Scraps of Grace follows a single father who is grappling with losing his self-identity in the wake of multiple traumas, and longs to find a spiritual connection. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The protagonist, Tyler Manion, is an ordinary young man, dealing with several issues causing him distress and sadness. He puts up a brave front of someone who is keeping it all together. One of his coping mechanisms is to not allow himself to think about memories that might cause him pain, such as thoughts of his wife, who recently died just five years after they were married. There wasn’t any specific person or situation that inspired me to tell Tyler’s story. I wrote the opening paragraph pretty much out of the blue, then set off to see where it would take me. I wanted to learn more about this man and how he would deal with loss. Only later did I develop the unlikely cast of supporting characters who would help him reclaim his sense of identity and help move him along on his rather reluctant spiritual journey.

Here’s the first paragraph in its final form:

The pity he imagines in her downcast eyes as she waits to be paid irritates him. Tyler fights the urge to explain to the babysitter that his wife’s death hasn’t crippled him, that he is still whole. Really.

What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

Here are three: People who are hurting often don’t know how to ask for help.… People often are in denial about their troubles, not only to close friends, but to themselves.… And, over the course of a lifetime, we grow and change so much inside as to be almost unrecognizable to our past selves, as well as to the selves we are yet to become.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

The spiritual journey we each are on, even if we don’t knowingly seek it out.
The sanctity of life and the specter of war as competing motifs.

The run-away interior thoughts of someone who is somewhat attention deficit, including in his prayer life. I think many people will be able to relate to this, as after all, don’t we all suffer from spiritual attention deficit disorder?

All this might sound rather heavy, but the story is told with considerable humor by a narrator with a wry sense of irony.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?

The sequel novel: Grace Rediscovered. It places some of the same characters in new conflicts more than thirty years after the point we left them at the end of Scraps of Grace (which is set in Michigan in 1990-91). Tyler is still trying to make sense of life’s confusion, afraid of missing out on something important.

Grace Rediscovered will be available later this year, probably in the fall.

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