Today on her blog, She Plants a Vineyard, Tina Forkner is running an interview with me. Tina is a newly contracted author. Last August she happily signed a two-book contract with Waterbrook. Ruby Among Us is coming out in early 2008. The tentative title for book two is Rose
House and will be out six months later. Excerpt from the interview:
2) You are a Christian, but while your books deal strongly with the spiritual realm, your books seem almost mainstream like Stephen King’s or John Grisham’s. Do you write just for Christians or a wider spectrum of readers?
I write mostly for Christians. When I think of my defined target reader, I think of Christian women between the ages of around 35-65. That said, the “target reader” is only the beginning. I have nonChristian readers, male readers, and they’re of all ages, ranging from 13 to over 90.
However, when I sit down to write a story, I don’t think at all about the spiritual content. I think only about what will make a compelling suspense. I set out to write that story, and along the way the spiritual content presents itself. Sometimes I can be well over half through a book before I even know what the Christian thrust of the story is. But when I do find it, I don’t hold back in presenting as much of it as would naturally occur to the characters in the story. (I may have to go back and start weaving some of that in.) For example, in the Kanner Lake series, Violet Dawn has light Christian content. That’s because the protagonist isn’t a Christian, and the bulk of the novel takes place in a day, so she’s not going to have a lot of spiritual growth in that amount of time. But in Coral Moon, I present much more Christian content, because I’m dealing with a theological subject that must be approached from a biblical perspective. A suspense lover who really doesn’t want to read about Christian perspectives would have a harder time than a Christian reading most of my books, because of all the “spiritual parts” he/she would want to skim over...
Please click on Tina's blog link above to continue the interview.
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3 comments:
Good interview, Brandilyn. Thank you for your honesty. So many seem to scoff at admitting they actually do write for a primarily Christian audience these days--as if that objective is somehow less in the Kingdom.
And you do work in your spiritual parts in a natural flow of events--the way it occurs in REAL life.
Excellent interview. Best wishes as you approach--(shudder)--your deadline.
And by the way, thanks for taking that audio thing off your blog. No more "boo." I don't care what Terry Whalin says, blogs that talk aren't attractive.
Thanks for doing a Great interview at my blog Brandilyn. Your insights on Christian Fiction are excellent and we are honored to host you.
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