Lisa: Welcome to my site, Deb. I
hear you just got some great news, winning a significant literary award for
your debut novel, THE THIRD GRACE.
Deb: Thanks for inviting me, Lisa.
Yes, the Grace Irwin Award is a sort of “book of the year” designation, and at
$5,000 is the largest literary prize given for Canadians who write from a
Christian perspective—not that the cash is the most important thing! I was
completely surprised and honored to receive this sort of validation from my
peers through The Word Guild, who put on the national contest (see http://canadianchristianwritingawards.com/awards/grace-irwin-award/).
Lisa: Give us the blurb of your
novel.
Deb: My main character, Mary Grace, fell
in love with a French exchange student visiting her parents’ Nebraska farm the
summer she was seventeen. François renamed her “Aglaia” after a Greek goddess, and
whispered mythological tales into her ear to set her heart longing for something
more than her parents’ simplistic life and faith. Then he disappeared from her
life. Now, fifteen years later, Aglaia is still single and working as a costume
designer in Denver. Her budding success in the city’s posh arts scene convinces
her that she’s left the naïve country girl far behind, but “Mary Grace” has
deep roots—as Aglaia learns during a business trip to Paris. Her discovery of
sensual notes François jotted into a Bible during that long-ago fling combined
with a silly errand imposed by her mother and the scheming of her sophisticated
mentor conspire to create a thirst in her soul that neither evocative daydreams
nor professional success can quench. THE THIRD GRACE follows a woman on a
dual journey across oceans and time, torn between her rural upbringing and her
search for self.
Lisa: How did you come up with the
story idea?
Deb: The first time I went to Europe, over twenty years ago, I
stood in the Louvre Museum in Paris before a marble statue grouping of the
Three Graces and thought what a perfect icon they would be. But life at that
time wasn’t quite ready to let me write my novel yet.
Lisa: Yes, I see from your website
that you’ve enjoyed a fairly
busy life. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you first came to write,
back in the beginning.
Deb:
Well, I love words—the way they feel in the mouth and sound in the air
and look on the page. I spoke in full sentences before I walked, and my
elementary report cards invariably stated, “Debbie is an excellent student, but
she talks too much.” I lived under the shame of being a chatterbox until I
figured out how to use my verbal tendencies to my advantage—by organizing the
jumble in my soul through writing childish poems, high school assignments, college
short stories, graduate research. Not that writing has slowed my talking much!
I grew up with four siblings in urban Canada under
creative parents—a prolific artist and a yarn-spinning entrepreneur—and so I’m
an extroverted and adventuresome city-slicker when it comes to shopping, social
and cultural events, or travel. But my heart is in the bucolic countryside, my
city heart converted when I fell in love with a cowboy and moved to an isolated
prairie cattle ranch for two decades of horseback riding, cooking for huge
branding crews, and raising a family. When our last of three home-educated kids
went off to boarding school at age fifteen, I returned to school myself for a
few years and, finally, no longer had an excuse to shelve my dreams of becoming
a novelist. Today I write from a cozy nest on the banks of a creek in southern
Alberta near the Montana border, looking out my kitchen window at the historic
red barn on a green-hill backdrop.
So I think both my personality and my
circumstances have primed me to write, compelling me to communicate what is in
my mind and my heart.
Lisa: Well, what exactly is in your mind and heart?
Deb: My mom used to warn me against
letting my imagination run away with me, so I know my fears and fantasies must
have shown up early in my life. But I’ve always immersed myself into the
experience at hand. A prof of mine, explaining the two types of people in the
world, told about the roommates of a college boy who took off his stinky running
shoe; his pain-avoiding roomie pushed back and said, “Keep that thing away from
me,” while the pleasure seeker leaned forward eagerly to exclaim, “Here, let me
smell!” I’m the second student: I taste-test the gravy a dozen times during the
simmering, I rub silk fabric against my cheek to really feel the fibers, I even
breathe deeply when driving past an excited skunk on the gravel road. My
husband and kids tell me I’m addicted to experiences. I can’t help it—I love
the sheer pleasure of the senses.
And yet, hedonistic as that might be, I’m
convinced that chasing emotion-producing sensation as an end in itself is
ultimately empty. It’s very useful in descriptive writing, sure—but I believe
that message is more important than method. Of course, no one is going to
read my writing if it’s boring, but message-driven story can use vivid technique.
I’ve written in varying styles for differing purposes (editing scholarly
dissertations, penning forlorn love letters, reporting journalistic
information), but I’m infatuated with fiction. I’m striving to use the sensual (that
is, method) in order to reveal the spiritual (message).
I’m still going through the learning stages in how
to apply my purpose of retelling timeless
truths. No story, I believe, is totally new but rather a reiteration of the
four main plot points we find in the Bible: creation, the fall, redemption, and
re-creation. I approached the writing of my first novel with this in mind, and
I hope to increasingly engage the senses along with the more cerebral elements
of metaphor and analogy through riveting plots and layered personalities. It’s
so satisfying to create in this way!
Lisa: What was the most fun about
writing this particular novel?
Deb: I just loved stitching the storyline
together and doing the research—especially about Greek mythology and how it
juxtaposes Christian theology. I found it extremely pleasurable as well to
develop characters who mirror themes in my own life—Aglaia’s transfer between
country and city living and her artistic passions, Lou’s academic avarice, Eb’s
sacramental Christian faith, Naomi’s evangelical impulses. And, of course,
character interaction was pivotal for me in real life, as well; I had a
“François” of sorts in my own teenhood (as most girls do), and in my novel I was
able to take that relationship to its logical conclusion. (Compare their first
and last kisses on pages 93 and 207.)
Lisa: It’s a romance novel, then?
Deb: Not at all. THE THIRD GRACE does have an embedded love
story and explores relationships, but the novel is about looking for spiritual meaning
and place. A cool quote from G.K. Chesterton hints at my premise: “Man has
always lost his way. He has been a tramp ever since Eden; but he always knew,
or thought he knew, what he was looking for.”
Lisa: So what’s next, Deb? Do you
have another novel in the making?
Deb: I’m just drafting a story about
Libby, a single Minneapolis salesclerk
pushing fifty and looking to finally purchase her first house. She’s being
harassed on the one hand by a homeless bag lady and on the other by her zany
younger friend, who’s enticing Libby to blow her budget on travel to
international “sacred places” such as Mayan ruins in Mexico, a Buddhist temple
in Kyoto, and a mosque in Istanbul. But, instead, a child’s antique Victorian
ring lures Libby to a mansion museum in North Dakota, where her shadowy heritage
is unveiled and she truly finds the meaning of home.
The author welcomes all
inquiries, and she can be contacted through her email (deb@rolledscroll.com)
or website (www.debelkink.com).
You can reach Lisa Johnson
through her email (lcjohnson1988@gmail.com) or blog (http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/).
