21 | April | 2012 | Randomize ME

Indie Saturday – Author Sandi Rog on “The Master’s Wall (Iron & the Stone)”

April 21, 2012 25 comments

Today, we have author Sandi Rog featured on the blog’s ‘Indie Saturday‘ for her award-winning historical Christian fiction book “The Master’s Wall” from her Iron & the Stone series (Available on Amazon). Sandi’s stories feature strong characters who struggle to overcome trials with the help of their faith.

Sandi Rog writes :

Thank you for inviting me here today! I’m honored that you want me to talk about my book The Master’s Wall.

Here’s a book jacket copy, so readers can know what it’s about::

He fights for his freedom. She fights for her life. Together, they fight for each other.

After watching Roman soldiers drag his parents away to their death, David, a young Hebrew, is sold and enslaved to serve at a villa outside of Rome. As David trains to become a skilled fighter, he works hard to please his master and hopes to earn his freedom. However, an opportunity to escape tempts him with its whispering call. Freedom beckons, but invisible chains hold him captive to the master’s granddaughter, an innocent girl with a fiery spirit. David vows to protect Alethea from his master, the murderous patriarch, and contrives a daring plan—sacrifice his own life to save hers.

I have to be honest. I’ve been struggling with what to share today. I don’t know if anyone here is aware that I’ve been battling cancer for over a year. On the very day this book was released, I was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma. I underwent several rounds of intense chemo and radiation, followed by a stem cell transplant, but the cancer doesn’t want to go away. I just got news on April 9th (after being told I was in remission at the end of December) that the cancer is back. It’s been a rough road, fighting cancer and trying to market my book. But, I can tell you, everyone at the hospital has a bookmark, and several have even bought it. 🙂

I wrote The Master’s Wall (and Yahshua’s Bridge, which is the second book in this IRON AND THE STONE series), with the hopes of encouraging people who have to endure challenges in this life. In fact, the second book is dedicated to those who suffer. Little did I know, I’d have to practice what I preached. Oh, don’t worry. The book isn’t preachy. That was another reason I wrote it. I wanted a good Christian story without having to wade through numerous sermons.

In The Master’s Wall I wanted to show the faith of a young man who has to overcome difficult situations in his life. After all, every one of us faces trials. I want folks to see what it’s like to be an overcomer. My characters aren’t perfect by any means, and they have to not only overcome the enemies and circumstances around them, but their own mistakes. I want my characters to be honest, to be real. When I say honest, I don’t mean that my characters don’t lie. What I mean by that is their reactions, motivations, etc, won’t lie to you, the reader. I want my readers to see a part of themselves in my characters.

David is very serious and controlled, and Alethea anything but, or her seriousness is so dramatized, one can’t help but either be shocked or laugh. David has a hard time forgiving (which we’ll see foreshadows of in the first book, but it especially comes out in the second book Yahshua’s Bridge).

There’s a piece of myself in all my characters. Even the bad guys. My bad guy in this story (the grandfather) is a bit insane and arrogant. David is hot tempered, but has a passion to please God. Alethea is carefree and foolish, but at the same time shrewd, especially when it comes to saving her own hide.

I don’t tell my characters what to do, I let them tell me (not that plotting is a bad thing; even plotters listen to their characters). One thing I can’t stand in Christian fiction is pious characters who act perfectly under every circumstance. I can’t relate to that at all, and I don’t think most readers can, either. In Yahshua’s Bridge, the second book to this series, my main character, David, comes in contact with a man who took his parents away in the first chapter of The Master’s Wall. This man practically raped David’s mother right in front of him, and as an adult David is expected to accept this same man as his brother in Christ. The man has repented, and he admits to his past faults, but David can’t forgive him, and even tries to kill him. To me, that’s real. That’s honest. I love delving into that kind of controversy because I believe it’s something we face every day, hopefully in most cases on a smaller level, but ultimately still the same. When someone harms us or someone we love and then asks for forgiveness, how easy is it to really forgive?

I hope my readers will not only be thoroughly entertained, but be encouraged and inspired in their faith after reading The Master’s Wall. Ultimately, I want this story to lead readers to God’s word, to compel them to search the Scriptures, to find out if what a character says is true. After all, that’s what the Bereans did, they examined the Scriptures daily to see if what the apostles taught was true, and because of that, they were considered noble-minded.

Sandi Rog is an award winning author, her debut novel The Master’s Wall winning the 2011 Christian Small Publisher’s Book of the Year Award. Her second book Yahshua’s Bridge just won the 2012 CSPA book of the year award. She lived in Holland for thirteen years and now lives in Colorado with her husband, four children, a cat, and too many spiders.

The Master’s Wall (Iron & the Stone) by Sandi Rog is available at Amazon in Kindle format. She also has two other books out: Yahshua’s Bridge (Iron and the Stone 2) and Walks Alone.

To learn more about Sandi Rog, follow Sandi on her website: Sandi Rog, Twitter: @sandirog, Facebook: sandi.rog or her Facebook author page. Marlene also blogs at sandirog.blogspot.com. Drop by and say hi!

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