Interview with an Author: Julie Lessman (and Giveaway!)

Whoever thought the advent of the internet and blogs would allow just about anyone to interview famous people? I feel just a little bit out of my comfort zone interviewing an award winning author! But Julie Lessman is very personable and I've enjoyed emailing with her! Read on to find the answers to my questions... and I bet if you left your pressing questions in the comments she just might answer!  (that will count as entry in the giveaway too so please do!)

These questions have mainly to do with her new book, A Hope Undaunted, which I reviewed earlier this week, as well as the first series, Daughters of Boston, which starts the story.

1.) The characters you create are so real (especially after 4 books!) that I have a really hard time sometimes with the downright "stupid" things they do.  I know it's human nature, but you so rarely read books like this where even the good guys do some really bad things...  1) How easy or hard is it for you to write like this and 2) does it ever make you uncomfortable to write about these painful situations.  I'm particularly thinking of Mr. O'Connor in the 3rd book, but it's there in all the books.

Grin … “stupid things,” huh?? Gosh, Krista, if you knew how close to home that hits, you would cringe. I’m going to go on record right now and say that a large majority of the situations I write about in my books are taken from some personal experience of my own. Yep, you heard me!

For instance, the fight between Marcy and Patrick in A Passion Most Pure, where Patrick comes home from the bar with beer on his breath, resulting in a pretty tense (and eventually passionate) fight/love scene??? Take out the part about the bar, and you pretty much have a real-life scenario from my early life with my husband. In fact, one time a good friend came for dinner and was talking to my husband about that scene in particular, stating that it seemed a little hard to believe. My guy calmly sipped on his Diet Coke before looking my friend straight in the eye with a droll smile. “Believe it,” he said.

So honestly, it’s VERY easy for me to write like this because I write from a wealth of personal mistakes where God opened my eyes and made me a better person for every “stupid thing” I ever did. When He said “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes,” He wasn’t joking. God has taken the minefield of my life and taught me lessons that I try to pass on to my characters and then hopefully, to my readers.

And, no, it never makes me uncomfortable writing about painful situations because I rejoice that I can take a hurt that I have experienced and turn others to God through it. For instance, in A Passion Denied when Marcy goes through such grief over Patrick’s rejection—I’ve been there, done that, and it was the most awful thing I’ve experienced in my marriage. BUT it opened my eyes to just how precious my husband is to me and what a gift from God he has been from the beginning. If my mistakes can help just one person out there realize how powerful God’s intervention is and how obedience to His precepts are the answer to a healthy marriage, than I consider myself a blessed author.

2.) How did you come up with this story arc? Have you known the outline of all the stories since you started the first one or have they kind of grown? Do you create the characters or do they create themselves? :)

Well, the “story arc” originally began when I read Gone With the Wind at the age of twelve. From the moment Scarlett seared Rhett with a look on the winding staircase of Twelve Oaks, I was hooked, and my “romance-writing career” began with a 150 single-spaced manuscript that today is the basis for my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure. As a young pre-teen girl I knew I wanted an Irish family, a war, and a love triangle just like GWTW, so that’s what I did.

The completion of the story came almost 40 years later while I was sitting in a beauty shop reading a July 2001 Newsweek cover article about how Christian books, movies and music were on the threshold of exploding. Something in my spirit said, “Now is the time to finish your book.” So I started my novel the next month, and as a seat-of-the-pants writer, the story—and the characters—literally took me where it and they wanted me to go. Ironically, when I wrote book 1 A Passion Most Pure, I had NO plans for a series, but the characters would not let me go, and so I started book 2 A Passion Redeemed soon after, which was a good thing because my agent sold me in 3-book deal on the manuscript for A Passion Most Pure alone. Once the O’Connors were in place from book 1, then, each daughter’s story just seemed to flow from one book to the next with little or no effort.

3.) Why do you always seem to have two guys that the girl must ultimately choose between? In my personal experience and with my friends it rarely seems we get to choose between men! Even one who is the "right" choice and one who isn't.

You’re right, although I will tell you that although I wasn’t much to look at in my late 20s and didn’t date a lot before I got married, I did have to make a choice between my husband and another guy I was dating at the same time (we did that in my day, unlike girls today who only date one guy at a time), so it is possible!

