Category Archives: interviews

Christianity, interviews

Author Interview: Greg S. Baker

Leave a comment
The Davidic Chronicles is just one of Greg Baker’s series.

Most of the authors I interview on the blog are like me: struggling self-published authors hoping to somehow find an audience, trying to sell a book here and there. But today we’ll hear about a successful author, Greg S. Baker. A prolific author, much of his work is self-published. But he seems to have found the formula for getting sales.

So I thought I’d like to hear from him on the blog, and that you might too.

Q: In a couple of paragraphs, tell us about your journey to being an author.

Greg: I’ve always wanted to write, ever since I was a teenager. I even made an attempt at writing a fantasy novel with a friend in high school. We mailed the manuscript off to a big-name publisher and received a very nice rejection letter some months later. Discouraged, I set it aside to follow a different plan that God had put on my heart: pastoring. I pastored a church in Colorado for 13 years, but the passion for writing never went away.

While pastoring, I began writing again, and even landed several contracts with smaller publishers. This eventually led to a passion for writing that would honor God more so than my first attempt as a teenager did, so I stepped down from pastoring and began a ministry in Christian literature. While writing my own books, I also began a ministry specifically to help other Christian authors: Affordable Christian Editing Services. And since then, I’ve published over 20 books myself and our small service has helped thousands of authors with editing and publishing services.

Q: The Davidic Chronicles seem to be the mainstay of your published books. Tell us a little about the series, and specifically about Book 1, Anointed. It has over 450 ratings and a high ranking on Amazon. Is this your highest selling book?

Author Greg S. Baker is a good author to know about if you like Bible-era fiction,

Greg: The Davidic Chronicles is by far my most popular series. It is a set of biblical fiction novels revolving around the life of King David from when he is anointed by Samuel to when he was again anointed king in Hebron. To honor the Scriptures, I did not change any of the facts we are given from his life. But I fictionally filled in what might have happened between those facts. The goal was to create an interesting and entertaining read that would create wonder and excitement for the Scriptures. I wanted people to think, “Is that really in the Bible?” And then I wanted them to go and look for themselves. I tied together many of the facts that people overlook, such as the fact that Joab was David’s nephew or that Abner was Saul’s cousin. I wanted people to see that there is more to the Bible than they think with a casual read.

I also incorporated a tremendous amount of research into the time period, including the culture of the Philistines (Israel’s main rival during David’s life). I flushed out the characters with the personalities that the Scriptures hint about where possible and insert aspects of the wider culture that are often overlooked.

I really did enjoy writing them.

Q: Is the Davidic Chronicles series complete, or are more volumes coming? Perhaps you’ve moved on to a new biblical fiction series.

Greg: I have no plans on expanding the Davidic Chronicles at this time. I wrote another series of four novels on the lives of Daniel, Jeremiah, and Nebuchadnezzar, which I call the Rise of Daniel series. I also intend to write an antediluvian series of 9 novels that focus on three men: Seth, Enoch, and Noah.

Q: One of my problems is a writer is a malady I’ve named “Genre Focus Disorder”. I can’t concentrate on any one thing. I see you have books in both fiction and non-fiction, but fiction—specifically biblical fiction—seems to dominate. Why does this appeal to you as a writer?

Greg: I love biblical fiction for many reasons. First, I love to write, and they say that you should write about what you love and what you know. Well, I know the Bible—at least a little bit—and I love the Scriptures. So writing biblical fiction helps me to get excited about the research, the process of writing itself, and helping others make connections in Scriptures they would not normally make.

Jesus taught in parables. These stories resonated with people and taught them truths they might otherwise dismiss or not apply. I would like to do something similar.

Q: Apart from biblical fiction, what do you write most?

Greg: That depends. I have a set of Christian fantasy/adventure novels that I love writing, but I also enjoy writing non-fiction books. Last year, I published a book that is meant to help first generation Christians with the very specific and particular battles they fight. I write what I’m passionate about, and for many authors, such passion is derived from experience, enjoyment, need, and purpose.

I’m looking forward reading some of Greg’s books. You can find his books most easily through his website, https://gregsbaker.com/.

 

interviews

Author Interview: Donna May Hanson

Leave a comment
A friend and a colleague: Donna May Hanson

One author in Bella Vista I have come to know is Donna May Hanson. She and I were members of the Village Lake Writers and Poets, until recently a local writers organization. We’ve shared lots of thoughts on writing, on writing clubs, and keep in touch fairly regularly. She shared some of her book with the critique group I’m in. She also shared her book with me, and I had the opportunity to read and critique it before publication. I attest to the accuracy of the situations and dialog.

But enough from me. Let’s hear what Donna has to say.

Q. Donna, you have a diverse and impressive resume. Give us a short version of that, say, a couple of paragraphs.
Donna: I typically just tell people that I’m a retired systems engineer because when I look back over the years, I was the happiest and felt the most useful when I worked for United Technologies on the Strategic Defense Initiative (what they called the “Star Wars” project) in the late 70s and early 80s at White Sands Missile Range. The project was important to not only our country, but slowed the downward spiral that the US and Russia were traveling, and the technology developed lead to much of what we take for granted today both in infrastructure products and medical technology. And we got to blow stuff up with a big laser. For a young engineer, that’s hard to beat.
Donna’s book is a tribute to the men of the LST. She has had good reviews from military people.

