Award Winning Author Has Faith in New Murder Mystery

Award-winning author Gayle Roper believes in the power of her words.

"Everybody writes from some sort of a worldview," Roper said in a telephone interview from her Coatesville home. "What they think about life comes through."

"Issues of faith are very important to me. Many wonderful books out there lack a spiritual view to them," added Roper, who will be reading from her latest book, "Fatal Deduction," a "Christian murder mystery" released last year. The free, public event is at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at Quarryville Library.

The author of more than 40 books will also speak about the start of her career and the challenges of publishing today.

Before becoming an author, Roper taught junior high school. Then, as a stay-at-home mom, she found she needed something inspirational to do, so she began writing.

"If you're going to do something, you might as well do it with a purpose," she said. She continued her hobby, planning to sell her books.

"I consider myself primarily a novelist, " she said. "I enjoy doing the nonfiction; I love doing the fiction.

"In nonfiction, a writer tells people what they should do. In fiction, the writer shows the reader how it should work. Nonfiction tells, and fiction models.

"When I write a novel, the story carries the book. Anything from a Christian world view comes out of the characters, not me," Roper said.

"When I write, I write for people like me, regular people, readers who enjoy good writing and want to have a good time reading. Though I write about things like unwed pregnancies, spousal abuse and homosexuality, these issues are so integrated into my stories - and balanced by plenty of suspense, mystery, humor and romance - that readers do not feel lectured to or preached at. Or so they tell me," Roper says on her Web site, gayleroper.com.

In reviewing " Fatal Deduction," Publishers Weekly said "her treatment of non-Christian characters is refreshingly nonjudgmental."

Roper is putting the finishing touches on "A Stranger's Wish," a revision of a book first published in 1998 as "The Key." It will become part of a trilogy whose other books will be updates of Roper's earlier works.

"It's amazing what difference technology makes in 10 years," said Roper, who is revising the stories to include things like cell phones and computers.

"A Stranger's Wish" is set in Bird-in-Hand, among the Amish, and "Amish fiction is incredibly popular now," said Roper, who's come to the village to research her setting.

Credit: Roxanne Todd, Correspondent

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