Does
it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our
credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need
letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the
endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just
looking at you. Christ himself wrote it – not with ink, but with God’s living
Spirit, not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives .… It’s written
with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!
2 Corinthians 3:1-6 (MSG)
Background and View of Life
Q: What schooling, travel, training, personal
experiences, or other formative parts of your background led you to write?
A: I began writing short pieces as a
catharsis, weaving a mystery out of the problem that was my life at the time. Otherwise I had no intention of writing once I’d decided that my children were
raised and I could get an outside job. It wasn’t until a newspaper published a
short story of mine and then offered me a free-lance contract that writing
became a consideration. The editors and publishers I worked with for the next
six years taught me what I needed to know to be a journalist but, after my
first book was published, I attended the Colorado Christian Writer’s Conference
several years and learned from some great Christian authors. We travel a lot so
there is no end of people or places to feed my overactive imagination.
Q: What keeps you writing?
A: The ideas percolating in my head
keeps my fingers on the keyboard. I love listening to people tell me about my
characters as if they were real people, asking me questions about something
that I left rather illusive. I also enjoy it when people tell me they met God
in the pages of a book or that it changed their thinking or the way they do
things.
Q: How is God working in your life today?
A: God continues to point me in the
direction he wants my writing to go. He opens my eyes to the things going on
around me and the needs in people’s lives. I try to feed them with some answers
or some direction.
Q: Where can readers find more about you and your
books?
A:
Smashwords.com – http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Barbara+Ann+Derksen
Writing
Q: How do you keep God involved in your writing
process?
A: There are days when I don’t always
accomplish it, but for the most part I do my personal devotions and bible study
before I begin writing on any given day. I ask for the Holy Spirit to guide me.
As a rule, the writing flows better when God is my boss.
Q: What blogs, books, websites, magazines… would
you recommend to a beginning writer?
A: Rachel Gardner’s blog
is one of my favorites but there are so many. Linkedin’s writers and authors
groups often offers lots of information about different aspects of writing and,
of course, the John 316 Marketing Network group is a great source of
encouragement and support. American Christian Fiction Writers, the Word Guild,
Colorado Christian Writer’s Conference, and many other sources offer all kinds
of help and support as well.
The Book
Q: How many stars (1-5) would you give Presumed Dead?
Why?
A: I appreciate five star
reviews, of course, but I would only give my books a 4 star rating because I
know there are better writers out there than I am. I try hard to do my best, to
incite a reader’s interest, but there is room for improvement. Thank goodness.
I’d hate to have reached the best I could ever do at this stage of my life.
Q: Was there a question, theme, purpose,
scripture, or key phrase you kept foremost in your mind as you wrote?
A: I always try to weave
a God encounter into my mysteries so I can show people that the Lord has answers
and needs to be the shield behind which we travel. When my characters are in a
situation, I take a look at where God is in that situation, whether He is even
someone they think about. If He is not, I look to see where a seed could be
planted so their life will move in the right direction.
Q: Did your vision of the book change during your
writing?
A: My vision only goes so
far. I write character led fiction so my characters take me on a journey,
introduce me to people whom I never envision at all. So yes, it changes and is
enriched because of these encounters.
Q: Which part of the book was your favorite to
write?
A: I do not write
romantic mystery so building a thread of romance is always fun, something my
readers, even the men, appreciate and get into. If it were more than a thread,
I think I’d lose some of them since they’re reading my books for the
mystery/suspense/thriller aspect.
Q: What did Presumed Dead teach you?
A: People can surprise you. They are
not always who they seem to be and I probably should not make assumptions about
them or their life.
Fiction
Q: Have any of your characters ever surprised
you? How? What impact did it have on the rest of the story?
A: My female protagonist
was originally supposed to be rather mousy, easily led, but certainly not a
leader. She turned out to be stronger than I first thought and had no problem
making decisions. So instead of having a powerful male counterpart, they ended
up being quite equal depending on the situation. Sometimes she led the way and,
at other times, he did.
Q: If you gave your protagonists time to speak for themselves about you what would they say?
A: She would say that I’m teachable.
He would say I have a problem with submission and he’d be right. I try to keep
that part of me under God’s control but God lets me slip out once in a while to
see that I haven’t learned it yet.
Q: When should conflict enter a story?
A: Right at the beginning … within
the first five pages. Then it needs to be there, in one form or another, all
the way through the story. That’s what keeps people reading.
Mystery
Q: Is the ending of Presumed Dead predictable, or is
the intent to surprise the reader?
A: My intent is to
surprise … have something pop up that is totally unexpected based on the clues
I’ve left scattered throughout the pages.
Q: What methods do you use to salt your book with
clues?
A: I don’t know that I
have any clear method. The story tells me when I need to drop something that
will lead my reader to a place I want him to go, only to have the wheels pulled
out from under them. The clue may or may not have anything to do with the fact
of the story.
The Reader
Q: What other writers or books would your readers
enjoy?
A: Some are Ted Dekker readers but
many read Colleen Coble, Wanda Dyson, Terri Blackstock, or Brandilyn Collins.
Q: What are you currently reading?
A: I am reading a Wanda Dyson novel,
Shepherd’s Fall.
Q: What else have you written?
A: Besides mystery, I
write devotionals, and children’s stories. I’ve also written a compilation of
short stories from veterans of the Korean Conflict titled Second to None and a
household management guide for busy parents, Dance With a Broom.
Q: What can you tell us about your next writing
project?
A: I am working on a new
devotional on prayer, the first book of a new mystery series, and a children’s
story for my three youngest grandchildren. I hope to have this one illustrated
and made into a book for two year olds as well as one for 5 and 6 year old
kids. The story would just be a lot shorter for the two year olds.
Q: What is something you wish you had, but have
never been asked in an interview?
A: I can’t think of anything. I’ve
done so many and had some really great questions but each interviewer has their
own take on how they want it to go. Just like this one, no two interviews are
ever alike.
Keep watch here for reviews of Presumed Dead and Straight Pipes.
Once again Dan Walsh creates a tender romance in which God
sets in motion a plan to redeem lives and restore hearts. Walsh’s newest novel
The Dance introduces The Restoration Series. The Dance is based largely on Gary
Smalley’s best-selling book on marriage relationships, The DNA of Relationships
(Smalley Franchise Products), by Gary Smalley, Greg Smalley, Michael Smalley
and Robert S. Paul (Sep 1, 2007).
Readers will be looking forward to other books in this
series by two godly men who believe and live God’s plans for their marriages in
spite of themselves, and share them with each other and with us, as pastors, counselors, and
gifted writers.
