Where is Omni, the town where "Secret Sisters" takes place?
Head up Immigration Canyon above Salt Lake City. As you drive, after a little bit, you'll notice that you're surrounded by a vaporous cloud that makes you feel a little bit dreamy. This is the portal between reality and the world of pretend. Drive a little farther, and soon you'll find yourself on Main Street in Omni. It's kind of like Brigadoon ... it's here, it's there, it's everywhere - it's pretty much anywhere you imagine it to be, as long as you head up Immigration Canyon to get there.
Where do you get the ideas for your books?
"Nothing to Regret" was the result of a dream. My grandmother passed away in July of 1999, and the weekend of her funeral, I had a dream that I was an American GI flying over to Japan during World War II. It was a little strange, especially considering that in my dream I was a man, but what was even stranger was how clear and detailed the dream was. I realized it would make a great jumping-off point for a book. I hit the Internet, did some research, and one thing led to another.
"Strength to Endure" came to me during Relief Society one day. The teacher was telling the story of a man who was on one of the death marches out of a concentration camp, and as they passed through a village, someone came up to him and slipped a potato into his pocket. Like a bolt of lightning, the entire plot for the book popped into my head. Both "Nothing to Regret" and "Strength to Endure" are currently out of print, but I have plans to change that.
"Season of Sacrifice' is the true story of my great-great-grandfather who engineered the passage through the Hole in the Rock in southern Utah, and I’ve been blessed to have his life history in my possession. With the aid of other family history volumes and the research done by others and placed on the Internet, I was able to piece together the story, which practically wrote itself. To date, this is the most emotionally satisfying book I’ve written.
"Agent in Old Lace" went through many metamorphoses to become what it is today. The idea originally came from a news story about a group of hikers who were lost in the woods. Because they had a compass, they were able to find their way to help. I got to thinking – what if you were lost in the woods but you had no idea where you were? How would you find help if you didn’t know where help might be found? These thoughts spiraled into the basic idea for my book, but it’s so different from that original seedling, it’s almost unrecognizable as the same thing.
"Secret Sisters" was the result of a late-night conversation with my husband. We were tired and both feeling loopy, and I don’t know how we got on the subject, but I told him I thought it would be fun to write a book about some little old ladies who turned into spies. One thing led to another, we had a huge fit of giggles, and the series was born.
In your historical fiction novels, a lot of your characters die. Why do you let beloved characters get killed off?
My first two novels are set during World War II. During this time, whole families were being torn apart and it was very rare for a family to make it through the war intact. I feel it would be very unrealistic to present a story where everyone was still alive at the end. It’s fiction, but even I can’t push it that far!
In "Nothing to Regret," the main character fathers a child out of wedlock. This surprised me in an LDS book. Why was this in there?
At the time the child came into being, Ken, the main character, was not yet a member of the Church. He had been taught to wait to have intimate relations until he was in love, and that’s what he did. He used the knowledge he had at the time to the best of his ability, and when he found the gospel and learned that his actions had been wrong, he was truly repentant.
The child is central to the story. She is the catalyst that brings Ken around and gives him a focus and a direction. Her existence is necessary to the book.
When I sign copies of this book, I write, “The power of the Atonement is real.” To me, this is the main message of the book. The Atonement is there to heal us from sin and pain, to ease the hurt of the things we have been called upon to suffer. Without sin and suffering, there would be no need for the Atonement. Ken’s situation illustrates how the perfect love of the Savior can take an imperfect person and redeem them.
When do you find time to write?
I take any little minute I can throughout the day, but I do the bulk of it at night, after the kids are in bed. We’re a busy family with four children, and I home school, so I have to carve out the time. But I think that’s true for anything we find of worth in our lives—we carve it out and we give it a place in our lives. “Finding time to write” is a myth. It must be scheduled and sought after, or it will never happen.
How long does it take you to write a book?
Every book has been different. A historical fiction piece takes me longer than a contemporary piece, because of the research involved. The quickest historical was "Season of Sacrifice," which was eighty hours of research and eighty hours of writing. My "Secret Sisters" series has been working up pretty quickly because they’re shorter than my others, coming in around 50,000 words, which take me about six weeks to rough draft and then the polishing time on top of that. So it’s hard to quantify. I can say, though, that when I’m on a roll, I can type 1,500 words in 35 minutes. That’s not bad!
Which book is your favorite?
Each book represents who I was at the time I wrote it, so it’s hard for me to choose. "Nothing to Regret" is like the oldest child—you know, we make all the mistakes on that one. "Strength to Endure" helped me prove to myself that I wasn't a one-hit wonder. "Season of Sacrifice" has the most emotional importance to me because it’s not just about Utah history; it’s about my family. "Agent in Old Lace" was the book that crossed me over into contemporary and helped give my library some dimension. "Secret Sisters" has been the most fun to write. No, I can’t decide which child I love the best. They’re equal, but different.
Your historical fiction novels are vastly different from your latest releases. Why did you make the change, and how did you make the change?
Writing historical fiction is exhausting. I've spent a lot of time in deep research, and invariably carry with me the emotions of the time periods I've studied. It sometimes takes me a couple of months to shake off the feelings of despair I experience after researching a death camp, Vietnam, or the other eras I've explored. I wrote "Agent in Old Lace" to help combat the depression I experienced after writing "Strength to Endure." It wasn't published immediately afterward, but that's when it was written.
I haven't given up historical fiction. I love it and I'll continue to write it. In fact, I have the sequel to "Nothing to Regret" written, and the third in the trilogy is outlined. For now, though, I'm very happy writing cozy mysteries. They allow me to feel the joy of writing and I sometimes laugh while I'm typing. Later, when the time is right, I'll return to my intense research phase.
As far as how I made the transition - well, I believe that everyone is multi-faceted. None of us comes with just one dimension. I'm very much the serious thinker I present in my historicals, but I'm also very much the jokester, as I present in my cozy mysteries. I believe people should explore all their facets and make the most of all their personality traits. How boring would the world be if everyone was the same all the time?
When do you sleep?
I usually go to bed around two in the morning. My kids are in bed at nine (okay, they're supposed to be in bed at nine) and so that's when I get the bulk of my computer time in, between nine pm and two am.
You are a home schooler. Why did you choose that for your family?
There are several reasons. First, I was taught at home, and it seemed natural for me to do it as well. I had good experiences, and frankly, I don't think I'd know how to get kids out the door every day and all those things that go into a public school experience. It's totally foreign to me.
Second, I believe that the social pressures being put on our children today are greater than they've ever been before. When you pick up literature written for children, you'll notice that the main sources of conflict they face come from school in the form of bullies, teachers who don't understand, stress over grades, worry about wearing the right clothes ... not to mention the things they encounter in regards to drugs, sex, drinking, reckless behavior, and the like. Kids are under a ton of pressure, and I think this kind of stress isn't good for them. Childhood is a time to build foundations and shore them up so that they are strong when they enter the adult world. I wanted my kids's educational environment to help build up those foundations, and I wanted to teach them against the gospel backdrop. At home, I'm free to incorporate as many scripture stories and gospel principles as I want, and so I do. Regularly.
Third, I believe that no one knows a child like their parents. If one of my children is struggling with a concept, I can drop everything and explain it in a different way, one I know they'll be able to grasp. A home school can provide the one-on-one interaction that is impossible in a public school setting, and I have been blessed with four intelligent, active children who really need as much one-on-one as they can get. When they have it, they thrive. When they don't, they become frustrated. What a blessing it is to know them so well that I can present their lessons in the way that most makes sense to them individually.