All God’s Children received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Susan Kraus.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The title is “All God’s Children.” It was initially published in 2014, but re-released in 2018 by Flint Hills Publishing along with two other books in the Grace McDonald Series. I’m now working on book #4, and ruminating about book #5. And #6. But that’s it. No more.
What’s the book’s first line?
“A phone call in the middle of an ordinary weekday afternoon seems benign.” That’s the first sentence of the Prologue. Chapter 1 opens with “They didn’t look like a couple, or that they could ever have been a couple.” The book opens in a mediation session with a divorcing couple (the protagonist is a therapist and mediator.)
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
All God’s Children centers on a custody battle over a child in the gay-bashing, funeral-picketing Westboro Baptist church (The Phelps family, labeled “the most hated family in America.”) It’s about parental rights, custody, pitting what is legal vs. ethical and/or moral. There are also interwoven themes involving the on-going lives of the core characters: raising a kid on the spectrum; Molly being a single mom; Mickey and Grace reconnecting; friendships, loyalty, family … and how messy and difficult ordinary life can be. But also how satisfying and tender. I don’t mean to throw names around, but readers have written that they feel like family, and their experiences resonate.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
As far as “inspiration” goes, well, I’ve worked as a therapist and mediator for decades. I write what I know. Having lived in the same community as the Phelps, and the Westboro Baptist Church, I’d long wondered what it would be like to grow up in a cult-like family where everyone on the outside might be a tool of Satan, but to ‘belong’ to the family and church is eternal salvation. And then I wondered how a child could possibly adapt to being told by a court to live, even part-time, with a biological parent whose beliefs contradict everything the kid has been taught. And then I started going to services at WBC, talking to members, talking to former members who’d left… researching, interviewing, observing… and writing.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
It’s a good read. The protagonist is someone you’d want to have coffee with (or a bottle of pinot noir). But woven within the narrative are questions about theology, ethics, parental rights, morality and ethical choices. My challenge was to not vilify or caricature the WBC, but to provide context sufficient to allow for empathy. The title is that we are — even the hate mongering, the most despised, the bigots— “All God’s Children.” Now, what is strange to some readers is that I’m not religious, so no agenda (other than to write a book that gets people thinking in ways they might not have before). But I do have an insatiable curiosity about what makes people think, feel and behave as they do.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Grace McDonald is a complex, middle-aged, flawed woman. She has dealt with great loss, made some poor choices, but has been trying to make up for them. And once she decides she needs to know something, she persists. If that means breaking a few pesky rules, well, okay. The ends will, hopefully, justify the means. What makes Grace unique is that she evolves in each book. This series is not just a change of plot lines with a predictable protagonist. And each book deals with different social or political issues, not in a preachy or heavy-handed way, but in how that issue impacts the characters that readers may already care about.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I have made it to a place where I can say “I write.” But after decades where my professional identity is as a therapist and mediator… and writing was what I did as an avocation … I do not feel “author” even though I have been writing articles, travel, OpEd columns, etc., and have three decent novels out. Maybe that will change if I ever get around to retiring from my ‘day job.’
Is this the first book you’ve written?
I’ve written three novels: “Fall From Grace” (which was a stand-alone novel for a long time until the characters started to nag me that they were tired of being shut up in a closet); “All God’s Children” which picked up the core characters but about ten years later; “Insufficient Evidence” which moves all of the characters forward and brings in more complex plot lines. While psychological thrillers in some ways, and family dramas in others, they do not fit neatly into any ‘genre box.’