Author interview: Heather Miekstyn

First comes…the baby in the baby carriage?

All I wanted to do was show Cole Jacobson that I wasn’t the same girl he passed over ten years ago. This time around I’d be the one rejecting him. Only now I’m a pregnant-out-of-wedlock, promise-ring-wearing Christian woman.

I think we can all agree things got out of hand.

As if being pregnant with the man I love to hate’s baby isn’t complicated enough, there’s his mayoral campaign to think about. Cole can’t afford a pregnancy scandal right at the beginning of his political career, which means he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep me happy. Only, Cole trying to make me happy keeps throwing me off kilter until I can’t trust my own feelings. Do I hate Cole? Or do I love him?

I’ve been burned by Cole before. I won’t let it happen again. To protect my heart, I’ve got to strike back. Cole Jacobson, this means war.

Heather Miekstyn is a US based writer of contemporary romance, and I was privileged enough to receive an ARC of her fantastic novel, This Means War, which was just released.

Heather, welcome! It’s so great to get to ask you all my questions! First of all, you’ve been writing for a while and published a number of books, including the Detectives in Love series (cozy romcom-ystery—love it!). Your latest novel is a Christian romcom. Can you tell me a bit about the journey of writing this book and what inspired you?

Hey, Sophie! Thanks so much for featuring me! So, honestly, I actually wrote this book a couple of years ago. I wanted to write a story about a Christian woman struggling with guilt for having sex outside of marriage but ultimately encountering God’s grace and forgiveness. When I was a teenager purity culture was a big thing. Throughout my high school and college years I felt the weight of saving myself for marriage like it was the thing that would make or break me as a Christian. Looking back, I can’t help but think about the intimacy of a relationship with Jesus that I missed out on because I was so caught up in this one facet of Christianity that I had deemed most important. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe sex should be saved for marriage, but I think the weight that we put on this one sin is debilitating to so many. It allows this lie to be perpetuated that sexual sin is somehow beyond God’s grace. I wrote this book because I needed to rebuke that lie in the name of Jesus. No sin is worthy of God’s grace, but that’s what makes His grace so amazing: He extends it to us anyway. 

Of course then I chickened out and let Cole and Lydia’s story sit on my desktop for years. I let that lie about sexual sin being beyond God’s grace hold me back from publishing this story until a friend asked me to read it. The day after I sent it to her, she got back to me and said she thought I should publish it. I reread the story myself, cried tears of healing, and ultimately felt an intense conviction to put this story out in the world.

I loved Lydia and Cole—which character was your favourite to write? Or if that’s an impossible question, which was the easiest to write?

Wow! That is a tough one, but I think I have to say Lydia. She is everything I am not: extroverted, outgoing, and bubbly. I got to live vicariously through her!

I like romance with a bit of grit, and I really appreciated that your characters were flawed, misunderstood each other at times, but their story was handled in such a sensitive and lifegiving way. Romance is often a genre that gets bashed for being idealistic. How important is realism to you, and how do you balance the realism with the idealism of Happy Ever Afters?

Oh man! Another tough question. I think for me the balance is between circumstances and characters. I want my characters to be real and believable, but when it comes to circumstances I think it’s fun to take more liberties. If someone reads my book and says that would never happen in real life, well that’s okay because that’s what’s so fun about fiction! If they read it and find the characters hard to relate to, then I wonder if I’ve gone too far with idealism.

What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

Definitely God’s grace! When we recognize God’s grace in our lives it does such powerful things! How can our hearts not turn toward God in love when we recognize all that He has done for us?

I think humour is such a huge part of this book. I loved it! Do you think you’ll always write with a dash of comedy? Do you have any favourite comedy shows you like to watch?

Thank you!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the humor—I never know if people will! Ha! I love writing comedy, so, yes, I think I will always gravitate towards doing so. In terms of comedy shows, I enjoy Psych, Friends, Gilmore Girls, and The Middle.

You’re married with a beautiful family, so you must be super busy! What does a typical week look like for you writing-wise?

Well, my typical week just changed recently, actually! After years of being a stay-at-home mom, two weeks ago I started working part time. Because this job is so new, I haven’t fully established what a typical week will look like for me writing-wise, but thus far it’s consisted of sneaking in writing sessions in random grocery store parking lots after brainstorming the entire drive there, writing after the kids are in bed, or writing on my days off while pretending the bathroom can clean itself. In extremely unfortunate turn of events, it cannot. 

What are you working on next?

I am working on a three book series that follows three sisters finding (and for one, rediscovering) love. Hannah’s story will be a friends to lovers/forbidden romance. Then will come Brooke’s story, which is sort of a twist on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. And then last will be Jill. I might be the most excited about her story. She’s already married to her husband Max, so the book will be about them falling back in love with one another.  

You can follow Heather on Instagram @authorheathermiekstyn.

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