As a magazine writer, I learned to be economical with words, to write tightly and make sure few words said a lot. So, everything I needed to be a good journalist translated very well into fiction.
How did you make the transition to creative writing?
Like most freelancers, I had written just about everything: articles, brochures, film scripts - and a series of short radio shows for kids. A friend of mine let me know that Tommy Nelson was looking for writers for a series of kids’ novels. I contacted the editor and sent her some samples. Nelson ended up not doing the series. A while later the editor called up and said she’d liked my samples, and had I ever considered novels for adults? I had just spent the past six months working on a spec manuscript — about a third of what became Comes a Horseman — sent her that. Nelson (WestBow) bought it and here we are.
Your novels are plot-driven thrillers, yet you pay a lot of attention to character development. Your female characters are intelligent and capable. In Horseman and Germ, women are lead characters, federal field agents, not “desk-jockeys” in an office somewhere. Why do you create women characters that are strong and admirable?
Well, aside from believing that women are very capable, I don’t know. I think it has less to do with creating admirable female characters than with creating admirable human characters. I want my protagonists to reflect the qualities of God, even if they don’t realize those characteristics come from Him. I’m not into the anti-hero stories where the very person we as readers are supposed to admire is pretty much a scumbag. I’m not saying that admirable people don’t have flaws — my protagonists have plenty — I just think that at their core, under the flaws, they’re decent people with hero-like traits.
Your women characters, like Julia in Germ, don’t have any qualms about killing bad guys. But in both novels, a lead male character struggles with doing just that. Why this difference in their abilities to stop blatantly evil men?
Maybe just because in the majority of fiction male protagonists seem to either have all the fun or do all the dirty work. Plus, women in fiction often come off as being nurturing at the expense of being decisive. But in my experience, women are extremely decisive. Being able to make that choice to kill is something I think they can do, maybe even better than men can because of that decisiveness.
Your characters aren’t simmered in erotica nor their dialogue peppered with offensive language. Has omitting these elements from your writing affected its appeal to a wider audience?
Article comments
1 - Joe
Great informative read.
2 - Vicki
Thanks, Joe!