Q. Your book is Heroes All. Tell us first why you wrote it.

Donna: When my father passed away in 2005, my brother and I found an old briefcase under a table on his patio. Inside were the Scrabble board he’d played with me throughout high school, an old Cribbage board, an address book containing all his business and personal contacts, pictures of my brothers and I and our respective mothers, and 63 photographs of his shipmates onboard the LST 374 during WW2. That briefcase contained the story of his life and those things he held most dear. I started researching his military service and the history of the LST 374 and was humbled by what I found. He never spoke of his time in the Navy and after reading the war diaries, muster rolls, and history of the battles he was in, I understood why. I wrote the book to honor him, his shipmates, and the LST 374. The proceeds from the sale of the book were donated to the LST 325 Museum in Evansville, Indiana and the LST Association: a veteran’s group. Admiral Andrew L Lewis, USN Retired, wrote the forward and joined me as the keynote speaker at last year’s LST Association’s reunion.
Q. Now, give us a synopsis of the book.
Donna: This is not a story about warfare; it’s a story about young men, most of whom are still in their teens, learning to work together, to help one another grow and survive under extraordinary circumstances, and in the end to understand that our friendships and families are born throughout our lives and travels. And that we’re never alone.
Q. Who is your target audience?
Donna: Those with a military background will appreciate the story. It’s written for them. Anyone who had a relative serve on a ship during WW2 would appreciate it. But the war is just a setting…the story is a coming of age tale, and as such will appeal to teenagers and the elderly alike.
Q. Do I understand you have a dramatization deal in the works? Tell us about that.
Donna: I wouldn’t call it a deal. I have two directors/producers interested in developing the book for a stage production in time for the 80th anniversary of D-day next June.
Q. What’s next in your writing plans—after Heroes All: The Movie, that is?
Donna: I don’t know about a movie…although, I can see Tom Hanks taking an interest in it. The role of “Charlie” would be perfect for Tom Holland. In answer to your question, I’m writing a second book to honor my mother. This one spans the Depression, the dust bowl and Black Sunday, the Italian and German POWs who worked the potato fields of central Missouri during the war. My hope is that this one will be picked up by a traditional publisher as I hope to donate the proceeds to establish a scholarship for high school seniors graduating from Orrick High School: the school where my mother, her mother, and her mother attended and where her family settled in 1830.

 

Check Donna’s book out at Amazon.

 

books, fiction, interviews

Author Interview: Susan Barnett Braun

1 Comment
Susan is a long time writing friend and colleague.

I met author Susan Barnett Braun at the 2011 Write-To-Publish Conference in Wheaton, Illinois. I attended that conference with the help of a generous Cecil Murphey scholarship. Susan did the same. I was one of six people who were members of an on-line writing group, The Writers View 2. Six of us in that group received scholarships. We got an e-mail loop going before the conference and agreed to meet, share meals together, and hang out.

Susan received her scholarship by other means, perhaps direct from Cec’s website. But when she got to the conference and quickly came to know of our little huddle of scholarship winners, she “crashed our party,” so to speak, and joined us for meals and other conversations.

Susan and I kept in touch afterward. She was beta reader for several of my books, providing great feedback. One of her daughters, who is talented with graphic arts software, has made several of my book covers.

What evil lurks in the organ loft? You’ll only find out on Kindle Vella.

Susan recently dipped her toe into the Kindle Vella pool. She wrote about it on Facebook, and I exchanged e-mails with her about the process and prospects, then offered to interview her here about it.

