THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140402
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PURCELLVILLE LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Mike Farris, a conservative Christian lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor and is a national advocate for home-schooling of children, has a new credit on his resume: author.
Farris has finished a 518-page novel on a topic dear to his heart and is shopping around publishers.
His manuscript spins a yarn about a single mother whose ex-husband falsely accuses her of abusing her child. The woman loses custody of the child. The protagonist, a born-again Christian lawyer, takes her case and struggles not to fall in love with her.
``Some, not all, committed Christians feel they cannot marry a divorced woman,'' Farris said in an interview with The Washington Post.
But Farris finds a way for hero and heroine to live happily ever after.
It took four months to finish his first novel, the father of nine said.
``Even my mother-in-law, who never says anything nice about anything I do, couldn't put it down,'' Farris said.
He has sent the manuscript to Harvest House, a Christian publishing company in Eugene, Ore., whose writers and readers are predominantly women, said Harvest House President Bob Hawkins Jr.
Hawkins said he will decide next month whether to buy the novel from Farris. by CNB