Why They Call It Falling by Christina Sinisi

About the Book

Book: Why They Call It Falling

Author: Christina Sinisi

Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance

Release date: June 7, 2022

Formerly the wild child of three sisters, Emma Marano grew up to be a single mom working two jobs, estranged from her mother, and lying to her friends. She’d told everyone that her daughter’s father wanted nothing to do with his child, but in reality, her own inability to deal with her mistakes and shame led to the biggest lie of her life. But her daughter, Haley, is all Emma has in the world, so how can she regret keeping Haley to herself? Emma’s struggling, though, and her life is slowly imploding.

Right after high school, Justin Lee broke up with Emma Marano and joined the Army, leaving her and all her drama behind. Years later, he stumbles upon her and what turns out to be a daughter he never knew he had. Angry and confused, he insists on having a relationship with his daughter, but to do so, he’ll need to rebuild some sort of relationship with Emma, too. As he gets to know his daughter—and Emma again—he soon realizes that his biggest mistake was leaving her all those years ago. What he dismissed as drama turns out to be a serious mental health issue, and Emma needs help. Now, Justin has to decide if he can see past her flaws and forgive her lies, and together, they’ll have to work to reclaim their love and a faith in each other and in God, or they risk losing something precious in the process.

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And now some interview questions with the author.

1. Has writing fiction always been in your blood?

Yes. I grew up in the backwoods of the Virginia mountains and there was no kindergarten. My parents didn’t send me to school ready to learn—I didn’t even know the alphabet when I went into first grade. But, somehow, by third grade, I was writing poetry. God equips you for His purpose.

2. How long did it take to publish your first novel.

I wrote my first novel in high school, but didn’t publish a novel until I was in my fifties. So, the answer is a very long time. Having said that, I went to college, graduate school, and became a tenure professor in between so I only count the summer months.

3. Do you like music or silence when you write?

If I am going to really concentrate, I need silence. The most important thing is nobody talking to me…which is hard since my home office is in the middle of the house with this rocking chair facing my desk. I should probably get rid of that chair.

4. Where do you get inspiration for your stories? Family? Friends? Yourself?

I find inspiration everywhere—my heroines sometimes have a bit of me in them, or maybe a friend from church or my sister or my daughter. I read the newspaper every day and the plot might thicken in its pages. And my hero will always have a little of my husband in him.

5. How did you go about developing the setting(s) for this story?

Why They Call It Falling got its start in Christmas Confusion. That book was written in three and a half weeks, in order to answer an email call for Christmas novellas. I built the story around a woman whose sister was a single mother so she helped out by watching her niece every other weekend. The sister, Emma, didn’t show up to retrieve her daughter one Sunday and no one knew where she was. A lot of my readers had a visceral dislike of Emma for doing this. Now, in this third book, Emma is redeemed.

Since I wrote that first book so quickly—I wrote about my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina and its suburbs of Summerville and Goose Creek (melded together in a mythical town called Summer Creek).

6. Tell us a little about your plans for the future. Where do you see yourself as a writer in five years?

I will be retiring as a professor in a little over six years. So, I hope to retire into being a full-time writer. I want to write a book of devotions reflecting my expertise as a child psychologist. I want to continue to write Christian contemporary romance but branch out into speculative. There are so many stories percolating in this head of mine!

About the Author

A member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Christina Sinisi writes stories about families, both the broken and blessed. Her works include a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest and the American Title IV Contest where she appeared in the top ten in the Romantic Times magazine. Her published books include Christmas Confusion, Sweet Summer, and Christmas on Ocracoke. By day, she is a psychology professor and lives in the LowCountry of South Carolina with her husband, two children and her crazy cat Chessie Mae.

More from Christina

In Why They Call It Falling, the hero discovers he has a daughter he didn’t know existed when he sees his ex-girlfriend in a strawberry patch at Boone Hall Plantation (here in Charleston, South Carolina). In the book, the name of the plantation had to be changed to protect the innocent, but the recipe below doesn’t.

This recipe comes from a cookbook titled, Charleston Receipts Repeats. This book has modern recipes, as well as old-fashioned ones dating back through generations. It’s a perfect accompaniment to my Charleston-based romance.

Strawberry Pie I

1 9-inch pie shell, baked and cooled

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup water

Dash salt

1 3-ounce strawberry jello (delete 1 tablespoon)

1 pint strawberries

Whipped cream

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, water, and salt.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick and clear.

Add strawberry jello.