Interview with Denise Hunter

WOF:
You and your husband have three boys, is that right? Is writing romance novels your method of escaping all the testosterone in your house?

DENISE:
Nobody’s ever asked me that, that’s a good question. It’s true that I have attended more than my share of athletic events and a little romantic outlet is a nice thing. I’ve always been an avid romance reader. I started reading it, especially in the nineties, and there just wasn’t much available as far as Christian romance goes. Initially, I wanted to supply other readers like me with good, clean Christian romance.

WOF:
Is that why you decided to become a novelist? Is it something you always wanted to do or did you just wake up one day and decide to write a book?

DENISE:
When I was about nineteen or twenty, I started thinking about maybe writing a book. It was a dream that I think God laid on my heart. I put it off because I got married at twenty, then I was in college, then I started having babies and my life was kind of busy. It wasn’t until my grandfather passed away when I was 26...I was standing in the hospital room with him, watching him just lay there and struggle to breathe. We knew he was going to be passing away any day. That dream came to my mind and I knew how much my grandfather had accomplished, in his life, for the Lord, and I knew, too, that someday I would be there, lying on a bed, the end drawing near—and if I didn’t do something about my dream it was going to be one of those things that I wished I had done. It really hit me on that day, that if I don’t do it, I’m going to find myself at the end of my life wondering what God had in store for me that I didn’t fulfill. Within the next week or two I started my first manuscript.

WOF:
Of all the genres to choose from, why romance novels?

DENISE:
Because it’s what I love to read. I like to read all kinds of genres, but I want some kind of romantic thread in there. I always tell writers, “Don’t write the genre that’s hot right now, it’s not going to be hot in five years. Write what you love to read. You’re going to be passionate about it and your passion’s going to shine through in your writing.”

WOF:
Do you look on your books as evangelistic? You write romances from a Christian perspective; do you think they could play a part in bringing someone to know the Lord?

DENISE:
I certainly hope so. As a Christian, I think my writing comes from a Christian world view. Some of my books—my Nantucket series, for instance—the first two books don’t actually even mention God. However, they’re allegories; the whole story, the way the hero loves the heroine, is much the same way that God loves us. That was really fun for me to write because it really made me look at the way God loves us and how I can show that through the hero loving the heroine. I have gotten a lot of really neat letters from people who have really seen they way God loves them in a fresh new way. That was the whole reason that I started the series.

WOF:
In Sweetwater Gap there’s a scene towards the end where Josie gives her life over to God. It wasn’t preachy, but it gets the point across.

DENISE:
I try to be careful about that because I know when I’m reading a book and it feels like there’s a five-page sermon dumped into the middle of it—I don’t like that. Embarrassingly, I tend to skip that, because I’m reading for the story. I want to know what happens to the characters; I think a lot of readers do. When I’m writing, I try to keep that in mind. The reader is reading it for a story. A lot of times you can show things through the actual story and not have to dump a sermon into the middle of the book.

WOF:
How do you begin a novel? Is it plot, character, setting, a point you want to get across...?

DENISE:
You know, everybody has a different method; I’m a fan of doing whatever works for you. What works for me is to come up with a pretty detailed synopsis. That’s really hard work for me; it takes me at least a month to come up with a good, fleshed-out synopsis. It’s usually, like, ten pages single-spaced; it’s pretty detailed. It leaves me some wiggle room for my characters to change their minds mid-course, but I really like to know, when I sit down to write, that I have a plan. It’s a workable plan and I’m not going to get to page 250 and go, “Uh-oh. I’m at a dead end and there’s nowhere to go.” I like to have a pretty thorough idea going into it. I also let my editor approve the synopsis, so that she doesn’t get [the book] at the end and go, “Oh...this isn’t at all what I had in mind.” We’re on the same page.

WOF:
The setting of Sweetwater Gap is as much of a character as the people in the book. What made you decide to place this story in an apple orchard?

