Author Interview with Deb Gorman

By Deena Adams

I’m happy to introduce you to another author friend I’ve met through Facebook. I hope you enjoy getting to know Deb Gorman and will check out her non-fiction publications, but also keep an eye out for her fiction coming soon.

Welcome Deb! Let’s jump in with why you decided to write contemporary novels.

It probably has something to do with my love, since about age eight, of reading stories. I was always holed up with a book…my parents had to force me to go outside and play, and when I did, I usually hid a book under my jacket. 

Reading was a love of mine as a child, too. As a contemporary writer, what unique challenges does writing about today’s culture present?

I think each genre has its unique challenges. Writing contemporary fiction has its own. The world is changing so fast and the contemporary fiction author must keep up. For instance, in one scene, my character ended a call on his cell phone and “snapped it closed”. Not so much these days!

So true! I’m curious, what does your writing space look like?

Glad you asked…I love it! In 2012, my mother moved in with us. She was in the moderate stage of dementia and was with us for a year and a half, then we moved her to a facility.

Before we moved her in with us, we added an apartment to our house, which sits on five acres. When Mom moved out, the apartment became my office. Big windows, its own bathroom, and plenty of room for three desks, a reclining loveseat, a bookcase, a printer table, and my recumbent bike. 

Is it wrong that I’m jealous. LOL. On a spiritual note, how do you incorporate Christ and hope into your writing?

For me, relationships are the building blocks of story. My current projects delve into the difficult ones, something I’m well acquainted with in real life. I believe firmly in fighting for relationships. Christ is the Lord of difficult relationships, so I try to present Him as the answer.

My mission is to write stories of redemption and reconciliation, extending hope to my readers that their difficult relationships can be redeemed. 

Amen! Are any of your stories inspired by true events or personal history?

In some ways, they all are. My current project, The Master’s Inn, releasing this year, is about three families, strangers to each other, who are stranded together in a storm. During the three days they’re together, their difficult pasts and relationships dovetail together, and they each discover God is not only bigger than the storm (and the large hungry bear who visits), but also bigger than their past tragedies and wounds.

I have learned that the God of gods I serve is no less involved in my life and the relationships He’s given me…still learning that. Salvation is based upon our relationship with Jesus, so relationships are a priority with God, too.

Another story, No Tomorrows, is about a young mother of four children who is convinced God is telling her she will die tomorrow. The story takes place within the confines of that twenty-four hours.

During that day, she revisits her childhood, the kidnap and murder of her older sister, and a high school date-gone-wrong, and God thrusts her into some harrowing circumstances, which further convinces her she will not see tomorrow. She must decide, in the midst of her usual busy day of mothering, how to live what might be her last day on earth.

I lost a younger brother and younger sister three decades ago, and those losses still shape me today. I blogged on my website recently about losing my sister to suicide. Each day I must realize it might be my last; I tell myself this: “You never know when you’re having the last conversation with someone you love.” 

I’m so sorry for the loss of your siblings. And what a powerful statement about our conversations with others possibly being our last.

Following up on on the truth of God involved in our lives, what did He teach you through the writing of No Tomorrows?

That He has numbered my days and to have no fear of that. And to make sure that I complete, each day, the most important things—which is usually about cultivating relationships, not doing housework or mowing the lawn!

A great lesson! What’s next from you?

Hope to release The Master’s Inn this year; then there are two more novels for that series (I hope). But, I also want to release No Tomorrows in between the books in The Master’s Inn series.

And I have a few other titles I’m working on. I also am learning how to write short stories, which I want to add to my website as lead magnets—a chapter at a time—as gifts for my newsletter and blog subscribers. (Still working on getting my newsletter up and running.) 

Besides posting comments on your website, how can your readers and fans support you?

I’d love to get to know you, so email me at any time. I read and respond to every email. Go to my website, look it over, and if you want, sign up to follow me!

And when I get my newsletter going, I’d be privileged if you decide to become a subscriber. I promise not to fill up your inbox…😊 And, of course, if you like what you see, buy my books and tell all your friends!

Any last words for your readers?

It has been a pleasure to invite you into my office and let you into my head a little. If we could sit down over coffee and quiche and become acquainted, it’d be so much fun. Maybe someday, huh?

Thank you so much for letting me ramble on about writing and stories and the imaginary friends in my head—but, please don’t tell them I said that, okay? They might give me the silent treatment when I need them to talk to me.

Have a great day, and I hope to see you on my website! 

Thanks so much for sharing a small part of your writing journey with us, Deb. I look forward to your fiction books releasing in the near future!

Join the conversation. What aspects of Deb’s answers resonate with you most? Do you enjoy books with themes of redemption, reconciliation, and hope? Which of her two works in progress grab your interest most?

Deb Gorman, owner of Debo Publishing, lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, Alan, and their very smart German Shepherd, Hoka. 

She is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, cleverly disguised as a wife, mom, grandmom, and author. Her purpose is to regift the Word of God to believers and seekers everywhere, using the literary talent and imagination God gave her. Her prayer is that His Name would be praised and His glory would fill the earth!

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Connect with Deb: Website / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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If you missed my interview with Regina Walker last week, find it here.