"When I began
writing Hush in the Storm, a strong
urge to deepen the plot poked me, the way a hangnail continues to snag clothes
until you clip it. Through my storyline, the Light of Christ should expose a
social issue of our times, but also illuminate a path to redemption as a
positive outcome. However, I feared this issue—whatever it was to be—might overshadow
the main plot.
For several
weeks I prayed about it. Meanwhile, I flew to Indianapolis to give two
workshops at my denomination’s triennial conference for women as well as to
share a vendor’s table with another Christian author. Beside us were the vendors
for Women at Risk(WAR) International, a non-profit organization rescues
trafficked women and children and leads them to Christ. After talking with the
missionaries for two days, I volunteered to be one of their advocates by
selling crafts made by these women and encouraging church groups to do the same.
Thickheaded as I was, I didn’t hear God’s whisperings. I just knew my heart had
been pierced.
Later that
month, a young a woman in my congregation received a calling to go to Cambodia
on a mission trip to liberate trafficked women. As we laid hands on her for
protection, I thought, “Wow, this is really a problem in the world.”
Within two
weeks, another young woman asked to join my critique group. She’d been a
missionary for trafficked teens in Romania and had just been hired by a mega
church to write a blog and lead a similar program for area youths at risk. When
she told me this was why she wanted to join a writer’s group I burst out
laughing. Puzzled looks zeroed in on me. I threw my hands to the air and said
out loud, “Okay, Lord. I get it.”
Thus, the
subplot of Hush in the Storm developed. With the help of these three
missionaries as well as through dialogs with Christian lobbyists in D.C., my
eyes were opened. So, I wanted the same to happen for my protagonist, Jen. I decided to write about trafficking from a
middle class woman’s point of view, not the victim’s. Jen’s struggle to find her lost faith and
purpose in life is mirrored in her bumbling efforts to save two illegal teens
caught in the snare of a trafficking cartel. Wouldn’t you know it? The editor
assigned to me at Prism Book Group is also a WAR advocate. God does work His
purpose out."
Freelance
writer, author, and professional speaker Julie B
Cosgrove leads retreats, workshops, and Bible studies. She writes
regularly for several Christian women websites and devotional publications and
has been repeatedly published in
multiple devotional chronicles. In February, 2013, she was commissioned
by an international relief and development fund to write a mission-based Bible
study.
Julie has written three Bible
studies, a devotional, an inspirational guide. She has three fiction novels published,
and is currently working on two more novels. She is a member of North Texas
Christian Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, American
Christian Fiction Writers, Toastmasters
International, Daughters of the King,
North Texas Christian Women's Chamber
and the Christian Writers Network.
Julie is widowed, has one grown son, and lives in Fort Worth, TX with
two cats.
Jen, a young widow floundering in the storm of mourning, whose only
lifeline is her humdrum job, is tossed into a maze of deceit and
intrigue by a coworker named Tom...at the request of her late husband,
or so Tom says. He kidnaps her and fakes her death to keep her safe from
the cartel who he thinks caused her husband's "accident." Together,
they are thrust into a tempest of danger and deceit where no one is whom
they claim to be. The list of people Jen can believe in keeps
diminishing. Who can she trust while dodging the Feds, human traffickers
and the press who've discovered she's alive? How will Jen rescue the
two held-captive girls she befriends without drowning them, Tom, and
herself in the waves of betrayal, especially when she's begun to suspect
her husband may not be as dead as everyone thinks...HUSH IN THE STORM
WOWSA! I just read your blurb--what a storyline! Isn't it amazing, the way God starts with a nudge, but sometimes must end with a shove before we can see what he's pointing us toward? I'm so glad you caught His drift, and used your gift of writing as an instrument to open eyes to the terrors of human trafficking.
ReplyDelete5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Topic meets wtih Romantic Suspense
ReplyDeleteBy Susan M. Baganz
I was given an opportunity to read Hush In the Storm by Julie Cosgrove, because someone knew that the subject of Human Sex Trafficking was something I was concerned about.
Jen is wallowing in grief long after her husband's death. She had loved him and regretted some of the choices she had made in a relationship with him. Why had God done this to her? Late one night her life took a dramatic turn. If she thought things couldn't get worse she didn't have an imagination big enough. A dinner date with a coworker in the midst of a storm. She finds herself kidnapped and on a dangerous adventure into the ugly underbelly of human sex trafficking.
Can she trust that Tom is who he says he is, and that he is only fulfilling a promise to her deceased husband, and trying to protect her? Has she only imagined hearing her husband's voice? Meeting young women who were trafficked jolts her world, especially when one is pregnant.
I don't want to give any spoilers away in this complex and suspenseful story of betrayal, fear, romance, injustice and intrigue? Can Jen trust Tom and the growing feelings she has for this man? Can love bloom in the midst of such deceit as she tries to unravel the truth of her husband's life and deal with the reality of what she lost, which was far greater than her marriage? This book is hard to put down but will open your eyes to the dangers and struggle for freedom so many are facing in our country today.