Where did you grow up?
I was born in San Francisco and raised in the East Bay Area after my parents moved us to the suburbs. We had much better summer weather (although rainy winters!) and a swimming pool – an above ground pool with a homemade sheet metal slide that my dad built. We had to caution our friends to watch out for the sharp edges and raise our arms in the air to avoid getting sliced up fingers! We walked or ride our bikes to school, piano lessons, and friend’s houses. There was a meadow at the end of our dead-end street and we used to cut through there to go to school, created forts and played for hours.
Tell me about your family? (what were your parents like, what did they do, siblings?)
My parents were both born and raised in San Francisco by poor immigrant parents from England, who came to the United States when they joined the church and wanted a better life for their children. My father was a civil engineer, often going to school at night to continue his education while my mother was a stay-at home mom after working in a bank for 5 years while struggling with infertility. They finally adopted my older brother through LDS Family Services and then got pregnant with me just a few months later. They went on to have five more children. We always knew our brother was meant to be in our family – and my parents named us all with “K” names (Kevin, Kimberley, Kari, Kirsten, Kurt and Kendall). They were devoted to the church and served in just about every calling you can think of (teachers, presidencies, seminary, organist, etc) while also being regular choir members. Music was a huge part of my growing up, we sang at home, in the car and had both a piano and organ at home. Sometimes my mother would play fun songs on the organ and we would sing and dance to it.
Everything changed a few days before Christmas when I was fourteen years old when my father was killed in an airplane crash on his way to southern California to teach an engineering class. He was also my seminary teacher that year and I had a 17-year-old cousin who went with him for the fun adventure and they were both killed. It was absolutely devastating, of course, and difficult to carry on without him, especially when my mother had never had the opportunity to attend college and had no regular career to fall back on. But we pulled together, got paper route jobs and high school jobs and saved our money, purchased the things we needed as teenagers, and always paid our tithing. My mother had a lot of faith and with God’s help most of us managed to get through college and have gone on to have successful careers and families.
Where did you go to school, what were your favorite classes, college?
I graduated high school from Concord High in Concord California, then attended Brigham Young University and majored in Piano Pedagogy. I loved BYU and my roommates from around the country, and we still keep in touch all these decades later. Of course, I also enjoyed my English and Writing classes and used to attend summer school just so I could take writing classes and participate in the drama club, despite being terribly shy. After getting married and graduating from BYU I taught piano lessons to about 20 students for many years while having my children and moving around the country a few times before ending up in Albuquerque, New Mexico for my husband’s job—a place we’d never been to, but have loved and enjoyed very much.
What did you like to do while growing up?
I read every day for hours, took piano lessons, swimming lessons, Girl’s Camp and Youth Conferences as well as had the marvelous opportunity to sing in the Oakland Temple Pageant. During the summer, my family went camping all over California, including the Grand Canyon and Utah where we also visited out Utah cousins, and spent many happy days at Disneyland often since we only lived a few hours’ drive away. We are a Disney-loving family! During elementary school, I played dress-ups with my friends and pretended we were people from a hundred years ago in “the olden days”.
My best friend, Starr, and I, even wrote a book together when we were in 6th grade about two girls who were kidnapped by aliens from Venus. We also went to drive-in movies, Primary and then Mutual during the week, and I got the calling of playing the piano for primary when I was a teenager, walking the two miles to the church every Wednesday afternoon. I loved going to summer school, too, and being in the drama class that put on a summer play, as well as taking writing classes.
When did you first start writing?
I got the writing bug early because I adored books so much and began writing short stories and some poetry when I was about ten years old—and just never stopped.
When did you write your first book?
I wrote my first novella in 9th grade, a gothic romance full of danger and murder. I sang second soprano in the high school choir (assigned the second soprano part because I could sight-read the music really well) and when the altos or sopranos were learning their part, I was scribbling pages of that gothic novel and handing over pages to my friends to read “hot off the press”.
