Hi Christa! Thanks for inviting me to your blog today!

1. If you’re planning to attend the ACFW Conference, I’d like to be able to introduce you to someone without having to say, “Hi, meet Debby G.” A plea for a phonetic pronunciation of your last name! My last name always stumps people so I made up a little rhyme: Think of juice and tea to remember me! Put juice and tea together and you get Juice-tea, AKA Giusti. Hope that helps! And I will be at ACFW. Looking forward to seeing you there!

2. You have relocated more times than I’ve lost my car keys. How does your self-described “Army brat” life factor into settings for your books? Or does it? So many people (okay, me) sometimes find change difficult. What lessons have you learned from the experience of being a human boomerang? You’re right, Army life is nomadic, but all the other military families are moving, as well, so it’s like a small town that’s always relocating. Invariably we reconnect with people we knew at previous assignments. Plus, military folks are quick to welcome the stranger. Bottom line, we make friends quickly and live in the moment. Actually, it’s a great life. Evidently my military background influences my choice of heroes. Matt Lawson, the hero in my debut novel, NOWHERE TO HIDE, is a Gulf War Veteran, and book three, MIA: MISSING IN ATLANTA, which will be out in March 2008, features returning war hero Captain Jude Walker. Although Nolan Price, the hero in SCARED TO DEATH, an August 2007 release, isn’t in the military, he’s a take-charge kind of guy with the same can-do attitude that defines a man in uniform. So far I haven’t written about an Army Brat per se, but that’s something to consider for the future. What have I learned from Army life? That I’m proud to be an American! Our country IS the land of opportunity.

3. Tell us what propelled you back to the keyboard (after your first book at age ten!) to start Nowhere to Hide. I’m a medical technologist by profession and started writing articles on Emerging Infectious Diseases for ADVANCE for Administrators of the Laboratory a number of years ago. Eventually, I branched out and wrote for women’s magazines. As much as I enjoyed freelancing, my real dream was writing full-length fiction. After a few books that didn’t make publication, I wrote NOWHERE TO HIDE, which caught the editor’s eye.

4. Do you have a typical writing day/schedule? With two more books on the way, Scared to Death and Missing in Atlanta, how to you organize yourself? I usually write from mid-morning to late afternoon. Often I’ll return to the computer in the evening to answer emails. I don’t have a set schedule or daily page count, but I do write everyday!

5. The excerpt from Nowhere to Hide posted on your website is a textbook example of hooking the reader! Was this how the book originally started? At what point did you decide, “Voila! This is it!”? Originally, NOWHERE TO HIDE started when Lydia Sloan and her son enter the oceanfront home and set off the security alarm. Jennifer LaBrecque, a fellow Georgia Romance Writer, suggested beginning the story with an action scene showing the boy in danger. Thanks to her, I added the schoolyard scene that so many people have said they liked. 6. Talk about your “Cross My Heart” Prayer Team. When and how did this begin? I’ve always prayed for the people who would someday read my stories. God has blessed me abundantly, and after my first book sold, I wanted a way that folks from around the world could pray for the needs of others, especially that the work of their hands would bear good fruit. A lot of prayer goes into my stories, and I greatly appreciate when the prayer team lifts me up – I feel the power of their prayers. 7. In your journey toward publication, what did you find the most frustrating? the most frightening? Rejection was the most frustrating, especially when I was getting close–what I call the plateau stage. That’s when writers seem to be doing everything right, but continue to have their stories rejected. Unfortunately, folks sometimes give up at that point, which is a shame because reaching the plateau means a sale is right around the corner! The most frightening was when the initial jubilation from the first sale died down, and I realized what a hefty responsibility I now carried on my shoulders. My editor, agent and publishing house had confidence in my ability to produce a good story. I needed to live up to their expectations.8. What do you know now that you wish you would have known then? Best-selling author and fellow GRW member Stephanie Bond says writing is a business and the work is our product. If I’d understood that earlier, I would have realized that the editors weren’t rejecting me personally, they were rejecting my product that wasn’t ready for publication.9. Did writing suspense find you or did you find it? What would you tell new writers who are searching for their genre? Most people start writing what they know and love. I have always been drawn to the mystery and suspense genres – especially suspense. When Steeple Hill senior editor Krista Stroever spoke at a Georgia Romance Writers meeting and talked about the Love Inspired Suspense line, I decided to give the inspirational genre a try. Once I started to incorporate a faith element into my romantic suspense stories, my characters came alive. Sometimes making a slight change in direction – in my case, adding my characters’ faith journey – can make the difference between sale and rejection.

10. Fill-in-the-blank. If I couldn’t write, I would………………
. . . be miserable!

Thanks, Christa, for such great interview questions and for having me on your blog today! It’s been so much fun! Wishing you abundant blessings and happy reading! Debby

Debby’s website can be found here: www.debbyguisti.com

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