Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! Would you start by telling the readers a little bit about yourself?
Thanks so much for having me, Sarah! I'm honored to be here today. As far as about myself, I don't know where to begin!
Actually that reminds me of a scene in one manuscript I'm working on, where our young heroine is left alone with the responsibility of keeping the attention of a slightly dangerous, but currently chatty, giant. ...While she's sitting in his hand.
~
“So,” he said. “Tell me about you.”
“Well,” I drew my knees up and put my arms around them. “There’s really not that much to say. I’m not at all interesting.” I batted my eyes and smiled winningly. “Wouldn’t it be better if you told me about you?”
“Ha!” he laughed, a deep rolling belly laugh that was slow and broken, so that it sounded like a boulder bouncing down a mountain. “Ha-ho!”
Then he wiped his eyes and subsided into chuckling.
“Please?” I said charmingly. I really needed to keep him in a good mood until they got back, and there’s nothing anyone loves so much as to talk about themselves.
~
Anyway, I guess I'll give it a try! ;-) I'm starting on the 28th year that the Lord has seen fit to keep me around, and I've had a pretty unique, and slightly rough-and-tumble, life so far. Due to various factors, my family moved around a lot, so I was exposed at an early age to a great variety of "settings", as well as "characters". This really was a blessing for my fiction writing, because, although I rarely lift directly from real life, everything I've seen and heard is just sitting around in boxes in the back room of my mind; and I know that they come out and swing their legs over the edge and holler ideas through the wall while I'm trying to bring a scene to life.
I was always the "thoughtful one", and all that people watching certainly has helped me in sculpting real life personas on the page.
I'm "best friends" with my youngest sister, and although she's not particularly "writerly inclined", she and I have great times brain storming plots, dissecting stories, and tossing ideas around. We also enjoy historical fashions, and inventing our own designs, sewing, working with animals. She loves medieval history, and has practically memorized the book The Kings and Queens of Britain. Myself, not so much, but is does show some Very Interesting plates of period depictions of fashion in medieval times! :-) I love finding gems like that, un-warped by the intervening centuries and "what we thought they probably wore"!
As for the rough-and-tumble part, we always lived out in remote areas, and so we kids grew up exploring whatever new woods we had moved next to; and learning to get along with horses, cows, goats, sheep, dogs, cats, chickens, and (lately,) turkeys. I was more the "nose in a book" type, but my siblings were my peer group, so I did what they did a lot of the time. And the older two could get kind of wild! Especially with horses. ;-)
So I count myself blessed with a good understanding of how things were before industrialization; which sets me up to write about far away lands in long ago times. I've always been a lover of fairytales, so oftentimes a good dollop of that gets stirred in to the mix.
What is your favorite homeschool memory?
I have always been glad to have been home schooled, and to single out one memory would be hard. I guess it might have to be one evening when I was little and wanted to get started learning something, since the older two had been set up with their school books for the year. Mom was a little busy with supper, but she took the time to write the "ing" ending on a paper, and explained how to make and modify words with it. She went back to cooking and I laboriously copied "ing" down the page; then "wing", "sing", etc. Years later when I hit the "ing" ending in the spelling book I had no trouble at all, and was surprised when I found other kids found that syllable highly confusing to spell.
What inspired you to start writing?
At the end of my ninth year, I read an abridged version of Little Women, and was surprised and delighted to read that Jo ended up writing books. I had never given a thought to how books came into being, and that new information sealed my fate. I knew right then i wanted to be a writer, and I asked Mom how to learn it. She replied, very wisely; "Read all the books you can find, and study them to see what the author did particularly well, and what you don't think worked as well."
I took her at her word, and she had a hard time getting books to stay out of my hand long enough to get my sweeping done. I don't think it's her fault, though, since I probably would have been that way no matter what she told me about learning to write. Still, her advice was very on-point... and I learned a lot from the vast array of genres which I consumed. Partly due to this, I don't think of myself as "having" a genre; because a good story was where ever I found it, be it adventure novel ("Kidnapped"! "Prisoner of Zenda"!) or regency romance. ("Pride & Prejudice" anyone?) And of course, a good, grueling historical was always an eye opening experience, and I think it's important for a writer of fiction to be intimately acquainted with reality on all it's levels. So while I don't write about the French and Indian Wars, ("The Frontiersman", "Northwest Passage") it was an experience not to be forgotten to live there for a while.
What is the plot for your book "Jeweler's Apprentice"?
I wrote the first draft as a gift for my sister, and she is a plot detective. She also objects to nearly every cliche known to novelists, so I was particularly hard pressed to create this character and her story arc. I plotted out a fresh course, and it passed muster with Abigail, so I think I have succeeded.
Our heroine, Fia Brithin, is sixteen-going-on-seventeen, and the sixth child of a regional governor whose entire family is invited to the royal palace. They are all excited about this; but while there Fia sees a sinister looking situation and tries to remedy it.
(One of the themes I notice a lot in my writing is "sometimes things go all wrong when you're simply trying to do the right thing". This should not discourage you from trying, but it will lead to an interesting, and possibly slightly uncomfortable, adventure.)
