My life was definitely going into a nosedive. When my parents separated (and) divorced when I was fifteen, I definitely lost my bearings and was completely out of control. My grades were plummeting. I had no direction. I was a pretty angry teenager (and) somewhat destructive. So, I broke down in a church when I was 18 and turned my life over to God, thankfully.

We're all being segregated or sent to our different rooms to watch television that's geared only for adults, to be honest. There's very little fare - outside of cartoons and a few things for children (and) I guess (some reality shows like) The Voice - that can be watched by the entire family.

Well, part of it is the general fascination with the Amish. It's an extremely popular genre and Beverly Lewis just happens to have the market cornered. She is the bestselling author in this genre. We had actually optioned another one of her Amish books, The Redemption of Sarah Cain. We retitled it Saving Sarah Cain and it did extremely well for Lifetime so we pursued more of her novels.

You know, to me, that's going to influence the culture. They both influence each other - I know that - but, you know, there's no two ways about it. When you're just immersed in kind of this dark, edgy constant flow of entertainment, there's no way it can't affect you. There's just no way.

Entertainment and art have power. Our culture is molded more so by entertainment than any other influence.

I see everything visually. It's very visual for me. And so I think, from a plotting standpoint or what have you, there's obviously a certain amount of internal thinking that goes on in a novel (that) you can't do...in a screenplay. But I think, pacing wise, my novels move quickly because (they aren't overly) descriptive.

I just gravitated toward (working behind the scenes by) growing up on the different sets and watching my father and other people in their different capacities...When I was 13 years old, I asked for a Super 8 camera.