Author Tracey Bateman and Defiant Heart

Hi Everyone,

My good friend and worship soulmate, Tracey Bateman has a book coming out the same day as Diva NashVegas! Her Avon Inspire, Defiant Heart.

I got my copy already, and it looks wonderful. Tracey is a warm, thoughtful, creative writer who knows how to make the characters come alive on the page. I know Defiant Heart will touch us all.


An Interview with Tracey Bateman

Q: When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

A: The first time I can remember wanting to be a writer was after I read Gone with the Wind. I was about ten years old and it was the first book that resonated with me that much. I wanted to write the sequel. Got a good start with my blind brother's typewriter, but abandoned the effort when I realized Mother would never allow Rhett to cuss and it just didn't feel right the other way. See? I was born to edit myself.

Q: Where does your inspiration come from?

A: I write from a great love of books and a lifetime of reading stories that triggered my imagination. I write inspirational fiction because I'm a Christian and those are the stories that come out of me when I sit down to write. My books always begin with a character who needs the hope I've found in a relationship with Christ. So that's what comes out when I write. Anything can trigger an idea: a TV show, the History channel, a billboard, something my pastor says. Ultimately, I imagine ideas come from God. Sometimes I wish he'd write the books for me too!

Q: Tell us about your heroine, Fannie Caldwell.

A: Women in the western frontier had to be gritty and they had to be tough. They couldn't afford to be shrinking violets. For a woman like Fannie Caldwell, there was no one to take care of her, so she had to make her own way. What else was there to do but take a chance? Danger isn't necessarily a bad place to be if the alternative is staying in bondage to a brutal taskmaster. If you don't fight, there's no way to win. I always like to write about characters who have a lot to overcome because I think God is able to show Himself the most for us when we're the most needy. I like to show how God can bring us through adversity—not necessarily make it easy, but walk with us until we come out the other side—maybe bruised, maybe battered, but definitely the victors in the battle.


Tracey's bio:

Tracey Bateman lives in Missouri with her husband and four children. Their rural home provides a wonderful atmosphere for a writer's imagination to grow and produce characters, plots, and settings. In 1994, with three children to raise, she and her husband agreed that she should go to college and earn a degree.

In a Freshman English class, her love for writing was rekindled and she wrote a short story that she later turned into a book. Her college career was cut short with the news of their fourth baby's impending arrival, but the seeds of hope for a writing career were already taking root. Over the next several years she wrote, hooked up with critique partners, studied the craft of writing and eventually all the hard work paid off.

She currently has over 25 books published in a variety of genres. Tracey believes completely that God has big plans for his Kids and that all things are possible to anyone who will put their hope and trust in the God.