In this week's AuthorView, a very down-to-earth Emilie Richards chats about learning from the characters in her novels, being aware of the world beyond her doorstep, and the many blessings she wishes upon her readers. Read on ...

MB: What or who inspired your novel?

ER: My inspiration was two-fold. First, Sam, one of the two major characters, was a minor character in Wedding Ring, the first book of the Shenandoah Album series. I'm rarely happy about the way ministers are portrayed in fiction. Either they're pompous buffoons, or they're saints. So I wanted to continue my characterization of Sam as an appealing man with conflicts of his own, a man with all the right instincts but a temper, as well, and a tendency sometimes to act before he thinks. I wanted, in other words, to make him human.

Second, I became interested in the emerging Latino community in the Shenandoah Valley, where the books all take place. I wondered what impact this had on the local economy and on residents, as well as the impact on the new immigrants themselves. Elisa, the book's other major character, was born from that interest and she took me on an armchair research journey to Guatemala to learn more about the many problems in Latin America from which immigrants are trying to escape.

MB: What do you like most about your novel?

ER: I love the community of Toms Brook and the fictional characters I'm creating who live there. Elisa and Sam were new additions who added to that mixture, and each of them had new things to teach me about the problems people face and overcome and the challenges that await all of us. It's not an inspirational novel in the classic sense, but it is a novel about choices and values.

MB: Who is the most heroic person you know?

ER: On a personal level? A man in our church congregation who is living each day with ALS and still talks about all the good things in his life and the many ways he feels blessed. There are heroes everywhere.

MB: Who's your romance hero? A white knight in shining armor or a dark, brooding bad boy?

ER: I'm very attracted to men who struggle with ideals, men who are committed to learning and growing and acting and want to share that with the women in their lives. So I guess I'd be interested in a man with a little white knight and a little bad boy rolled into one.

MB: Answer the question you wish an interviewer would ask.

ER: What do I hope readers will get from reading "Wedding Ring" and "Endless Chain"?

I've always believed that before accomplishing anything else I write to entertain my readers. So with these books and the upcoming books in the Shenandoah Album series I hope they are magically transported to Toms Brook and into the lives of my characters. Along with that, though, I hope that each story opens a door to something new, something that helps them think about their own lives in a slightly different way. The books I've enjoyed most have done this for me, and I wish no less for my own readers.