Then I’d go home to my dad’s makeshift office in the garage and type them up on a bulky old typewriter.
What was writing your first book like? (How long did it take you? What was your inspiration?)
While attending BYU, I saved my money, bought my own typewriter and registered for a correspondence writing course through the Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut. I was paired up with a professional writer and learned so much about how to craft a good story and how to navigate the publishing world, query letters, submissions, and what editors were looking for, including how to target a magazine piece or book to what that particular audience wanted. The ICL course had 10 assignments and when I completed one, I’d send it to my instructor who critiqued them and gave me feedback and direction for revision. It was exciting to work with a professional writer or editor. And even more exciting when Assignment #6 sold to a music magazine for $25! I was thrilled to pieces! I went on to publish a couple of dozen short stories for various magazines which gave me great experience and paid for all the paper and postage I had to purchase. I even had several stories in The Friend and The New Era, publications of the church.
What was it like trying to get your book published?
I went on to take the Novel Writing Course through ICL and wrote a full-length novel, the first of many “practice” novels that were never published, but taught me about the craft of writing and all that goes into it, like developing characters, plot, setting, rising conflict, etc.
Becoming a published author is just like going to school to become a teacher, engineer, doctor, or lawyer. Writers must go through an apprentice period of writing thousands of pages before getting published. Each project teaches a writer about their strengths and weaknesses. Finding a critique group with other writers is invaluable for feedback and emotional support—because writing can be a lonely profession.
What goes into the editing and publishing process?
This is a huge, loaded question! Before a manuscript is ever sent to a publishing house or agent or editor who can give you a contract, I spend months or years working on a book project. Sometimes those manuscripts are shelved permanently and sometimes there is a book I can’t stop thinking about because I felt so strongly about the characters or the subject matter. Every few months, I’d pull it out and do another couple of rounds of revisions, get more feedback, and then submit again. This happened with my first book Breakaway, published by Avon Books. I wrote three completely different drafts and had numerous revisions on each version until I met an agent at a writer’s conference who took me on and sold it a month later. That agent and I did three books together, but then she stopped agenting and my books were “orphaned” – a term used to describe the unfortunate circumstance when an author’s editor leaving the publishing house. I lost the editors for all three of my first books.
Consequently, I went through a dry spell until I found a new agent. I had been working on The Healing Spell—one of those books I kept rewriting over and over again which eventually sold to Scholastic through my new agent after doing at least 25 revisions on the book. The heart of the book never changed, but my writing got better and better. That book has sold well over 100,000 copies.
After one of my books is sold to a publishing house, my editor and I go through multiple revisions, focusing on the big picture storyline, until we finally get down to micro revisions on smaller sections or paragraphs to pull out the emotion or characterization to make it as strong as possible. Then the editor line-edits the book and send it to a copyeditor. When I get the manuscript back from the copyeditor, we do a final, microscopic edit before it’s typeset. Then my editor, myself, and at least two proofreaders read it again for any typos before it heads off to be printed, bound, and shipped to bookstores and libraries.
What is your writing process like?
For me, a unique setting is usually my jumping off point. I’m interested in a certain place or visit somewhere that I fall in love with that I’m dying to write about and bring to life. Then I spend months or years researching to learn about the history, culture, food, and experiences of that area that I might or might not incorporate into the story. I imagine the type of person who lives there and what problems they would have and what their life and family would be like.
This is how I came to write four books set in the Cajun area of Louisiana in the swamps and bayous about faith healers and families in crisis. Or my ancient Mesopotamia trilogy about the roots of belly dance and tribal warfare and the frankincense trail and goddess temples.
I write a first draft, which takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I usually write 1,500 – 2,000 words a day. When I get closer to the end, I start writing 3,000 – 5,000 words a day as I’m closing in on the climax of the story when things get pretty exciting for my characters. It’s easy to get so immersed that I find myself mentally living inside my current book project and it’s hard not to think about it during the day or dream about my characters at night!
