If you’ve read The First Principle, you might think I have an agenda. If you’ve peeked at the back cover copy, you might draw the same conclusion. The answer is that I do.

But it’s probably not what you think.

The idea for The First Principle came to me when I was grading my students’ persuasive essays. Many of the students wrote passionate pro-life essays, which made me wonder: If these teenagers have such strong feelings about the value of life, what would happen if there were a society that forced teenage girls to have abortions—simply because they’re underage? What if someone refused to obey the law?

As this idea brewed, the story intrigued me, so I wrote a novel to find out what would happen. I decided that the country would have to have legitimate-sounding reasons for the government to force underage girls to terminate their pregnancies. Plus, the government would manage other areas of citizens’ lives.

To create this fictional world, I took my own concerns (and fears) about what I see around me and magnified them.

Here are a few:

• The abortion holocaust demonstrates our society’s lack of value for human life.
• More Christians are beginning to disregard parts of the Bible to suit their views and to fit into society.
• Political correctness is slowly replacing the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

So, do I have an agenda?

Yes.

But—it’s to tell a thrilling story. When it comes to writing fiction, the story matters most. Even though I tackled a controversial topic, I began with a mission of writing a fast-paced, entertaining novel.

My convictions and beliefs became some of my novel’s themes because they’re part of my biblical worldview. I won’t divorce my writing from my worldview because I want my writing to glorify God and demonstrate truth. But I’ve discovered one of the best parts about writing fiction is that the most powerful themes will always arise from a gripping story.

And that’s my agenda.