Between the Lines

Jennifer Sienes

Join me as I interview authors of contemporary Christian fiction. Hear about their writing journeys, inspiration, tips and tricks. It's not as easy as you might think.

  1. Hope and Healing with Author Marbeth Skwarczynski

    22H AGO

    Hope and Healing with Author Marbeth Skwarczynski

    Marbeth Skwarczynski is the author of a contemporary Christian fiction series called The Rose Collection. These independently published novels are timely in that they focus on the healing process after spiritual abuse. Plague of Lies is the first book in this revised series and is now available with its new cover and updated writing on Amazon. See below for the back cover copy. Marbeth has also recently released the biblical fiction book Princess of Moab through Elk Lake Publishing—a work that was inspired decades ago.  You can connect with Marbeth on her website and/or follow her on Amazon. Plague of Lies back cover copy: The man who taught him how to live was living a lie. Scott Andrews was content to be a rule-follower, happily attending church and youth group while planning his future with his beautiful girlfriend, Cindy. He and his friends would change the world and be blessed by doing it. But when his mentor is exposed as a fraud, Scott's life turns upside down. He's forced to grow up, but unlike the man who betrayed him, Scott is determined to live honestly. Lauren is a mistake. She's heard it her whole life. But, on her eighteenth birthday, she gets a letter from the father she's never met. It seems out of character. From everything she's heard about her deadbeat dad, he never wanted anything to do with her. Lauren suddenly has a purpose. She will sit down with the man who left her when she was a baby and demand that he tell her why. It's time for the truth to come out.

    30 min
  2. Encouragement for Your Soul with Laura Thomas

    12/04/2025

    Encouragement for Your Soul with Laura Thomas

    Laura Thomas is a prolific writer of many Christian genres including romantic suspense, teen fiction, and children's books. Her newest Christian romantic suspense release, The Final Word, is Book 2 in her Bite of Betrayal Series. Laura's previous Flight to Freedom Series includes The Glass Bottom Boat, The Lighthouse Baby, and The Orphan Beach. Her Tears Trilogy for teens includes Tears to Dancing, Tears of a Princess, and Tears, Fears, and Fame.  Not only does Laura pen stories, but she is a Hope certified writing coach, as well. She says, "The perceived glamorous lifestyle of a writer—penning a perfect manuscript while sipping a cappuccino with author friends outside a Parisian café—is both delightful and delusional! In reality, the writer's solitary existence can be fraught with frustration, failure, and fear…" Connect with Laura on her website. There you can check out her books, sign up for her newsletter, read her blog, and find her social media links. And if you desire to learn (or improve in) the craft of writing, you might want to check out her coaching program there as well.   The Final Word BCC: "When aspiring author Sophie Brooks chooses to trade a vibrant Paris life for the tranquility of a quaint English village, she imagines her final days in the City of Lights will be magical. Sophie doesn't anticipate a chilling encounter with an old flame—nor does she plan to find a new love on her very last night.   Miles Morgan's life has been defined as a successful opera singer-until now. His chance encounter with Sophie in Paris ignites renewed hope … if he can figure out his next chapter and if she can accept what his future may hold.   In the heart of the English countryside, Sophie and Miles' fairy tale romance turns into a noxious nightmare as the darkness of Sophie's past—and her volatile ex—catch up with her. Both Sophie and Miles must surrender everything to the One they thought had betrayed them as they lean into love and fight for their lives."