Q: Before we get into Kindle Vella, tell us a little about your writing career up to this point.
Susan: I loved to write even as a child, and wrote several books while in elementary school. I would write them out in longhand, and my mom would type them for me on the typewriter. I’d even take a few snapshots and add those in. I wrote my first book as an adult in 2011, when I wanted to write a memoir of my childhood for my 3 girls to read someday. After doing that, I attended a writing conference which further lit the writing fire. I wrote two other books in the next year or two; one a biography of “mad” King Ludwig II of Germany, and the other a children’s biography of Kate Middleton.
Q: In an e-mail to me, you implied that “Kindle Vella got me writing again”. That implies you’ve been through a dry spell, or at least a non-writing period. Is that true?
Susan: It is, as far as books go. After my whirlwind of writing the three books about a decade ago, I didn’t write more books. I just didn’t have the ideas or the motivation that I often felt when I had written my books. I have, however, blogged since 2008. That’s been great in keeping me still writing in some form. I have to say it feels good to be working on a longer work, a story/book, again.
Q: What made you decide to write a serialized story for Kindle Vella?
Susan: In June, our family took a vacation to Glacier National Park and the surrounding area. One night, we had dinner with my husband’s cousin. She is a prolific writer, and she immediately asked if I’d heard of Kindle Vella. Although the term was vaguely familiar, I didn’t know anything about it. She told me about how she’d become a big fan of Vella. It’s a different way of releasing a book, one chapter (or “episode,” as Vella terms it) at a time. She works full-time writing grants, but on Saturdays she writes on her Vella stories and then releases a couple of episodes each week. She liked the way it’s so easy to do this, plus after a story is fully released on Vella, Amazon makes it easy to convert into an e-book or paperback 30 days later. She was so excited about Vella, and spoke so highly of it, that I caught her enthusiasm and thought I might enjoy trying it too. I like the idea of serialized stories — it reminds me of the “old times,” when authors often released stories this way, but in magazines, not online.
Q: Tell us something about the story line in Phantom of the Organ.
Susan: Fiction isn’t my usual genre. In thinking about what I might write as a fiction piece, I thought of what I knew. That led me to the world of church, and specifically, a church organist. I thought I might like to try writing a mystery, and I liked the idea of combining a church with a mystery. My girls have always loved Phantom of the Opera story. All those threads came together for me, and I came up with a church organist who is practicing at night in the church, when she hears strange noises … The Phantom of the Organ was born.
Q: Rumor has it there will be a season 2 of PotO. Is this true?
Susan: Yes! My original story line took me 10 episodes to tell. I thought that was that. But then, I realized I was liking the characters and setting I’d come up with. I wanted to spend more time with them! So, I thought up another mystery for season two; this one involving items going missing from St Matthews church. My plan at this point is that I’d like to come up with four seasons. With each season running just over 10,000 words, that would be a book nearing 50,000 words. At that point, I would plan to release the story as an e-book and paperback. Can you tell I’m having fun with this?
Susan’s books can be found through her Amazon author page. That doesn’t get you to her KV story, however. Here’s the link for that. I hope you will check it out.
interviews

Author Interview: Scott Jimenez

Leave a comment
Available from Amazon in hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and ebook.

Scott Jimenez is a relatively new friend. He attends the church where our son-in-law was pastor until recently. While we haven’t had many conversations, we’ve been together in Sunday school classes and church services during our visits there, and sometimes at Wednesday night men’s group. Scott , has recently published a book, and I asked if I could interview him for the blog. So here it is.

Q. Your first book is PTSD: A Theological Approach. Tell me something about your life experiences that led you to write this book.

Scott has the experience, knowledge, and drive to have written this book. His approach is different than other books dealing with PTSD.

A. I was an officer of Marines; went to war; then became a Navy chaplain, often to Marines; then became a VA chaplain, working with Vets who had PTSD. I worked within the psychological and medical models we had. But, 22 Vets a day still commit suicide. Something was not being addressed.

Q. What differentiates your book from other books available dealing with PTSD?

A. I wanted to find something holistic. I went back to the Bible, and found, in the conquest of Canaan, my answer. There are currently no theological approaches to PTSD. Because it is Biblical, it has been tested for over 4000 years, so it is the premier evidence-based solution there is. And, because it is Biblical, it works for other types of PTSD, on trauma, and on stress.

In Exodus 15:26, God gives us a name for Himself, Yahwe Rapha. Rapha is generally translated as to heal. But there is another meaning, to restore. My book focuses not just on healing, but on restoration. Not restoration to what we were in the past, but restoration to the Image of God we were originally made in.

Q. What do you want someone suffering from PTSD, or loved ones of a sufferer, to take away from your book? How do you hope they will be helped?

A. That they are not alone, that there are safe places where they can be listened to, that there is a community built in faith that can become their new friends and adoptive family, that there is healing, and that normality is searching for a new normal.

Q. Do you have a follow-up book planned? If so, what’s it about, and what is a target time for its release?

A. The next book I am writing and hope to have out by Christmas is tentatively titled Too Blessed to Be Stressed: How the Church Speaks to Stress. It focuses on the subjects we often don’t discuss in church, but need to. Topics such as: Unplanned Pregnancy, Abortion Recovery, Suicide, Dying and Death, Immigration, and Biblical Identity are just some of the topics that seem taboo to discuss. Why? They happen, and if they happen, we need to talk about them.

Q. And, any long-term plans for other books or writings?

A. I have one on articles and blogs I’ve written called Articles of Faith. I am compiling a 365-day devotional with a daily Bible verse and short thoughts. Perhaps a title might be Pensados. I also want to do a children’s book on the story of my mother’s journey from the mountains of Colombia to Colombia’s Caribbean coast. This journey happened when she was about 12. It is a story of peril, of grit, of resourcefulness, and about what life was like 70 years ago in a foreign land far away. I want to call it Maruja: Crossing Colombia. My last book would be about, and called, Collected Sermons.

Scott’s book is available at Amazon in several formats: hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and e-book. It is also available at Barnes & Noble (online and some retail stores) and Christian Book Distributors.

interviews

Author Interview – Romance Writer Jeni

Leave a comment
Romance Author Jeni has three books for sale at Amazon.

