I've long been a fan of Connilyn Cossette's novels and nearly a year ago, I had the opportunity to join her launch team. A few weeks ago, Conni invited the launch team members to ask questions and today I'm sharing some of the questions and responses. Like Flames in the Night releases on this Tuesday, 03/04/2020. Don't forget to read my review and then go pre-order!
Author Interview:
What
inspired the idea for this story?
Connilyn: When
I was in Israel a couple of years ago we went to a place called the Ayalon
Institute. It was actually a kibbutz (like a co-op farm) that contained an
entire underground bullet factory hidden from the British and the Arabs before
the 1948 war. They secretly crawled down ladders beneath a commercial laundry
room because it was noisy and could cover up the sound of the bullet making
machines and many of the people who lived and worked on the kibbutz had no idea
what was going on under their feet! Over a number of years, this group of young
people managed to make thousands and thousands of bullets and ship them out
through covert means, like in milk trucks. Without their sacrifice and
ingenuity, the nation of Israel might have been lost when the Arabs attacked en
mass. I was enthralled by the stories of miracles that happened during this
time and how these young people, men AND women stood up for their people so
courageously. I was inspired by this short visit to the underground bunker to write
about brave men and women who put their lives on the line for the nation of
Israel, both in ancient times and in modern ones. So as you will see as you
read, there are a number of places where I talk about covert operations and
secret weapons-making and those were directly inspired by that tour of the
Ayalon Institute. Malakhi and Eitan would have loved everything about it. Look
it up, it’s fascinating!
Who
was your favorite character (or the one you most resonate with) and why?
Connilyn: In
regards to the entire series, I would have to say Moriyah because I got to know
her as a young girl and was able to follow her journey all the way through
becoming a great-grandmother. She has been the foundation of all of the stories
within the cities of refuge and she will just always be one of my very
favorites. Don’t tell the others. For Like Flames in the Night, I’d have to say
Liyam because he was just a blast to write, such fun to put through the
wringer, and I just loved how his character arc developed!
What
are you hoping readers will glean from this story?
Connilyn: Tirzah’s
story is one of standing up courageously for her people, her family, and her
God. My hope is that readers will be inspired to shine their lights boldly for
Jesus and to not be afraid of anything—be it human or spirit—because Yahweh is
our champion and when we are out of strength and frightened and feeling alone
the Word says that He will fight for us! Nothing can stand against our great
big God. Also, I want readers to be reminded through Liyam's Journey how truly
powerful grace is.
Did
anything surprise you in this story as you were writing?
Connilyn: I
have to say that the length of the story was what most surprised me. There were
no plans for it to be longer than the others but just due to the nature of the
plot and also because I wanted to make sure that all the loose ends from the
entire series were tied up in a satisfying way it ended up having a few
chapters more. However, I hope that readers will be so absorbed in Tirzah and
Liyam that they won’t even notice!
Any
fun bits of trivia you want to share with readers?
Connilyn: I
guess I would have to say that the first thing is that I never planned on
writing this book at all. The original Cities of Refuge was a three-book series
but when I got to the end of Until the Mountains Fall I felt like there was
more story to be told within the time period and with this family. So I
proposed the idea to Bethany House and thankfully they went for it! Also, the
book discusses an altar that’s at the top of Mount Ebal in Israel and that
altar has actually been found on top of that mountain. It’s most likely a later
rebuild of the original altar and from what I read it looks like beneath the
altar there are possible remnants of the altar that Joshua built when he and
the entire congregation of Israel re-confirmed the covenant before he died. So
that’s pretty cool! Someday I would really love to walk up that mountain and
see that altar for myself.
This
is your last book in the Cities of Refuge series, was there a specific plot or
character you wanted to include before bringing the series to a close?
Connilyn: I
think I really was just having a hard time leaving Moriyah and her whole entire
family behind when I decided to write this book! But of course, I really wanted
to explore Moriyah’s youngest daughter Tirzah’s perspective. I wondered what it
would’ve been like to have grown up in the city of refuge, a place of complete
safety in most cases, and then be kicked out and have to live somewhere else
under the oppression of foreign invaders for eight years. Also, I was just
really intrigued by the entire blank space there is in the Bible where Othniel
is concerned and what his struggle against the Arameans might have looked like
from the inside. And as advance readers already found out, there is a tie to
the original Out from Egypt series in this book and I really wanted to explore
connections there as well.
Why
Cities of Refuge? Why not another story?
Connilyn: The
easy answer is that because I was just fascinated. Once I started to do some
reading about the cities of refuge, which I really didn’t know much about, I
saw the beautiful way that they foreshadowed Jesus our Messiah who is the
perfect balance of grace and justice for his people and I just wanted to delve
into those characteristics of God so I thought that the cities of refuge was a
perfect vehicle to do so! Besides, I’d just fallen in love with Moryiah in
Wings of the Wind and felt she needed a story too. Who knew what would come of
it all when I was struggling over whether to brand that poor girl’s face!
How
does it feel saying goodbye to characters you’ve been with for so long?
Connilyn: It
is really so bittersweet because I feel like these people are part of my family
and I know them inside and out. So it kind of feels like I’m abandoning them in
some way. But they’re always there waiting for me and maybe someday I’ll have a
chance to come back and revisit them. And then again I’m also really excited to
find new characters and discover their journeys and now that I’m writing this
new series I’m having a great time creating a whole new set of people,
discovering what makes them tick, and finding all sorts of disastrous and dangerous
situations to put them into peril and complicated situations to mess with their
heads. I’m kinda evil like that ;)
What
do you have coming up next? Tell us a little bit about it and when we can
expect it.
Connilyn: I
will be coming out with a new series this winter which is called the Covenant
House series. We are skipping forward a few hundred years to First Samuel in a
time when Israel was in a fierce struggle against the Philistines, a foreign
people that had arrived on the shores of Israel from the island of Crete
hundreds of years before. This is a duology, based on the lives of a Philistine
sister and brother who are adopted into an Israelite family and begins with the
theft of the Ark of the Covenant. The first book is called To Dwell Among
Cedars and will be releasing December 1 of this year.
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