This week I’m hosting Rachelle McCalla with Dead Reckoning, Sharon Dunn with Her Guardian, and Gayle Roper with Shadows on the Sand. If you want to enter the drawings, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (August 7th) evening.
How exciting to have Julia Randel the heroine from Her Guardian, a July 2011 release from Love Inspired Romance .
1. Julia, tell me the most interesting thing about you? Obviously, the thing that has been in the news about me is probably what most people would think was the most interesting thing about me. I was kidnapped when I was 13 and held captive by the cult leader Elijah True. I escaped when I was 20. It’s been two years now and we are getting ready for the trial against him.
2. What do you do for fun? I am just learning to have fun again after all these years. This may sound silly, but my idea of fun would be to sit in a coffee shop and read a book. I’ve never done that. Also, after my escape I had two years of counseling. One of the things the counselor and I found helped me deal with my anxiety was making necklaces. I love all the beautiful color and shapes of the glass beads I work with. Having that kind of a creative outlet can be really calming.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it? Procrastination is not an issue for me. Since my life has been in a holding pattern for nine years, I can’t wait for the freedom I will have once this trial is over. I was under close watch by Elijah for seven years and now my father has hired a bodyguard Gavin Shane to watch me until the trial. Gavin has been wonderful and very patient, but it will be so good not to have to be confined anymore. I can’t wait to go to college, to walk across campus by myself to feel the sun on my face, to have my life back.
4. What are you afraid of most in life? I am most afraid of Elijah True and his followers. Facing him in court will not be easy, but I want justice more than anything. I don’t want him to ever hurt another young girl again. I have a lot of fears connected with the captivity. Elijah used to punish me by locking me into tight dark spaces. It’s hard for me to be in a confined space and the sound of a bolt sliding in place makes it feel like there is an elephant on my chest.
5. What do you want out of life? Ordinary, beautiful things. To go to college. I missed out on learning to drive a car, so that is next on my list. To have a job and someday fall in love and have children.
6. What is the most important thing to you? I can’t pick one thing. My father, who never gave up hope or stopped praying that I would come back. My faith because it sustained me and was a buffer of protection against Elijah’s lies and distortions. And Gavin. In some strange way having him around has made me even more hopeful. It’s like he carries some of the burden for him.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book? Right now, most of my time is taken up with studying for the ACT for college. Since I didn’t go to high school, I got my GED just a little while ago. I wish I could read for fun, but that will come later.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Actually, I have made a change recently that is kind of wild. I have this long blond hair. I’m really easy to spot at a distance because of that. Gavin thought it would be a good idea if I cut my hair and dyed it red for my safety. One of the reason Elijah took me was he said the blond hair made me look like an angel. Something about changing my hair has been really cathartic, like I’m letting go of that old identity of the kidnapped girl and stepping into the new me, the me God intended before all of this happened.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet? I had a horse when I was little that I rode every day before the kidnapping. My father held onto that horse for as long as he could, but she wasn’t getting ridden once I was gone and he had to sell her. Gavin and I have been staying at a hot springs that is closed for renovation because the followers are not likely to find us here, it’s a sort of safe house. Anyway the woman that owns the hot springs resort Elizabeth has a Siamese cat named Ophelia. There is something really wonderful about having a cat lay on your lap and purr. I think after all this is over, I want to have a cat of my own.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why? I remember as a teenager reading about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I know it is more of a fantasy time than a real period in history, but there is something wonderful about men who operate by a code of honor, who love God and who defend women. I would love to live in a world like that.