One of the members of Village Lake Writers & Poets, a writers group I’m a member of, is Jeni. Jeni Who, you ask? She has a last name, but let’s just call her Jeni, the name she writes and publishes as. She recently presented the program at one of our monthly meetings. At the VLW&P Christmas party I sat across from her and had my first detailed conversation with her. I asked if she would let me interview her for An Arrow Through the Air, and she agreed. Here it is.

Q: Why did you decide to pursue writing as a career?

Jeni: Writing is in my blood. Creating characters is what I love!

Q: Since 2015, you’ve released three novels: Kellan’s Sweet Angel, Dirk’s Angel of Destiny, and Evan’s Sunset Angel. Is it fair to say you’re a romance writer?

Jeni: I am happy to say, I am a romance writer! With a dash of mystery, adventure and suspense!

Q: These are part of a series. Describe the series to us so far. And whose point of view are they in: the guy’s or the gal’s?

Jeni: In each of the books, I focus on certain characters and how they are affected by the sinister storyline. Thus far, you will learn about these men and how evil has interrupted and intertwined with their lives and the women they love.

As for point of view characters, according to the titles, it may indicate the stories are based on the male character’s point of view, but I feel, you get an insight of both the male and female characters point of view. This is what makes the story interesting and helps move it along. Is there one character’s point of view I focus on more? I’m not sure. But, I welcome you to read the books and let me know.J

Q: Your book covers feature handsome, muscled men. What does that suggest about the contents? Are these sweet romances, or saucy love stories?

Jeni: These love stories are sweet and sexy but also have mystery and adventure.

Q: Does this series go on? What “angel” will your fans read about in the future?

Jeni: The Angel series continues. It’s hard to tell right now which “Angel” we will read about next! I, too, am excited to find out and will share with all my readers when the book is done! J

So here’s a writer for some of you romance readers to try out. You can find Jeni’s books on Amazon.

interviews

Yellowstone Yondering: New Book by Kristen Joy Wilks

1 Comment
Released today, January 17, 2020. Kristen is getting a nice list of available books.

Today is the release day for Kristen Joy Wilks’ latest book, Yellowstone Yondering [link to it at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble].

I interviewed Kristen before on the blog. We looked into her “Genre Focus Disorder”, a writing malady that she and I share. But she’s finished the new book and it’s out today!. Let’s see what we can learn about it.

Q: What is your book about?

Kristen: When a free-spirited wildlife photographer loses her Scottish terrier in a herd of bison, she sets out to rescue her furbaby before he is devoured. But will she succeed when Yellowstone National Park is chock full of boiling, bubbling, and rampaging hazards (both mammalian and geographical)—not to mention a rule-obsessed park ranger whose many rescues thwart her efforts to find her poor pup?

Q: I’ve been to Yellowstone Park twice and loved it. What inspired you to write Yellowstone Yondering?

 

Tourists might stay on the designated paths, but what about rambunctious Scottish terriers?

Kristen: Our family went on Vacation to Yellowstone when my sons were 12, 10, and 8.  We saw many terrifying warning signs while there. They are very exciting and show a drawing of the same little boy being in various perils all over the park. My husband named him “Jimmy” and there was a sign with him running from a bear, being tossed by a bison, and succumbing to a thermal zone. I knew that if a I had a “rules-optional” character, that she could get into a whole lot of trouble in Yellowstone. Plus, a rules conscious ranger would clash with her admirably. We left our dog behind, but saw lots of ways she could have gotten into trouble at Yellowstone.  I almost always have a dog in my books and so after reading the stringent rules for taking pets into the park, I knew that there were romantic comedy possibilities all over the place!

Q: Write what you know; write what you experience. I love it. How else did you research Yellowstone Yondering?

Kristen: I watched YouTube videos of bears breaking into cars before penning that scene in the book. Bears are actually quite good at this! I interviewed a Yellowstone park ranger, talked with a former park ranger, and researched all of the rules for visiting the park. I looked up which plants grow in the area, how much one is fined for feeding bears, watched videos of bears being trapped and released for scientific purposes as well as perusing many cute photos of Scottish terriers. We owned a Scottie mix when I was young, so I am well-acquainted with their boldness. Our family also visited Yellowstone together.

Q: What real events did you use in Yellowstone Yondering?

Kristen:

1.     Our family did indeed drive to Yellowstone in an old van with the windows stuck half down, no AC, and Weird Al music blaring.
2.     My grandmother actually did have a bear bluff charge her just like in the story. It was a black bear near our house, but grizzlies will do the same thing.
3.     My grandparents saw a man on a motorcycle drive through Hayden valley with bison pressing all around him. This got me thinking about book possibilities for sure!
4.     When my mother was a girl, and it was legal to feed bears, she once watched her father feeding marshmallows to a bear (the park used to encourage this) and then her Dad decided that the bear had had enough but the bear disagreed and chased him around and around the campfire while his wife and children hid in the camper laughing at him. The bear won. He finally tossed the bag of marshmallows over his shoulder and made a run for their vehicle. The scene with the grizzly, the marshmallows, and the campfire was inspired by this real family story.
There you have it, folks. Yellowstone Yonderings looks like a good book to pick up. Here’s a little about Kristen, along with links of where to find her and her books.
Kristen Joy Wilks: romance author adding in real world wilderness.

