Looking Out the Window: Gay Lewis Talks About Sarah and the Double Wedding Woes, the Latest in Her Series of Sarah Books about a Bumbling, Match-Making Angel. She Will Give Away an e-Book.

A Warm Welcome to Gay Lewis 

To enter to win the eBook of Sarah and the Double Wedding Woes leave a comment and an email address below.  

Hi Gay, first, tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a retired interior designer, a current pastor’s wife, and mother to grown children. Two daughters live near me in Texas, and one moved to Kentucky. I live in a small town west of Houston but drive to the city for shopping. My driving record scares everyone, including me. As I write this, my husband is in the garage trying to repair my latest scrape with the side of our garage. I told him a few minutes ago that I’d leave the car outside from now on and let him park inside for me. Scraping the garage is a habit and I hate leaving scars on the fender. He patiently buffs them out. Sigh. I’ve done this several times.

Good luck with the car and the garage. When it comes to cars, you're a writer, right? Many writers were avid readers as children. How about you? If so, what did you read?

I grew up in Texas and hated heat. As a child, I stayed indoors with a book, magazine, anything I could get my hands on. I read the Louise May Alcott books many times over. I also loved Nancy Drew. Today the books I chose are usually romance or paranormal. I just finished Saint Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel by Dean Koontz. This was the last in the Odd Thomas series and I’m upset that Mr. Koontz ended the series. Odd Thomas was a hoot.
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Ahh, that's sounds like fun. Let's talk about your writing. Who do you write for, and what other jobs have you held or do you hold besides writing?

 I write for Prism Book Group, The Texas Hill Country and a new online magazine called God’s Web.  Now and then, I return to the décor arena. A client called me recently and hired me for a home design update. I confess I enjoyed the décor request immensely. I worked in the interior design field for years and sometimes miss it.  I don’t do much of that anymore, but on that appointment, I found that I haven’t lost my touch.

As a pastor’s wife, I work a lot at church. No salary with this job, but I’ve always enjoyed sharing my husband’s ministry. Our church gets two for the price of one. I’ve been a writer for years, but I wrote for religious periodicals. I’ve also produced a travel series. I now write fantasy, romance, and sometimes add a bit of mystery to my stories. When the idea of a bumbling, dyslexic angel  who does goofy things came to mind, I had to write about her mishaps as she tries to help humans. Some of the things that happen to Sarah I’ve endured myself.

Sarah's such a fun character. How did you begin a writing career?

I’ve always written since I was a child with a toy typewriter. I wrote plays for the neighborhood, then as a teen, I wrote them for church. After I married a minister, opportunities for inspirational periodicals kept coming, but I’ve always wanted to write novels.  The day finally arrived for retirement and I began with Women’s Fiction—I wrote two. One of those books will see the light of day next year, and I’m totally excited about it. The name of the book is Choices, and it’s the first one I wrote. Over the years, I’ve rewritten it, and written it…and again written it. Chuckle, chuckle, sigh. The story was good, but the writing needed help. Authors continue to learn about their craft, and the later versions are better. Choices is a dark subject about physical abuse with study questions at the end. My Sarah Series is a lot more fun and it’s light reading. Sarah makes people laugh out loud, but Choices will make the reader cry.

Other than Sarah who is your favorite character in your books and why?

I love the Commander. He gives Sarah assignments at the start of each book and reviews her at the end. He is not God, but the Commander is a servant of the Lord, but like God, he is kind, gentle, and loving. He often must correct Sarah, but he always does it in a generous and humorous way.

Tell us about your latest book, Sarah and the Double Wedding Woes.

Sarah must unite two widows, Bonnie, the mother and Jessica, the daughter, at the same time.  These ladies live together, along with Mackenzie, Jessica’s daughter. The three generations of women are bonded into a tight family, but all three are falling in love. Mackenzie will wait to marry until she finishes college, but Sarah’s mission is to find men for the other two. After guys are found, Sarah must then convince the females to live apart from each other with a new husband. Each woman fears the other will be lonely and neither will break up the household—no matter how much love for a man is involved.  Sarah is terrified. Her mission is to create two simultaneous weddings, and she just might goof them both up on this mission.

What sort of hindrances does Sarah face on this mission?

Finding a love candidate for Bonnie, the matriarch of the family is a challenge. Where should an angel look for a respectable, eligible bachelor? In the following scene, she tries church and manages to embarrass the pastor.

Men in the choir sat in a row next to each other. Perhaps their wives were gathered in those female groups she’d noticed earlier, but then again, maybe not. Sarah lifted her brows and snapped her fingers as a new thought came. An unmarried dude might be in the choir loft. She should wander up to the loft and check the fingers on their left hands. If married, they’d wear a wedding band, wouldn’t they? She knew of men who hid rings when they wanted to step out on a wife, but surely they didn’t do such a thing in a place of worship. Or did they? Nah. Sarah shook her head, unable to fathom such a thing.

Zooming like a politician to a potential voter, Sarah rocketed down the row of prospects. As she whizzed by each man, the wind velocity caused their robe stoles to fly up. One by one, the decorative cloth hit a male face. The visual effect resembled that of a football wave in a crowded stadium. A stole flew up, hit the individual in the nose and then returned to its place. The next one in succession did the same. One man sneezed. Another coughed. The audience laughed.

The men rotated heads to look at each other with quizzical looks. One shrugged and another scratched his ear. The pastor turned to see what caused the hilarity.

“What are ya’ll doing back there?” The preacher’s tone indicated genuine interest.

“Didn’t you feel that gust of wind?” A man spoke from the middle of the row.

“In here?” The pastor furrowed his brow.

“We felt the Spirit. Maybe we’re about to experience another Pentecost.” The choir member’s voice carried all the way to the rear of the auditorium.

The pastor shook his head. “Not in my church.”

The audience roared again.

The pastor’s face turned from pink to purple. “Uh…ah…um…that’s not what I meant. I hope we do have a revival of the Spirit in here—just wasn’t expecting it today.”

More laughter.

Sarah directed her eyes upward and mouthed “Sorry.” Other than disruption, that little escapade failed to bring results. Maybe she’d approached this investigation the wrong way…perhaps she should consider age and eliminate a few choices. Now—who among these men fit the sixty-year-old prospect she hoped to find?

Two men looked to be near the correct phase of life.

Slipping down, she inspected their hands. One wore a wedding band and the other didn’t. The candidate without a wedding band was handsome—tall with salt-and-pepper hair.

Hmm, he could be the one. But then again, maybe not. Perhaps she should follow the dude home, find out his name, and see how he spent his time.

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