Shelf Full of Books: Interview with Christine Lindsay, Author of Veiled at Midnight

Today on Shelf Full of Books, I have the privilege of interviewing Christine Lindsay, the author of the Twilight of the British Raj Series. I reviewed her latest book in the series just the other day, Veiled at Midnight.

Do you have any unique talents or hobbies?

I really enjoy glorying in my ordinariness, so I wouldn’t say there’s anything terribly unique about me. Plus I find most people to be creative just like me. I’m a home-body, love being with my family, so if I’m not working I’m usually doing something in my house to prepare for a family dinner or get-together. Decorating my house or working in my garden are fun ways for me to relax.

Any pets that you would like to tell us about, share a pic?

Well now, you must know Kathryn how much I love my critters. We currently have 4 pets, but one of them is only on an extended visit—that would be my brother’s cat, Penny. My little heartthrob is my cat Scottie, who is chief editor on all my books. We also have an adorable young sheltie called Zoey, and our newest member of the family is a Welsh Springer Spaniel called Charlie that I bought for my husband after our English Springer Spaniel Zeke passed away.

What inspired you to write your first book?

My writing grew out of my journaling. In 1999 I was going through tremendous emotional despair over the search and reunion with my birth-daughter Sarah. I had relinquished Sarah to adoption when she was 3 days old and our reunion occurred when she was 20. Reliving my original sense of loss spurred me to write my emotional and spiritual journey to healing, which eventually turned into fictional novels to encourage others. That’s the thing about my novels, they all have the deep theme of hurt turning into healing because I believe in happy endings in our lives if we surrender our heartache to God.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Trying to shoe-horn it into my life while I also hold down 2 part-time jobs, try to market my books, and also be a loving wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend.

Now that you have finished the Twilight of the British Raj Series what do you have planned?

I have a number of speaking engagements coming up next spring, and I am currently writing my non-fiction book about the relinquishment and reunion with my birth-daughter. But after that I have plans to start a new fictional series set over a number of generations and in the 2 settings of Ireland and the US. I might call the series Donegal Winds.

What was the inspiration for the cover and title of Veiled at Midnight?

The word Veiled in the title refers to the segregating of an entire portion of a country and its people. When India was partitioned at midnight on August 16, 1947, and the new country of Pakistan created, this separated the Muslim people in a sort of purdah (sequestered or veiling) from the rest of the world. To me, Veiled means the keeping of all truth outside floodlit barriers of barbed wire and ensures a country’s citizens hold one mindset and one mindset only.

Were there any particular reasons you chose for the themes of inter-racial marriages and addiction in this book?

Dassah, my Indian heroine in Veiled at Midnight and Cam my English hero, were just a baby girl and a little boy in Book 1 Shadowed in Silk. They are both mentioned again in Book 2 Captured by Moonlight as slightly older children. I felt the series had to be wrapped up with a marriage between my English hero and an Indian woman and I wanted that to come about organically. What better way than to have these two children now grown, fall in love, and thereby show that there are no differences in race, culture, or skin color, in God’s family.

The addiction theme came about because I always felt that Cam’s natural father’s alcoholism in Shadowed in Silk, needed to have redemption. There had to be healing from that past sin. I’ve seen the mercy of God in my family’s life over the healing of addiction. God is too good to just let families suffer generation after generation. He stepped in to save people in my family, and I want to encourage others that there is hope, but that hope is only in God.

How does it feel to have completed your first series?

Pretty good!!!! When I first started writing Shadowed in Silk, I never thought it would become a series, but it ended up readers and myself fell in love with the characters and wanted to see the full and deep story unfold.

Thank you so much Kathryn for having me as a guest to tell readers about my books. It’s a real joy as always.

Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today Christine. We'll be looking for your new books. Many blessings on you as you serve God with your writing.

Books by Christine Lindsay:

Londonderry Dreaming - a Passport to Romance

Heavenly Haven - a Christmas short story