In September, I had the great pleasure of interview the well-known and greatly admired author, Robin Jones Gunn! Robin has written over 75 Christian books for women, teens and young girls. She worked in the youth ministry and is a speaker. She is currently living in Hawaii with her hubby, Ross and their dog, Hula! Enjoy this little interview and get to know Robin better!
Haylie~ I was recently listening to an interview Margaret McSweeney from "Kitchen Talk" did with you and she said that you just completed writing your 75th book! How amazing! How do you feel about it?
Robin~ The 25 years that I’ve been writing for publication have gone by very quickly. I didn’t even realize I was at book #75 until I had to do an inventory list. I looked at the list and felt overwhelmed. I knew more clearly than ever that this is all a big, amazing God thing and His dreams for us are more extravagant and enormous than anything we could every come up with in our imagination.
Haylie~ Out of all the books/series you have written, which was your favorite to write? Why?
Robin~ Oh dear. This is like trying to say which child is my favorite. Or which friend is my one-and-only favorite when I love each one for different reasons. I’ve been asked this question before and I always say the first Christy Miller book, “Summer Promise”. That’s what I’m going to say again this time. I think it’s my favorite because it was the first novel I wrote and it was the most challenging one to write. I had to learn everything as I was writing and I truly put my whole heart and soul into that story over a period of two years.
Haylie~ Each one of your characters has its own uniqueness about them. Did you come up with these characters on your own or do you base them off of people you know?
Robin~ When I start writing a new story I fill up a binder style notebook. I cut pictures out of magazines of different characters, I write short profiles for each one and I cut out pictures of their clothes, cars and furniture. With Sierra Jensen I found a pair of cowboy boots and knew she had to “have” them. My kids used to think it was like playing paper dolls.
When I write the profile or bio for each character I sometimes think of people I know and incorporate a piece of their personality into that character. But for the most part it’s all made up. Some things I draw from are from my life. For instance, our son is allergic to bee stings and had some bad reactions when he was little. So I decided that Todd was allergic to bee stings, too, and that came up in the story, “Island Dreamer”.
Haylie~ When you are not writing your next bestselling book, what are you doing?
Robin~ I love to travel. I also speak fairly often and I really enjoy that. I started an Online Shop two years ago and that has taken a lot of time and creative energy but the results have been terrific and lots of great ministry is happening as a result of the books that are sold in the Shop.
My husband and I have really great friends and we enjoy spending lots of time with them. Our son and daughter are both married but they come to Hawaii with their spouses every chance they get so that fills up my heart.
We live about a mile from the beach. My favorite time to go swimming is in the early morning. I walk down to the ocean, jump in and swim about and then I walk home as the water dries on my arms making little white polka dots from the salt. That’s a happiness. I love listening to the doves in the morning outside our open bedroom window.
Haylie~ What can we expect from you in the next year or so?
Robin~ The next three books coming out are:
“Love Finds Your in Sunset Beach, HI” Sierra Jensen’s love story October, 2011
“Finally and Forever” book 4 in the Katie Weldon series May, 2012
“Cottage by the Sea” a novel that is close to my heart and taken from when my dad had a stroke. Sierra’s wedding is tucked inside this novel. Summer, 2012
~ Tea or Coffee? TEA!
~Watching a Movie in the Theater or at Home? At Home
~Vanilla or Chocolate? CHOCOLATE!
~Cake or Pie? Ice Cream.
~Magazine or Newspaper? Magazine.
Robin~ I’ll be sharing more details about future projects in my Robin’s Nest Newsletters when it’s the right time for me to release information. I hope you’ll sign up for my newsletter at www.robingunn.com or on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-Jones-Gunn/110691292261?ref=ts I’m also on Twitter as RobinGunn
Did you know that Haylie is currently writing a Christmas book?! She hopes to finish it by the beginning of January!
Robin Jones Gunn is MY FAVORITE Christian fiction author. I feel like all her main characters from her teen series are my friends! :) So excited to read this. Awesome interview! I cannot wait for the fourth Katie Weldon book, I had no idea!
ReplyDelete<3 makes me want to get some reading and writing done over break :)
ReplyDeleteRobin is my favorite author! Can't wait to read her new books coming out soon! :)
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