Author Bio

 

Kristen Joy Wilks lives in the beautiful Cascade Mountains with her camp director husband, three fierce sons, and a large and slobbery Newfoundland dog. She has blow-dried a chicken, fought epic Nerf battles instead of washing dishes, transported a gallon bag of cooked bacon inside her purse, and discovered a smuggled gardener snake in her sons’ bubble bath. Her stories, devotionals, and articles have appeared in Nature Friend, Clubhouse, Thriving Family, Keys for Kids, The Christian Journal, Splickety, Spark, and Havok. She writes romantic comedies for Pelican Book Group, including Copenhagen Cozenage, The Volk Advent, Athens Ambuscade, Spider Gap, and Yellowstone Yondering. Kristen loves to write about the humor and Grace that can be found amidst the detritus of life. Much like the shiny quarter one member of their household swallowed and then found in the pot four days later. If God is good enough to grant us these gems, she figures that someone should be putting them to the page. Kristen can be found tucked under a tattered quilt in an overstuffed chair at 4:00am writing a wide variety of implausible tales, or at www.kristenjoywilks.com. If you would rather enjoy photos of charging bison, Newfoundland dogs, and attacking squid then by all means visit her “What I’m Writing About” board on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/kristenjwilks7/what-im-writing-about/
interviews

Author Interview: Kristen Joy Wilks

3 Comments

Previously on this blog I’ve stated that I have a writing disease: Genre Focus Disorder. This is totally self-diagnosed, and, as you might surmise, a self-created term. Mine seems to be getting progressively worse the longer I’m on this writing journey.

Kristen is a writer who is well on her way of making a mark in the world.

So I’m always…what should I say… encouraged? justified? amused? or maybe sympathetic when I find another writer who has GFD. Recently Kristen Joy Wilks made a comment on a literary agency blog I follow, and I could see GFD pouring from every word. You’ll see it if you look at her website. So I asked Kristen if she would agree to be interviewed here, and her she is.

Q: As I read your bio on your website, I learn of many interesting adventures you have where you live in the Cascade Mountains. Tell us a little about your life there.
A trouble-making dog? Surely this lovable creature isn’t the model for that character!

Kristen: I live at a small Bible camp where my husband is the Camp Director and our three sons take their pet chickens on field trips through the forest, mountain meadows, and up into tree forts of dubious construction. Our Newfoundland dog frolics along behind them, adding muddy pawprints and her lovingly shared fur to the mix. The camp sits at 3,000 feet above sea level and is mostly off grid. We do have phones, but power and water are something we must supply for ourselves through a well and generator with its own battery system.

Q: Also from your website, I see books in three categories: romance, young adult, and middle grade. Yikes, do you really have Genre Focus Disorder just like I do?
Kristen: Yep, I also have picture book manuscripts and poetry about boys, puppies, bugs, and true love! My first love is YA, but during 18 years of attempting to sell my work, I’ve found that the YA market is incredibly tight. I’ve found a home for my romantic comedies and am still pitching stories for children of all ages whenever I get the chance.
Q: Your romances seem to be set in the modern era, not in a series (at least not that I could tell from the brief descriptions). Tell us about your latest romance novel, or, if you prefer, about any of them.
One of Kristen’s romance books.

Kristen: I love to put trouble-making animals in my stories. Copenhagen Cozenage uses a few of our own stories from owning a 150lb Newfoundland dog as I hazard my heroine with an abandoned dog of epic proportions. Spider Gap is my latest and I combine an amazing hike from my youth with a story about an inexperienced hiker who attempts to smuggle her purse dog over a glacier on a 21 mile hike. Right now, I’m working on edits for an adventure in Yellowstone National Park involving a strict park ranger and a free spirited motorcycle-riding photographer who just happens to misplace her Scottish terrier in a herd of bison. If you know anything about Scotties, you’ll realize what a huge problem this is since Scottish terriers will attack any animal no matter their size … even if they weigh in at 2,000 lbs and have two foot horns.

