Interview with Author Ginger Solomon

Welcome to Readers Write to Know!  I asked you, my readers, what questions they would ask their favorite authors if given the chance.  This week, I’m so happy to have Ginger Solomon, a fellow Inspy Romance contributor as my guest. I have long admired homeschooling moms who are able to write — I am the type of writer who has to be alone in the house to truly find productivity. Ginger homeschools five children, and still writes amazing romance novels. I hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did!

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Ginger Solomon is a Christian, a wife, a mother to seven, and a writer — in that order (mostly). When not homeschooling her youngest five, doing laundry or fixing dinner, she writes or reads romance of any genre, some sci-fi/fantasy, and some suspense. She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, president of her local writing group, and writes regularly for three blogs. In addition to all that, she loves animals, horses especially, likes to do needlework (knitting, crocheting, and sometimes cross-stitch), and loves to sing in the choir at church.

Tell us about your current release:

–Blurb for Love in Mistletoe Springs:

The Mistletoe Springs animal shelter loses their grant, endangering the lives of countless stray dogs, cats, even birds and turtles. The community attempts to save the shelter by running a Christmas in July fundraiser. Groups of volunteers scramble to get all the details together while managing their personal lives. For ten people, love gets in the way.

–Blurb for Mr. Christmas and Miss Scrooge:

Mitch Silverton agreed to be in charge of decorating for the fundraiser. And he needs his boss, Margaret Holberg, to donate her family’s vast array of decorations to make the day unforgettable. BUT…

She’s not sharing. Christmas is not a holiday she wants to celebrate in July, and saving the animal shelter is not high on her list of important things to do.

He wants her to share more than the decorations. He wants her heart. Will he succeed in changing Miss Scrooge into Mrs. Christmas?

If you knew ahead of time your book would benefit only one person on their spiritual journey, would you still write it? Absolutely. I write because I can’t not write. Even if my story only ever helps my teenaged daughter, who reads all my books, then that’s enough for me. I aim to always glorify God in my life, which bleeds into my writing. While I don’t share the salvation message, I do write from a Christian worldview. Even when my characters are struggling with sin, I write them back into the fold of God by the end of the book.

Do you feel pressured to compromise your standards in order to reach a larger audience or be more successful? I think this ties in to the previous question, and my answer would be no. I don’t write for the monetary rewards. I write for the glory of One. If He’s not pleased, it doesn’t matter how many people like my book or how much money I’ve made, it was a failure. On the flipside, if He is pleased and glorified, then I’ve done what I’ve set out to do.

What is your personal, most effective way to get past writer’s block? I have a fantasy novel that I play with. I’ve never intended for it to be published. It’s something that I’ve just had fun with. I don’t have to worry about believability, grammar, consistencies, etc. I just write and enjoy the characters as they come alive to me. Amazingly, it is one of my daughter’s favorites, and she often begs for a new chapter. Maybe someday I will publish it, but that wasn’t the goal when I started writing it.

Do you have your plotline and character development already laid out before you begin writing a book, or do they develop as you write? I have a few things researched before I begin—location, weather, and moon phases. I also generate a calendar so I can make sure I keep the days straight. I’ve tried doing the plotline and character development in advance, but it backfired and I found the story stifled, so I deleted it all and started over. And even for my current work-in-progress, I tried to do a character worksheet, but as I wrote the story my heroine revealed herself differently than she did in the “interview.” I’ve decided I just need to write the story. That’s what works for me.

Do you have pre-determined length in mind when you first begin a book? With Mr. Christmas and Miss Scrooge, I had a predetermined length because it was going in the Love in Mistletoe Springs set, but otherwise I aim for 75,000-90,000 words. Typically my first draft finishes in the 65,000 word range, and with edits and extra description, I add the extra necessary words.

What is one thing that you “never saw yourself doing” and either do it now or have done?This answer is not writing related, so I hope that’s okay. Believe it or not, when I was a teenager, I didn’t think I’d ever be a mom. I didn’t really care for children, though I babysat regularly. Maybe that’s why. 😀 Then after I got married, I thought two children would be a good number. My husband wanted five. And in God’s wonderful sense of humor, he sent us seven—five boys and two girls. Ironically enough, I still don’t care for other people’s children after more than a couple of hours.

Find Ginger online: website, Inspy Romance Blog, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.

Find Ginger’s book on Amazon.

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