Describe yourself for our visitors.
I grew up the daughter of American missionaries in rural areas of Colombia that are now guerrilla hot spots. My own childhood was spent canoeing up and down the jungle rivers, flying in Cessna or driving the high mountain passes to boarding school in Venezuela, hiking up the Andes and into the jungles of South America.
I graduated in 1981 from Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta. In 1985, my husband Marty, also an MK (missionary kid) and I moved to Bolivia to work with Gospel Missionary Union (now AVANT), an interdenominational Christian mission organization. While my husband served as field director, I worked with women and children at risk. I also began my journalism and fiction-writing career there, watching firsthand the political and drug-trafficking shenanigans of one of the world’s top-five most corrupt nations.
My husband and I moved to Miami in June, 2000, when Marty assumed the position of Vice-President with Latin America Mission, a nondenominational mission organization working throughout Latin America. In January, 2006, we moved again to Lancaster, PA, when Marty accepted the position of President of BCM International, formerly the Bible Club Movement, another nondenominational mission organization. I continue to write as well as teaching writers conferences and mentoring Christian writers in a number of countries around the world. To date, I have lived in six countries and traveled in more than twenty.
Hobbies: what are those and where does one find time for them? Actually, I have to admit that my greatest hobby remains reading, and all I meet who knew me as a child have memories of myself and siblings curled up with a book. I still squeeze in a few pages at least before bed. Also, the plus side of constant travel is passing through a lot of God’s most beautiful creation. As a family, we’ve always tried to work in the tourist spots of each area from Inca ruins and Carribean beaches to Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.
How do you find time to connect with God?
This is always a challenge, but I do spend time in devotional reading and prayer every morning before diving into my writing. I will say that times when I am flat on my face wrestling with a spiritual thread in my writing, striving to bring alive to my readers thoughts and lessons God has brought alive to me are times when I find myself connecting with God in a very special way.
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
I have so many it’s hard to narrow them down. I am an eclectic reader and will read anything of any genre as long as it is superbly written. My favorite authors are those who teach me something I didn’t know, whether about history, politics, science, etc. and/or who inspire me to new thought, both spiritual and philosophical.
When it comes to inspirational reading, Max Lucado is by far my favorite with beautiful prose and deep spiritual content. My bookstand is generally piled high with non-fiction titles on the latest country of which I’m writing, currently Afghanistan. And I’ve recently rediscovered a wonderful British classic author, Elizabeth Goudge: The Dean’s Watch and her Pilgrim’s Inn series. In other areas a few favorites are:
1) historical fiction: M. M. Kaye, Kenneth Roberts, Leon Uris;
2) political/suspense: Frederick Forsyth, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Alistair McClain, Robin Cook;
3) science fiction: J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, C.S. Lewis;
4) mystery: Agatha Christie, Mary Higgins Clark, Mary Stewart, Madelaine Brent, Georgette Heyer;
5) Romance–I must say I’m still a sucker for a good Georgette Heyer, though all mine were tattered years ago;
6) Westerns: Louis L’Amour is the only one I read, but he is good enough to convert even a non-Western fan;
General fiction: Chaim Potok’s The Promise and The Chosen; When The Legends Die–there too many to even begin to start. And, of course, the entire range of classics.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I wrote one story for publication in college. Then I became a missionary and pastor’s wife and never really thought again about writing for publication until I was stuck down in a small town in southern Bolivia with three preschoolers, no transport, phone, radio, or TV, and my husband gone for two weeks at a time to the Bolivian jungle and mountain churches. By the time I’d read my few English books until I had them memorized, I was so bored I wrote my first book in the evenings after the babies were asleep. That became Kathy and the Redhead, a children’s novel based on my growing-up years at an American missionary kid boarding school in the Andes mountains of Venezuela.
From there I began writing Spanish-language material for women and children at risk as well as writing as a journalist for a variety of international and Christian ministry publications. That was followed by seven more children’s books, including the six books of the Parker Twins Adventure Series, a young adult mystery/suspense series set in a multi-cultural background. My first adult fiction release, CrossFire, a 630-page political/suspense novel set in the counter-narcotics war in Bolivia, was released in July, 2000. Then came a teen novel, Jana’s Journal, and a second adult political/suspense novel, The DMZ, set in the guerrilla warfare in Colombia, followed by FireStorm, a sequel to CrossFire that explores the Islamic terror ties in Latin America, then Betrayed, my newest release. I am currently writing a novel set in Afghanistan.
Tell us about your current book?
Betrayed, my newest international intrigue title, scheduled for release by Tyndale House Publishers, March, 2008, is set in the context of U. S. involvement in Central America over the last half-century and the implications of that involvement on the current war on terror. Motivation for this story came through my own international involvement and research as I’ve seen repeatedly the consequences of powerful individuals making decisions for motives of fear or greed rather than right and wrong. We like to blame a universal ‘they’—the government, the system, Western civilization, or on the flip side, the Communists or Islamic jihadists, etc. But in reality it comes down again and again to very specific individuals making very specific decisions for right or wrong. And sometimes those decisions can impact an entire nation or change the course of human history. The United States is, unfortunately, reaping the harvest of some of those decisions. While a fictional story set in one Central American country, Betrayed is a realistic microcosm of patterns repeated around the globe. But Betrayed is far from just a tale of human chaos; rather, of faith and beauty and hope, along with a powerful challenge to individual responsibility.
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
Research was a combination of personal experience from a lifetime all over Latin America as well as intensive investigation. As with each new country, I started with reading an entire body of work on Guatemalan history, politics, current events, culture, etc. From there I do use internet, video documentary, country maps on my wall, tourist guides giving details of every town and even streets, interviewing all of the different characters represented as well the smallest details from how slow a Huey needs to be cruising to open a side door in flight to how far above water and how fast can one survive a jump (details kindly checked out for me by certain active-duty personnel on the ground).
7. List your three most recent books (if applicable).
My three most recent adult novels (I also have a children’s mystery/suspense series, Parker Twins Adventures) are CrossFire, set in the counternarcotics war in Bolivia where we lived and had a front row seat to witness it, The DMZ, set in t
he guerrilla zones of Colombia where I grew up and the Islamic connections there, and FireStorm, a sequel to CrossFire, set in the growing Islamic threat in Latin America and along our southern border.
What’s next for you?
I am just finishing a novel set in Afghanistan, due at Tyndale House Publishers in just seven weeks. I am excited about the spiritual and political message of the book even as I’ve been stretching mind and heart beyond their natural capacity to birth this story. So keep an eye out in a few months for its release.
Where can visitors find you online? www.jeanettewindle.com
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