Bio: Sara Brunsvold’s goal is to “weave together
wit and wisdom to create stories that are highly readable, relatable, and
rememberable.” She has accomplished her objective with her debut novel, The
Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip. This emotional, intergenerational
story beautifully demonstrates that the very best life is made up of thousands
of deaths to self.
What was the inspiration for your book? A hospice program here in Kansas City has a service where volunteers interview the patients and compile the memories, stories, and words of wisdom into a keepsake book for the patient’s loved ones. It’s such a meaningful service, and it inspired the premise of The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip.
Your two protagonists, Clara Kip and Aidyn Kelley, couldn’t be more
different. Please introduce us to your characters and describe their
personalities. Opposites
attract, as they say. Aidyn Kelley is an ambitious twenty-two-year-old who is
insecure in both her lack of career achievements and her faith. She loves
accolades and is easily frustrated when she doesn’t get them. She is also
deeply uncomfortable around death and the dying. Clara Kip is a seventy-nine-year-old
widow who, despite a terminal cancer diagnosis, is vivacious, adventurous, and
wholly devoted to the Lord. Her chief aim is to leave everyone she meets closer
to Jesus than when she found them. She has endured more grief than Aidyn knows
is possible, yet she has an unshakable hope that draws in Aidyn. Together, they
make quite the pair.
Do you have a favorite character? Each
character means something to me, but Clara Kip is a heart stealer. Writing the
character of Clara was a ministry to my wounded soul during a difficult season
of life. The process helped me learn what it looks like to live out the
biblical truths I was learning at the time, especially worship in surrender and
trusting God even when the earth quakes under my feet. She is who I want to be.
The other characters undoubtedly would applaud Clara earning top honors.
You stated that “the reader will be challenged
by Mrs. Kip’s thousand deaths to self.” What do you mean by this statement? Clara
believes that love in its true, Jesus-shaped form requires “a thousand tiny
deaths to self.” Out of devotion to her Savior, who laid down his life for her,
she sacrificially gives pieces of herself—her desires, plans, time, energy,
emotions, resources—to love and minister to others in his name. That’s
definitely a challenge to my naturally self-focused heart.
What do you hope readers will gain from
reading The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip? My
overarching prayer for every story I am given the opportunity to write is that
God would use it to come alongside what he is already doing in the reader’s
life. With this book in particular, hopefully readers come away with an
awakened joy for surrendering to God’s will and, for women specifically,
inspiration to invest in their younger sisters’ faith development (Titus 2:3–5).
In The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip, you reference Clara’s key role in the resettlement of Laotian refugees in Kansas City in the late 1970s. What type of research was required to accurately portray this resettlement effort? This piece of Clara’s life was quite literally handed to me. One day a family friend handed me a fragile, yellowed clipping from the Kansas City Star. She had saved it from 1975. “You need to write about this,” she told me. The article was about the burgeoning resettlement efforts in the city. She was one of many people who were actively involved, and she wanted the story to be remembered by today’s generation, especially fellow Christians. Capturing her memories was the first step. She has a wealth of pictures from that time period too, which made the emotional impact for me all the more real. From there, research involved the Kansas City Star archives, historical societies, hours of online searches, documentaries, and more interviews. I focused on the sponsors’ perspective of the events since that was the one represented in the book. That was a fascinating period in local and world history, and it’s worth your time.
Where can readers purchase a copy of The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip? It can be found at your favorite retail store or online (I’m
partial to Baker Book House). Please visit http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/the-extraordinary-deaths-of-mrs-kip/408010/affiliates.
How can readers connect with you? Reader
connections make all this worthwhile! Please feel free to reach out to me
directly through my website, SaraBrunsvold.com. Instagram (@Sara_Brunsvold) and
Facebook (@SaraBrunsvoldAuthor) are great places to connect as well.
Thank you for sharing
your debut novel with my blog readers and me.
Readers, here’s a link to the book.
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