Lynette Endicott: June Bryan Belfie

Saturday, April 14, 2012

June Bryan Belfie

Tell us a little about your newest book. What is the genre? What is it about?

"A Special Blessing for Sara" will be available on April 15^th. It is a Christian romance novel about a young woman, adopted at birth, who is a Christian counselor in central PA. Her own life is complicated by a broken engagement. A young youth pastor, a fellow counselor who teaches at the high school and then her ex-fiance, who suddenly reappears, keep her in a state of confusion. Then a surprising element turns into a blessing for Sara.

Is this completely out of imagination, or are there elements of your real life experience in the plot/characters?

It's difficult to determine what I grab from my own life experiences and what I 'create' in my mind, since everything and everyone has some influence on my thinking and my characters. My first published book, "Moving On" was about a young divorcee. Since I went through a difficult divorce in my early thirties, I guess that book is probably the closest to my own life.

How much of your personality and life experience is in your writing?

My protagonist always has some of my traits, I'm sure, whether I want it to happen or not. I've written one book, so far unseen by publishers, which is about a woman, very different from me and it was fun to put myself into her "head."

Where do your ideas come from?

I have no idea. I do spend a lot of time, usually when I first awake, thinking about plot and characterization. While I'm more character-driven, I usually start with a theme, move on to a beginning - crisis - resolution in my mind, and then begin developing my main characters.

Why did you decide to write sweet or warm Christian Romance?

I started writing for my two teen-age grand-daughters to give them 'clean' books to read from my perspective. Both girls write themselves and the oldest majored in English in college. I found it fun to write and some of my books are humorous as well as romantic.