WOF:       Tell us how the Yada Yada stories came about.

NETA:       For several years I had been part of a multi-cultural women’s Bible study that really impacted my life. At the time I started writing these books, we actually thought we had come to an ending place. (A year later, people were clamoring to get back together.)

But during that time I was reflecting on how much the group had meant to me and how God really used it to turn my faith experience upside down. Even though I had grown up in church, grown up in a Christian family and walked the life of faith for most of my life. The women in this Bible study being from all different walks of life – different ages, different cultural experiences, different denominations – I just realized how narrow my own perspectives were. I went into it thinking, “This is cool. We’re very multicultural.” Afterwards I realized “Man, I really need these women and I never realized it.” I never knew how much I needed the other parts of the body of Christ. That’s what this Bible Study had done for me.

I wanted to share this. It was actually my husband’s idea. He said, “There are so many stories, you should really write a book.” I said, “I don’t think so.” He said, “No, a novel. The type of experiences you had, not the same ones.” Well, I tested it with a few of the sisters and I kept wanting people to say, “No way! Forget it.” But everybody said, “Yeah, that’d be great! You can use my story, I don’t care.”

WOF:       With twelve major characters to keep track of―not to mention all the minor ones―how do you remember who’s who and what they’re all supposed to be doing at any given time?

NETA:       I was very naïve thinking I could put twelve feisty women in one novel and expect them to stay there. I really thought I was going to write one book, but their stories just kept popping out. I had to pray so hard through the whole series because it wasn’t something that I planned ahead of time.

I had a general idea for each book, but things would just keep happening as they interacted with each other. I’d get in the middle of a situation and think, “Oh! Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” So it was fun but I had to sort of eat crow because at writers’ conferences I would say “I don’t understand you people who don’t plot. How can you do that?”

I do have one point of view character through whose eyes we see. I was glad it turned into a series because in each book I focused on two or three people and brought their stories more to the forefront. By the end of the series each person, in a way, had their day in the sun.

Oftentimes I had to look back and say, “Wait a minute…what color eyes did she have?” or “What car did she have?” I have a fantastic copy editor; she’s done all the Yada Yada books. She is a detail person and she keeps track of all that stuff.

WOF:       The members of the prayer group are such a diverse mix of cultures; was it difficult to create so many different voices?

NETA:       I am writing from my own experience, but it’s still easy to make faux pas. I have a little circle of readers who read for me. Every ten chapters that I write, I send out, mostly because I have multi-cultural characters. I still make mistakes; I had a Japanese reader who said “Mama-san! We NEVER call people Mama-san.” Dave looked it up and said “Oh, I think it means like a madam in a brothel.” Whoops! [My circle of readers] read it for a lot of different reasons, one of which is to me keep from sticking my foot in my mouth.

WOF:       The Yada Yada Prayer Group doesn’t pull any punches; it deals with some pretty heavy-duty issues. Do you feel that Christian fiction as a genre is becoming a little edgier?

NETA:       Oh yeah, I do. It’s good because a lot of people sitting in our pews are dealing with these kinds of things. If you think book one is tough . . . they get tougher! We have a racially motivated shooting, a robbery by a heroin-crazed woman . . . they show that there’s no situation, nothing that we deal with that is beyond redemption. That doesn’t mean everything works out pie-in-the-sky, but to me, truly Christian fiction has to have a redemptive hope to it. It doesn’t mean we don’t have to face the consequences of our actions or that there aren’t a lot of painful things we deal with, but I couldn’t leave a whole book or series in despair.

WOF:       What response have you had to the Yada Yada books?

NETA:       The whole journey is just so much more than I ever expected. That verse that talks about ‘abundance more than we can ever ask or think’; it’s so true. It’s been such a blessing to me and made all the long hours and hard work worthwhile.

So many women have written to say, first of all, how much the books have taught them about prayer and gave them a deep hunger for a deeper worship relationship with Jesus. That was so exciting! The second thing was a hunger I heard in women to experience a group like this. To have people really know you and not reject you for the crud that you struggle with inside.

Along with that hunger I heard people saying, “We started out as a book club but then we started praying together.” I have no way of keeping track, but it seems like I’ve heard from hundreds of groups. In the back of this “party edition” of book one there are suggestions for starting a prayer group.

As an author I couldn’t ask for anything greater as a response to the task that God has given me to do. But again, it’s scary. I think a writer, like a teacher, has a great responsibility for the influence they have. We have to be careful what we put in, that it really lines up with the Word of God. We’re going to be held accountable for the people we influence.

WOF:       This edition of the book is called a “party edition.”  That sounds like fun, but what does it mean?

NETA:       My original idea was to create a Yada Yada celebration book. The publisher’s idea was to put those celebrations – how to pull off a Quinceañera, how to make a wedding quilt, etc. – in the back of the book it applied to. We started with the last book of the series; it’s called [The Yada Yada Prayer Group] Gets Decked Out. Then we went back to book one and began doing more on how to take something from another culture and adapt it to your own situation. Plus recipes. My husband actually worked on this, especially the recipes. He tested them all and pulled a lot of them together.

WOF:       Your husband is also an author, right? And you actually collaborate on some projects . . . and you’re still speaking to each other? How does that work?

NETA:       He’s sitting across the room! I said, “Dave, do you want me to leave for this interview?” No, he can tune me out. For many years we’ve had a writing partnership, meaning we have worked on a lot of things together. We did a forty-book series called the Trailblazer Books in which we wrote about great Christian heroes; historical fiction for kids. We did a number of nonfiction books together as Dave and Neta Jackson. So for me the Yada Yada series was the first adult fiction novel that I had done on my own.

WOF:       Was it scary?

NETA:       Oh, absolutely! I have a permanent foot imprint on my rear where he just sort of kicked me and dropped me off the cliff. [He said] “Here’s a good idea. Go do it! You can do it.” He was very encouraging. I thought, no one is going to want to publish a book with “prayer group” in the title. We were really surprised, but it was just God’s timing, I guess. We’re working on some different projects now but we still help each other tremendously. It definitely makes the writing life less lonely.

WOF:       Between you, you and Dave have written roughly a gazillion books. Do you ever worry that you’ll run out of stories?

NETA:       At times I have, but as long as I stay married to Dave, we won’t. He is a real idea person. I used to worry about that but I don’t worry about it so much anymore. I think I’ve learned how a little spark can become a big forest fire. Life is full of ideas.

WOF:       Tell us about your new series.

NETA:       In the last two novels of the original Yada Yada series I introduced a homeless shelter. This homeless shelter becomes a primary setting in the new series. While some of the original Yada sisters appear in the new series, the first book, Where Do I Go, introduces a new primary character named Gabby (Gabrielle Fairbanks) who lives in a Chicago penthouse. She seems to have everything a woman could want except that her marriage is falling apart around her. She stumbles, literally, across Lucy, an elderly bag lady, who unwittingly introduces her to a place of refuge and hope. The story goes back and forth from penthouse to homeless shelter and we see that God sometimes uses unlikely people and places to accomplish His purposes.

I’m thinking of a three-book series right now and the titles come from the gospel song by Dottie Rambo, “I Go to the Rock.” The titles are Where Do I Go? Who Do I Talk To? and Who Do I Lean On? The first one will be available in early December.