Serials and Scenarios - Amy Wallace's Healing Promises

Amy Wallace visited the Dregs last spring. Read her entertaining interview here (scroll down). If you want a sneak peek at Healing Promises, click here to read the first chapter.

And without further ado...my review:

Amy Wallace once again tackles tough subject matter with skill and grace.

I'd heard mixed feedback before opening the cover of Healing Promises and I was concerned that I might not love it. One friend mentioned feeling a little like an emotional punching bag during her time with Clint and Sara.

I see where she was coming from -- the themes of cancer and child predators are grueling at best. Wallace fills her novel with clinical details and law enforcement procedure and the effects of the truth in those details applied to the lives of her characters. At times I needed to take a break from the emotion. Anyone dealing with close instances of child abuse or critical health issues might want to read the first chapter to get a feel for where Wallace takes the reader.

But the reader's emotional involvement in the lives of the characters and the angst over the drama shows Wallace's skill with storytelling. Her characters feel like real people and compassion comes into play. With several points of view the reader is able to get a sense of the major players as the story progresses -- a front row seat to the struggles and triumphs and the failings and sorrows.

Healing Promises continues the tale of Steven and Gracie so readers of Ransomed Dreams should feel at home, but Healing Promises can stand alone. Fans of Karen Kingsbury might want to check into Amy Wallace. I need to add a sensitivity warning. Some scenes are brutal. The novel is full of suffering and details that might make a reader squirm.

Serials and Scenarios - Ransomed Dreams

Ransomed Dreams -
click on the cover to visit Amazon for more details.

The author: Amy Wallace

The Review:

Amy Wallace has produced a story worth reading. A solid debut novel about the power of love, the fragility of life, the pain of loss, and the complexities of relationships.

The deeper I entered into the story of Steven and Gracie, the more I grew to care about them and the faster I turned the pages.

Weak-kneed readers need to proceed with caution. The subject matter is heavy, involving tragedy and death. Evil hovers and stark realities will impact soft hearts.

Though full of hope and forgiveness, mercy and love, if you can't read Karen Kingsbury you will likely struggle with Ransomed Dreams. And if you are a fan of Karen Kingsbury you will find much to like in Amy Wallace.

Come back Friday for Amy's interview...she's lots of fun.

Serials and Scenarios - Amy Wallace Wows

Here she is -

Amy shares her soul...I can't wait to meet her, we have a tentative coffee date in Dallas. You all are invited, too, I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Mark your calendars --sometime in September.


Fiction character you would most like to be or most identify with and why?

The fiction character I would most like to be is Shari Hanford from Dee Henderson’s The Guardian. For any O’Malley fan it probably goes without saying why. : )



Some out there in writing land have strange rituals. Share yours.

Strange rituals? I like to procrastinate until the last possible minute before I get started writing on Saturdays, does that count?



What crayon in the box describes you on a good day? Bad day?

On a good day, I’m a happy cerulean. On a bad day, I’m probably more like a fire engine red that everyone wants to steer clear of.



Pick one…..Pink iguana, purple cow, periwinkle giraffe. Which one and why? Can be negative or positive.

I’m thinking a periwinkle giraffe because I like that shade of blue and giraffes are totally fun to watch eye to eye.



Favorite turn of phrase or word picture, in literature or movie.

“Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.” Aragorn from Return of the King.

I love the sentiment here that, like it or not, we’re at war. You can either stand and fight or die. I’d prefer standing to fight, and dying a warrior not a coward.



What period of history intrigues you the most?


Modern times intrigue me the most. We have every convenience known to man, the ability to communicate around the globe in seconds and yet we’re still very alone and disconnected human beings. I’m also fascinated with the fact that even with the best of technology people can disappear and reinvent themselves with a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of money.



What makes you feel alive?

Laughing with my kids and dancing in a mountain stream are two of my favorite things that make me come alive like nothing else.



How does something worm its way into your heart? Through tears, truth, humor or other?

Solid truth mixed with a good dose of humor will endear people and books to me very quickly. I also like people and authors who make me cry because of the depth of passion they live out in their words.



Book, music, person, food you would take with you on a very long trip.

I’d have to take my Steven Curtis Chapman collection of CDs along with my Casting Crowns and Chris Tomlin CDs and a healthy stash of Godiva chocolate. With those things and my family, I’d be set to go, no matter how long the haul.


Where would you most like to travel ----- moon, north pole, deep seas, deserted island, the holy land or back to a place from your childhood, somewhere else? – and why.

I’d like to hang out in the Garden of Eden and experience a little perfection for a while. Then I’d like to stomp the snake before he ever chatted with Eve.


Favorite season and why?

I love fall with all its vivid color, home-baked smells, and the crisp air that promises nights by the fire curled up with a good book.


Which compliment related to your writing has meant the most and why?

That would be a tie between the teary eyes of my husband and kids when they read the Christmas letters I write for them and a reviewer’s comment that the thing which grabbed her heart the most wasn’t the great things she could say about me, but that she heard Christ through my words.

Why? Because I want to connect with people’s hearts and encourage them as well as point them to God.


What criticism has cut the deepest and why?

Being told in one of my first rejection letters that I was melodramatic and cliché, cut deep because it almost pushed me away from writing.


What would you do today if you knew you had only a week to live?

I’d definitely stop marketing.

Then I’d eat lots of chocolate and spend my time running on the beach and hugging my kids and hubby a lot.


What is your favorite word?

Sans. I think it’s a cool word even though my best friend says “normal” people don’t really talk like that.


Favorite chore?

Uhm, none?



Anything you’d do but don’t because of fear of pain? What is it? Ex. Bungee jumping, sky diving, running with scissors.

I’d love to do a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, except for the inevitable pain in my calves, not to mention the bugs, sweat, and no indoor plumbing.


Societal pet peeve…sound off.

Not being looked in the eye. That bugs me to no end. If you’re gonna tell me to “have a nice day” at least do me the courtesy of looking to see if that’s a possibility or not.


CREATIVE CORNER:

Pick any of the following and have fun with it.



Describe something you can see, hear, taste or feel without telling us what the item is.

This item smells like summer, tastes like salt, and can feel both scratchy and smooth at the same time.


Frizzy hair, purple scarf and a book – make a character.

An over fifty librarian wearing a red hat and waiting impatiently for her hot date that she was terribly worried she’d be too late to meet.


A scatterbrained pacer, a train and a crumpled letter – make a thumbnail plot.

A genius professor clutches a love letter and awaits his destiny arriving on a train from back east. But nothing makes sense when his deceased doppelganger shows up and kidnaps the girl before he can remember what day it is.



Pick one of the “story starters” below and give us a sample of your voice.

The leaves weren’t the only things stirred up by the breeze which now carried the cloying scent of death.

FBI Agent Bowers fought the gruesome images vying for control of his mind. Too late, he’d been too late again.

While death clung to every tree branch and fabric within the cordoned off area of Kentucky backwoods, John imagined the moment he’d come face to face with the killer.

In that one encounter, he’d send a nightmare to hell. The risk of his badge and sidearm were no match for the satisfaction of watching his brother’s last breath.

It wouldn’t bring back his wife or baby girl. But it would silence the ticking clock that haunted his dreams.

If only he’d come home an hour earlier.

If only he’d deciphered Braden’s clues, left just for him to find.

If only…

The words wrapped around mounting case files of unsolved destruction and called out of his subconscious the final photographic remains his brother had orchestrated.

No more. Justice had earned her revenge. He’d see her paid in full.

To that hope he clung. It was all he had left.




Thanks Amy, and Happy Weekend Dregites - especially you mama dregs -"Happy Mother's Day."