Table Talk With Author Mesu Andrews

I'd like to introduce to you a very special woman and author. Through a mutual friend, I found out about her books and now have the honor and privilege of having her on my blog. Please make welcome Mesu Andrews.

Tell a little about yourself, Mesu.
I’m a wife and a mom and am passionate about my Christian faith and the Bible. I love research and discovering new insights on ancient culture. I have no formal training, just an associate’s degree in business and a desire to learn the writing craft and combine historical texts with imagination to create interesting fiction!

For the fourteen years my husband, Roy, was a pastor, I forged deep and meaningful friendships during the best and worst days of people’s lives. I learned that Scripture is full of raw emotion, real mistakes, true struggle, and a powerful, compassionate God who is still available to us today. Roy is now a professor at Multnomah University, and I’m more tied to home because of chronic illness. My friendships are limited to a few close confidantes and the dear ones I chat with through my computer!

We live near Portland, Oregon with an adorable Rotti-pitbull named, Bouzer. We have two married daughters and grandbabies on the way!

It’s my understanding that Mesu is not your given name, but a name that stuck since your early childhood. How did your name come about?
My given name is a derivative of my mother’s name, Mary. “Maralasu” was her concoction, but from my toddler lips, it sounded like “Mesu,” and that’s what stuck!

What inspires you?
Shadowy characters inspire me. Specifically, women in the Bible who are mentioned—sometimes not even given a name—but then are passed over with little or no explanation. I wonder about them. Why did God put them in His-story if they weren’t important enough to name? And then I remember…God knows everyone’s name…and it becomes my passion to find out as much about those women as I can.

What inspired the premise for your story?
I was reading a Bible commentary about the Book of Job, checking to see if any expert ventured to name Job’s wife. One did. So I followed his research to ancient Jewish texts and discovered more legends regarding Job’s story. Scripture is always my first and unalterable source of truth in any biblical novel. I then seek out historical texts to fill out interesting details, and I use my imagination to round out the plot lines. When I discovered that Job could have been Esau’s great-grandson, making him a part of Isaac’s family and distantly related to Dinah—the poor raped girl of Shechem—the plot began to spin of its own accord.

Why is the setting to your story so important?
The setting is our current-day Petra, a location most people are familiar with through the cinematography of the Indiana Jones’ movie, “Last Crusade.” So much of Job’s story and suffering is unimaginable that placing his hometown of Uz in a land readers could envision became crucial. The fact that Petra is actually located in ancient Edomite territory—and could have been the actual or near the actual location—was a delicious perk. The satellite images of natural springs in the area, acquired from nasa.gov, were of great help when describing the complex water system of the land. I borrowed heavily from research of the Nabataean period. Job was admittedly almost 2,000 years before the Nabataeans, but the fascinating water systems of Petra deserved a telling.

What were your aspirations as an author and have any of them come true?
My aspiration is singular and simple. I write in hopes that people will become enamored with the Bible. So many people see Scripture as irrelevant or impossible to understand. I hope that through my stories, folks will see that it is significant to them personally and fits together as a single story of God’s unyielding pursuit of mankind. Have those things come true? Yes. With every reader that contacts me through my website or messages their encouragement on Facebook or Twitter (Mesu Andrews), I am awed at how the Lord draws them back to the Bible and speaks to them personally after they’ve read my books. Story is a powerful teacher. Jesus used parables when He taught, and some of the best teachers among us still use stories today.

What have you learned about the publishing industry since you’ve signed that first contract?
There’s a whole lot more to writing books than writing books! I’m overwhelmed by all the to-do lists! Marketing, speaking, editing, blogging, networking, and on, and on, and on. I’ve resorted to personal writing retreats, in which I “hole-up” in a hotel for a week at a time with no phone or email, so I can get some actual writing done. It’s amazing how time seems to slip away so quickly these days, but isn’t that the cry of all our hearts? It seems the more time-saving devices we have, the less time we have to use them! Ha!

Now that you have a feel for the publishing world, would you do anything different if you had to do it all over again?
No. I’d do it the same because I believe God uses everything—the good and the bad—to prepare us for what comes next. I don’t know what my future holds, but I know Jesus does, and I trust Him with every step of not just my publishing career, but my life as well. Some days I feel more confident than others about trusting Him. On the “iffy” days, I have good friends—many of them writers a little farther down the road—who remind me to trust Him.

You write Christian fiction and Love Amid The Ashes was your first book. It’s a compelling story about Job from the Bible, told through the eyes of the women who loved him. I can only imagine the research that went into writing this book. Tell us about your trials as you dug into the deep history of Job’s life.
I think one of the greatest challenges when researching and writing any biblical historical fiction is to challenge people’s pre-conceived notions of Scripture. Many folks have heard about the suffering of Job, but few experts agree on the chronology of his life. Some experts use the references to leviathan and behemoth (Job 40-41), calling them dinosaurs, and cite this as proof that Job lived before the Flood and Noah’s Ark. I chose to place him after the flood because of a Scripture found in Genesis 36, listing Job as Esau’s grandson.

