D. W. Smith is one of my more obvious pen names. I have only published one book under this name so far, and that was a thriller written with nonfiction Christian writer Fred Stoeker. Actually, as Fred says in his introduction, I wrote the novel completely, but I used his beliefs from his nonfiction books to infuse the characters with similar beliefs and used pull quotes from his books as chapter headings and such. So far, it is my only novel in the Christian side of publishing, but I wouldn’t mind writing more if the chance comes up.

This book started in one of the professional level workshops we hold here on the Oregon Coast. I was teaching an anthology workshop with Tekno Books editor Denise Little, and at lunch she asked me if I would be interested in writing a thriller based on a Christian writer’s works. Since I had just finished a thriller and I like the form, I said sure. And then promptly forgot about the conversation until about five months later when the call came from Denise. It seemed that WaterBrook and Fred had liked some of my other books and had picked me to write the novel.

Since the story they wanted was a pretty straight-forward story of four guys going on a raft trip into northern Thailand and getting into trouble, I had to use a different structure on the book that all the reviewers said made the book thrilling and a fast read. I honestly had a blast writing it and am proud of it.