Author Profile Interview
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a Kansas farm girl who grew up with a dream of being a wife, mother and writer of books. Praise the Lord, all my dreams have come true! I’ve been married to my wonderful husband Ken for over 30 years now, we have 4 great kids (and our first grandbaby on the way!) and I’ve been writing for eleven years (currently at work on my eleventh novel.) I can’t imagine a life any more fulfilling!
2. How did you become a novelist, and did you always want to write?
From the time I read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, I knew I wanted to someday grow up and write a book. After our children came along, I knew my writing would be put on hold for a while, but then the Lord blessed us with a little “tagalong” baby when our older kids were 14, 10 and 8. When it was time for our oldest to go to college, I knew I’d need to go back to work to help finance his education. But I desperately wanted to stay home with our little girl and started to search for some way to stay home. The Lord reminded me of the dream of writing I’d tucked away in my heart and gave me a wonderful idea for my first novel. It sold fairly quickly, and within a couple years it had been made into a movie by Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures. My prayer was answered—as God so often does—above and beyond anything I could have dreamed of for myself.
3. What do you think is significant about Christian fiction?
For me, as a reader, it is such an encouragement to read about ordinary people whom God enables to live extraordinary lives. I hear from many readers who agree. They tell me that reading Christian fiction fortifies them to handle the trials and sorrows in their own lives. It also helps them put their own troubles in perspective, and often teaches an important spiritual lesson.
4. How do you hope your readers react to the stories you write?
I’m perfectly content if my books merely provide a few hours of wholesome, godly entertainment, but once in a while God allows one of my books to touch a person in an extra special way at a particularly significant time in their lives. Those are the reactions I always pray for as I write my stories. My prayer is that God would use my words to bring the people who read them closer to Him.
5. What responses to your novels have affected you the most and why?
Any time a reader calls my work “life changing” and tells me that reading my book brought them closer to the Lord, or helped them understand a trial they were going through, I feel as though the Lord is saying “Well done, good and faithful servant.” It’s important to me to have those words of encouragement and confirmation. If I ever get to a point where I feel God is saying it’s time to do something else, I hope I’ll have the grace to follow His path and live in obedience to His will. (But I’ll confess that my own desire is to be writing until the day I die!)
6. How has being a novelist impacted your relationship with Christ?
I am amazed how much I learn about the Lord and my own relationship with Him as I research the lives of my characters. Often the areas of life that God is dealing with me in find their way into my characters’ lives.
7. Other than writing great novels, what other goals do you have for your life?
Right now I feel like God has called me to be first an encouraging, loving wife and mother, and then a writer of novels. As my children grow up and leave home (we have 3 “down,” one to go) my time has been freed to do some speaking and teaching at writers’ conferences. This is something I enjoy immensely and feel the Lord has gifted me to do.
8. What do you like to do in your spare time?
It may sound strange for someone who spends hours a day writing books, but one of my favorite pastimes is READING books. Also, I enjoy decorating our home and making it a cozy retreat for family and friends. My projects are usually inspired by one of the many decorating books and magazines I subscribe to.
9. What can you tell us about your latest novels?
My most recent novel, A Nest of Sparrows (WaterBrook Press) just won the HOLT Medallion, and was a finalist in six other literary contests, including the RITA Award, National Readers’ Choice and the Booksellers Best Award. In October, my new novel,
Over the Waters—my first with Steeple Hill Books—will start showing up on bookshelves across the country and in Canada. This book was inspired by my parents’ work with an orphanage in Haiti.
10. What stories can your fans expect from you in the days ahead?
I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity recently to rewrite my very first novel,
A Vow to Cherish, for re-release with a new publisher. Steeple Hill will publish the book in 2006, the ten-year anniversary of its first release. In addition, I’ve just contracted for a sequel to that book. I’m so excited to follow the Brighton families into the next chapter of their lives! Tentatively titled Within This Circle, the sequel is set to release early in 2007.
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