Author of Someone to Watch Over Me
Someone to Watch Over Me was sparked as an afterthought to Someone to Trust. The question arose what if Megan had a sister she didn’t know about, and what if that sister came looking for her?
The idea formed that Catlin doesn’t just come searching for her sister but does so amid a whirlwind of trouble. While both girls have grown up without a father, Catlin’s upbringing with her mother was very dysfunctional. In the midst of that dysfunction, she meets and bonds with an African-American family and their foster son, Nikko. Nikko, half-Samoan becomes a larger-than-life big brother who watches out for petite Catlin. At the opening of the book Catlin is on the run from witnessing a violent crime that involves Nikko. He tells her to run and don’t look back. “Find your family.”
Her escape drops her (literally) right into the arms of U.S. Marshal Cameron Grainger.
Cameron has issues of his own. While Catlin is angry with God and not speaking to Him -at the moment - over the loss of her foster parents and then Nikko - Cameron doubts in the existence of God at all. As a veteran of war who has witnessed unspeakable atrocities, His question is “If a benevolent, loving God exists how could He allow such horrible acts to happen?” Even in her hurt with God, Catlin defends with a quote from Papa Joe, “If you don’t believe that God is and that He cares, what else is there?”
During the writing of this story, I was struggling with a name for it. I felt like I was supposed to name it Someone to Watch Over Me, but I wasn’t’ sure. It was just something that came to me. In the middle of writing a scene where Catlin is at a Bible Study/Bonfire I was struggling to find the right scripture to have Pastor Dan share. I prayed about it. I felt like I was led to Psalm 121 which talks about the Lord’s help and ends with "The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever." On the same day," my son sent me a song to listen to – "Evidence" by Josh Baldwin. A brief overview is:
All throughout my history
Your faithfulness has walked beside me
The winter storms made way for spring
In every season, from where I'm standing
[Chorus]
I see the evidence of Your goodness
All over my life, all over my life
I see Your promises in fulfillment
All over my life, all over my life
I actually began to cry, immediately realizing that the book title would be Someone to Watch Over Me.
In my own life, I’ve had times of wondering where God was. Did He care? How could He let this happen? I’m sure we all have. In my story, both the hero and heroine struggle with this from different angles. One as a believer who is disappointed with God and questioning His faithfulness. The other as a non-believer questioning the existence of a loving, good God.
The idea is that both Catlin and Cameron have the same discovery to make about God which is we’re never alone. Even in our darkest moments, God is with us. He is always watching, always loving, and always looking out for us. Even though bad things happen because of the fallen world in which we live, He is still GOOD.
Just like Psalms says, He watches over us as we come and go both now and forever.
About the Author
Lesa Henderson discovered she loved to write at age ten when she won her first writing contest. At age thirteen, she began submitting manuscripts. Since that time, she's been crafting articles and stories that have been published in national magazines and as non-fiction books and novels. She partners with her husband Ken as a screen-writer and filmmaker. Together they wrote, directed, and produced Hope Has A Name, an award-winning documentary about ordinary women bringing extraordinary hope in unlikely places.
Lesa's a native Floridian who resides on Merritt Island, FL - a hopeless romantic, wife to her childhood sweetheart, Ken. She’s the mother of three grown children, Brandon, Tiffany, and Destiny and seven amazing grandchildren. She enjoys traveling the world or just hanging out with Ken at home with their two overly spoiled pooches - a Schnauzer named Lilo and Phantom Poodle named Groucho. (His busy grey eyebrows make him look like Groucho Marx).
Lesa also tends to be a bit quirky floating in and out of social butterfly to recluse and has an unhealthy obsession with buttercream icing. She'd love for you to connect with her on her website or on her new Facebook Author page