Christian Bookworm Reviews -

Marlo, describe yourself for our visitors.

I love iced white mochas (with peppermint, please!) from Starbucks, reading the New Testament in Greek, and watching the hummingbirds flit outside the windows of the solarium-turned-office in my log home in California. But more than that, I love reading horse books to my 7-year-old daughter, doing workbooks with my 3 1/2 year-old daughter, and playing chase-and-giggle with my 1 1/2 year old twins (again, both girls!).

In my free time, between loads of laundry, picking up toys, and trying to write my next chapter, I run an engineering firm, a construction consulting firm, and write a regular column for Power for Living. I’ve written over 500 articles for various magazines and a number of books (listed below!). I have a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry (of all things) from Stanford University and a Masters in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary (hence, my love of New Testament Greek).

How do you find time to connect with God?

With four expressive little girls, life around here is VERY noisy, very busy, and very crazy! But I’m finding that God is available in the crazy times as well as the quiet ones. He knows my circumstances, and he can meet me here, in the ins-and-outs of everyday life. So, I’m learning to connect with Him not only in set-aside times of Bible study, prayer, and reflection, but also through the happenings of life. One of my little girls falls down, gets an owie, and comes running to Mommy to kiss it and make it better. And I am reminded that when I fall down, I too can come running to God to heal and comfort me. So, I am discovering that God wants to connect with me not only in special set-aside times, but in all times – crazy times and quiet times, confusing times and clear times, play times and do-another-load-of-laundry times.

Tell us about your journey to publication.

When I was thirteen years old I told my mother (with all the angst of a newly-turned teenager), “I will just die if I don’t write!” So naturally when I grew up I got my degree in Chemistry. J But always that desire to write was with me, saying “Someday, someday.”

Someday finally came. In 1993, I knew God was calling me to write. I was going to be the next great American novelist, so I wrote a proposal for an end-times series, sent it out, and waited for the contract offers to come pouring in. But, alas, all that poured in were “Dear Author, we regret to inform you that your proposal does not meet our editorial needs” letters.

About that time, a friend told me about Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference, and so I went. There, I discovered that writing is hard work! I also discovered that I could start with articles, instead of jumping right to a book.

Within the next year, I had sold 32 articles, short stories and poems to various Christian magazines. In the years following, I continued to write and sell articles (I’ve sold over 500 to date) while I worked on book proposals (and got plenty more rejections).

Finally in 1998, my first novel (a historical novel – the end-times thriller is still in my file cabinet) was accepted, and published by Crossway Books in 2000. Since then, I’ve had three more novels and one nonfiction book published and have recently signed a three-book contract with Waterbrook-Multnomah (the first book under that contract will be released May 2008).

Tell us about your current book?

A Raging Firestorm . . .

And a Mystery Rises from the Ash.

In 1894, the worst firestorm in Minnesota history descends on the town of Hinckley. Heat, flame, and darkness sweep through the town, devouring lives, destroying hope. In the aftermath, the town rises from the ashes, its people determined to rebuild their lives.

But in the shadows, someone is watching. Someone is waiting. Someone who knows the secrets that can free them all. A rumor begins of a hermit in the hills – a person severely burned, disfigured beyond recognition. Doubts rise. Fear whispers. Is the hermit a monster or a memory? An enemy or a love once-lost?

Based on historical events, Veil of Fire beckons to a time when hope rose from the smoke of sacrifice, when trust hid behind a veil of fear, when dreams were robed in a mantle of fire . . .

How did you come up with ideas for your current release?

People often ask where I get my ideas for my books. My answer? You never know! For Veil of Fire, the idea was birthed at my favorite Mexican restaurant in the mission town of San Juan Bautista. There I was, sitting with my family, nibbling chips and salsa, when a wedding party came by. The bridesmaids were dressed in beautiful turn-of-the-century style gowns. As they passed, my mother-in-law began to tell me of the dresses that her great grandmother, who lived in Hinckley, used to sew for the rich ladies in Minneapolis and St. Paul. From there, came the story of the great Hinckley fire and the rebuilding that this woman, my husband’s great-great-grandmother, was a part of. And finally, I heard the tale of the mystery figure in the hills, a person burned beyond recognition. A person never identified, living as a hermit until one day he just disappeared.

At that moment, the first inklings of the story that would become Veil of Fire were born in my heart. Who was the hermit in the hills? What happened to him? And how would I solve the mystery if I could? As I pondered those questions, I knew that I had to write the hermit’s story. Had to explore what it would be like to lose everything, even your identity. Had to hear the hermit’s voice in my mind, and hear the story for myself.

So, the writing of the book became for me a process of discovery, as I hope it will be for my readers. I hope that as the mystery of the hermit drew me, so too it will draw others to this story of how fire can change you, take from you, and in the end, may just set you free.

List your most recent books.

VEIL OF FIRE (Fiction, 1890’s Minnesota), JUST RELEASED!! from Cook Communications

ONLY THE WIND REMEMBERS, Moody Publishers, 2003 — Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist (Fiction, 1911 San Francisco)

CRY FREEDOM, Crossway Books, 2000 (Fiction, 1740′s Colonial America)

FREEDOM’S SHADOW, Crossway Books, 2001 (Fiction, 1750′s Colonial America)

EMPTY WOMB, ACHING HEART, Bethany House Publishers, 2001 (Nonfiction, Infertility)

What’s next for you?

After Veil of Fire, I’m writing 3 contemporary novels for Waterbrook-Multnomah. All of them are “Love Stories with a Twist!,” a new type of story that I think will knock readers’ socks off. The first, Beyond the Night, releases in May 2008. With groovy 70’s trivia and a whopper of an ending twist, this one was as fun to write as it will be to read. Here’s a blurb about it:

They say love is blind. This time, they’re right.
A poignant love story . . .
A shocking twist . . .
Come, experience a love that will not die.

Nicolas Sparks (The Notebook) meets M. Night Shymalan (The Sixth Sense) in this moving story of two people trying to find love in the dark. A woman going blind, a man who loves her but can’t tell her so, a car crash, a hospital room, and an ending that has to be experienced to be believed. Watch for it next May!

Where can visitors find you online?

Please visit my website at www.marloschalesky.com and drop me a note. I love to get email from my readers!