Aaron L might be a newcomer to the creation of Christian fiction but is not one when it comes to the arts and all things creative. Growing up spending a lot of his time drawing, Aaron always knew that his future lay in this field. With his first novel, Light Under the House, Aaron has chosen to focus his creative skills on the task of storytelling.

Donna Fawcett Dawsonis a multifaceted author.  She writes suspense novels, Christian fiction and has been singing since age 4.  She was brave enough to homeschool her kids (that is an admirable task by any parent!).  She has received several awards for her books.  Donna’s call to writing is centered around her purpose statement: To make a difference in the lives of many who would not see Christ but for words I write; to show his love and sacrifice in the pages of each book.

Synopsis from Smashwords:

Light Under the House is the saga of an American family—the Levis, a family of secrets. None greater than the secret of what lies under their house, a secret that could destroy them. A secret that an ancient evil will stop at nothing to uncover. The novel follows the Levi family line for a generation, exploring lives lived in the aftermath of the cultural rebellion of the late 1960’s.

Aaron was kind enough to answer a few questions for me despite his busy schedule!

SBR: What inspired you to write this story?
I feel very stongly about the breakdown of the family and fatherlessness and how there is much dysfunction and despair because of it. I wanted to tell a story to shed some light on the situations that many face and hopefully bring some type of reversal to the current dynamic in whatever small way I could. I wanted to challenge men, fathers especially, to be who they were created to be….its certainly a challenge I face myself daily. A challenge that I often fail at but keeping picking myself up to start again.

SBR: Did you model any of the characters after people you know?
I used many things to model the characters…people I know, other literary figures, actors, biblical characters, celebrities….the characters are a combination of all of these. I wanted them to be new and familiar at the same time, universal.

SBR: Why did you choose the Dallas/Ft Worth area as your primary setting?
First of all, the south has a certain reputation for is deep spiritual roots (bible belt and all). I patterned the book in part after Gone with the Wind (another book set in the south)…not in the sense of a love story but in the sense of “here is civilization that is about to cease to exist, come see it before its gone”. Dallas just seemed to have everything I needed to make the story work from both a symbolic and technical standpoint.

SBR: Do you have plans to write more books? 
I have an idea or two floating around…nothing concrete yet.

SBR: What sort of research did you do for the historical portions of your book? What did you like best about the research? The least?
My co-author and I researched deeply in ancient history for some aspects of the book….I learned alot of things….some things I’d rather forget but most of it was enlightening. What I liked best was that it comfirmed for me mostly what I already knew, there really is nothing new under the sun.

My thoughts:

 Any time a book is set in Texas I am intrigued to see how it compares to the actual setting.  Granted I didn’t realize it was set in Texas until I read the book so that was a bonus!  The novel starts off during biblical times and then moves forward in time to the 60’s to the present.  The storyline kept me riveted because I liked seeing good win over evil and there were even loose ties to other biblical stories that most everyone has heard.  Sometimes the storyline doesn’t seem possible, but it is a fiction and if we can’t suspend reality then what is the point of reading a novel?  Sometimes it was hard to keep track of the characters especially if they weren’t a prominent character in the storyline, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.  Overall I would give this book 3 1/2 stars.

All in all I really enjoyed this book and am happy to share it with all the readers of my blog.  Aaron has kindly sent me a copy of the book to giveaway to a lucky reader.  All you have to do is fill out the form below and one lucky winner will be chosen.

The contest will run until Sunday, February 5th.  One entry per person (duplicates will be deleted).

 Good Luck!