Interview with Sarah Hamaker

SUMMARY: We chat with Sarah Hamaker about her new book The Last Noel, her heart for foster kids, and why she writes Christian fiction that doesn't shy away from difficult topics.

Your novella opens with a bus station, a snowstorm, and children in danger. Where did the seed of that opening scene come from, and what made you know it belonged at Christmas rather than any other time of year?

I think having Christmas fast approaching lends the story another layer of urgency—will they figure out who’s behind the danger in time for a safe Christmas? I also needed to move my heroine from Northern Virginia to central western Virginia to get her in proximity to my hero, and a bus offered more dangerous possibilities than a train or plane or car.

You host a fiction podcast, which puts you on the other side of the interview table more often than most novelists. Does hosting other writers change how you approach your own craft?

Have any of your podcast guests influenced your writing or this novella specifically? My background is in journalism, and my first professional job was with a magazine at a national trade association, so I’m used to asking questions! I love talking with my fellow Christian romantic suspense writers about the craft and stories. I sometimes get inspiration from our conversations and always find out interesting ways they connect with characters, readers, or the stories themselves. There’s not a direct link from my podcast to this Christmas novella, but overall, I’m always more energized for my own writing projects after talking with other writers.

Your protagonist, Oakleigh Wright, grew up in foster care alongside Gabriella. What did you want readers who don't share that background to understand about Oakleigh's worldview, and what did you have to be careful with in writing it?

My parents took in foster kids when I was a preteen and teenager (and through my college years and beyond too), plus my husband and aI fostered for seven years ourselves, so I had a firsthand glimpse of the backgrounds and hardships and thought patterns a foster child or teenager experienced. I wanted to emphasize both the trauma Oakleigh and Gabriella had to overcome as well as the hope for a brighter future. Having an unsecure upbringing can make it difficult to make connections and also to believe you’re worthy of love. While every locality and foster situation can be different, I tried to stay true to my own experiences and write a believable scenario for the story.

The reunion with Joseph is tender, but the antagonists in this novella mean serious harm. How do you balance the softness of a second-chance romance with the sharpness of the suspense plot inside novella-length pages?

I generally don’t write extremely fast-paced suspense stories because I do want to give my hero and heroine time to breathe, to reflect, to ponder their relationship or situation. So my goal is to balance the danger with those quiet moments that fit with those characters’ circumstances. Having the two kids provided those opportunities, as Oakleigh and Joseph both needed to slow down to take care of Chale and Desi. The children also gave Oakleigh a chance to see a different side of Joseph, one that got her thinking perhaps she had misjudged him all those years ago.

Talk about your book’s setting. What is it about that particular landscape—the back roads, the small towns, the weather—that made it the right stage for a Christmas thriller?

Twin Oaks is a fictious town set in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The town itself is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I wanted a small town that celebrated Christmas in a big way with a festival and parade, etc., and I wanted Joseph’s family to be involved in the town, so I made his mother the mayor. That gave Joseph roots, and appealed to Oakleigh as someone who had no roots growing up. That area of Virginia also gets more snow and other dangerous weather conditions, so that was important to the storyline too.

You quote Scripture directly on the page and structure a full faith arc into the story. For a reader coming from general-market romantic suspense who is new to Christian fiction, what should they know about how faith shows up in your novella?

My favorite part of writing Christian fiction is portraying Christian characters with all their flaws and promise through Christ. Most of my characters are already believers, so there’s usually not a salvation scene, but one or both of my hero or heroine struggle with holding fast to their faith in the midst of difficult circumstances. I want their struggles to ring true to readers and for my readers to see the truth of how God walks with us through those struggles. God’s sovereignty reigns over everything, and I love to show that on the page through my characters to encourage them to keep trusting in God.