Q: So how does a romance novel writer manage to also write young adult and middle grade?
Kristen: I started with YA and then wrote a romance on a dare so that I had something to pitch at our local conference. The editor loved it and they are super fun to write! I keep coming back to stories for children though and hope to find a home for them at some point.
Q: Do you find yourself gravitating to one of these three genres? Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of adding a fourth.
Kristen: Ha ha, yes I have added picture books. Sorry about that! I am feeling the siren call of middle grade right now after so many years of reading aloud to my three sons. There aren’t many books for boys in the Christian market and who better to write for boys then a mom who has discovered a smuggled gardener snake in her sons’ tub, found pet chickens in the bunk beds, and been asked to pray for captured bugs?
Q: Tell us something about your work(s)-in-progress.
Kristen:  Ooooh, right now I’m jumping between two stories. A middle grade that uses some of our wild dog moments as we navigate life with a 110 lb Newfoundland Princess who demands fresh water with every drink, a cookie if we want her to scoot off the seat belts so our youngest can buckle, and wakes us up at 3:00 AM in order to tattle on the neighbor kids about taking her special spot on the couch. Also, there is a book that uses my love of the forest and camp combined with young boys battling prehistoric creatures while trying to hide a rowdy puppy. Here is a photo of our Princess Leia Freyja, the Newfoundland Princess and only other girl in our household.
Check out Kristen’s website for more about her. And check out her books at her Amazon page, or at other retailer links on her website. I’m sure you’ll find something you’d like to buy. Or sign up for her newsletter.
Help support artists with GFD. Look at the choices you have of Kristen’s books.
interviews

Author Interview: Linda Bonney Olin

2 Comments
Linda has a number of items for sale—well worth checking out for the Christian reader.

Have you ever thought about a friend or acquaintance and wondered “Now, how did I meet that person?” It doesn’t happen often to me, but it does happen. Linda Olin is one of those people for me. It was at an on-line writing site, I know that much; but whether it was a writing blog, a writer’s site, or something else, I don’t remember. But when I saw the types of books Linda writes, checked out her website and saw the many things she’s been involved in, I decided I wanted to interview her. Posting this has been somewhat delayed due to my website hacking, and making sure everything was good. Here’s the interview. I see Linda even caught a mistake in one of my questions to her. Rather than sanitize it, I’ll give it to you with the error and the correction.

David: Your website says, “I’m excited to tell you about my writing, art, ministry, and life in general.” You have subpages that read: Hymns and faith songs; Poems; Church skits and longer dramas; Bible studies; Devotions; and more. And that’s just under writing. Sounds like you’re staying busy.

Linda: Busy is right! My writing time has to be shoehorned into spaces between other obligations. I’m retired from full-time employment, but I still handle all the bookkeeping, payroll, tax work, etc. for our dairy farm. And life tends to insert unexpected demands, like taking care of my husband during his months of recovery from a serious accident in 2016.

David: Under books, I see five different ones. Some have to do with songs or hymns; all have to do with Christian ministry. You must see your writing as a calling.

Linda: Absolutely. It was that call that led me to leave my salaried job to concentrate on writing. My prayer group had encouraged me to pray for my heart’s desire (Mark 11:24; Matthew 21:22). Seemed pretty iffy to me, but I took it to God. My heart’s desire? To write something with eternal significance, like the great hymns that continue to touch lives long after the writers are dead and gone. I didn’t ask for fame and fortune, or even to be published. Just that God would use my writing to accomplish his purpose. He answered my prayers with a promise to grant my heart’s desire, provided that I would write according to his daily direction. Needless to say, I agreed.

My “Holy GhostWriter” has led me along a squiggly path in the ten years since we made that covenant. As you mentioned, my little body of work includes quite a few different genres. Writing instructors advise you to stick to one genre, to establish your “brand.” Evidently my HGW didn’t attend that class. J

For the past several years, my main writing focus has been hymns and faith songs. I write the texts (lyrics). I’ve written tunes for some of them, but mostly I set them to public domain hymn tunes.

Published Nov 2017, this is Linda’s newest book.

David: What is Then Sings My Soul about?

Linda: Ha! You picked up on the reference to “How Great Thou Art”: “Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee.” The title of my book is Now Sings My Soul: New Songs for the Lord. It’s a collection of over a hundred of my new texts. I chose to emphasize “Now” because the songs speak to, and for, our souls wherever we might be on our walk with the Lord. Maybe right now we’re in a place of joy and praise and gratitude. Maybe now we’re in a place of pain, or penitence, or loss, or questioning. Like the psalmists, we can take all those things to the Lord in song.

David: Now Sings My Soul is your newest book?

Linda: Yes, it came out the end of November. A few months before that, Were You There When They Crucified Our Lord? Meditations on Calvary was released. Several of the songs in Now Sings My Soul were originally written to accompany the devotions in Were You There.

A timely book for this season of the church calendar.

David: Your books seem to show a special interest in Lent and Easter themes.

Linda: That’s because they originated from several series of weekly Lenten soup-and-study programs put on for my local multi-denominational group of churches. I figured, why let all the work of writing studies, dramas, devotions, and music go to waste after one presentation? Better to polish them up into books for other churches, small groups, and individual readers to use. Were You There, Transformed: 5 Resurrection Dramas, The Sacrifice Support Group, and Giving It Up for Lent came about that way.

As Linda says, this is a group of studies concerning Lent.

David: Your website mentions novels-in-progress. Tell me about that.

Linda: Mystery novels are my reading of choice, so those were the writing projects I started with. One cozy mystery and a women’s fiction manuscript, both with a light spiritual element, got pushed to the back burner by other projects. (Actually they’ve been shoved right off the back of the stove onto the floor with the dust bunnies!)

