Robin Jones Gunn - COMING ATTRACTIONS - Free Book

Welcome to my blog, Robin. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

It’s been a combination of reasons over the past 20 years. I started writing the YA books because the teens in our youth group challenged me to write books for them and they even helped me work on the Christy Miller books. After getting Christy through high school the publisher asked me to write about a new high school characters, so Sierra Jensen showed up. Then I wrote the College Years, because I wanted to find out what was happening with all the characters! I’m writing the continuation of the lives of those characters now in the Katie Weldon series so we can see what’s going on with Christy’s best friend, Katie, as well as check in on everyone else.

As the readers got older, they asked for more love stories. That’s why I started writing the eight Glenbrooke novels. We had just moved to Oregon and I loved the idea of connecting all these 20-something-plus characters to Glenbrooke, an imaginary small town in Oregon. How did these couples meet? How did they know they were in love? Those were the sorts of questions my readers were asking when I started that series. How to you meet a godly man? That was a delightful series to write.

Sisterchicks® sort of happened. I was actually writing a novel for The Women of Faith and it turned out to be its own sort of new beginning. That was Sisterchicks on the Loose! So, instead of that book going to The Women of Faith, I wrote Gardenias for Breakfast for them and launched the Sisterchicks stories into an eight-book series.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

What a lovely question. I feel as if I’ve had so many happiest days. Our wedding day, of course, flies right to the top of the list. That was 33 years ago! Hard to believe! Other very happy days include my 50th birthday spent on Maui with my husband, the birth of both our children and our 25th anniversary spent in Italy. I feel so blessed.

Sounds wonderful. How has being published changed your life?

Since everything has happened one small step at a time, I don’t know that I feel my life has changed. This became my life almost 25 years ago when my first children’s books were published.

What are you reading right now?

I’m glad you asked this question. Every Christmas our children give me an interesting book. This year it was the Journals of Captain James Cook and C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Children. I’m reading both and loving every page.

What is your current work in progress?

I’m just finishing the final changes on the third Katie Weldon book, Coming Attractions. I’ve loved writing about these characters again and yes, I did cry when I finished the last page. We don’t have plans for more in the Katie collection yet, but you never know.

What would be your dream vacation?

Wow. Hard to say. I feel I’ve already had a dozen dream vacations while traveling around the world for speaking events and doing research for the Sisterchicks books. Lord willing, I’m going to Africa for the first time this fall for a writer’s conference. That’s been a dream for a long time. I loved Brazil and would love to go back there. Anytime I can put my toes into the sand on the Hawaiian islands I’m a happy mama.

Everywhere I get to travel feels like a dream to me.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

With the Sisterchicks books, the settings were partly chosen by me and partly suggested by the publisher. It worked out well because I’d been to some of the places, like Finland and Mexico and Hawaii. But they wanted stories about Australia and Venice and London, so they sent me there to do research. Pretty amazing, huh?

For the teen books and the Glenbrooke series, I just went with the old saying of “write what you know.” I grew up in southern California so it was easy to picture Christy in that location. When we moved to Oregon, I put Sierra in Portland.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

Aside from my family and closest friends, I think I’d have to say Phyllis Tickle. I’ve only chatted with her a few times at publishing events but every time I wanted to sit down beside her and just soak up what she was saying.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

Travel. You might have guessed that, right? I love long conversations over dinner at a variety of restaurants with a variety of people. Maybe my hobby is simply collecting stories, which is why I love to travel and take notes on all the experiences that happen to me. I love to listen to others tell their life stories, which is why long, leisurely dinners are my favorite.

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

After a car accident several decades ago I have a neck injury that bothers me pretty much any time I sit or type or travel or sleep or . . . you get the picture. 80% of the time it grieves me.

I do exercises. I go to a good chiropractor. I take joint improvement herbs. I have gone to physical therapists off and on. I just live with it.

My obstacles in crafting stories are not in finding time to write, coming up with ideas, working with publishers or any of the usual challenges. It’s just pain.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

First, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. (Proverbs 16:3) It was His idea to infuse your imagination as He did. How does He want to use this gift He gave you?

Second, learn how to discern between criticism and advice. Be open to both but know what to sift out and throw away and know which gems to pick up and hold on to.

Very good advice.

Please give us the first page of the book.

All first pages are available online.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

http://www.robingunn.com/
On Face Book and My Space I’m listed as Robin Jones Gunn
On Twitter it’s Robin Gunn

I’d love to invite all your readers to go to http://www.robingunn.com/ and sign up to receive my Robin’s Nest e-newsletter. I offer drawings for free books each time a newsletter comes out so please sign up and enter the drawings!

Thank you, Robin, for spending this time with us.

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