Interview with Naomi

How do you fit writing into your life?  Do you have a regular routine?

I would love to have a routine!  Life is pretty complicated right now.  In addition to all the activities that come with a teen and a ‘tween, I’m the full-time caretaker for my husband, who is totally blind and chronically ill.  He had a kidney-pancreas transplant in 1994, so his immune system is suppressed.  Still, we both worked full time until 2005, when his health declined. He was in the hospital 9 times in 2010 with various infections and problems. This year he was in twice before the third time on April 13, when he went into the hospital and is still there now.

Three of my four books were written at my husband’s bedside, as well as many commission writing projects and editing jobs.   I once wrote 10,000 words on a novel in a single night at the Emergency Room.  I know, because I added them up.  I have no idea whether I ended up keeping any of those words, but I wrote them.

 What are you passionate about?

My passion is making the moments of my life count. I’m deliberately idealistic in the face of reality: The world is broken and it’s going to stay that way until Jesus comes, but I believe we have to pour ourselves into making it better anyway.  Second to that, launching my children well. I pray that they’re prepared, that they’ve learned to rely on Jesus, and that they will find God’s path for their lives. If I do nothing else well, I want to do this. And if I do everything else well but this . . . it just doesn’t count.

It’s also really important to me to help people; it’s my drug.  If I think someone is in distress, I get all twitchy and strain to find a way to help.  God had a fight on His hands when He decided it was time for me to learn to accept help instead of give it, but I’m getting there.

What is your writing process?

I usually begin with some core idea – character, concept or conflict.  And sometimes I write out a scene if it plays in my head.  But before I begin officially working on a book, I plan it out from beginning to end, down to the individual scenes.  Sometimes I even plan next books for a potential series.  The plan is flexible; things will change as I go along.  But it’s a lifesaver when I haven’t written in weeks, I’m mind-numb with exhaustion and surrounded by beeping IV’s and rattling hospital machinery.  I can check the map to see where I’ve been and where I’m going.  I just plow through.  When I can’t write well, I write badly. Then later I fix it.

How would you define your unique writing style? What sets you apart from other authors?

I’m a Christian author, but I struggle with the guidelines of the Christian Bookseller Association standards.  It feels so unrealistic.  Modern Christian readers connect with characters who make mistakes, lie, have blunt conversations with their girlfriends, and enjoy sex with their husbands.  This is my standard:  my characters make their mistakes, but I won’t write a yummy scene about them doing something dumb with a man they’re not married to.

Married sex, on the other hand . . .   Our culture delights in glorifying perversions.  Why not give the good stuff – trusting, genuinely loving married sex – a little airtime too?   Young readers today are only exposed to images of sex outside of marriage.  Romance novels, for example, have lots of explicit scenes, but if the characters are married, the story no longer constitutes a romance (trust me – I’ve grappled with this one for years).

I have been told – adamantly – that I’m leading people into sin by writing this way.   That may be so – I’ll ask God when I see Him.  Meantime, in my life, He has dealt with me where I am and how I am.  That’s the only story I know how to tell.

What else would you like to tell us about yourself?

I believe the Bible is the word of God, and that my job as a Christian is to serve and love. I’m in no hurry to leave this earth, but when I do go to heaven, I’m going to learn to play a musical instrument. Ten thousand years ought to do it. I’m going to sing, write, paint, keep a garden without worrying about the water bill, and I’m going to savor the fact that geographical distances no longer separate me from my loved ones.