DENISE:
I kind of like when a story has layers. To me, in an apple orchard—because you have the fruit, the growth, the harvest—there’s so many neat layers of symbolism you can draw from. Also, I think an apple orchard is just kind of romantic in itself. You’re right, it is like a little world of its own, even though they were in the town of Shelbyville, that apple orchard was the story world.

I visited one here locally; it was an Indiana orchard. I just sat down with owner—because, really, what do I know about apple orchards? Nothing! So I sat down with the owner for an afternoon; she took me through all the processes and let me ask all the questions I wanted to. That was really how I got all my information on apple orchards. My husband and I and our kids went down to North Carolina and spent several days in the area where I set the fictional town.

WOF:
How did you decide where to set your imaginary town? Did you look at a map or something?

DENISE:
Yes, that’s where I start. My first thought when I’m trying to come up with a setting is where does the reader want to go and spend a few days? Because really, when they’re reading a book, they’re spending a few days there. I try to pick someplace that I think the readers would want to go and immerse themselves for a while to get away from wherever they are. I think the Blue Ridge Mountains...I love mountains. I live in flat northern Indiana, so to me, mountains are majestic and beautiful and wonderful and to set the apple orchard, which I think is a neat setting all on its own, in a mountainous area...I don’t know, it called me.

WOF:
Josie has a secret—actually, two secrets—and the way she’s dealing with both is killing her. Literally. Do you feel that all secrets are destructive?

DENISE:
I am one of those “need to know” people; I hate secrets. I really do. Just tell me—whatever it is, just tell me. I don’t want anything kept from me. I do think that secrets can be very destructive.

The way I arrived at this plot, it was the whole “survivor guilt” thing. My editor asked me if I wanted to write a Women of Faith story; there was a slot open. I was like, “OF COURSE I want to write a Women of Faith novel, that’s awesome!” But then I got off the phone...see, I was in the middle of a Nantucket book at the time and she said, “You’re going to have to drop that and you’re going to have to start a new story.” Well, I told you how long it takes me...so I was like, “Oh no! I just agreed to this and I have no idea what to write.” I was immersed in my Nantucket story and wasn’t even thinking about another story.

So my editor sent me a newspaper clipping about this soldier who was in a home in Iraq and a grenade was thrown into the building. His fellow soldier jumped on top of the grenade; of course the grenade took his life and it saved this other soldier. The article was about how the survivor came home and was just reckless and self-destructive. He couldn’t deal with the sacrifice. Trying to live in such a way that was worthy of that sacrifice was too much for him to grasp, so he kind of went off the deep end a little bit. I started thinking about how much that’s like what God did for us, how He sacrificed His life for us, and the story started weaving itself around that whole concept.

WOF:
It’s nice to read a story where the characters do ordinary things, like rent movies and go to the grocery store. Do you think we miss the ‘romance’ in everyday activities because we’re waiting something more...exciting?

DENISE:
That is really a good question and yes, I do think that’s true! Not just romance, but I think sometimes we miss life that way, waiting for the next big thing. Meanwhile, life is happening and we’re looking ahead to something else. That’s even true with kids. Absolutely.

WOF:
Thanks for that apple pie recipe—after reading about all those apples, we were craving a great slice of pie! Did you create that yourself?

DENISE:
I wish! I wrote the whole pie thing into the story and it wasn’t until I was probably three-quarters of the way through that I thought, ooh, wouldn’t the readers love to have that apple pie recipe? Then I thought, I know just who to ask! We have a lady in our small group who used to be a caterer. Of course, since she’s in our small group we get to taste all her wonderful food that she makes. I knew that she had a wonderful apple pie recipe, so I hit her up for it and she was glad to help.

WOF:
Is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers?

DENISE:
I have attended Women of Faith and I just believe in them. It was such a neat experience for me. So many women gathered all in one place, and the speakers are so encouraging. I would just like to encourage women to attend one.