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Christian Fiction Updates |
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Keep up to date with the latest releases in Christian fiction by signing up for the Christian Fiction Updates newsletter,
with monthly Hot Off The Press notifications.
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About Eloise Schroder, Webmaster of The Christian Fiction Site:
Ellie has loved Christian fiction for many years, after being introduced to it back in 1990. She developed "The Christian
Fiction Site" back in 1998 under the former title "Ellie's World of Christian Fiction" after seeing the need for an online
resource site for readers to become more familiar with Christian fiction titles on the market. Since then, she has maintained
the site in her own spare time, as well as juggling a full-time job with GPH Wholesale, a distributor of Christian literature, and being
part of the worship team in her local church. Ellie lives in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with Dion, her husband of
more than 10 years.
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. . .Laura Jensen Walker
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Author Profile Interview
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Laura Jensen Walker is a national speaker, humourist, author, and breast cancer survivor. Her humour books include
Dated Jekyll, Married Hyde; Thanks for the Mammogram!; and Mentalpause. The first book in the Phoebe Grant series Dreaming in Black and White was her first novel.
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Author Profile Interview
October 2005
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
Short version: I’m a dreamer born and raised in the Midwest (‘til I was 14 and we moved to Arizona) and avid reader who’s always wanted to see as much of the world as possible. That’s why I joined the Air Force shortly after high school and spent five fabulous years stationed in Europe. (After living in England for three years, I’m now a rabid Anglophile who must have milk in her tea.) After some rather wild, mixed-up years, I became a Christian in my late 20’s and spent years in singles groups ‘til I married my Renaissance-man husband Michael in my mid-thirties. The day after our first wedding anniversary I was diagnosed with breast cancer, but I’m happy to say I’ve been cancer-free for years now. Michael and I live in Northern California with our canine-“daughter” Gracie, an American Eskimo.
2. How did you become a novelist, and did you always want to write?
I’ve longed to write my entire life—ever since I read 103 books in Miss Vopelensky’s first-grade class. I’ve always been a voracious reader (thanks to my parents and plenty of trips to the library) and loved writing all through school (was the editor of my high school paper.) I got sidetracked from my writing dreams for about a decade, but went back to college and got my journalism degree, then worked as a reporter and newspaper columnist. Thanks to the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference (in Northern California) I was ‘discovered’ by an editor and my first humor book, “Dated Jekyll, Married Hyde” came out in 1997. Since then, I’ve written 10 non-fiction humor books, all the while LONGING to write fiction, but terrified to try.
It was again thanks to Mount Hermon that I became a novelist. A couple years ago I was on my way to the conference, rather frustrated and discouraged because my non-fiction career hadn’t taken off quite the way I’d hoped—financially, that is—and we were facing some unexpected expenses. I was praying and asking God if I was supposed to go back to work full-time again, or, if maybe, just maybe, I was supposed to try this fiction thing that so terrified me. BUT, if it was the latter, then I needed Him to open the doors because I didn’t have a clue how to even begin.
And boy, did the Lord move fast! I took Davis Bunn’s amazing fiction class which gave me the tools I needed to overcome my fears of how to even begin, and thanks to the fiction panel of editors that year I learned that they were looking for humor—a very clear sign from God that humor was the bridge He wanted me to use to transition from non-fiction to fiction. I wrote the opening line to my first novel (Dreaming in Black & White) there—“My thighs were at it again,” then went home and wrote like a madwoman and a month later I had 9 chapters and a synopsis which my agent sent out. Shortly thereafter, three publishing houses showed a strong interest and a little while later I had a 2-book contract with WestBow Press (then W, with the amazing Ami McConnell as my editor.)
3. What do you think is significant about Christian fiction?
I think that especially in the past few years, Christian fiction has grown and matured and novelists today are able to be much more real than ever before. We can show flawed characters with honest struggles without a conversion scene in every novel, yet still point readers to God. I’ve never liked novels that preach or hit me over the head with a message or agenda, whether it’s Christian fiction or secular fiction. To me, it’s all about the story. And Christian fiction is telling some wonderful stories these days!
4. How do you hope your readers react to the stories you write?
I hope they identify with my flawed characters and can relate to them in all their messiness. I could never relate to perfect heroines myself. Who can? I also hope that they’ll laugh and be encouraged. God’s given me the gift of humor and I pray that this will come through in my writing and lighten someone’s burden, even briefly.
5. What responses to your novels have affected you the most and why?
The ones where women say they can really identify with Phoebe, and know they’re not alone in their feelings of frustration with the whole singles group scene. When I was a single Christian desperately longing for a relationship, it seemed that the whole world was getting married but me and I often struggled with feelings of loneliness and frustration. I recently got an e-mail from a woman who said, “Thanks for writing a series where I feel like someone out there understands what it is like being a Christian single woman. It is a source of encouragement to me and many others who are in the same position.”
6. How has being a novelist impacted your relationship with Christ?
It’s made me realize all the more that without Him, I can do nothing. He is the first, the last, the everything. And I am so grateful for all He has given me. I try to honor him by using the gifts He has given me.
7. Other than writing great novels, what other goals do you have for your life?
To be a loving wife, sister, daughter, and friend, and to treat others with kindness and compassion. To encourage other writers and artists. And to someday, somehow, give back to my tremendously talented and gifted husband even just a fraction of all he’s given to me, and sacrificed for me so that I could follow my writing dreams. (Living in a cottage in England for a season where he could do theater would work :-) ) Of course, that would require a couple bestsellers on my part…
8. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Read, read, and read! And go to movies. And watch BBC mysteries with my husband (we absolutely love “Foyle’s War”!) go to plays, play with Gracie, enjoy good food and good gabfests with my girlfriends, explore antique shops looking for favourite old books and bits of china, and travel, travel, travel! (We’re hoping to visit Scotland and Wales next year and New Zealand and Australia one of these days.)
9. What can you tell us about your latest novels?
“Dreaming in Black & White”, my first novel, released in March, 2005 and is the funny chick lit tale of Phoebe Grant, a 31-year-old single woman obsessed with the movies who’s smart, savvy, and working on her thighs (and dreaming of Mr. Right in the process.) I’m honored and delighted to share that it recently won the 2005 Contemporary Fiction Book of the Year from American Christian Fiction Writers. (God’s really throwing open those fiction doors wide!)
“Dreaming in Technicolor”, the sequel, has Phoebe and a girlfriend jetting off on a cheap off-season fare to England. She’s not chasing the man of her dreams. Really. She just wants to broaden her horizons. Once in England, the land of mushy peas, tea and scones, and driving on the wrong side of the road, she changes her cinematic dreams from black and white to living color.
10. What stories can your fans expect from you in the days ahead?
I’m tremendously excited by my next novel! ‘Reconstructing Natalie’ is the story of a 28-year-old single woman’s journey through breast cancer into a new kind of wholeness. (And yes, there’s lots of humor—mixed with poignancy.) As a victor over cancer myself, it was humor combined with my faith that got me through those dark days. I’m also very honored to say that “Reconstructing Natalie”, which releases in Fall 2006, has been chosen to be a Women of Faith novel.
I’m currently writing my fourth novel (tentatively titled Miss Invisible) but I don’t want to give too much away. Let’s just say it involves a woman in her 30’s who’s not a perfect size six (or even ten, for that matter) whose life is transformed through a series of events and a wonderful, life-changing friendship.
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