Chana Keefer's "The Fall"

We have two giveaways this week. Please scroll down and leave each Title: THE FALL (Rapha Chronicles #1)
Cover blurb: This story has been told—but never like this.

No, Rapha would not strike with physical force this day. But he could not resist goading his enemy just once. Looking up, he fixed the peace of Adonai on Lucifer like a laser, held that malicious gaze for one eternal second—and smiled. A flicker of uncertainty stirred in Lucifer’s eyes.

Rapha opened a single thought to Lucifer as he disappeared with the creature still cradled to his breast:

“You always did hate secrets.”

Rapha, a powerful angel, had seen it all in his countless years of service. At least he thought he had. Then he met Adam.

Lucifer had it all, Adonai’s favor, Rapha’s friendship and unrivalled power throughout creation. But he wanted more.

1) How did this story come to you?
THE FALL was completely spurred on through prayer. I had been praying every morning for at least an hour for three years. It was during a morning prayer time in 2007 that God spoke to my heart, “What do you want?”

After bawling a while and being completely overwhelmed, I realized some of my “beliefs” about God didn’t fit with the fathomless love He was pouring out. I asked a question—and He answered. From there, it was as if I had grasped the tail of a comet. For about 40 days I would wake with a thought, statement or picture in my head. I would take it to prayer then write about that day’s revelation. When my hubby and another author friend saw the 250 pages of notes from that time they both said, “This needs to be a novel.”

2) Tell us about the journey to getting this book published.
As C.S. Lewis points out in The Chronicles of Narnia, God is not a tame lion. THE FALL was edgy, a bit shocking and didn’t fit into the careful parameters of most Christian publishers. On the other hand, there was way too much Bible in it for the taste of most secular publishers. I had kind of written myself into no-man’s land, especially as a debut author. I found a self-publishing company whose books reflected keen attention to detail since the person over the publishing process had worked for Simon & Schuster. We decided to work with this company since half of what they offered involved marketing and distribution. THE FALL ended up being excellent in quality and beautiful to boot—but much of what happened after publishing with that company has been a fiasco. Another huge growth curve.

3) Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
When I was eighteen, I went to an Engelbert Humperdinck concert with my parents. When I asked if we would get to meet the singer, a guy took me backstage. They thought I was some kind of groupie. Uh. No.

In my early twenties, I helped to smuggle Christian literature into a Communist country.

Also in my early twenties, I was a guest star on “Dallas.” J.R, Sue Ellen, South Fork—the whole nine yards. My twenty seconds of fame.

4) What are you working on now and what's next for you?
I’m working to bring my firstborn novel, “One Night With a Rock Star,” to Kindle very soon. Rock Star was the novel I cut my teeth on, so to speak, and I’ve worked on it off-and-on for the past seven years so it’s kinda hard to allow it to leave the nest. After that, I can’t wait to immerse myself in the sequel to THE FALL. At this point, I project three more titles in the Rapha Chronicles series. This next title will deal with Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah.

5) Parting comments?
I can’t recommend highly enough the practice of spending the first hour of every day on your knees before God. You don’t need a PhD and you don’t have to “be good enough” or receive special training to pray. We go to our Heavenly Father, climb up into His lap, and listen to His heartbeat. We simply come to Him as a little child.

6) Where can fans find you on the internet?
www.chanakeefer.com
FB: The Rapha Chronicles
Twitter: @chanakeefer