Cher Smith is one of our great reviewers here at Infuze, but she is also busy with many writing projects among other things. She stopped for a bit to give us some more information about her book Justified Means and what's coming up in the future.

Matt: Tell us about Justified Means. Is this your first foray into the world of writing? And what is the book about?

Justified Means is not my first foray into the world of writing but it is my most personal. I had one novel published previously by Crossway Books, The Falcon and the Serpent. That was a Christian fantasy novel, while Justified Means is contemporary women's fiction. So it's quite a bit different in style and tone.

Justified Means is the story of Katie Means, a pastor's wife, who is angry at God for not healing her son, Patrick, of autism. Patrick attends a government-funded school for children with autism, and when it is threatened with closing due to lack of funds, Katie's anger and pain intensifies. She had become friends with a man who was in prison for burglary, and when he gets out, Katie approaches him for help. She convinces him to take her on as a partner in crime. Her intent is to steal from her husband's wealthy congregation and give the money to charity, beginning with her son's school.

Katie has a thousand justifications as to why stealing is all right. It's not as bad as other things she could do, at least she didn't make an innocent child disabled. That kind of thing. It was the most personal, because my son is autistic and blind, and I know what it's like to be so angry at God because he won't seemingly answer your prayers that you'll do anything to stop the pain. And before you ask, no, I don't steal things.

How do you write from a personal place like that? Is it hard to dive into that emotion or is it actually easier?

In a lot of ways, every piece of writing comes from a personal place. It just might not be as obvious. My first novel was Christian fantasy, and while I have never had any dealings with wizards, I can read parts of it and say, "Oh yeah. I remember what it was like being thirteen" or "I know what it feels like to want to fight on God's side against evil." When writing teachers say, "Write what you know," they're referring to your internal life, not to whether or not you know how to wield a sword or stage a battle.

Justified Means was more personal, though, because it tapped into a present pain. In some ways, it was easier to write, because I didn't have to try to imagine how something would feel. I know how it feels to deal with a mysterious disability. I know the fright of a parent watching her child abuse himself. Those parts were easy to visualize. They were hard to actually get down on paper, though, because it's like re-living those emotions all over again, and who wants to do that? Those parts weren't tremendously imaginative. The imaginative part came with writing about being a thief, which I'm not, or being a pastor's wife, which I'm not.

Justified Means is the shortest novel I've written, and yet it took the longest. I'm sure that's because it was hard to jump out of bed and be motivated to write about pain again! There's also a lot of humor in it, though, and that helped. I didn't want anyone reading it to go away thinking, "Well, that was a drag." We've all read books like that. I wanted readers to laugh and cry, to identify with Katie's journey toward a relationship with God.

You published Justified Means by yourself didn't you? How does that work for the writers out there who may wonder how to get started?

The "print on demand" industry is booming right now, and it's only about a half-step above self-publishing. The good part of print on demand is that the author doesn't pay anything and they are offered a standard contract with royalties. In traditional self-publishing, the author can pay up to $15,000 just for the excitement of having a book published. The negative part of print on demand is that no one is ever rejected, which is something I didn't realize at the time. That means the market is flooded with a lot of mediocre to bad stuff, and maybe a few good books rise to the surface.

How does that work for writers out there? I would advise against it. As my aunt told me when I was just a mere lass, "If it's good enough, they'll pay you." In other words, don't buy in to get-rich-quick schemes, and don't buy in to get-published-easily schemes. My best advice is hone your craft, invest in Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, invest in a Writer's Market, research it thoroughly, pay your dues, expect lots of rejection. That way, when you're finally accepted by a traditional house, you'll know for sure that it was the result of your talent.

You mention that your latest is contemporary women's fiction. Is that different than what's called "chick lit?"

I love the term chick lit. It reminds me of Chiclets, the tiny little multi-colored fun gum. You had to put a whole box of them in your mouth to get a decent size piece of gum.

There's a difference in my mind, but I don't know if that carries over to how books are actually marketed or not. To me, chick lit has several defining features. The first examples that come to mind are Sex in the City and Bridget Jones. So, the defining features would be single female looking for love (or at least sex), generally upwardly urban, career-focused.

Justified Means, on the other hand, deals with a married woman, suburban, career redefinition. Women's contemporary would be books geared mainly toward women, books that deal with more contemporary issues rather than, say, dealing with pioneer travails or feudal lords. Where I think Justified Means might fit the chick-lit genre is in the tone. Women's contemporary sounds so serious and tweedy. Justified Means isn't serious, although its topic may be. It has a more light-hearted, at times irreverent tone, similar to chick lit.

What are you currently working on as far as future writing projects go?

Right now, I'm working on a non-fiction book about moral character being formed by the movies we watch. Kind of a "what would Frodo do?" type of book. It's combining two of my favorite topics, movies and philosophy. I'm writing about the usual movie suspects, such as Lord of the Rings and Spiderman, but I'm also looking at some lesser known but wonderful movies such as Donnie Darko, The Machinist, and Equilibrium. The difficult part on this book is knowing when to stop. I always have my list and then see a movie that I want to add.

I'm also working on a novel that's very different for me, much more serious than Justified Means. And as always, if you try to boil it down to one or two sentences, it sounds ridiculous. I'll just say that it explores the themes of mid-life angst, B-movie queens, heroin addiction, a critique of the mainstreaming of pornography, and redemption. How's that for serious sounding?

Note: You can read the first chapter here of Cher's upcoming book Heroes, Whores and Hobbits: Visual Parables about God, Faith and Humanity.