FICTION FILE

Ask the author

Brandilyn Collins

Next release: Over the Edge (May).

Publisher: B&H Books

This book is based on your experience with Lyme Disease. What was that like?

Terrifying. I went from being a five-miles-a-day runner to crippled. I could only shuffle short distances with a cane and stand for a few minutes. My mind became trapped in the "brain fog" of Lyme. I stuttered when I spoke. My body hurt so much I didn't want to be touched. I was weak and constantly exhausted. In time I lost the ability to write my novels and even read. And—God was with me! Boy, did He teach me a lot during that time.

You received a miraculous healing in 2003. Did you wait to write this book on purpose?

Not really. I had other contracts to fulfill. Then in 2009 I was re-infected with Lyme. ("God, what in the world are you doing?") After about six months of high-level antibiotics, I recovered from that bout (much less severe than the first episode). I then remembered that great idea for a novel about Lyme that I'd gotten while sitting in the waiting room of my doctor in 2003.

Tell us about how you drew the characters in this book.

My "Seatbelt Suspense" brand promises fast-paced, character-driven suspense with myriad twists and an interwoven thread of faith. I work hard to make my characters multilayered in order to fulfill that promise—and to raise the stakes. I knew my protagonist, Jannie, would be the wife of a doctor who insists chronic Lyme doesn't exist. The antagonist would be an embittered man who's lost a loved one to Lyme and is intent on giving such a doctor a taste of his own denied disease. From there I deepened these characters. Jannie is the child of an alcoholic father. Her marriage is falling apart, and she desperately wants to fix it. When the antagonist purposely infects her with Lyme, she turns to her doctor husband for help. But when he denies she has Lyme, if she pursues her own treatment and testing, she will be defying him, and thus hurting her marriage even more.

Why is Lyme Disease such a hot-button issue?

The "Lyme wars" are a huge ongoing medical battle between very sick patients fighting chronic Lyme and their doctors who treat them with long-term antibiotics versus a powerful group of doctor-researchers who insist that all the bacteria that cause Lyme are killed by a 10- to 20-day round of antibiotics. Therefore, says this latter group, which has the ear of the Centers for Disease Control and has set nationwide policies for the treatment of Lyme, chronic Lyme doesn't even exist. Unfortunately many with Lyme are not well after that short round of antibiotics and need further treatment—but they're denied it. They have to find a Lyme—literate doctor willing to treat—and those doctors are rare.

Have you written "medical fiction" before?

No, but I was sure ready to write Over the Edge. I used my personal experience plus researched a lot. In the back of the book is an extended Author's Note with information on the disease.

What do you hope readers will glean from this novel?

A better understanding of Lyme and the challenges Lyme patients face in battling the disease and the medical community. And, as Jannie learns, I want to remind readers that God is worthy of praise—no matter what's going on in our lives.

ECPA Fiction Top 10

1. The Amish Midwife, Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould (Harvest House Publishers) Note: The authors of this adoption-related novel have both experienced adoption firsthand. One of Gould's daughters was adopted, as was Clark's younger brother.

2. Crossing Oceans, Gina Holmes
(Tyndale House Publishers)

3. Breach of Trust, DiAnn Mills
(Tyndale House Publishers)

4. Whispers on the Wind, Maureen Lang (Tyndale House Publishers)

5. Almost Heaven, Chris Fabry
(Tyndale House Publishers)

6. Unlocked, Karen Kingsbury
(Zondervan)

7. Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers (Multnomah Books)

8. Vanish, Tom Pawlik (Tyndale House Publishers) Note: Pawlik's initial proposal was rejected by numerous publishers before winning the 2006 Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel Contest. He finished it in just over a month, shipping it overnight to arrive on the day of the contest deadline.

9. The Brotherhood, Jerry B. Jenkins (Tyndale House Publishers)

10. The Shack, William P. Young
(Windblown Media/Hachette Book Group)

The ECPA list is compiled from sales of Christian books in hundreds of Christian retail outlets nationwide, collected using Pubtrack Christian (www.ptchristian.com). December best-sellers are for the four-week cycle ending February 12, 2011. All rights reserved. © 2010 ECPA. www.ecpa.org.

New fiction releases coming in June:

Beyond All Measure, Dorothy Love (Thomas Nelson)

Breath of Angel, Karyn Henley
(WaterBrook Press) 

Broken Wings, Carla Stewart
(FaithWords)

Chasing Sunsets, Eva Marie Everson (Revell/Baker Publishing Group)

Desert Gift, Sally John (Tyndale House Publishers)

Double Take, Melody Carlson (Revell/Baker Publishing Group)

Lion of Babylon, Davis Bunn (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group)

Pompeii: City on Fire, T.L. Higley (B&H Books)

Summer Dream, Martha Rogers (Realms/Charisma House)

Targets Down, Bob Hamer (B&H
Books)

The Canary List, Sigmund Brouwer (WaterBrook Press)

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