After that it’s several rounds of revisions before sending it to my agent or editor. And crossing my fingers that they will like it, too!
What about your next books? Was the process different? Was it easier/harder?
Whether it’s easier or harder is up for debate! After I had successfully sold several books, I began selling my books based only on 2-3-page written proposal. Of course, an author trying to do this on their own probably wouldn’t get very far. This is where an agent comes in very helpful to negotiate the process and brag about your track record. The publishing house has to trust you to produce the book by a specified time period and to make all your editorial deadlines.
Selling on proposal intensifies the pressure to produce a book within a certain time frame, especially if you only have a couple of pages of notes. The writing process still means getting a good outline and fleshing out the myriad of characters in a full-length novel. In many ways, every single book has its own challenges and problems and there are times when sections don’t come very easily or I get stuck on plotting. This is where having trusted writer friends to help you brainstorm can come in very handy!
How do you pick an audience and how does your writing style and process change for the different audiences?
When I first began writing, children’s and Young Adult books had such an impact on my own life while I was growing up that I knew I wanted to write for that audience. Children’s literature includes some of the most powerful and well-written books on the market today and so many genres and wonderful authors to choose from so it’s been a privilege to have an impact on my reader’s lives and know that something I’ve written is meaningful to them.
Over the last three years, I’ve begun writing adult romance that are uplifting and wholesome and there is an enormous market out there. These readers want to escape from the problems of the world and be uplifted and entertained. I’m finding out how important they are for so many women who want to read about the problems and lives of other women that doesn’t have sex and violence in them, but are about women overcoming challenges while navigating their relationships and families. I had no idea how powerful and important they can be for so many readers, so it’s been an exciting and fulfilling adventure!
What is different about writing books in a series? Is it easier/hard?
A series can be great fun, giving me a chance to explore the same characters in more depth, especially if I have a bigger story to tell. That happened with my FORBIDDEN trilogy with HarperCollins. It’s an enormous storyline with clashing cultures and tribes, ancient cities and armies as well as the secrets and truth behind the goddess temples of the Old World.
At its heart though, it’s a family story about two sisters torn apart by religion and expectations—and it’s a forbidden love story about two people who will sacrifice anything to save their families and be together.
The difficulty in writing a trilogy comes from trying to keep track of so many characters, all the various settings within the story’s world and the threads of the plot to bring all three books together into a rip-roaring ride full of adventure, intrigue, danger, romance, and emotional fulfillment, too.
What is it like seeing your books at stores and on shelves?
The first time spotting my book in the bookstore and the library was super thrilling! Perhaps, the library more so because I was the kid who hung out at the library constantly. Seeing my books online at Amazon and B&N and having my own website was also very exciting.
The best thing is getting fan letters from adults, teachers, friends, and from kids. I’ve received some letters from readers who told me that my books changed their life and those letters make me cry!
Did you feel like there were any extra, different, or unique challenges because you are a woman?
A career as a writer has no confining restrictions, which is really great because it’s the quality of the story and the writing that matters most. In children’s literature, especially, most of the editors and agents are women, which is great, too.
I’ve read a few articles over the years about statistics that show that there are far more published women writers out there than men, but that men receive a greater percentage of the literary awards than female authors do. It’s almost as if men’s novels are subconsciously given more merit. But most male writers have wives that take care of the household while they lock themselves away in their offices all day. The majority of female writers also hold down outside jobs while also carrying the bulk of household duties and childcare more than their male counterparts.
I’ve been fortunate to have a spouse who has always been very supportive of my writing even during years and years of no sales—while spending money from the household budget for writing courses, conferences, mailings, and travel.
Do you feel like there is more pressure on you as a writer because you are a woman?
