COTT: Ann Gaylia O’Barr’s A Sense of Mission
to endorse a novel from an author so accomplished, her work has made
the cut on several of on our contests–the most recent being our September
New Releases Clash.
About A
Sense of Mission:
Kaitlin is driven to succeed in the mission denied her mother. Can she
redeem that mission if she discovers another calling? Kaitlin Sadler is
nine when her diplomat parents are killed in a U.S. embassy bombing. She
must leave the overseas world she knows to live with her guardian, Matilda,
on Simon Island in Puget Sound. Determined to redeem the tragedy of her
parents’ deaths, Kaitlin makes a binding decision to become a diplomat in
the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service and pursues it relentlessly as
she grows up. But is that really what her heart wants? And why does a
niggling memory vanish every time she fights to remember it?
Ethan Coverwood, Matilda’s nephew and a friend of Kaitlin, is on a
diplomatic career path of his own. When the two are assigned to posts in
Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, something more than friendship begins to
brew. But will it be strong enough to unite two people who could be
reassigned to different continents in the blink of an eye? Enough for Ethan
as he struggles to carry out America’s policies in a chaotic world? For
Kaitlin as she agonizes over the desperate people she meets in her duties?
A courageous love. A reawakened passion. A vibrant step of faith. By the
acclaimed author of Singing in Babylon, Quiet Deception, Searching for
Home, and Distant Thunder.
Foreign Service officer for the U.S. Department of State 1990 to 2004. Her
posts included U.S. embassies and consulates in Saudi Arabia (twice),
Algeria, Canada, Tunisia, and Washington, D.C.
Babylon, Quiet Deception, Searching for Home, Distant Thunder, and this
novel, A Sense of Mission.
She writes novels about Christians who learn the value of their faith when
new cultures and beliefs challenge them. She calls it “global fiction.”
Q&A with Ann:
story?
A. I think A Sense of Mission is my answer to the many tragic events
in the world today in which innocent people are harmed. Kaitlin became the
fictional story of one lone person, far from perfect, who overcame and even
redeemed a horrible tragedy in her life. Love redeemed a potential life of
fear. As a letter from Jesus’ beloved apostle, John, states: “Perfect love
casts out fear.”
Q. You say you write “global
fiction.” What is that?
A. Such fiction suggests writing from a global viewpoint. Characters
in my stories are American Christians who struggle with personal faith
issues, fall in love, and deal with family problems as in other fiction. In
the midst of these conflicts, however, they understand Christianity as
Jesus-centered for the whole world. Often they have global jobs:
journalists, teachers in international schools, or jobs abroad for the U.S.
government, as I had. They learn the value of their faith in countries
where Christianity isn’t the majority faith.
