Monday, October 10, 2016

Victoria on Jonas and Olivia


Victoria, welcome to Homeschool Authors! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hi! My name is Victoria Minks and I'm an Oklahoma-born MK living in Japan. I'm a confetti and chocolate loving extrovert with hundreds of ideas and plans. I am always laughing (can't help it!) and I desire to live a wholesome and whimsical life where all the glory goes to Jesus. :)

Everyone’s homeshooling experience is different. What do you think made yours unique?
We don't use just one curriculum... different subjects are different curriculum, and sometimes different kids in our family do different things per subject too. My mum has done an awesome job figuring out what works best for each of us kids and giving us an education that we really love and benefit from. Besides that, for two years of my schooling life we were on furloughs back in the states. As we were constantly busy and traveling we didn't get to do a whole lot of "traditional" school, so we did school-on-the-road. The places I've been able to visit, experiences I've had, and things I've learned along the way has been priceless.

How did being homeschooled prepare you to write?
With the opportunity to be schooled in a Christian environment we have grown up not only strong in our faith but also recognizing that God gives everyone various talents. Because of this my family has been exceptionally encouraging throughout the years towards my writing and allowed me from a young age to read, read, read, and scribble down all my stories. While my writing was only sometimes actually part of my schooling I would say that being homeschooled definitely gave me the advantage of more time to put into it and all that goes into self-publishing. (If I had been traditionally schooled here in Japan I wouldn't have had hardly any extra free time as their lives revolve around their school activities.) I'd also say that the ability to extensively research and learn about so many different things quite in-depth has payed off in allowing me to be that much better equipped when writing a book.

What caused you to start writing?
I've been writing ever since I could form words with a pencil. :) I can't remember a time when I didn't have a story forming in my brain, and I had collections of tales in notebooks already at six or seven. I can't say anything caused me to start writing at the very first except that God just put it in me. At fifteen-sixteen I had a slump, wondering if writing was really worth it when there were already so many books out there. I spent a lot of time praying on it, and that's when God convinced me that what is most important is to do what He wants me to do. Whether the "results" are big or little doesn't matter if you're in God's will, and I knew that God wanted me to share the gospel and Christian values in my books.

What inspired Jonas and Olivia?
It sounds funny but I sort of "met" one of the main characters, Jonas, in my head one day. I wasn't brainstorming or anything... he just popped in my head and was like "Hey there! My name is Jonas!" From there on out I slowly learned more and more about who he was, his story, etc until it was finally pretty much a fully formed plot-line.

Would you give us a synopsis?
Fourteen year old Olivia Wilkerson is left desolate and grieving when her patriot father passes away. Directed by his will to be placed in the care of an old friend, Olivia is forced to venture away from all she’s ever known to make her new life among people who are strangers to her.

Unaware of the new responsibility about to be thrust on him, Jonas Carmichael lives the life of a reclusive in an attempt to ignore the painful memories of the past. His heart has grown hard and bitter over the past thirty years of solitude, and his hatred towards people has only multiplied.

Suddenly burdened with Olivia, Jonas’s only burning desire is to shove the girl off on somebody else. But Olivia, still suffering from her loss, is only looking for someone to love her as her father did-- and soon realizes that there is more to Jonas than meets the eye.

With the Revolutionary War pressing closer around Jonas’s secluded bubble of safety and threatening to burst it at any moment, Jonas discovers that there are choices to be made--choices that will not only affect himself but those around him as well.

Who will enjoy Jonas and Olivia?
I think it's the kind of book that most any age would enjoy. It's family-friendly, but maybe the age range that would like it the best is 12-18. As far as the kind of people who'd like reading it... Christians, Baptists, folks who want clean Christian books, History buffs. :)

Do you plan to write more books?
I sure do. :) I have a few books somewhere along the stage to publication and a long list of ideas...I hope to keep writing till my finger's won't "hold a pen" anymore. And by that time technology will come to the rescue and I'll speak my manuscripts. lol.

Where can people connect with you online?
I blog over at www.victoriaminks.com -- free flash fiction, book updates, writing tips, tricks, and workbooks, writing challenges and more. :)
I'm on pinterest at https://pinterest.com/jpbookbug/,
I'm on twitter at http://twitter.com/VictoriaMinks/
and on Goodreads as https://goodreads.com/author/show/14674353.Victoria_Minks

Do you have any final thoughts?
Thank you so much for featuring me! :) If you're a writer and you've been feeling discouraged or frustrated, please stay strong. While sometimes writing and the process of self-publishing can be one of the toughest things ever I can't even describe how wonderful it is to be in God's will. ;) To God be the glory.

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