Congratulations, Jenny. You are the winner of Mary Connealy’s book.
Don’t forget if you want a copy of Linda Hall’s newest book, to leave a comment with your email address or email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com in order to be entered in the drawing for the book. The drawing will end this Sunday night.
Linda Hall’s interview:
1. What made you start writing?
I never ‘started’ writing. I always wrote. There was never a time when I thought about beginning to write. I made up stories when I was a child. I would come home from school and write them all down in a notebook. I always excelled in writing in school. I wanted to be a journalist, so after high school I studied journalism. I worked for many years as a freelance writer. When my children were young I worked as a reporter for a daily newspaper. I’ve also worked in adult literacy writing curriculum materials – so – long story short, I’ve always had jobs in writing.
2. How long have you been writing? When did you sell your first book?
In 1990 I decided to see if I could do what I long wanted to do – and that was write a novel. I did, and that first novel, The Josiah Files was published by Thomas Nelson in 1992.
3. How do you handle rejections?
Not very well. I tend to crawl up into a ball and eat a lot of Peach Fuzzies and licorice whips.
4. Why do you write?
Because I can do no other thing. If I was told that I would never, ever get another writing contract ever in my life, I would still wake up in the morning and begin working on a novel.
5. What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
I like to read, bicycle, sail and spend time with friends and family.
6. What are you working on right now?
I’m working on several proposals for Steeple Hill, and finishing up a novel which is scheduled to be released in March of ’09.
7. Do you put yourself into your books/characters?
Oh of course! My characters become my friends. I can’t imagine writing a book where you took an arms’ length approach. No, I’m right in there with my characters. Like a lot of writers I tend to live in my imagination. I’m always thinking about my characters.
8. Tell us about the book you have out right now.
Shadows at the Window is the second in my ‘shadows’ trilogy. The women in these series of books must deal with and work through the ‘shadows’ in their pasts before they can make peace and find love in the present. In the first of the series, Shadows at the Mirror, the main character doesn’t know anything about her past. It’s a mystery she must uncover. In this release, Shadows at the Window, main character Lilly Johnson knows her past all too well, and it’s one she’d rather forget. Because it’s so abhorrent to her, she’s made up a series of lies that she tells her fiancé. But, the past has a way of catching up with the present, and when people in her past show up, her first inkling is to run. But, that would mean leaving everything behind, and that’s something she’s not willing to do now.
9. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Read all you can. Read widely. Read in different genres. Don’t just read Christian books. Read all books. Everything you need to know about writing a novel can be gleaned by reading good novels. Never stop reading. Also, find some time to write every day – even if it’s only fifteen minutes on your journal.
10. How important is faith in your books?
It’s important, but I never try to put faith in for the sake of having it there. If a writer does that it ends up sounding preachy. It has to be natural to the story.
11. What themes do you like to write about?
Honesty. Authenticity.
12. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
That’s like asking a mother if she has a favorite child and why. I like all of my books for different reasons. Always the book I’m currently writing is my ‘favorite’ book.
13. How do you juggle writing for different houses?
Right now I’m writing for only one house. In my writing career it’s worked out that I’ve only ever worked for one house at a time.
14. What is your writing schedule like?
I usually get my best creative writing done in the mornings and out at a coffee shop. I can’t seem to write well at home. I don’t know – maybe it’s the distractions of home, or the distractions of email, or thinking about the millions of things I have to do that keeps me from being overly creative there. Or, maybe it’s the noise energy of the coffee shop itself, a dozen conversations going on and none of them have anything to do with me. Maybe it’s the act drowning them all out, that helps me to concentrate on what I’m writing. Also, most of my first draft writing is done by hand – on unlined sheets of paper in colored gel pens.
Then in the afternoon I go home and transcribe all of these scattered thoughts and words into some kind of order on my computer. My afternoons are also spent in busy work – taking care of emails, business, promotion etc. If I’m up against a deadline I will often return to my writing in the evening.