David: What are your writing/publishing plans going forward?

Linda: That’s up to my HGW. A Christmas Eve cantata is waiting to be completed. Dramas from another year’s Lent program haven’t made it into book form yet. And a how-to book about personal puppet ministry (based on my experience with my son and his puppet pal) is finished and edited but not yet published. Who knows? Maybe my HGW will plop one of those projects onto my plate tomorrow.

Meanwhile, my soul’s ear is always open for new song ideas. It still amazes me to be given the gift of a new faith song. Never imagined I would write music, having zero music training. The power of the Holy Spirit in action!

The publishing process has been a major undertaking for me, far beyond writing the material in the first place. My smaller pieces (devotionals, poems, hymns, short fiction) have been picked up by regular publishers, but my books are all independently published as Kindle ebooks and/or print-on-demand paperbacks. The song book, especially, was a huge effort to compile and lay out. I don’t recommend do-it-yourself book production as a rule, but that’s where God’s “daily direction” happened to lead me.

I post extra goodies like audio files, PDF scores, and other online resources on Faith Songs http://LindaBonneyOlin.com. Maintaining that website is a big job too.

David: Can people buy your books there?

Linda: No, Faith Songs is geared to information and ideas, not selling stuff. All my books are available on Amazon.com. The easiest place to start is my Amazon Author Page. http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Bonney-Olin/e/B0079M4OMW

Thanks very much for inviting me to your blog, David. I really appreciate your helping get the word out about my books and songs. God bless!

David: And thank you, Linda, for being a part of An Arrow Through The Air. I hope my readers give you some sales.

books, interviews

Author Interview: Paul Lawrence

1 Comment

Today’s blog post is an interview of author Paul Lawrence. I don’t remember exactly where I met Paul on-line. Probably at a blog for writers that we both read and post at from time to time. I checked out him and his writing. Time for you all to know about it.

DAT: Your website bio indicates you were a computer security analyst, and that you wrote articles in your professional field. How does someone make the jump from writing computer articles to writing creatively?

Paul in a casual pose, no doubt with the gray cells churning out a scene or some dialog.
Paul in a casual pose, no doubt with the gray cells churning out a scene or some dialog. And, while I’m at it, thank you, Paul, for your service to our country.

PL: For many years, I dreamt of writing fiction. In fact, my wife bought a wood name plaque with Paul Lawrence (my pen name) on it about fifteen years ago for my birthday. She said, “Maybe this will motivate you.” But I stayed so busy with my work and keeping up with the changes in my chosen field, that there was little time even for reading outside my profession. I was asked to write an article for Securityfocus.com, because another writer had declined to at the last minute. Once I had written the first one, they kept asking me to write more. That helped me believe in myself as a writer.

When I retired, I decided it was time to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a novelist. But the two fields are so dissimilar that it’s quite a leap. In nonfiction, you write about facts but try to do it in an entertaining way.  With fiction, you have to stir the readers’ emotions and make them feel like they are living the experience.

The first thing I started writing was a crime story with a Christian
detective. The first fifteen pages were what is known as “telling”. I was writing the story as if it was nonfiction, describing the detective and his accomplishments without any emotion or action. (I may go back to that one day, but it will be dramatically different than the way I started it.)

DAT: Your book is titled “Prayers Were No Help”. It’s a provocative title. Tell us something about it. And how did you come to write it?

A novella, "Prayers Were No Help" is available both as an e-book and a print book.
A novella, “Prayers Were No Help” is available both as an e-book and a print book.

PL: It’s a story about a guy who is flying high, enjoying life and success, and thinks the good times will never end. Then his wife is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his world comes crashing down. Like many others in similar circumstances, he sinks into depression and begins drinking heavily.

Realizing that he has to either end it all or find a way out of the
darkness surrounding him, he travels to his family’s lake cabin to be alone with his thoughts and the bottle. But he meets a mysterious man named Toby, who’s persistence and patience lead to his healing and a positive outlook on life from a God-centered perspective.

One day, he decides to return to the lake and thank Toby and finds out Toby was not who he thought he was at all.

I was inspired to write the story, because I have been touched by cancer personally. I lost my best friend to pancreatic cancer, and five years ago my wife was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Then, while she was waiting for her surgery date, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Both of us believed she would beat cancer, and she has. She has been cancer-free for five years now. The experience, dealing with the doctors and learning about the treatment modalities, informed my writing.

The title was suggested by my editor. I had tried similar ones but liked her suggestion so much I decided to use it. I think it speaks to the questions we all have when we think our prayers aren’t being answered and we don’t understand why. I love the Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers, by the way.

DAT: Why did you decide to self-publish this?

PL: Since I’m new to the business, I began by doing a lot of research. I knew it wasn’t easy to publish using the traditional route, but I tried. I was told that no one reads Christian fiction and no one wants to publish novellas.  (My book is only 23,000 words, less than half the length of some novels and less than a quarter the size of many sci-fi novels.) I knew the story was complete. Adding more to it would have made it worse. So, eventually I decided to self-publish. Even if only one person reads it, it is my prayer that that one person will be inspired.

