I veered from the course, He nudged me back onto it—with gentle but unarguable firmness. Plus, if every idea a person come up with (is blessed with?) has a spiritual edge, it’s rather obvious the genre in which that individual is supposed to park himself/herself. At least, that’s the way I see it. 

You’re also a multi-genre author! Your children’s book, Mine!, released this year. Tell us about that. 

Mine! released in January through Vinspire Imaginations. It’s a rhymed children’s story (picture book) about a little girl who falls face first into her own selfishness, and learns an important lesson about friendship, selfishness, and forgiveness.

I have several children’s stories I wrote when my own kids—now adults—were little. I just pulled them out one day and decided maybe I should share them with other little ones. So Mine! found its way to the the printed page. Another children’s picture book, Adam’s Wings, will release later this year. 

Do you have any other new releases coming out this year?

Kylie’s Kiss is Book 2 in a series. Barring any complications, Gypsy’s Game (Book 3), will release sometime this year, as well. I don’t have a release date just yet, but it will be announced on my website (www.delialatham.net), and of course, Adam’s Wings, which I already mentioned.

 How can readers get in touch with you? 

Website: www.delialatham.net

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oklahoma-City-OK/Delia-Latham/203040125487

Twitter: http://twitter.com/delialatham

Blog: http://my-book-bag.blogspot.com

Email: delia AT delialatham DOT net

Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Delia.

Thank you for having me!