Sooo very excited to have Terri Blackstock with us! I’ve had the opportunity to meet her, and she’s a sweet, gracious lady. I don’t know where all these suspenseful books come from. My mom has just discovered her and found she loves her books.

She has a new release, If I Run. Here’s a little blurb about it:

Casey Cox’s DNA is all over the crime scene. There’s no use talking to police; they’ve failed her abysmally before. She has to flee before she’s arrested . . . or worse. The truth doesn’t matter anymore.

But what is the truth? That’s the question haunting Dylan Roberts, the war-weary veteran hired to find Casey. PTSD has marked him damaged goods, but bringing Casey back can redeem him. Though the crime scene seems to tell the whole story, details of the murder aren’t adding up.

Casey Cox doesn’t fit the profile of a killer. But are Dylan’s skewed perceptions keeping him from being objective? If she isn’t guilty, why did she run?

Unraveling her past and the evidence that condemns her will take more time than he has, but as Dylan’s damaged soul intersects with hers, he is faced with two choices: the girl who occupies his every thought is a psychopathic killer . . . or a selfless hero. And the truth could be the most deadly weapon yet.

So, Terri, what inspired you to write If I Run?

I am a big fan of the movie The Fugitive, in which Harrison Ford plays the character Dr. Richard Kimble, who’s wrongly convicted of his wife’s murder, and escapes from prison to find the real killer—the infamous one-armed man. I also grew up watching re-runs of “The Fugitive” TV series starring David Janssen. I’ve always loved the elements of that plot that kept viewers on the edge of their seats. I think that premise was the launch pad for If I Run. I wanted to explore having a young, female fugitive running from a murder rap, and a heroic, but troubled, detective chasing her across the country.

As Casey Cox was born in my mind, I pictured this twenty-five-year-old woman finding her best friend murdered, then stumbling around the crime scene in shock, leaving indisputable DNA. I pictured her doing the opposite of what most of us would do. Instead of calling the police, she decides to run. She’s certain that she’s been framed for the homicide, and she believes that she won’t simply go to prison, but she’ll be the next to be murdered if she’s caught.

But since I write Christian novels, I was faced with a dilemma. Would my readers forgive me if I created a character who breaks multiple laws and flees from prosecution? I decided to make her an unbeliever with a value system different from that of a believer, and everything in her past drives her to do what she does. I’m hoping readers will go on this ride with me and allow Casey to be who she is—a person who has nowhere to turn since she doubts the existence of a Creator … until she can no longer ignore the way God works in her life.

The detective contracted to chase her across the country is a PTSD victim who’s recently been discharged from the Army, where he worked in the Criminal Investigation Division. I wanted him to be a man who leans heavily on his faith, but who can’t seem to overcome the PTSD that’s disrupting his life. He’s had trouble getting a job, but he’s contracted to go after Casey since the police department doesn’t have the resources to do it. He believes that bringing her back will prove that he’s up to the job, and that it might result in a permanent job.

Even though Dylan is Casey’s nemesis, I wanted their lives to intersect in a personal way. Dylan learns all he can about Casey’s past, and when he finds out that she discovered her father’s dead body when she was twelve—and that it was ruled a suicide—he begins to wonder if she has PTSD as well. Their common affliction becomes a point of common ground between them, and as he learns more about her, he discovers they’re more alike than he thought. And he wonders if she’s really a killer at all, or simply another victim.

Buy the book at the retailer of your choice here: http://www.terriblackstock.com/books/if-i-run/

Terri Blackstock is a New York Times best-seller, with over seven million copies sold worldwide. She is the winner of two Carol Awards, a Christian Retailers Choice Award, and a Romantic Times Book Reviews Career Achievement Award, among others. Her most recent suspense novel is If I Run, about a young female fugitive whose being accused of a heinous murder.  Other books include Truth Stained Lies (the Moonlighters Series), Intervention (the Intervention Series), and Last Light (the Restoration Series). See the complete list of Terri’s books at www.terriblackstock.com/books. Join her at Facebook (www.facebook.com/tblackstock) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/TerriBlackstock).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for joining us, Terri!