Faith & Writing: Pamela S. Thibodeaux, author of Tempered Joy

The Author

Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder/President & Treasurer of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

To learn more about Pamela and her works, you can check out her website, her blog, and her MySpace page!

The Book

All around rodeo cowboy and heir to the Rockin’ H Ranch, Ace Harris is determined not to fall in love. He’s only loved one woman in his life, his mother, and no one can even come close to filling her boots. Lexie Morgan thinks rodeo cowboys have rocks for brains and a death wish for a soul. A broken childhood and the death of her father and best friend leave her doubting and questioning God (despite her years of religious upbringing) and afraid of love. Can two young people who clash from the onset learn to trust in the healing power of God and find love and happiness amidst tragedy and grief?

Click cover above to purchase TEMPERED JOY today!

The Question: How does your faith, your spirituality integrate itself into your writing?

In the beginning, Adam and Eve walked with God and communed with Him on a personal level. That privilege was destroyed when they disobeyed His command not to eat of the tree of life. Jesus died so that, through the power and in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, we may be reinstated into a right relationship with God, the Father. A relationship in which we can commune with Him on a personal level, the same kind of relationship that Adam and Eve shared with him.

As a born-again believer, I have that same kind of relationship with God. He is very real to me. I walk with Him, I talk with Him, I get angry and shout at Him, but above all, I LOVE Him and I do my best to honor and respect Him for Who He is, while maintaining a realistic and personal relationship with Him.

I believe that people everywhere need and want to hear more of His truths wherever they can glean them. They want to know a God who is personal and who cares about them, not some great entity in the sky only out to judge and condemn. They are hungry for practical (and real) Christian values, not some ‘holier than thou’ rules, regulations and doctrines that are impossible to believe and impossible to live up to. No matter how hard we try or how well we pretend, No One is perfect. We all fall from grace. We all need a continual washing in the Blood. If we didn’t, then Jesus’ sacrifice would be for naught.

All of this integrates itself into my writing as I try and portray God as personal and as real to my characters as He is to me. I do the very best I can to portray my characters as genuine people...people who get angry or carried away by passion, but still manage to maintain their convictions. People who respect God, His Word, and His commandments enough to do what’s right no matter how difficult that may be. And when they fail, they repent and receive the forgiveness He offers through the shed Blood of Jesus and are reinstated into a right relationship with the Father.

The deepest desire of my heart is to glorify God and to get His message of faith, trust and forgiveness to a hurting world. My hope is that all of my stories will touch the lives of everyone who reads them and - in some way - bring them a truer knowledge of God and urge them into a closer walk with Him.