WOF: You really get around, don’t you? Last year our Book Club featured Alaska Twilight, Midnight Sea is the fourth of a series set in Hawai’i, and another recent book, Fire Dancer, is set in Arizona. What’s up with that? Have you ever done a book set close to home?

COLLEEN: I did the Rock Harbor books which are in Michigan and we live in Indiana so that wasn’t too far. And actually, Arizona is like our second home – our daughter lives there, I have a brother who lives there, aunts, uncles and cousins . . . we’ve gone out every year at least once or twice a year for about 30 years.

I’ve been obsessed with Alaska ever since the John Wayne movie North to Alaska. Hawai’i came about because I was writing the books in the Upper Peninsula and the second book was set in the winter, so of course I had to go see what the winter was like ‘cause we had only been there in the summer. It was the coldest day they had had in like, 10 years, and my husband looked at me and said, “Um, next time, how about setting the book someplace warm?” So I took him at his word. We had been to Hawai’i before so I decided to set the book there.

Setting is super-important to me as a writer; it’s where I get a lot of my inspiration. I’m kind of weird in that I come up with the setting first. I find that it impacts the plot and it impacts my characters. People in the Midwest are different from people in Arizona or Hawai’i or whatever. I first come up with a setting that really intrigues me and then I come up with a character that intrigues me that goes with that setting. You can’t take my books and take that story and plunk it down in another place – it doesn’t work. It has to be in that setting for it to work because the setting is so tightly integrated. So that’s why I get around!

WOF: You write about such adventurous souls - your characters jump out of airplanes, climb cliff walls, face down bears . . . is that a reflection of the kind of person you are or more of who you’d like to be?

COLLEEN: It’s probably more of a reflection of the kind of person I’d like to be. I just turned 55 but in my mind I’m still 19. Even though I’m just a little old for all that, in my head I’d still like to do them all. I still am very active – we go snorkeling and hiking. I have an adventurous soul, but not quite as adventurous as what I write about.

WOF: In Midnight Sea Lani faces one of the big questions of life: Why do bad things happen to good people? How do you see the role of Christian fiction in dealing with these kinds of issues?

COLLEEN: I think it’s a question that everybody has whether they’re Christian or not. It’s a question that people ask me who are seeking, who aren’t Christians yet. They look around and they see so many bad things in the world and how innocents suffer.

Even as Christians we’re at a loss to explain that because we don’t understand it really. We realize that we live in a fallen world and that Satan is in control of this world but we question, If God really loves us why does He allow these things to happen? It’s a question that I struggle with myself and I know so many other people who do so it seemed a good thing to write about.

It’s an issue that doesn’t really go away and I just felt it was an important thing to discuss. There are certain things that are going to happen in this life that we don’t have an explanation for and it’s OK. It’s OK to say to one another and to seekers that we don’t know. God is God and there are times we don’t understand but we can trust Him and we can trust His heart and we can know that He love us, and that is good enough. And it really is good enough.

WOF: Where did the idea for the Taylor Camp group come from? They’re certainly an interesting set of people!

COLLEEN: It’s a true story – not the murder, but there really was a Taylor Camp and it really was on Elizabeth Taylor’s brother’s property. It really was burned to the ground in the mid-70’s. All of that history part is true. I started out writing historicals and I’m still very intrigued by history and how it still impacts us today. Always, when I’m researching a book, I’m looking at the history to see if there’s anything that could make an impact on today’s life that would be interesting. When I stumbled across that whole Taylor Camp thing I was really intrigued. I’m a child of the sixties so that made it even more interesting. Most people have never heard of Taylor Camp and I just thought it was a cool thing to work in.

WOF: The glossary of in the back of the book is certainly entertaining, especially the hippie slang. Did you have to research that or did you remember it all?

COLLEEN: Actually I did have to research that – a lot of it I had known but I’d forgotten. It’s been a few years ago that I was a child of the sixties! Some of it, of course, I did know. There are certain terms that are very much still used. Some of them aren’t (luckily!) It was just fun to go back to the past a little bit that way and relive my youth.

WOF: What was it like to write from the perspective of someone who is blind? How do you go about researching something like that?

COLLEEN: It was very interesting. I actually blindfolded myself and spent a whole day blind, walking around the house trying to listen to things and use my other senses in the way that Lani had to learn how to do. I found myself adjusting to it quicker than I thought I would. I’ve always had poor eyesight (I had lasik a few years ago so now I don’t), but I couldn’t even read the big E on the eye chart. The thought of losing my vision was terrifying to me as a reader - I’m a huge reader as well as a writer. I was just intrigued at the thought of what could happen.

I found myself adjusting to not being able to see faster than I thought I could. I was really reaching out with my other senses and trying to figure out what was going on around me. I found I was hearing things that I had probably always heard but didn’t pay attention to because I had my eyesight.

My son got a Harley this last year and I had him take me for a ride on it. I closed my eyes and pretended like I couldn’t see just to see how Lani would feel when she was on the back of that motorcycle with Ben. It was scary! I was screaming almost the whole time in my son’s ear.

WOF: Did you have to drink a lot of coffee for research purposes?

COLLEEN: I drink a lot of coffee anyway – I am a coffee freak. I knew I had to have a book sooner or later set on a coffee farm because I just absolutely am a coffee nut. I found myself drinking even more coffee than usual!

WOF: And is Kona coffee really better?

COLLEEN: Oh, there is no comparison! They get $20 a pound for it and it’s worth it! It is fabulous! You know how most coffee has a kind of bitter taste to it? Kona coffee does not have that. It is the most mellow coffee you have ever had in your life.

WOF: How do you take your coffee?

COLLEEN: With plenty of cream and sugar.

WOF: What exotic location are you going to sweep us off to next?

COLLEEN: Well, actually I’m kind of thinking about the Outer Banks [of North Carolina]. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard people talk about how wonderful and beautiful it is. We’re planning a trip out there in September and I’m going to check it out. That’s what I’m leaning toward right now. I’d like to maybe have a lighthouse play a big role.

WOF: What about you personally? Any upcoming adventures or recent triumphs you’d like to share? (Are you still the Coble family champion of wii bowling?)

COLLEEN: I am the wii bowling champion! We play wii every night. Hey, you’ve got to get your exercise somehow, right?

We are getting ready to go to Hawai’i next month; our kids are going with us. Our son just got married in June and he wants his bride to check out Hawai’i, which he loves, so we’re all going together and it’s going to be so much fun!

I have my first hardcover coming out – it’s a new Rock Harbor book. It was so much fun to go back to Rock Harbor! The characters are so real to me. It was really an adventure and I just can’t wait for the readers to get hold of Abomination when it comes out. I think they’re going to be happy to be back in Rock Harbor, too.