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Q & A with Robin Jones Gunn:
Q: What inspired you to write? Robin Jones Gunn: When I first started writing my inspiration came in two parts. First, I was writing children's books when my kids were babies. That was probably to satisfy my storytelling instinct. Then I became motivated to write novels when I was spending a lot of time with teenagers. We were on a camping trip, when I found these 13-year-old girls sitting in their tent reading books rather than going out to the beach and hanging around with everybody else. I asked if I could read three of their books -- their favorites -- and they showed me a stack of probably 20 books they'd brought from the library. When I read their three favorite books, it concerned me because the content wasn't really appropriate for thirteen year-olds. I encouraged them to read something else, and they challenged me and said, "Why don't you write a book for us?" "Oh no," I told them. "I just write picture books." They kept at me and said, "You can write a novel! How hard could it be? As a matter of fact, we'll tell you what to write! We want a love story with teenagers at the beach." And they told me what to write. It took two years and they brutally critiqued every word. That first novel for teens was Summer Promise, book one in the Christy Miller series, and it came out 1988. The 12-book Christy Miller series was followed by the 12 book Sierra Jensen series. Those two series have sold over 2 million copies. These books were followed by Christy and Todd the College Years. These three novels are published by Bethany House and track the characters from the two series through their college years. Readers e-mailed me every week asking, "Are Todd and Christy ever going to get married?" I wrote the College Years so they could find out! Q: Have you heard back from a lot of readers on how these books have impacted their lives? Robin Jones Gunn: Yes! Daily I hear from readers all over the world. I continually hear from girls who say that they gave their life to Christ after reading Summer Promise. They say they were just like Christy in that they thought they were a Christian because they went to church, but when Christy realized that she needed to surrender her life to Christ, it made them realize they had not yet taken that step, either. Hundreds of girls have written to say that when Christy got on her knees beside her bed and surrendered to Christ, they did the same thing, and they mark that moment as the true beginning of their life as a Believer. Or as the character in the books say, they became a true "God-Lover." Q: You first started out with children's picture books. Where can we find these book? Robin Jones Gunn: I wrote 14 children’s picture books at the beginning of my career. These books are all currently out of print, but you can find them on Amazon.com, Half.com, and other book re-salers. These books are:
Watch my News page for information on the re-release of the Mrs. Rosey Posey books. Q: After your children’s picture books, you began the young adult series. How did you transition into novels? Robin Jones Gunn: The Glenbrooke Series became the natural next step because these teenagers who had grown up reading Christy Miller books were now in college and in their early twenties. I got a lot of mail from readers who would say, "I grew up reading the Christy Miller series. She was like a contemporary Anne of Green Gables to me. Now would you write some contemporary books that are like a romantic comedy movie? Write some books about characters who are the same age we are now." So I wrote eight novels for Multnomah Publishers in the Glenbrooke Series. The characters all connect in the books in the imaginary town of Glenbrooke, Oregon. Some of the characters were lifted out of the Christy Miller series. I took some of the secondary characters from the Christy Miller series and wrote about them as 25 year-olds. The readers loved checking in on their favorite characters, and finding out what happened with them. Q: I found that your characters felt very personal as I read your books. How do you do that? Your readers think they are real people. Robin Jones Gunn: I think the fun part about writing contemporary fiction -- the part that makes the story and the characters feel personal -- is that we're all experiencing the same sorts of things in this generation, and when you can capture that and put it on paper or on the screen, it becomes this common ground and readers feel connected. They can relate the story to their own personal experiences and vicariously go along with the characters on their imaginary journey. It feels real to them. Q: How do you come up with these characters? Robin Jones Gunn: I cut pictures out of magazines and do up these detailed notebooks before I write, so I know these characters very well before they appear on the page. I write a bio for each character, so I know when they were born, what they like and don't like, what they're afraid of, how many brothers and sisters they have - I know them well before I write about them. My kids tease me about talking to my imaginary friends and I say, "Hey, it's true! I carry on with my imaginary friends all the time, and I get paid for it instead of getting locked up in a padded cell. Now you explain that one." My husband, who has his master's degree in psychology says he won't be worried until I start saying that I can hear my imaginary friends talking back to me. (Of course they already do talk back to me, but I won't admit that to anyone.) Q: Not only do you write creatively, you also have this whole visionary kind of a notebook. That's creative. Robin Jones Gunn: A lot of fiction writers do this in different ways. For me, each novel I write has a separate 3 ring binder, and I cut out pictures of what their living rooms look like, and pictures of their pets, shoes, blenders, cars, surfboards, whatever applies to that character. No catalog is safe in my house. It's like playing paper dolls. I open the Sunday flyers and say, "Oh, here's a cute outfit for Meredith to wear when she goes to visit Jessica in Glenbrooke." Out come the scissors and glue, and soon the notebook is full. It's a very fun way to teach creative writing to students when I speak in the public schools. I pass out pictures, show them my notebooks and then set their imaginations free. I think it makes the story more real and actually easier to write, because when I sit down to finally write the story, I have the plot finished and a calendar all filled out of what happened when. But then I use these notebooks and I can flip back and forth and say, "Oh, that's right, her bedspread is blue." It's real to me, I can see it; so, then when I write it, it feels real. It's vivid. Q: Did you always want to be an author? Robin Jones Gunn: No. I never set out that direction, and it still surprises me. I mean, I thought about it as a whimsical little dream, similar to thinking it would be fun to sail around the world someday. But it seemed like so much work. I always liked to sit around and tell stories, but I never thought I would have the patience to write an entire whole book, and now I'm at book number 63. That's astounding to me. I guess you could say, like Christy's best friend Katie always says, "It's a God-thing." |
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To read additional interviews with Robin, check out:
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