Looking out the Window: Fay Lamb Talks about her Latest Book in The Visitor Series, The Visitor Meets Old Hairy. Holds a Contest.

 

A Warm Welcome to Fay Lamb

Fay shares a devotional.

She's also having a contest.

Enter here by guessing at the clues given to you as to the location of each book in The Visitor series.

One Day Heaven Was Open

Those five words from “One Day” rang in my head as I contemplated this post. The hymn is a beautiful story of Christ’s redemptive love, but those lyrics came to mind for a different reason.

There had been a day in my life when Heaven had opened, and I saw clearly my Savior who bled and died for me. Since that day, there have been other times when the Lord has shown Himself real to me. One particular time I will never forget occurred one very early foggy morning. While driving to work, I passed an entrance ramp onto Interstate 95. An overwhelming prompting from the Holy Spirit urged me powerfully with one word. “Pray.” Then a still, small voice said, “Pray for Ethan.”

Ethan is my grown son. I knew he would have been on his way to work in the fog driving on the interstate I’d just passed under. I prayed without hesitation. I didn’t know why I was urged to pray, but I cried out to the Lord.

Later that day, I received a call. Ethan had been in a freak car accident. Entering the exit ramp only a mile down the interstate, the fog had been so heavy that he could not see a semi-truck that had parked on the shoulder for the night. The driver had not pulled fully onto the shoulder, and the fog hid the back edge of the truck which jutted into the road. Ethan slammed into that edge, and his truck was spun against the truck. His vehicle was completely totaled, but the Lord answered my prayer. Ethan was unharmed. The damage to the truck was so bad that neither Ethan nor his father would let me see it. My husband later told me that he did not know how Ethan survived based on that damage to the vehicle.

When had that accident occurred? 

Right when I had been prompted to pray. I have no doubt that Ethan’s outcome had already been determined. The Lord knew that Ethan would survive, but He also wanted me to understand the power of prayer and the direct connection that I have to Him, born of my relationship with Him, which occurred on the first day Heaven was opened to me.

Thank you for sharing that inspirational story with us. Now tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a native Floridian who lives across the river from the Gateway to Space called Kennedy Space Center. I have been an avid studier of the craft of writing fiction for most of my life, yet I did not find a publisher until I was a half a century old. I love to incorporate the places I love the best into my stories: my hometown, my adopted hometown, an island, a swamp, even the mountains of North Carolina.

Tell us why you chose to write your latest book, The Visitor Meets Old Hairy.

You see, I’m a rebel, and when my publisher announced a new series of contemporary mystery and light suspense, I was on board. Then she told us about the secondary, but title character, The Visitor, who is so unlike me in every aspect. She was described as a put-together professional: perfect nails, perfect clothing—always with a touch of her signature red—just a consummate chief officer of her family’s not-for-profit. The Visitor, Connie is her name, visits her family and similar to old Jessica Fletcher on Murder She Wrote, Connie never runs into a mystery she doesn’t try to solve.

Being the rebel I am, I announced to my publisher that Connie was getting out of the boardroom and into the woods. Her sister has signed up her family for … wait for it … Bigfoot expeditions in a local state park where Bigfoot is said to have been spotted. Connie arrives for her visit on the weekend of an expedition, and her sister isn’t about to forfeit time with her son who is going off to college. She drags Connie into the forest where, you guessed it, someone is murdered. And who do you think is their main suspect? Some call him Sasquatch. Others call him Bigfoot, but those of us who are on a first name basis call him Old Hairy.

What do you love about this book? And what do you hope readers will tell others about it?

I love this book not only because it is my first cozy mystery. The other aspect I love is the relationship between the main character, Connie’s sister, Pollyanna, and Polly’s son, Ethan. Yes, if you read my blog post, you’ll know Ethan is my son—my youngest one. I wrote the story with him in mind, and I didn’t have to work too hard at portraying his relationship with his mother. I lived it, and seeing it come to life on the page warmed this mother’s heart. 

I hope that others will spread the word about this story for the same reason I hope they do with each of my stories—because it speaks directly to their hearts.

How do you get to know your characters?

