Spotlight on Nicole Baart and The Moment Between

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NICOLE BAART was born and raised in a small town in Iowa. She is the mother of two young sons and the wife of a pastor. After the adoption of their infant son, Nicole discovered a deep passion for global issues and is a founding member of a non-profit organization that works with a church and orphanage in Liberia. After the Leaves Fall and the sequel, Summer Snow, were Nicole's first books. Summer Snow is a 2009 Christy Award finalist for excellence in fiction. The Moment Between is her third book. The inspiration for Nicole's next novel was an unsolved murder near her hometown. Her fourth book is set for release in 2010. Nicole and her family live in Iowa.

THE MOMENT BETWEEN
by Nicole Baart
Published by Tyndale House

ABOUT THE BOOK

Abigail Bennett was completely in control of her life until tragedy pushed her to the brink of something she'd never experienced: obsession. Now, she's given up everything she's ever worked for to chase down the object of that obsession. His name is Tyler Kamp. As Abigail follows him across the border into Canada to a beautiful winery in British Columbia, her journey is awash in memories of family and childhood, especially those of her younger sister, Hailey. Dangerously beautiful yet indefinably needy, Hailey seemed to take all the risks Abigail avoided. Until now. But even as Abigail races into her future, her past continues to pull her back. Only when she is brought to the edge of her obsession will she be able to come to terms with the tragedy that ignited it.

A breathtaking story about the emotional risks of relationships, The Moment Between explores the cost of regret, the desire for revenge, and the redemptive power of forgiveness.

Buy Your Copy of The Moment Between today!

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

1. What gave you the inspiration for this story?

The idea for this book was sparked nearly a decade ago when I was a young, high school teacher fresh out of college. A teenager in our community committed suicide, and the ensuing shock and horror really affected my students. In dealing with the fall-out, I learned that many of my students believed that suicide is an unpardonable sin--that since your final act on earth is one you cannot repent of, God cannot forgive you and therefore your soul cannot be saved. Of course, suicide is never the right answer to any problem, but I believe that God is bigger than that. I believe his grace can abound in any situation. The Moment Between is really about grace in unbelievable circumstances.

2. How much of your own experiences influenced your characters? What aspects became traits that are theirs and theirs alone?

The biggest part of me that shows up in this book is a love for British Columbia’s Thompson Okanagan. This setting will forever be one of my favorite places on earth. I feel a sense of home there, even though I’ve only ever vacationed there and will probably never truly call B.C.’s wine country home. Abigail’s growing love for The Summerlands and her sense of place there definitely came straight from my own affinity for the region.

But there are many things about Abigail that have nothing to do with me. She’s an accountant--I hate numbers and still add on my fingers. She has a very dysfunctional family and a messed-up relationship with her sister--my family is awesome and I only have a brother. She’s short and dark-haired and athletic--I’m tall and blonde and a complete klutz… I’ve never really thought about it before, but looking at my list I suppose she’s sort of my alter-ego.

3. If one of your characters were an ice cream flavor, what would he/she be and why?

Abigail Bennett would be a homemade vanilla gelato: simple, straightforward, and uncomplicated, but not without a certain exotic appeal--maybe hand churned with bits of vanilla bean throughout. :) There is much more to her than meets the eye, though you have to be willing to really savor her to realize all the many subtleties and nuances in her personality.

4. Are there any themes in The Moment Between that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the stories progressed?

Forgiveness is a major theme that plays into The Moment Between from the first page to the very last. I read a number of books on this subject of communion in years past and have always struggled with what it means, who it is for, and why Jesus chose the symbols that he used to represent the ultimate gift of himself--this symbol of forgiveness and reconciliation. I think we often take the elements for granted, not bothering to struggle with the implications of what God was really doing for us with this often misunderstood sacrament. So blood, wine, and sacrifice are all big symbols that play into the theme of forgiveness in this book.

Mental illness, familial relationships, and finding a sense of place are also important. I’d have to say that there were no surprise themes in this book because it was so planned out in my head from the moment I started writing it. I don’t always know my book so well when I begin, but there was something special about The Moment Between from the very first time I put pen to paper and wrote the opening line.

5. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?

The most difficult parts to write were definitely the suicide scenes. It was very hard to immerse myself in that sort of pain and try to imagine what it would be like to lose someone I love in such a violent manner. But for some reason I felt very compelled to go there--I wish I knew why. People always ask me why I chose to write about this topic, but the truth is, the topic chose me. It grabbed my heart and my mind and wouldn’t let go until I started writing.

