Turbulence Interview

Today we're welcoming Maddie Lambert, the heroine of Turbulence, a February LIS novel by Dana Mentink. Wow, you've just had quite an adventure.


1. Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be in the midst of such suspense. I was boarding a flight to deliver a Berlin Heart, an experimental artificial device, to my father who was injured in the same crash that killed my nieces. The doctor who treated the girls was my fiancé, Paul Ford whom my father and I blamed for letting my nieces die.

2. So, during the book you encountered Paul Ford again. Tell us a bit about him/her. I was completely in shock to discover Paul on board the plane. I believed at one time that Paul was my soul mate. Until the day of the accident I thought he was the best trauma doctor in the world. Then things fell apart, too much grief,too much blame, and we broke up. After surviving the plane crash and fighting for survival against a man who wanted us dead, I let go the anger I’ve been carrying around and Paul came to terms with his guilt. We found our way back to each other with the Lord’s help.

3. What strengths/skills do you have? What is your greatest weakness? I’m proud and stubborn which is both a strength and weakness. I’m compassionate, especially about children, and ferociously devoted to my father and sister.

4. What scares you? Losing my father or sister.
5. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would become more humble.
6. Where are you in your faith at the start of your story? Enraged at God for taking my nieces.

7. Where are you in your faith at the end of the story? Accepting of the loss and able to trust God that he uses all things for the good.

8. You've got a scripture at the beginning of the story. Tell us why this scripture is significant. The scripture is Proverbs 3:3-4. It talks about how we need to keep God’s kindness and truth close to us always, in spite of the traumas and tragedies we experience.

9. If you could be a dessert what would you be and why?
I would be fresh fruit, wholesome, refreshing and a little tangy too.

Thank you Dana for sharing Maddie with us today. Sound like an exciting read!
For a chance to be blessed with one of Dana's book's leave a comment and your email address for her to contact you.

Dana Mentink lives in California where the weather is golden and the cheese is divine. Her family includes two girls (affectionately nicknamed Yogi and Boo Boo.) Papa Bear works for the fire department and he met Dana doing a dinner theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit. Ironically, their parts were husband and wife.
Dana is a 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year finalist for romantic suspense and an award winner in the Pacific Northwest Writers Literary Contest. Her October release, Betrayal in the Badlands, has been nominated for a 2010 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award.
She spent her college years competing in speech and debate tournaments all around the country. Besides writing, she busies herself teaching Sunday school and working in second/third grade combination class. Mostly, she loves to be home with her family, a dog with social anxiety problems, a chubby box turtle and a quirky parakeet.
Dana loves to hear from her readers via her website (www.danamentink.com) or her Facebook reader page