This misunderstanding results in the Chancellor forcibly conferring on her the honor of immediately apprenticing to a far away, and very famous, mountain jeweler. It's a huge opportunity for a girl like her, but it's a move that she wasn't ready to make right yet; but through the upcoming adventure she learns more than just jeweler-ing, and she emerges a more confident, and capable young lady.
With a savage civil war raging in the other side of the mountains, Fia gets caught up in the turmoil of uncertain times; escaping refugees, and the spy/information network that helps both the fleeing people and their defenders. She finds jewels with deep secrets and new friends with the same; learns why not to try stealing from gem thieves; what heroism is, what royalty ought to be, and that the mountains themselves can sometimes be the greatest danger of all.
Who inspired your main character?
Fia's character was drafted keeping Abigail, (and her objections!) heavily in mind. So she doesn't have golden, jet, or firey red hair. Just an ordinary rusty-brown. She isn't gorgeous, willowy, wonderful and has all the young men falling in love with her.
As a matter of fact, she considers herself completely unremarkable, especially when compared to her accomplished, brave, and prettier elder sisters. She tries hard to keep up the family honor, and her pride refuses to let her cry when faced with fierce, cloaked strangers threatening her in the night.
I think she is in general a fairly realistic portrait that a lot of readers can relate to, with her shyness, love of family, determination to do the right thing, (even when she's not sure what that is!) and most of all her simple, home spun heroism by always rising to the occasion and stepping up to the challenge, whether she feels any confidence in herself or not.
How did homeschooling effect your writing?Well, we kids were always glad we didn't have to spend the day in school, but could move on to our other interests as soon as we'd finished with our schoolwork. Because of this I had plenty of time to focus on both reading and, in my teens, writing. And parental encouragement to pursue our interests definitely played a big role in all the "paths" us kids delved into. So, we got a very well rounded education, particularly tailored to each individual.
Where can people go to get your book?
My first novel, Jeweler's Apprentice, is available as an e-book through Amazon. With the "look inside the book" feature, folks can get a good feel for the story.
Do you have any last thoughts?
I love to reinvent plot points and story techniques that turn the "expected" inside out and lead the reader on a path they've never been on before. My "plot partner" and I spend a great deal of time examining the weaves of beloved stories, new and old, and drawing fresh conclusions on how to use old standbys in refreshing and exhilarating ways. It is a fun field of study, and I hope it adds an element of surprise to the story lines that result.
I think books are important because they can take you places you've never been, or are impossible to go, (history, fantasy, etc.) and you learn so much from the worlds represented within the pages. That's why it's imperative that a book depict a hale and hearty sense of reality, (even if it's imaginative fiction.) Unfortunately, it seems that modern authors are diving deeper and deeper into warped and twisted perspectives of reality and serving them up as a mirror through which to view your own life.
I realize that most people read for pleasure, not profit, ( ;-) ) but I hold that the measure of a good book is how much "real effect" it has, while being a fun time. There are so many things we can learn from books, accepting from other people's lives information that we would otherwise have no access to. To throw away this special avenue for learning is a huge loss, and it makes me sad to think of the ignorance that will doubtless be the result of readers who aren't exposed to books rooted in the truth of the real world. The Real World, where every action has a consequence, where we must carefully discern the good from the evil in even the small things; where there are facts that we must deal with, work around, and overcome.
I write a lot of fantasy, and I enjoy it because I think that through that medium a writer can capture great truths and hold them reflected in the web of the imagination, for readers to see.
I sometimes include a mysterious power that in fantasy terms would be called "magic". I write this because I believe a mysterious power exists in our own world... and nobody can explain it. Neither can they "channel" it, "shape shift" with it, or make it do their bidding in any way. Therefore, neither can my characters.
This Power exists beyond the realm of human understanding, but it effects every day in invisible ways. (I have felt it, and I know it's more real than the tree in the yard. If He wished, that tree would disappear without trace, but He endures forever.)
This spiritual ground is part and parcel of Reality, and to work in a vacuum without it is just as unrealistic as "modern thought" lays at the door of any who Believe.
I have a huge respect for His ways, and so am very shy of infusing them into an historical narrative. His workings have changed from era to era, and who am I to presume so much as to "plug and play" His powers in concocting a tale to my liking? (I don't mean anything against those who do explore this heavily in their own works! Each to his own. Which means I'm responsible to my leading.)
It is said the "sincerest form of flattery is imitation." This is the route I take, and I hope that the worlds, characters, and actions that play out across the page are shapes of the implacable confidence and burning hope that I have from Him in the face of a world growing much darker.
We all need vision; and young people are particularly desperate for it. Their futures will see tumultuous things, and I have a passion for trying to reach out to them and give them a hand in the direction toward firmer, higher ground.
I look forward to the future with a mixture of real fear and an even stronger sense of anticipation. For even though I know things will continue to get worse, (as the Bible predicts,) I have felt the hand of the Almighty, and nothing, nothing, nothing can bring about even a slight shift in His Power.
The storm gathers, and the battle will be fierce. But only One will emerge victorious, and I am standing in His shadow.
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