Historical research for this period was limited (ca.1900-1800 BC) when compared to the vast information available for the period after the Law of Moses was given, and since experts often disagreed, I had to make lots of educated guesses. I’m VERY grateful to my husband’s colleague, Dr. Karl Kutz (the Dept. Chair of Biblical Languages at Multnomah University) for his patient answers to my endless questions!

Love Amid The Ashes:

By Mesu Andrews

Available at: Amazon | Kindle | B&N

Blurb:

When scandal and murder rock Dinah’s life, the daughter of the great patriarch Jacob is sent away to Job’s household. After Job’s own world comes crashing down, Dinah finds herself drawn to this great man brought low. What will she risk to fight for his survival? Read this emotional and stirring account of Job and Dinah. Love Amid the Ashesbreathes life, romance, and passion into the classic biblical story of suffering and steadfast faith.

My readers are very familiar with RT Book Reviews and they had given Love Amid The Ashes a 4 ½ stars! Congratulations, first of all, on this exceptional review. I bet it felt wonderful to get such a rave recommendation from a prominent book review magazine. Tell us what went through your head as you read it.
Actually, I’m so naïve, I didn’t even know what RT Book Reviews was! My marketing manager emailed me the review with her congratulations and all sorts of exclamation marks and “woohoo’s!” I was embarrassed to write back and ask, “So what’s RT Book Reviews?” I’ve since had a second book release, and it too received a 4 ½ star rating. For THAT one I did a little happy dance!

"Andrews recreates the biblical story of Job through the eyes of the women who remained loyal to him. She has interwoven Job’s steadfast faith and his willingness to lead others to God amidst devastation and restoration. This classic story will speak to readers in new ways and ignite the passion for the ways God brings love into our daily lives."

4 1/2 Stars! ~ RT Book Reviews

I was really excited when I received an email from Baker Publishing’s Publicity Director, telling me I’d won Evangelical Publishing’s (ECPA) Book of the Year for the New Author Category! Woot! Here’s the link with all the winners: http://www.christianbookexpo.com/christianbookawards/winners2012.php

What was the most difficult task you encountered in writing this book?
It was tough to factor in the patriarchal era aging, keeping in mind the exceptionally long lifespans of some characters. For instance, Noah’s son Shem, who lived 600 years, would have died only a few years before my story began. Abraham and Isaac lived 175 and 180 years, respectively. It was a bit of a paradigm shift to think of Isaac’s twin sons, Jacob and Esau, as middle-aged when they were 100 years old.

What is one thing you’d love for your readers to know before reading this book?
The Bible is truth. My book is fiction. I try to be very careful, keeping any scriptural information exactly as it’s represented in the Bible. Then I add historical data from my research to fill out the plot. If there are holes or places I can add “color” or depth to a character or scene, I use my imagination. This triplet method of historical biblical fiction is the way I strive to keep the Truth of scripture intact and yet present the ancient Middle-Eastern stories in a way that our modern western culture can appreciate it.

What would you like your readers to come away with after reading it?
I’d like folks to become curious about the Bible, asking, “Is that in Scripture or is that fiction?” And then I hope they see for themselves. The Book of Job is a daunting book in the Bible. Forty-two chapters of moaning and complaining—or at least that’s what I used to think. I know differently after writing this book.

You've had a new release, I’m told. Tell us about this book.
Love’s Sacred Song (young King Solomon and his shepherdess) released on March 1, 2012; and I have a third book due to release next March, Love in a Broken Vessel (Prophet Hosea and the his prostitute wife, Gomer).

Love's Sacred Song
Available at: Amazon | Kindle | B&N

Blurb:
For young King Solomon wisdom came as God’s gift, but sacred love was forged through passion’s fire.

Standing in the overpowering shadow of his famous father, young king Solomon wavers between fear and bravado, longing for a love that is true and pure—a love that can be his cornerstone. A shepherdess in the northern city of Shunem, Arielah has known since she first laid eyes on Solomon that it was her destiny to become his bride. When her father secures a promise from King Solomon to marry Arielah as a treaty bride to help unite the kingdom, it seems her dreams will come true. But how can this simple shepherdess live as part of Solomon’s harem? Can Solomon set aside his distractions to give himself completely to just one woman? Or will he let duty, deception, and the daily routine divide his heart?

Favorite Foursome…

Color? Turquoise
Food? Mac-n-cheese
Book/Author? Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers
Childhood memory? Time spent with my cousin, who was more like a big brother. He lived about a mile from our house, straight through a cornfield and down a long lane. His house shared a driveway with our grandmother’s place, and we found lots of ways to get in trouble on hot Indiana summer days.

What genres do you typically read?
Biblical fiction, Regency

If money were no object, what would you be doing right now?
I’d be on a cruise! And then I’d tour Israel...for a year.

Where is one place you haven’t visited, but long to see?
Egypt.

Who is your role model?
My husband. He has an incredibly giving heart, eager to help, to serve others. He’s amazing.

Author Links:
Website: http://www.mesuandrews.com/

E-mail: mesu@mesuandrews.com

*Contest: Mesu is giving away an autographed copy of Love's Sacred Song to one lucky commenter! Please include your email address so we can get in touch with you should your name be randomly drawn. Winner will be notified through email. 
Contest ends, September 7, 2012.