    34 min
  3. Fusing Faith and Fiction with Heidi Gray McGill

    11/20/2025

    Fusing Faith and Fiction with Heidi Gray McGill

    Heidi Gray McGill is a Selah Award finalist and best-selling author. Whether historical or contemporary, you will find Heidi's writing true works of Christian Fiction, full of God's redeeming love. Everything Heidi writes is purposeful. She believes in bringing a reader into the awareness of who God is to them and how He interacts with them on a personal level. She does this by crafting characters so relatable you feel part of who they are. Heidi reaches deep into the reader's heart through masterfully written words and offers ways toward healing by seamlessly applying God's Word throughout her stories. Heidi is an optimist who chooses to find the silver lining in life's clouds of doubt. She lives with her husband of more than thirty years near Charlotte, NC. When she isn't writing, you will find her outside playing with her three grandsons, walking, scrapbooking, reading, cooking, traveling, or finding an excuse to have an outing with a girlfriend. Her most recent release, A Place to Belong: Josephine's Story, is a stand-alone Shumard Oak Bend Companion Christmas novella in the Discerning God's Best Series—following Healing of the Heart (Book 5). It was released on November 18th, and for a limited time, the eBook is still available at the preorder price of only .99. Connect with Heidi on her website, receive some wonderful freebies, and follow her latest ventures—or should I say adventures? Need a little nudge to purchase this novella? Here is the back cover copy: Some fresh starts begin in silence… others begin with a baby's cry. Josephine Blake has run out of places to hide. Pregnant and burdened by secrets, she flees the whispers of Philadelphia, clinging to the hope that her former boardinghouse roommate in Shumard Oak Bend will take her in. When a weathered but kind-hearted miner offers her a ride west, she dares to believe she might finally outrun her shame. But hope comes at a price… and Josephine isn't sure she can afford it. Jeremiah Remington lost everything in the war—his family, his home, even one arm. Now a quiet fixture in the growing town, he avoids entanglements, content to live on the edges of community. But when Josephine arrives with wary eyes, an iron will, and a child on the way, Jeremiah is drawn to something he thought he'd given up for good—a second chance at family. As Christmas nears and the town orphanage opens its doors, Josephine is offered a new beginning—not just for herself, but for her daughter. But when the past threatens to unravel it all, she must decide: keep running… or stay and fight for the place—and the man—God may have prepared for her. A marriage of convenience. A scandalous past. A baby who changes everything. And the kind of love only a Savior can give. If your heart longs for stories of quiet redemption, fierce hope, and homes built one act of grace at a time, A Place to Belong will welcome you in. Fans of Misty M. Beller, Liz Tolsma, Karen Witemeyer, and Jody Hedlund will feel right at home in this heartfelt Christmas novella.

    36 min
  4. 11/06/2025

    Author, Lawyer, Inspiration.

    IyanuOluwa Olorode, known to most as Iyanu, is passionate about writing Christian Fiction that portrays the love of God in a broken world. She writes about the Master Fixer who puts back together broken hearts and souls. When she's not writing, she's daydreaming and having conversations with her characters in her head. If she's not doing either of these, then she's listening to music (majorly Contemporary Christian Music), cooking and finding new recipes, reading novels and gushing about them online, watching movies with incredible storylines, scrolling on Instagram and sending funny reels to her reel-ationship partners or listening to the word of God. Iyanu lives in Ogun State, Nigeria, with her Mama Booska, Big Li'l Sis, and a younger brother who is hell-bent on becoming taller than everyone in the house. We discussed her newest Novel Love's Beacon Book 2 in The Way Home Series. You can connect with her on her website, learn about her other projects, and sign up for her newsletter. Here is the back cover copy of Love's Beacon: Goal/Wish List Mini Cooper that I didn't buy with my own money. Check. MSc from London College of Fashion. Check. Become a millionaire, not just because of dad's money. Check. Have at least five thriving businesses. Check. Get married to the love of my life. FUTURE IMPOSSIBLE TENSE! Regina has everything she possibly wants. At least almost everything. Two things elude her. One. Dapo. Dapo is all shades wrong and not hers. He's her sister's man, yet her heart can't stop beating for him. Why? Maybe because he has the other one thing she knows she can never have—a relationship with God. Something she once had but foolishly threw away. Rachel is wife material. Not just any wife material. Pastor's wife material. She's godly, calm, and reserved. She loves the Lord, and she's pretty enough that they'd both look good on a church poster. Dapo's plan to become the youngest youth pastor at Solid Rock Assembly is set in motion and meets an abrupt end when his fiancée marries Brother Bisola instead. Enraged and heartbroken, Dapo finds himself nursing a heartbreak and feelings towards his best friend's baby sister, Regina. Regina is all shades wrong. She's loud, impulsive, has close to zero interest in the things of the Lord, wears skimpy clothes, and is too beautiful for her own good. Despite all the red flags, he can't stop himself from loving her. And three words ring loud and clear: RECIPE FOR DISASTER. Regina believes in fate. Could it be fate bringing them together? Or is there something else, something more powerful intent on weaving something marvellous out of that disaster? Love's Beacon is a Nigerian contemporary loose retelling of the Hosea and Gomer story. https://iyanuoluwaolorode.com.ng/

    21 min

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Join me as I interview authors of contemporary Christian fiction. Hear about their writing journeys, inspiration, tips and tricks. It's not as easy as you might think.