1. How old were you when you first started to write?
I was quite young when I began writing letters to my great-grandmother. I don’t remember how old, exactly, but I think I was under ten. I wrote her a letter nearly every week for years until she died at the age of ninety-two. She loved the letters and always said I was going to be an author someday.
Around this same time I wrote a fiction story about a little girl who steals money from her mother and then feels bad and gives it back, but honestly, until recently, I haven’t written much fiction.
2. What attracted you to the craft?
I love making beautiful things; it’s a stress reliever and has helped to keep me sane through some challenging periods of life (lockdowns, bombing, sickness, etc.) Writing, whether it’s letters, essays, blog posts or stories, is a great way to do this if you move around a lot and don’t have much money. About two years ago my husband bought me a computer, and then my writing really took off.
3. Where do you get your ideas? It’s a common question, but one I’m sure will interest our readers.
Well, inspiration for the series I’m working on now came from my years spent in some of the world’s most troubled places, and it displays a way of life that is a painful reality for millions of people today. For this series, I’ve chosen to create my own setting, inspired by, but not based on, any place I’ve actually lived.
This is partly because I loved the challenge of creating a whole world from scratch, but mainly because some of the major themes in this story, like war and racial hatred, are very sensitive topics. I did not wish to entangle my fiction with real-world conflicts or political issues.
At bottom, though, this series is about people who really care about each other, and who work hard to create good and normal lives for themselves and their loved ones in the midst of chaos. No matter where you are or who you are, that’s a very courageous thing to do.
4. Do you outline and plan your story or do you just sit down and write?
I usually begin with inspiration that comes from imagining a climatic scene at or near the end of the story, and then I work back, and around, and in and out from there. As far as an outline, I’m not too detailed. Perhaps a dot-to-dot picture is the best analogy. I have the dots in mind, but the lines in between pretty much just appear as I write. And it’s not unknown for a dot or two to shift as well!
5. What do you hope and dream to accomplish with your writing?
Writing is a gift God has given me, and I enjoy using it. I hope the people who read my books enjoy them too. Creating high-quality Christian fiction has long been something I felt was important, because there isn’t nearly enough.
6. Who do you like to read? Who inspires you to write and who do you read for enjoyment?
My own favorite books to read are the classics, from Homer to Dickens and everybody in between. And of course the Holy Bible. Certainly reading the best of the best has influenced my own writing and given me a high standard of what I enjoy. I really like the “sound” of almost anything written before 1900, but I actually don’t write that way myself at all.
Since much of my time is spent with people whose first language is not English, I like to think that my own writing is simple and clear enough that a non-native speaker could easily follow it, but not so basic that the story is boring to a native speaker.
7. What is the best advice you could give other writers about writing?
Write a lot, have fun, and don’t get discouraged even when your story isn’t coming out the way you saw it in your head. It’s still there, you just have to work at it. Finding a group you can trust, whether online or in real life, is a huge help, in my opinion. I’ve massively benefitted from the encouragement and advice I recieved from the online community at ChristianWriters.com. They’re the ones who pushed me to keep on writing when I had no idea what I was doing.