Today, we visit with Yvonne Anderson, an Ohioan who writes Christian Science Fiction. She serves as contest administrator for Novel Rocket, named four times to Writer’s Digest list of the 101 Best Websites for Writers.    

 Jim:  How did you come to writing?  A lifelong dream, spur of the moment, or something else?

Yvonne:  Though I’ve loved books from the time I was a little kid, it was never in my mind to be a writer until one day when I was well into my 40s. My four kids were either grown and out of the house or in high school; we’d recently gotten our first computer; and my hours at work had been cut. One morning in February of 2002, it occurred to me that, now that I had the time and the opportunity, I should write a book. What a thought! Where’d that come from? After trying to talk myself out of it, I realized it was the Holy Spirit nudging me, so I prayed about it.

Jim:  The Story in Stars was the first of a three book contract.  Did you have an idea of the plot for all three when you landed the contract?

Yvonne:   Yes and no. I’m mostly a seat-of-the-pants plotter; I start out with an end in mind and a couple of high points that will happen along the way. Then I figure out the best place to start and launch into the story. Most of the details of what happens from one page to the next are as much a surprise to me as they are to the reader.

Before I’d gotten too far into The Story in the Stars, I realized too many things had to happen before we could get to the end I envisioned, so I found another place for the story to end. The second title was my next attempt to reach the ending I’d first planned; but again, too much had to happen first. It’s taking me four books to get to where I first planned to end, although the fourth isn’t under contract.

Let me reassure you, though, that each title can stand alone. To get the whole picture you’ll want to read all four, but if you jump in at the middle, you won’t be lost, and you’ll enjoy whichever you start with.

Jim:  I understand you did not have an agent.  What led you to Risen?

Yvonne:  Mostly, the fact that I don’t have an agent. (smile) Only the small publishers will accept unagented submissions. One of my writer friends told me about Risen Books late in 2010 after she’d submitted to them and was offered a contract. I checked out their website and saw they were accepting science fiction manuscripts, so I sent them a proposal. The following day they asked for a complete manuscript.

Jim:  You’ve created an entire new world.  Tell us how you went about that.

Yvonne:  It was great fun! I gave it a lot of thought before I ever wrote a word. I also drew a map to help me envision it. When it came to naming people and places, I thought of how, when God created Earth, He put its first inhabitants in a garden. So I named the planet Gannah, which is Hebrew for garden. I wanted the world to be similar enough to our world that I’d feel comfortable in it but different enough to be interesting, so I gave unusual characteristics to ordinary features. For example, the trees in the forests of one region have leaves of various colors. Moreover, they don’t fall until spring, when the new leaves push them aside. Picture what a snowy woods would look like with colorful leaves on the trees. Then in the spring, the ground is covered with a multi-colored carpet. I want to go there to see it!

Jim:  What kind of powers does the protagonist have?  And the antagonist?

Yvonne:  None of my characters have special powers; they’re ordinary people like you and me. The basic difference between the Gannahans and the rest of the galaxy’s people—besides having greater muscle mass, which makes them a little stronger—is a small sensory organ at the base of their brains called a meah, which gives them limited telepathic powers. But they can only communicate through their meahs with someone they’ve personally met, and only if the other person has a meah too. So it’s not a special power so much as it is a physical sense that Earthers don’t have.

Jim:  The second book in the Gateway to Gannah series, Words in the Wind, came out twelve months after the first book.  How did you market the first book during that interim?

Yvonne:  Any way I could. I’ve tried the usual blog interviews, Twitter, personal appearances, and whatnot. Either Christian science fiction isn’t a big seller, or I’m not a good marketer. Possibly both. In any case, I’m not in a position to tell you what works, because I haven’t found it yet.

Jim:  Tell us a little about Words in the Wind?

Yvonne:  Words in the Wind picks up some 14 years after The Story in the Stars ends. The protagonist, Dassa, and the male lead, Dr. Pik, have returned to Gannah with a group of Earthers to repopulate the planet with a new race of Gannahans. (Did I mention everyone on Gannah died in a plague at the beginning of the first book?) A starship comes from Pik’s planet and asks for Dassa’s help translating some ancient Gannahan documents their archaeologists had unearthed. When she returns, magnetic storms interfere with the landing craft’s electronics, and she crashes 10,000 kilometers away from the settlement. She has all sorts of adventures trying to get home, and the settlers have all sorts of problems trying to find her. In the process they have reason to question the things they’ve always believed, and they don’t always come to the conclusions they expect.

Jim:  And what’s the title of the third novel in this series, and when will it be out?

Yvonne:  Book 3, Ransom in the Rock is complete, but the publisher hasn’t indicated when it might be released. It resumes the story about ten years after Words in the Wind concludes.

Jim:  Do you have a set writing schedule?  A specific place where you write?  And is there any special thing that you do to get to write each day?

Yvonne:  I wish I could be more consistent, but no, I don’t have a set writing schedule. Life tends to get in the way, and I squeeze it in whenever I can. I have a lovely office where I write most of the time in the winter months. In the evenings when my husband is watching the telly, I’ll hide in the kitchen when it’s cold out and retreat outdoors when it’s nice. I wrote the bulk of Words in the Wind on the front porch. Before I start writing, I pray.

Jim:  After these four books, will you continue with the Christian science fiction, or branch into another genre?

Yvonne:  I’m not sure what world I’ll visit next, or if I’ll just keep my feet on Planet Earth. I have a number of ideas simmering on the back burner, but I need to finish the Gannah project before I’ll allow myself to think about any of them.

Jim:   Give us one tip that helps a writer do a better job.

Yvonne:  It helps to be ruthless. It’s okay for first drafts to be blah, but once you’ve got the words on the page, go back and remove a whole lot of them. Take a humdrum sentence and liven it up with stronger verbs or a fresh metaphor. If a scene doesn’t move the story forward, ditch it. Make your descriptions sparse but glowing with stellar word choices. Don’t get too attached to anything you write. No matter how good you think it is, it can be better. There comes a time when it’s time to quit fussing over it and send it on its way, but don’t ever settle for ordinary.

Jim:  Thanks for sharing a little part of your writing life and your books with us.  You can find out more about her books by visiting Amazon at:    http://amzn.to/ZmyjBz

And leave comment if you have a moment.  Click on “Reply” a few lines down from here. Thanks for visiting, an please come back again.