My favorite parts to write were all the parts about the winery and Abigail’s growing relationship with the estate owner and vintner Eli Dixon. I love his character so much and I love what he was able to do for Abigail throughout the course of the book. He made all the sad stuff worth it.

6. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?

My next book is coming out in the spring of 2010. I’m just putting the finishing touches on it right now and I’m so excited about it! I don’t have a title yet, but the story is part mystery, part love story, and part emotional drama. It’s about a small town doctor named Lucas Hudson who is called to act as coroner in a routine case when the real coroner is vacationing in Mexico. Everything seems run-of-the-mill until Lucas stumbles upon a second body. Suddenly, he’s pulled into a bizarre, decade-old murder mystery that catapults him from his lackluster existence. When a missing woman turns up unexpectedly, and Lucas does the unthinkable, things only get more complicated. He finds his careful life in shambles and his marriage crumbling around him.

This book was pure joy for me to write, filled with quick dialogue and fascinating events. The idea was planted when I was sixteen years old and a body was discovered in a ditch near my hometown. A young woman had been brutally murdered and her body wasn’t found until months after the horrific crime. She has always haunted me… And now I get to tell my version of her story. I’ve waited years to pen this one. :)

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Thank you, Nicole, for being in the spotlight with us.

Readers, leave a comment for your chance to win a FREE autographed copy of The Moment Between.

Make sure you also leave your email address (name at domainname dot.com/net). You won't be entered in the drawing without it. If you wish to comment but don't want to be entered, say so when you post.

And if you want to make certain you don't miss anything, check the box that says 'email follow-up comments to:' when you leave a comment and they'll be sent to the email address associated with your blogging account. That way you'll be notified of any comments and will know when I announce the winner.

This week, the contest is open to anyone worldwide.

Spotlight on Nicole Baart and Summer Snow

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicole Baart was born and raised in Iowa, where she and her family now live. She taught high school English for several years in Canada but is now the full-time mother of two young sons and the wife of a pastor. After the Leaves Fall and its sequel, Summer Snow, are Nicole's first two novels. Visit her Web site at www.nicolebaart.com.

SUMMER SNOW
by Nicole Baart
Published by Tyndale House Publishers

ABOUT THE BOOK

Julia DeSmit is finally learning to accept her new life. Optimistic and anxious to begin again after dropping out of college, she is taking fumbling steps down a challenging yet hope-filled road. But the careful existence Julia has begun to build falls hopelessly to pieces when her estranged mother, Janice, appears on the front porch one icy March night. Mother and daughter have not seen or talked in ten years, and a decade of anger, resentment, and bitterness follows in Janice's wake, along with a surprise Julia could never have anticipated. Julia is convinced that which is broken cannot be mended. Yet when she faces the very decision her mother did years before, she begins to realize what it means to truly accept grace. Will it be her undoing, or the impetus for a change she'd never dared hope for?

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW

1. What gave you the inspiration for this book?

Summer Snow is the sequel to my debut novel After the Leaves Fall. The concept for these books grew out of a personal writing exercise that I thought was for therapeutic purposes only. I don't journal, but I do write poems, scenes and stories to deal with and deconstruct different events and emotions in my life. Leaves and Snow were written from a graveyard scene that I had created to help me deal with the death of my grandfather. My grandpa and I were very close, and he passed away in Iowa when I was nine months pregnant and living in Vancouver, British Columbia. I couldn't travel home for his funeral because I was due any day, and since I never got to experience that closure I struggled with his death for several months. One day I just sat down and wrote the scene from an October funeral. It became the first chapter of After the Leaves Fall.

2. How much of your own experiences influenced your characters? What aspects became traits that are theirs and theirs alone?

Julia is the main character in my first two books. She lives in a small town in Iowa, and many of her experiences with the culture and climate of Midwestern America are derived from my own life. However, Julia and I are more different than we are alike. In many ways she is my alter ego, the woman that I could have been if the Lord had seen fit to shape my life differently. Julia has had an extremely difficult childhood while the Lord has blessed me with two loving parents and a supportive network of other family and friends.J ulia is in many ways jaded and somewhat cynical while I am known for my relentless optimism and inability to see the worst in people. Julia has made some really poor choices in her life and has to live with the consequences... Hmmm. I wish I could say I've never made a mistake but that just wouldn't be true! I guess we're alike in that regard.

