Featured Interview With Katie Mettner
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in Eau Claire Wisconsin, which is French for clear waters. It’s a very arts and entertainment centered community. I lived there in the same house for the first 20 years of my life before I moved a little further north to Chetek. What I liked about Eau Claire was it was a big enough city to keep you active and engaged, but small enough that it felt friendly and welcoming. I am currently living in a much smaller city in Northern Wisconsin near Superior and Duluth. I’m a living kidney donor since 2009 and a left below knee amputee since 2011. I used to love ballroom dancing before an injury to my ankle no longer allowed me to dance, but after my amputation I was finally able to again! I’ve been married for 14 years to my soulmate. We met on Thankgiving, got engaged on New Year’s Eve and were married in April. It’s been a real life love story for me. My husband is a teacher for a local school district and my three kids attend school with him. My daughter sings opera and plays sax, my middle son plays the bassoon and my youngest son can play Thrift Shop on his recorder using his nose.
My books are set in Superior Wisconsin/Duluth Minnesota area. They are spicy Christian Romance novels and always feature a protagonist who is questioning their faith for one reason or another. They aren’t your grandmother’s Christian romance novels and by that I mean there is sex and real life topics in every book. I like to say my books are about real people in real life situations looking for the one who is right for them and in doing so once again find their faith.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have loved books for as long as I can remember. There was never a day that passed where I didn’t read or was read too. Both of my parents are big readers. My father used to take all three of us kids to the library in Eau Claire every week. We spent hours upon hours of time in the library reading and exploring books. I loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, The Boxcar children and transitioned in Mary Higgins Clark at a very early age. I think I really found the love of writing in fourth grade when my teacher at the time was big into journaling. One of the assignments was to rewrite a Disney story. I wrote “The True Story of Snow White’ and she liked it so much she sent it into a kids writing contest. That definitely gave me the itch to write. It wasn’t until I went through a lot of personal trauma and experiences that I was able to write about the things I do now.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are Mary Higgins Clark, Janet Evanovich, Julie Kramer, Brian Freeman, Gemma Halliday, Amy Gregory, Dana Mason, and Tonya Kappes. My favorite genre is definitely mysteries and thrillers or romantic suspense. I write Christian romance, but it’s not my favorite genre unless I happen upon another author who writes realistic Christian fiction that pertains to today’s society.
My books are inspired by God. It’s okay, roll your eyes, I think most people do, but it’s true. He puts these characters into my heart, tells me what their condition is they need to overcome and expects me to do the rest. It takes a whole lot of faith every day to keep writing, but the stories are so loved by the readers that as soon as I release one I’m right away writing the next. He never leaves me for a lack of ideas. I think my favorite part is finding the Bible verse that will be woven throughout the story. Once I have that I use it as inspiration as I write.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Autumn Reflections is the second in the Northern Lights series. We meet Autumn Hanson and her son Grayson in the first book, Granted Redemption, but we don’t learn much about her other than she is an orthopedic surgeon. Autumn ended up being a character I fell in love with, so I decided she needed her own story. She is raising her physically disabled son Grayson as a single mother while working full time as an orthopedic surgeon. When the story opens it’s fall in Cloquet Minnesota and Autumn is new to town. The newspaper, The Pine Journal, sends their top reporter Kade Franco to her clinic to do an ‘Our Neighbor” interview. Kade sees something in Autumn that tells him she is his meant to be and set his sights on winning her trust. Grayson is a special little boy who spends a lot of time taking care of his momma, even though she doesn’t know she needs it. He’s only seven, but he has an old soul and knows how lonely his mom is, even though she never lets on. Grayson teams up with Kade and his new dog Ace to show Autumn that love never fails.
Autumn Reflections actually only took me about three weeks to write. Her story just flowed through me and when I would sit down to write. Each time I would fall more and more in love with Grayson with every paragraph. I laughed and cried during many of her scenes. The reaction from my beta readers was astounding and for the first time they told me “DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING!” That was a first and I knew it was going to be one of my favorite stories to date.
1 Corinthians 13:8: Love never fails.
Grayson Hanson likes to pretend he’s a superhero, sent to earth to fight off the bad guys. In reality, he’s a seven-year-old boy who wears those same superheroes on his leg braces, and fights off bullies at school. His mother, Dr. Autumn Hanson, will do anything to protect her son, including leaving her prestigious position as one of Duluth’s top orthopedic surgeons. Hoping for a fresh start, she moves Grayson to Cloquet, Minnesota and opens her own clinic. Steadfast in her desire for a new life, Autumn agrees to be interviewed for a feature article in the local paper.
Kade Franco is a well respected journalist, who at forty-two has had his own share of love’s regrets. As the city’s most eligible bachelor, Kade can have any woman he wants, but he’s waiting for his meant-to-be. Where he doesn’t expect to find her is in the beautiful hazel eyes of the newest doctor in town.
Autumn finds Kade Franco’s sexy chocolatey brown eyes and strong lumberjack physique to be her kryptonite. She’s spent the last seven years building a wall around her heart, but fears it isn’t strong enough to withstand a man of steel determined to show her love never fails.
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