BOM: The Research

Home from Colorado Springs, from the cold to the warm and muggy. :-)

Diana Sheldon, the protagonist of The Pearl, is a professional radio counselor (I was thinking of a Dr. Laura type.) So I had to research radio work, and the easiest way to do that was to visit a radio show. At the time, Tampa Bay had one radio talk show host I liked a lot--Glenn Beck. So I asked Glenn Beck's producer if I could come observe, and he said yes. I drove over to Tampa, sat in on a show, and enjoyed myself a lot. (Now, as I watch Glenn's success even on CNN, I feel proud to say I met him when.)

To write this book, I also had to learn a lot about cloning. It's not a book about cloning, but still, cloning plays a huge part. And when I started to write, I knew most Christians opposed cloning . . . but why? I mean, if they could clone cells to grow someone a new heart, why not let them do it?

Furthermore, if a book is not to be sheer propaganda, it must present both sides of an argument. It was actually easy to come up with good reasons to investigate cloning . . . and then to come up with solid arguments against the practice.

The timing of this book turned out to be incredible. The very week it released, the Raelians announced to the world that they had successfully cloned a human baby. They never proved it, but for a few days there, news of cloning filled all the major media.

P.S. Tonight, Lord willing, I am in Sarasota, for the 20th annual Florida Christian Writer's conference. I'm keynoting at their anniversary banquet, and I just want to publicly congratulate Billie Wilson for twenty years of service to Christian writers!

Tomorrow: the writing

~~Angie