3. What themes exist in Summer Snow that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the story progressed?

In the first few pages of After the Leaves Fall, Julia's grandmother tells her: "I love it best when the leaves fall...because it's not over, everything is just waiting for spring." Both books deal with the theme of renewal, of anticipating the restoration of spring in both a literal and a figurative way. I've included many references to the changing of the seasons and the way the Lord works through the different stages in our own lives. Summer Snow is the completion of the metaphor, the story of the subtle changes that begin to indicate growth in Julia.

Another major theme is forgiveness, both for other people and for ourselves. Sometimes I think we are our own harshest critics, and all the anger that we have directed at other people is really bitterness that we are trying to deflect from ourselves. Julia is an angry young woman in many ways, but sadly, much of her resentment is a form of self-loathing.

4. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?

The most difficult parts for me to write were the portions of the book that dealt with Julia's anger toward her mother. My mom is a wonderful woman who has done nothing but love and support me from the day I was born. It was hard for me to imagine what it must feel like to have never felt that sort of love from the woman who gave birth to you. And it was emotional for me to realize that many women do feel that way: unloved and abandoned. I cried with Julia many times.

My favorite parts to write were the many scenes of hope... In one chapter Julia is leaving her job late at night and the moon is dangling in the sky like a jewel, in another she spends some time in the garden with her grandmother. But the absolute best scene to write was the chapter from which the title is derived. When I was in high school and college, I was a lifeguard at the local sand pit. In the afternoon, before the swimming pit was open to the public, I'd arrive early to set everything up. The best few days of summer were when the cottonwoods around the pond were shedding their fluff. I loved to swim out into the middle all by myself and float there on my back amid the frenzy of white. It looked just like summer snow to me and I had a blast recapturing that memory for the book.

5. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?

My next book is set for release in the spring of 2009. The story is multi-layered and complex, filled with surprises. I really enjoyed writing this book, but it was very difficult, too, because in it I wrestle with some very weighty issues. Suicide, mental illness, and revenge all play a major role in the plot. Also, as I was nearing the end of the book, some circumstances in my life began to mirror a few of the things I was struggling through in my manuscript. All of the sudden these abstract emotions were very raw and very close to home. I almost couldn't finish. But I'm glad that I did and I look forward to discussing this new book in depth in the months to come.

But that's all pretty theoretical. Just so you know what the book is about, I'll include a quick synopsis:

Abigail Bennett's life is unraveling. She has just abandoned her job, her swanky south Florida apartment, her elderly father, everything to chase down the object of her obsession. He's a total stranger and an alleged heartbreaker. His name is Tyler Kamp.

Abigail's journey is awash in memories of her childhood, for even as she races into her future, her past continually pulls her back. Though she tries to ignore each painful recollection of her younger days--a time filled with strict religious rules and regulations, and peppered with the errors and expectations of her aging parents--Abigail's youth cannot be ignored. And at the center of it all is Abigail's relationship with her younger sister, Hailey. Hailey is indefinably needy and strangely toxic, dangerously beautiful and frighteningly volatile. Abigail finds herself continually replaying her past, desperate for clues and longing for a chance to atone for long-ago mistakes.

Past and present finally collide when Abigail's obsession forces her to chase Tyler from Florida all the way across the continent to British Columbia's fabled Summerlands. Torn between grace and condemnation, redemption and revenge, Abigail faces the implications of living a less than perfect life. And though she is convinced that everything is black or white, obsession, and ultimately justice, prove to be much more complicated than Abigail first imagined.

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Wow! That sounds like a book with some meaty content. Looking forward to seeing it in 2009! Thank you, Nicole, for being in the spotlight with us.

Readers, leave a comment for your chance to win a FREE autographed copy of Summer Snow.

If you wish to comment but don't want to be entered, say so when you post. Make sure you also leave your email address (name at domainname dot.com/net) or that it's available for viewing in your blogger profile. Wouldn't want you to miss out on winning a book. :)

And if you want to make certain you don't miss anything, check the box that says 'email follow-up comments to:' when you leave a comment and they'll be sent to the email address associated with your blogging account. That way you'll be notified of any comments and will know when I announce the winner.

This week, the contest is open to US/Canada residents only.

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