My characters actually live in my head. They are there twenty-four-seven. All the time. There’s this stage, and the curtain is always open. I don’t know how they decide whose turn it is, but one or two, maybe an entire group will step out and perform their scene. I have actually had villains angry with me, standing on the stage and asking, “Now, why would I do that? That would give me away?”

My character, Michael, from Better Than Revenge, was unfamiliar to me until one day, he stepped onto the stage and introduced himself. “My name is Michael. Issie is the love of my life. She was hurt tremendously because of my stupidity, and I went to jail. When I got out, I learned that she had a son. And he was not mine. He could not have been mine. He belonged to the man who harmed her—because of what I did. And I’m struggling to love the boy.”

That was all I needed from him. I put aside everything I’d been working on and told his story.

If you could interview any character in one of your books which one would it be? What shocking thing might that character say? Why?

This is an easy one: Mayor Herb Miller from my Christmas in Mullet Harbor series. Herb is the always flip-flop wearing Mayor of Mullet Harbor, where the descendants of scallywags and scoundrels still abound, although they’ve made it their lives’ goal to be unlike their ancestors. Herb is always at the heart of matchmaking and merriment in the little town, and he’s the reason behind Mullet Harbor’s motto: where you’ll always find a Friend. 

I find it funny that my first “Bigfoot” story was a short story in which Herb and his nemesis get stuck in the swamp with a Florida Skunk-Ape. I think the most shocking thing Herb would admit is that he believes the Skunk-Ape, a/k/a Bigfoot, exists.

And here's a fun question. What is the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you?

I couldn’t resist answering this one because it still keeps me laughing. You see, I’ve learned to flow with the embarrassment because it won’t be the last stupid thing I ever do.

When I was in high school, my aunt and uncle took my best friend, Penny, and I to the Florida State Fair in Orlando, Florida. We had the bright idea to go through the funhouse. I was truly having fun until we got to the turning tunnel. You see, I don’t do off-balance things very well. Penny? She was a gymnast. She went first, and she sailed across the wide expanse. I stood there, waiting. Others passed me, and Penny encouraged me from down on the ground where she stood in anticipation of my following her. Finally, I took a tentative step into the tunnel. My feet began lifting, and instead of hurrying across, I did the worst thing imaginable. I put my hand out to hold on to the wall. Yeppers. Right down I slid. And as the tunnel turned, I slid up and fell back down. I slid up and fell down. The attendant was ushering me to get out, but I could see Penny and—to my horror—my aunt and uncle in the gathering crowd laughing at me. Up and down, I slid until the attendant, light on his feet, managed to make it to me and help me up. When I got to the ground, I’m not sure what happened next, but I always imagine the crowd giving me an ovation. I have blotted that out of my mind.

More About The Visitor Meets Old Hairy

The Visitor goes camping? Pollyanna Reagan can't wait to take her always-put-together, ultra-professional sister out into the boonies. But when they encounter what they thought was a mythical creature, they might both become sticks in the mud.

Of course, when they find a body, a stiff in the mud, Connie shifts into deduction mode. Was the deceased somehow scared to death or possibly attacked by what should be imaginary, or are there other, more human and certainly more vicious, intentions at play?

Match wits with The Visitor as she unravels this twisted puzzle and the family drama that surrounds it.

Buy The Visitor Meets Old Hairy here.

Bio:  Fay Lamb is the only daughter of a rebel genius father and a hard-working, tow-the-line mom. She is not only a fifth-generation Floridian, she has lived her life in Titusville, where her grandmother was born in 1899.

Since an early age, storytelling has been Fay’s greatest desire. She seeks to create memorable characters that touch her readers’ hearts. She says of her writing, “If I can’t laugh or cry at the words written on the pages of my manuscript, the story is not ready for the reader.” Fay writes in various genres, including romance, romantic suspense, and contemporary fiction.

If you’d like to catch up with Fay, visit her at her website, on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter. Also, Fay has become a “novel” gardener, and she shares her adventure in her newsletter, Tales from the Azalea Garden. You can sign up for her newsletter, Tales from the Azalea Garden here.

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