Ginger:  That’s a good question. The whole experience was trying to understand her point of view, but I couldn’t help but relate it to my own experience and what it feels like to grow up in a culture where your body is so prized and inspected and valued -- particularly in the acting culture where your mantra is that “your body is your life.” Your body and your voice are the only tools that you have as an actor. There was so much pressure to be perfect and I my heart just went out to Esther spending that year in the harem with that kind of pressure.

One thing that has always bothered me is when I hear male preachers talk about Esther and say it was a beauty pageant, and they make it sound very light and cheerful. To read the story as a woman, to know what it feels like to walk into a room and have people look you up and down and make critical comments about your body. It wasn’t a beauty pageant. It must have been a very painful, challenging time in Esther’s life.

Christianbook.com:  What book is next for you?

Ginger:  NavPress and I have been working on a book that’ll come out in May of next year that is called "The Esther Year." It is for moms raising preteen/teenage daughters based on the principle that Esther took a year out of her life to be prepared physically and mentally and emotionally for the king. This is about taking a year out of your daughter’s life as she becomes a woman to prepare her for her future. It’s a really fun format. It’s geared to the mom, and we begin each month with an excerpt from the actual book of Esther and each month we get a little further into the story. So the mom and the daughter take a journey at the beginning of Esther’s story and work their way through the book. I also talk about the behind-the-scenes process of writing "Chosen."

I’ll also be releasing a trilogy called "The Serpent’s Moon Trilogy." When I grew up the stories I heard in church were stories about the great heroes of the Bible. I didn’t hear a lot about the great heroines. There’s so much in the Bible about the role of women and their heroism and the very unique power and ability we have to shape the events around us. So I really wanted to have a series that not only had the strong villains but had very strong female protagonists who are in Scripture but who we don’t always talk about.

Christianbook.com:  Who is the person who most influenced your writing?

Ginger:  Probably my dad. He is a mad scientist and constantly working on new inventions. He is thrilled by failure. He comes alive when he fails at something. It’s his clue that there is something he doesn’t know, and he just sets out on this mad expedition to try and uncover this hidden piece of knowledge. It was his complete disregard for failure that I think gave me a lot of courage to take on this task.