Send to KindleEditors Note: This interview was done over a year ago but since that time Elizabeth has 4 new releases and they are listed below:
Faith Departed (http://smile.amazon.com/Faith-Departed-Remnants-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00IQWM6F6/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8) Book 1 in a women’s fiction series following twin sisters as they and their husbands travel through infertility.
Hope Deferred, book 2 in the Remnants series http://smile.amazon.com/Hope-Deferred-Remnants-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00LF2P07K/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Love Defined, book 3 in the Remnants series http://smile.amazon.com/Love-Defined-Remnants-Elizabeth-Maddrey/dp/1938708474/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Kinsale Kisses – a sweet Christian romance novella that takes you to Ireland with a young woman looking for roots meets a traveling musician content to search for adventure. http://smile.amazon.com/Kinsale-Kisses-Romance-Elizabeth-Maddrey-ebook/dp/B00O93H09S/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
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Our interview today is with Elizabeth Maddrey. Thank you Elizabeth for being here today and for agreeing to do this interview.
Answer: I’m a pretty typical suburban mom. I’m at home with my two boys during the day (so grateful my husband has a job he loves that pays the bills!) We started home schooling the oldest this year (he’s in Kindergarten), so that’s thrown a new task into the mix, but I think we’re both enjoying it a lot. My husband and I lead a small group at our church. We started it for younger couples who didn’t have families yet (we’re the “older mentor couple” and that always makes us chuckle because while we’re 10-15 years older than the others in the group, we don’t feel like it and they’ve become great friends.) Now everyone in the class has started a family, so the group is morphing somewhat, it’s neat to see those life changes taking place. I’m also the AWANA commander for our church’s AWANA club. I just started that this year and while it’s been a big learning curve and a lot of work, I love it.
I don’t take a ton of inspiration from my life – maybe little pieces here and there. And as busy as some days get, I don’t think life gets in the way of writing. Sure, some nights I’m up later than I’d prefer (especially knowing that the baby is going to get up at 7 no matter how late I’m up), but if that’s the time I have to write, then that’s the time I use. I love spending time with my boys during the day – so if I can squeeze out some time after school is finished and the baby’s still napping, then great. But if my older son wants to play a game or read with me, then I’m doing that and writing later.
I will say that my past work at a Crisis Pregnancy Center and my husband’s and my experience adopting has fed into some of my books – at least tweaking the plot somewhat.
Question: Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction?
Answer: I love to read. That’s probably number one on the list of “what will Elizabeth be doing if she gets two minutes to herself.” Any genre – I pretty much love them all (though I’m not a huge historical fan – I never really liked history in school and the same seems to apply in fiction. I’ll read a few a year, and enjoy them, but they’re not what I seek out.)
I also love to cook – there’s something relaxing about taking a pile of seemingly disparate ingredients and mixing them into something that’s delicious and visually appealing.
Question: Tell us about working with any people who help you create your books — Do you use Beta readers? Hire an editor or proofreader? How do you get your covers?
Answer: The three most influential people in my writing process are my sister, my critique partner, and my editor (who’s also my publisher, so she does all my covers as well.) Both of them have invaluable advice and corrections for my stories. When I look back at what I have when I think I’m finished and then the final product after they’ve helped me polish it further, I’m always amazed.
Question: What is the “message” of your writing? (For example, is your purpose to encourage old-fashioned values, encourage romance, or do you have different purposes in different books?)
Answer: Though the theme of each of my books differs, I write about Christians who still occasionally sin. I want people to know that accepting Christ doesn’t make you perfect – you’re still going to mess up, sometimes on purpose, but that God’s grace is still there for you and He’ll be with you even as you experience the consequences for your sin. Christians don’t have all the answers or do things right all the time and I think it’s important that we have those people in our literature – and not just as the object lesson of “don’t be like them.”
Question: Tell us one place you want to visit, or person you want to meet, and why.
Answer: Limiting this to one is hard – there are so many places I hope to go – I have a serious travel bug that doesn’t get enough exercise. Next on my list though is Scotland. Many of my ancestors were from Scotland and I just want to put my feet on the same country and walk around. Plus, from looking at photos, it’s the kind of gorgeous that has to be experienced in person. And listening to all the folks with accents as we tour around won’t be a hardship either. The why really is just that I want to see as much of the world as I can – there’s so much out there to learn and experience when you travel.
Question: Share something that makes you laugh, with just plain humor, or happiness, or because it’s so stupid.
Answer: I’m a big Monty Python fan. I just love their wry, cynical, British humor. I know it can teeter on (and right over at times) the edge of clean, but honestly it’s their wacky stuff that has no double meaning at all that usually has me rolling (like the Cheese Shop sketch, or the Argument Clinic.)
Question: Share something that’s amazing, touching, or that makes you angry.
Answer: Adoption is a huge part of my life since both of our boys were adopted. It’s the most amazing—and touching—thing to realize that a woman would love her unborn child so much that she’d be willing to go through a pregnancy (and all the stuff that comes with being an unmarried mother) and then choose a different family for that child. I admire and respect and love the birth parents of our two boys so much – what they did took a strength of heart that I have a hard time imagining. It makes me angry that there are those who feel her decision to do that is wrong and that they’re unsupportive and that they try to make my children somehow less mine simply because I didn’t birth them.
Question: How many books do you have out?
Answer: As of this exact moment, I have four books out. The first is a non-fiction children’s book that I wrote with a family friend who spent the majority of her life in Papua New Guinea as a Wycliffe Translator. The next three are a series of contemporary romances (the Grant us Grace series.)
Question: What are your future projects?
Answer: I have a short novel releasing in December – it’s a contemporary romance and it tells the story of a couple who features quite a bit in the Grant us Grace books. I’m working on the first of a new trilogy that will overlap some with the Grant us Grace books, but is more women’s fiction than contemporary romance.
Answer: There are pieces here and there that are definitely based in reality. In Wisdom to Know, the main character, Lydia, is an amalgam of a number of post-abortive women I worked with when I worked at a Crisis Pregnancy Center. And the Bible study she undertakes is based on the seminars we did at the Center as well. Lindsey, in Courage to Change, is another composite of people I’ve met through the Center and my own experiences with adopting.
Elizabeth Maddrey began writing stories as soon as she could form the letters properly and has never looked back. Though her practical nature and love of math and organization steered her into computer science for college and graduate school, she has always had one or more stories in progress to occupy her free time. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books and has mastered the art of reading while undertaking just about any other activity. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace.
Elizabeth lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. with her husband and their two incredibly active little boys. She invites you to interact with her at her website www.ElizabethMaddrey.com or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMaddrey
Reviews:
One of Maddrey’s strengths is weaving the thematic realities of Christian living (with all of its foibles and virtues) into the pages of an engaging novel. Another strength is that the author doesn’t whitewash sin. This is a Christian novel, no doubt, but not the ‘pollyanna trust Jesus and smile’ kind of fiction that one can sometimes find in the faith-inspired section of the bookstore. But neither is this an agenda-driven book. Though Maddrey explores a number “touchstone issues” in her series (like abortion, adoption, abuse, and sexual purity) these key plot themes simply serve as true-to-life examples of the kinds of sin God’s great love can conquer.
So I guess there is an agenda, and that is to show that real Christians deal with real issues that can be solved by a real God. Wrap that up in a cast of dynamic characters and vivid writing and you have a captivating novel to enjoy.
Links:
A is for Airstrip: A Missionary’s Jungle Adventure
The Grant Us Grace Series
Wisdom to Know
Courage to Change
Serenity to Accept
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