A Site for Teen Writers

Marlayne, one of my favorite parts of The Victor was how immersive your storyworld is. All the little details of a breathingmedieval world were taken into account. How did you go about researching foryour story?

It never fails to tickle me to death when readers of The Victor assume I did a lot of heavy-duty research for the book. I just happen to love that genre of books and movies so I picked up most of the information from those sources. I did buy one book to help me as far as research called: Life in a Castlein Medieval England. Some of the descriptions of the food they ate were derived from that book but the rest I made up.  However, one prominent mention of food in the book actually exists: Prunella's Almond Cakes. Many readers have been surprised and delighted to find out that I based the description on a pastry I happen to love that is sold at my local mall. I even have a blog post about it: http://thevictor.tatepublishing.net/?s=prunella%27s+almond+cakes. Massimo, the pastry chef who makes these has even told me that he is getting customers who want to buy dozens of these pastries as a result of reading my book and the above blog post!  Some of the rituals described in The Victor (such as tapping of the shoulder when knighting someone) are more inline with movie versions than historical fact.  Actually, when young men were knighted back then; the nobleman who was doing the knighting would whack them on either side with the flat of the blade as hard as he could in an effort to tip them over. It was the duty of the would-be knight not to be bowled over at this point in the ceremony and so make a laughing stock of himself.

You've said before that The Victor was inspired by a famous Amy Grantsong. Tell us a little bit about that.

This is really going to date me! Amy's second album, released back in the early 1980s was called "Father's Eyes" and on it was a songcalled "Fairytale". There was one particular verse in that song that suddenly gave me an epiphany: "two princes wage the battle for eternity but the victor has been known from the start".  Instead of a light bulb over my head I got the image of Jesus in a suit of shining armor crossing swords with Lucifer in black armor over a maiden that represented the bride of Christ (the church). You can see and hear the song on my website at this link: http://thevictor.tatepublishing.net/?page_id=16 (it's the third video down).

Fast forward to this past June...

Amy had justreleased her latest CD "Somewhere Down the Road" and has been on tour. I was one of 15 other authors (including Karen Kingsbury) at a concert on June 19th in Richmond, VA where Mercy Me, Point of Grace, Natalie Grant, Hawk Nelson and many others appeared. The promoter's wife, Mary, (who has become a very dear friend), after reading my book and getting to know me, was determined that I get to meet Amy Grant if only for a minute before she went onstage to perform. It was really hot and humid that day so by the time I actually got the summons to meet Amy (who was fresh as a daisy and looked gorgeous as always) I looked a wreck. I had been sweating nonstop for 10 hours. It was a rather surreal moment getting to meet her. She is very tall. She was nice and gracious and I made a point not to touch her first (famous people are very leery of their fans because of some outrageous behaviors, like pulling out chunks of hair for a souvenirs). I showed her a copy of the book (which she has actually been in possession of for over a year) and told her how it had been inspired by her song, Fairytale 30 years ago. She commented that showing her book with that reminder jogged her memory so at that moment it confirmed my suspicions that she hadn't read it yet. She said it was a great feat for me to have persevered for so long to get it published. I then mentioned how I used to work for John Styll (now President of the Gospel Music Association) and that we both had daughters by the name of Karina. She responded with how she just loved that name and then we posed for the picture which you can see here (she put her arm around me first): http://thevictor.tatepublishing.net/?p=1053. ;

I left the concert right after that because by that time it was 8pm, I wanted a shower and a decent meal before the restaurants all closed. Had I stayed another hour I would have been able to go on her tour bus along with all the other authors, get things autographed and discuss our books but all of us had left by then; it was a last minute decision on her part... what a bummer!

The Victor has been a long time coming. Did you ever get discouraged? What is the one thing you'd tell a writer who is battling doubt?

I still get discouraged! I couldn't pay family or friendsfor 30 years to read The Victor. After trying over and over again in the late 80s and early 90s to get it published I literally gave up. I shoved it away and forgot all about my dream of seeing it in print for over 10 years while I lived my life until August of 2007 when it came bobbing up to the surface like a water buoy. A friend suggested I look into publishing online. I googled Christian publishers, came up with Tate (who actually welcomes new authors and their manuscripts) and uploaded it. Six months later they called me at work to offer me a contract. I almost hung up on them, thinking it was a prank phone call. I have grown to learn that many writers (even Jane Austen) are constantly plagued with doubt and get easily discouraged. Even after publication you still have the whole area of marketing and book promotion to contend with to get word out! A lot of it is hard work, networking and the rest is "luck" (and I use the term loosely because I believe in Divine Providence). Everytime I get discouraged and think I should give up because nothing is happening the Lord brings someone or something into my life to encourage me to persevere. I now have a small group of people (friends I have made as a direct result of the book) who are volunteering to actively promote the book on their own time.  Mary (who helped me meet Amy Grant) is a prime example. Not only did she help me meet Amy Grant but she also got The Victor into the hands of Sarah Palin and is working on some potentially huge opportunities for me. It's very easy to get discouraged and want to give up but failure is guaranty if you do so why not keep pursuing your dream and see if one day it will come true? What do you have to lose? The verse I autograph at all of my booksignings is Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of Your heart!  It is SO TRUE. First he puts the desires in there to begin with (if you ask Him to) and then He fulfills them. If your desire is to write than do it for Him regardless of the subject matter and see what He does with it; you may be pleasantly surprised... I sure am!!!