But … you have to keep in mind that this is romance here, not women’s fiction. I am a “Calgon, take me away” type of gal (i.e. my obsession with Gone With the Wind is certainly proof of that), not a “slice of life” type of author, so when I write the way that I do, I am being true to my passion and my imagination, which every author MUST do or they will not be successful. From the moment I fell in love with Rhett, Scarlett and Ashley at the age of twelve, I have been crazy about love triangles because let’s face it, they make for great conflict and emotional angst, which—surprise, surprise—I thrive on as a writer.

So, yes, my situations and the movie-star looks of my characters are not always the norm, BUT the spiritual truths they learn along the way ARE true to life—my life, to be exact—and the lessons learned are VERY real. So if a reader is looking for more true-to-life stories where everything doesn’t always work out nice and neat and the heroes aren’t necessarily hunks, then they are probably looking for women’s fiction with an element of romance, not your typical romance like mine where readers long for a romantic escape into the world of what-if.

4.) How do you write? ie, time of day, location, pen and paper or computer, etc?  How many stories are going to be in this second set of the series?  Do you have ideas for a completely different story that you might write next?

During the summer months (basically May through October), I sit outside on my lower deck that runs the length of the house, overlooking a lush, green wooded area that has sunlight dappling through the trees. It's GORGEOUS, and I always have my feet up on this cushy lawn furniture we have (like now!), cinnamon hazelnut coffee by my side and a fan gently blowing while I sit with my laptop on my ... where else? Lap!! I am usually out there from about 9:00 a.m. (to read my Bible and pray first thing after the treadmill/worship music) till about 8:00 p.m., stopping only for coffee breaks, powder-room breaks (where I manage to read up to four books a month, believe it or not!) or to make lunch and dinner.

The “Winds of Change” series is a trilogy that continues the O’Connor saga from the first series, “The Daughters of Boston.” Book 1 A Hope Undaunted just released this month and is about the fourth O’Connor daughter Katie. This book was a lot of fun to write because Katie is a pistol who comes of age in the Roaring Twenties, right before The Great Depression. Books 2 and 3 will be about the O’Connor brothers, Sean (and guess who … Emma, Charity’s scarred friend from book 2!!), and then Steven, all during the exciting era of speakeasies, dance marathons, gangsters, G-men and era criminals like Bonnie Clyde and John Dillenger. Steven will be a tall, brooding G-man-type modeled after Elliot Ness … you know, a la Robert Stack from the Untouchables? I’m very excited because all three plots are very involved, include detailed sub-stories for some of the other character couples and enough plot surprises that I hope and pray will blow readers away!

As far as what I plan to write next, I’m hoping to write a prequel about Marcy and Patrick O’Connor before they were married as well as a new trilogy I am calling “The Cousins McClare,” a poor-man, rich-man scenario among three cousins amid the Irish-political landscape of 1920s San Francisco, prohibition and the Barbary Coast.


Thank you, Krista, for hosting me on your blog. It’s been fun! And I LOVE to hear from readers, so they can contact me through my Web site at www.julielessman.com, either by sending an e-mail via my site or by signing up for my newsletter. It's chock-full of fun info on my books and there’s always a contest featuring signed book giveaways. Also, I have a cool feature on my website called “Journal Jots”, which is a very laid-back, almost-daily journal to my reader friends that would give your readers an idea as to my relaxed style of writing. Then finally, I can be found daily at The Seekers blog, a group blog devoted to encouraging and helping aspiring writers on the road to publication. Thanks again, Krista, and God bless!

No, thank you, Julie, for answering my questions!  I love to read, but could never be an author so it's fun to see how it all works behind the scenes!  
And friends if you would like to win an autographed copy of Julie's latest book, A Hope Undaunted, just leave a comment (or a question for Julie!) here and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday evening (the 28th).  - US addresses only.

Julie Lessman is an award-winning author whose tagline of “Passion With a Purpose”underscores her intense passion for both God and romance. Winner of the 2009 ACFW Debut Author of the Year and Holt Medallion Awards of Merit for Best First Book and Long Inspirational, Julie is also the recipient of 13 Romance Writers of America awards and was voted by readers as “Borders Best of 2009 So Far: Your Favorite Fiction”.  She resides in Missouri with her husband, daughter, son and daughter-in-law and is the author of The Daughters of Boston series, which includes A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied. You can contact Julie through her website.