Title: Found in Translation
Publisher: Barbour Publishing
Cover blurb:Faith, obedience, and forgiveness intersect in a remote Mexican village. When Kim Hartlinger—eighteen and spoiled—arrives on a mission trip to Mexico and discovers, to her chagrin, that she’ll be doing construction in a remote village without plumbing and electricity, rather than evangelism in a medium-sized town with a fast food joint . . she has only two choices. “Rough it” (which isn’t exactly what Kim had in mind when she signed up for this trip) or turn around and head home.
Will Kim be able to touch the villagers’ hearts with the Gospel? Or will her time in Mexico be up before she gets the chance?
Kristi Rae Bruner lives in the Orlando area and enjoys reading, hanging out with friends, and cooking. During her teen years, she went on a life-changing mission trip to Mexico.
Roger Bruner worked as a teacher, job counselor, and programmer analyst before retiring to pursue his dream of writing Christian fiction full-time.
1) How did this story come to you?
When my daughter, Kristi, went on a Global Expeditions mission trip to Mexico, she didn’t follow the directions and had to pay for overweight baggage to bring things she didn’t need; she also failed to bring some of the items she did need. Kristi’s well-intended bad beginning—along with the fact her group did construction and the area had a lot of trash on the ground—stirred my imagination. Found in Translation started out as a short story, but—from the beginning—I knew it would eventually become a novel. Kristi wrote the foreword.
2) Tell us about the journey to getting this book published.
Despite the fact that Found in Translation won first place in the novel competition at the 2006 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, it turned out to be far from publishable. But I didn’t realize how far until James Scott Bell looked at the first page a year or two later and said, “You’re not even starting with a scene.” Long story (slightly) shorter, I cut the first fifty pages and came up with a better beginning. Kimberly Shumate, then at Harvest House, became one of my biggest fans, even though HH couldn’t use my novels. When I sent her a sample of Found in Translation, she requested the whole thing. Later that week, she told me she’d sent it to Terry Burns at Hartline and I now had an agent. Although another year passed before I was offered contracts for Found in Translation and its sequel, Lost in Dreams, that was largely a matter of continuing to write while waiting and pretending to be patient while Terry did the work.
3) Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
When I was in the eighth grade, I had acute viral encephalitis. The doctors said that—even if I came out of the coma and recovered—I might just be a vegetable. God intervened, and you can see what kind of vegetable I am now.
I was a PK—a preacher’s kid—but I turned out reasonably normal in spite of the fact I hated being a PK.
When I was a teen, my parents didn’t want me to bother saving for a nice guitar; they thought that would be just one more of many hobbies I started and abandoned. Boy! Were they pleasantly surprised when I stuck with it and proved I had songwriting talent as well as guitar playing ability.
4) What are you working on now and what's next for you?
I’m trying to decide whether to take a chance on Barbour’s contracting a third and fourth novel in the Altered Hearts series or to work on something totally unrelated. In the meantime, I’m editing and revising two other novels—a YA called Wherefore Art Thou Ramón and a somewhat-whimsical speculative novel called The Devil & Pastor Gus.
5) Parting comments?
I never expected the after-sixty part of my life to be the most exciting and fulfilling part, but it has been so far. I can hardly wait to see how God uses my writing!
6) Where can fans find you on the internet?
My website is http://www.rogerbruner.com/. Please feel free to send me a friend request at www.facebook.com/roger.bruner. You can watch my book trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3JXf5WUSCA.