No, I’ve never felt that way personally. Any pressure I feel comes from within myself as I try to write the best story in the best possible way while trying to learn my craft and become a better writer. Often, I’ve had an idea for a book that seems far above my capacity to tell and that can be quite daunting, but sometimes those books turn out to be my very best—and the ones where fans tell me the book affected them the most deeply. Every day it can be a challenge to overcome my personal fears about doing the story justice, as well as the daunting hard work of writing two or three hundred pages—and to just dive in and do it. It takes a lot of courage, patience, and a bit of guts to write a book!
You have done a lot of traveling in your life, how does that work into your writing, do you travel specifically for writing books?
Travel has been a combination of stumbling across an evocative and magical setting that I want to set a book at, as well as going to a place that I’ve already written about. That happened with my Forbidden/Banished/Returned trilogy where it was difficult to travel to the Middle East after the 9/11 tragedy—and also very scary—but years later, after I sold the trilogy to Harpercollins, the advance money I received paid for a trip to Jordan and Israel so that was very nice! It was a spectacular trip—a dream come true. What was also very enlightening was the fact that I had spent so many years researching the setting and people and culture that even after my two weeks over there and exploring the desert and visiting the tent of a Bedouin family I came home to do final revisions on the book and only tweaked a couple of sentences. I was pretty proud of myself!
Tell me about book tours and conferences that you go to and speak or where your books are sold/promoted?
I did a two-week book tour on the East Coast when FORBIDDEN launched, pairing up with other Young Adult authors to do bookstore and school visits. We timed it to coincide with a huge Young Adult Book Festival in Charleston South Carolina (started at Washington DC and worked our way south.) It was wonderful to meet the other authors, booksellers and young people and talk books, as well as meeting people in person that I had only met previously online through Facebook, Twitter, and my website.
I do school visits where I do a hands-on writing workshop for students and get them excited about reading and writing.
I’ve attended many local and national conventions and conferences, including several book festivals, like the huge Tucson Book Festival and the Charleston Young Adult Festival (3 times!). I was a keynote speaker at the New Mexico Library Association, the Louisiana Book Festival, Book Expo in New York City, Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, and Battle of the Books events, as well as attending the writer’s conference, LDStorymakers, in Utah, Romance Writers of America, including attending and speaking at numerous local and national events with the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators. It’s great to meet readers as well as other authors that I’m a fan of, too!
Tell me about your family? (Husband, kids, grandkids)
My husband is an electrical engineer at Sandia National Labs working in the robotics group, which he loves. He loves music, singing in the church choir, is a big reader about all kinds of topics, and likes to fix everything around the house, including our vehicles. He’s also a great dancer and was on the BYU dance team as well as played trumpet in the Cougar Band long, long ago. He serves others all the time and has held many callings in the church which he magnifies so fully and admirably. He also has a great sense of humor and a dry wit and relaxed personality.
We have three adult sons and three grandchildren that have been living with us since they were babies while our son and daughter-in-law attend college.
How does your writing fit in with your family life?
Having an active family in the community and church—and homeschooling for 12 years, too—has made the writing life a challenge. Too often life duties and travel and research and marketing and promotion and critique groups and family and church duties overtake my time, but I make notes when I’m away from my desk, take my laptop with me on long car trips, and just try to squeeze it in whenever I can, often writing late into the evening, especially when I’m on a deadline. Those deadlines can be very motivating!
Having a new set of grandbabies living with us proved a challenge, but I used some of my writing money to hire my brother who is a contractor to build me a writing cottage in our backyard and that has helped tremendously and has been a great blessing. I decorated it in a Victorian style and can crank up my inspirational music and pound out the words!
Is there anything else you can tell me about your life, being a woman and the challenges and problems that causes, being a writer, or anything else you think I should know?
Some people might say that I should somehow resent the time my family or household work takes away from my writing. They are wrong, because those hours have brought me joy and balance, and even more, have made my understanding of life so fuller, which I believe is why my books have been successful because the stories are about life and family as well as faith and overcoming trials and obstacles, after all.
History Behaved: Storytelling Project 