What’s next for you? I assume you’re working on a second book, if not  even more than that.

Actually, I have three in the pipeline.  The first, which is nearing completion, is a story about a young man from Iowa who volunteers to go to Vietnam, to carry on the family tradition. His experience there, and upon returning, shapes his life and causes him to endure a great deal of emotional upheaval. In the end, God’s love will save him and heal his heart. The title is Some Wounds Never Heal.

The second and third are in the germ stage; a story about a woman who is abused by her husband and how she finds the strength to believe in herself and God to escape from that prison, and a story about a girl who is kidnapped by a serial killer and a female FBI profiler who desperately wants to catch him before he kills again. The two together will solve the case and bring closure to many grieving families.

DAT: So there you have it, folks. Check out Paul’s book at Amazon, as well as his website.

interviews

Author Interview: Susan Todd

1 Comment
We didn't see each other from 1959 to 2002. It's been good to stay connected these last 20 years.
We didn’t see each other from 1959 to 2002. It’s been good to stay connected these last 20 years.

My cousin Susan Todd is a writer, with several books to her credit. I’ve written about her before. We used to see each other years ago, when I was so young I haven’t carried those memories to adulthood. Her father moved the family in the mid-1950s. There’s a photo of us together in 1959 in the family album. Otherwise, I had no contact with her until the late 1990s. I started working on genealogy. I had no idea where she was, so I contacted her dad, my uncle, and got an address, and wrote her.

I was just starting to write then. She’d been at it for a while. That common bond, along with the family tie, caused us to maintain contact. She even came to Arkansas and stayed with us for a couple of months.

Somehow I missed that she had a new book out last year. Shame on me. So here, belatedly, we talk about it.

Q: I see your latest book, Tangled Lives, was published in 2016. I guess I missed the book launch. Tell us something about that book.
 
Suz (her preferred diminutive): This book idea sat in my files for quite a long time before the reason I started it resurfaced. When I first began investigating the Internet, I was a wide-eyed overzealous sleuth as green as grass. I claimed my ticket and hopped aboard to venture to places in hopes of meeting people that I would never come to know in my limited surroundings.
 
This is Suz's 9th book, all of which are available at Amazon.
This is Suz’s 9th book, all of which are available at Amazon.

Assuming that the people I encountered would be as honest and forthright as me; I dove in. Stone Blue was like no other person I’d ever met or will meet. Taking her on as a character was easy—all I had to do was draw from everything she said and did in our relationship. This woman had—issues—none of which I blew out of proportion.

 
She had to be written about. I couldn’t have made this woman up if I tried. Therefore, I went to a place I knew she’d fit in—under the porch with Moses Down. Thus, Tangled Lives came alive on paper.
 
Q: You say “there’s a thin line between fact and fiction,” and challenge your readers to tell which of the characters are real, and which are fictional. So, are you saying that some of your characters ARE based on real people, with, I presume, the names changed to protect the innocent (or guilty, as the case may be)?
 
Suz: I love to people watch. It’s not a new idea it’s been done on street corners, shopping malls, in families, on jobs and simply anywhere you find life. I have to confess that over the years I have nitpicked personalities. Whether from my upbringing or self-taught I seem to have trouble with some people’s behavior. Because I can’t correct or eliminate these individuals’ conduct—I write about them. On paper, I can expose their shortcomings, educate them, or simply let them be what they are allowing the reader to pass their own judgment.
 
The world affords a vast panorama of fictional possibilities—all you have to do is open your door or in some cases go to a family reunion.
 
Q: What genre do you consider Tangled Lives to be, or is it one of those books that defy genre classification? I’m assuming, even though some characters are “plucked from real life” that we are talking about a novel, not a non-fiction book.
 
Suz: Maybe it’s a ‘fictional how to and not to’.
 
Q: Your Amazon page shows nine books (I think) to your credit. They appear to be a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and memoir. What kind of author do you see yourself as, primarily?
 
Suz: I’m definitely a fictional author. Someone, I’m not sure who, once said that we should write so that the characters leap off the page. I tend to take my people-net and after capturing a few crazies, annoying or rare real life finds—embed them in a book. I often wonder which of my characters will some reader say, “That’s me!”
 
Q: I assume you’re working on a new book. Tell us about it, and when it might be out.
 
Suz: ‘A’ book? I’m laughing, Dave, because you know all too well that—A—book is never a reality. It’s more like, which one am I going to finish first. I hop about my files like a frog under a bug light. But I have to say that Covert Plumage and God in a Sweater are running neck and neck.
 
Now that I’ve finished moving and the last of the boxes have stopped calling my name to unpack them while enjoying coffee in the morning, I’m beginning to hear my characters clamoring to come out and play on my keyboard. No rest for the author in me. Who knows, maybe this year two books will make it to the finish line.  
So there you have it. Check out Suz’s author page at Amazon, and buy a book or two. You won’t be sorry.