Let's look back at my trip to Orlando, shall we? Mindy and John Clark are a very talented, very in love couple who have just published their first novel together! I seriously doubt it will be thier last. Please join me as we discuss their novel, Echoes of the Titanic!
Where was the idea
for this story born? Our publisher
suggested the idea, and I immediately
became very excited because John is a HUGE Titanic buff. John has always played a huge role in my
writing. He’s my brainstorm partner my research partner, my first reader, my
story helper…he has always been a co-author anyway. The idea was suggested four years ago in anticipation of the
Titanic’s anniversary.
John: I’m a lawyer by trade and I write all the
time anyway – just in a different style.
Mindy – John has
an instinct for story like no one I’ve every met. He can detect where the story lags, and where
the characters need more development and suggest ideas that take my story from
good to the next level of Wow! I’ve
never had as much fun as writing with my husband.
Who began the actual
story idea?
Mindy – actually
I was tied up with other things, so John was left alone with the story for
quite some time.
John – I had to
find a relationship between the history of the Titanic and a modern day story
that would create mystery. I had to ask the question: “What would carry through
time?”
Mindy – early in
the story, it is suggested that someone that survived the sinking of the
Titanic switched places with someone who died and that the person that survived
is not who she says she is. That idea is
carried forward into present day by a woman who idolizes her great-grandmother
and the history of her survival. She works at the company that her
great-grandmother founded….and then she is publically challenged by the news
that instead of the great role model…her great grandmother is a liar and wasn’t
who she said she was at all.
How did you find time
to write together?
Mindy – John
actually wrote a lot of the story.
John – I outlined
the story.
Mindy – what he
wrote only needed to be polished
We finally had to crunch an intense couple of weeks together
and get the story done…around the clock.
I had a three week period just after sending another project in to my
publisher, so we went to our vacation house and just wrote around the
clock. He was in one room and I was in
another, and we would take our notes and tear them into strips and lay them out
on the bed and physically build the story together. We had it spread it out all over the place.
The original idea was to tell the entire modern story at
once and then tell the entire historical story at once. About a week before the story was due to the
publisher Mindy had the idea to intertwine the two.
Mindy – we tell
about five chapters of modern and a chapter of historical.
Will we see more
titles with both your names on the cover?
Mindy – It was
too much fun not to do it again! I think it woke up his inner writing voice.
Now he keeps hinting about writing about the Lucitania because the 100th
anniversary of it history is only three years away.
John – and it
would be a spy novel
Mindy – and it
would be a wonderful companion to the
Titanic.
What is it like to
win a Christy Award? It’s so
exciting to win a Christy! It was thrilling to have that affirmation of my work
– our work. (co-author on the
Christy-award winning novel was Leslie Gould.
You have three
projects out that were co-authored with others. How was the process different
with each writing partner?
Leslie Gould is an artist
- a real word crafter – she is a precious Christian lady that I was
willing to do it a second time
John is such a great story crafter
Kim is such an amazing resource
They all brought something very different to the process of
crafting a novel that it was completely different every time – but very
rewarding! I’d heard horror stories about writing with someone, and that has
not been my experience at all
Writing is a very lonely occupation, and you don’t realize
how lonely until you’ve written with someone – our deadline is not my deadline
but it’s our deadline. It was so much fun to have someone to share all of that
with – at every level.
Do you have any solo
projects in the works?
I’m like an idea machine…I wish I could turn it off
occasionally! Nothing that I can talk about right now…but I have a lot of stuff
in the works.
I’m rewriting a non-fiction project right now, The House
That Cleans Itself – it was very successful when it released. When I wrote it the first time, I was kind
of feeling my way through how to explain the concept. Now, after a lot of feedback from people who have worked
the program, I feel like I can restructure the book so it’s easier to
understand and follow the program. It will come out in January.
Will there be more
non fiction?
Yes. I think non-fiction pulls from a different side of my
brain. For me, fiction is hard but fun, and non-fiction is easy but boring.
Non-fiction is kind of like writing a book report, and I don’t have to get in
the “zone” and stay there until I get it down. I wish I could do one
non-fiction for every three or four fiction titles – that’s a nice rhythm for
me.
John – now that
you’ve tapped into the fiction writer in you, are there any stories in you that
you want to share?
You might be talking to me next year! (BIG smile!)
Mindy - Our
daughter just graduated from college, and she’s an amazing writer, and I
(Mindy) see the two of them writing something together.
John – “Some
families sit and watch tv together, and we sit down and write together.
Closing word of
encouragement that you’d like to share with readers or other writers?
Mindy - To other
writer’s - hang in there. When I
graduated from college I thought I’d write a best-seller and have it published
within a year – it took me twenty years before I even wrote something that was
good enough to even try to sell. I
thought that was wasted time – but in hindsight – thank the Lord that it
happened when it did and not any sooner! It would have been a disaster! God knows
what He’s doing and He has this timing under control.
So keep at it, polish your craft and trust God for the
timing.
To my reader’s – I have two roles when I write - first to
entertain, I don’t want you to go to bed at night because you can’t put my book
down to go to sleep. And secondly, I
hope that I’m giving you stories that are good enough that you will pass them
along to both Christian and non-Christian and that the story will bring truth
and light into some dark places and will be comforting and that will answer
questions in their lives.
What is God doing in
your life right now?
Well, a year ago in April, I was at our vacation home and
tripped and fell and suffered a brain injury. A bad one to my left frontal lobe
– the word center of the brain. The
busiest year of my life – when I had three books to write – I blew out my
brain. It was the worst year of my life in that aspect, but God was working out
His plan in me. It probably saved my
life in a way because I had such bad work habits, was pulling all-nighters, and
I shouldn’t do that at my age.
And I was writing the book with Kim about a woman turning
fifty – and asking the question: “Without my looks, who am I?” and I could
relate to that in a real way when I was struggling to find words as a person
who has always been a writer. Suddenly, I totally “got” that character, because
I had to answer the question “Who am I?” in my own life.
It has slowed me down.
God is showing me how to enjoy my life in a whole new way.
John – how did
Mindy’s injury impact your life? The
hardest thing for any man is to know he can’t fix something. And I couldn’t do anything to help. I kept wanting to ask, “Are you better
yet?” and it was frustrating to know I
couldn’t do anything to speed up the process. I had to learn to turn the
situation over to God completely. It was scary to watch a brain injury heal. I
learned how to surrender to God.
