Award-winning author Lynn Austin became one of my favorite authors many years ago when I read the first edition of what is now her Chronicles of the King series. The first three books in the series are about King Hezekiah and are some of the best Biblical novels I’ve ever read. I reread these books (something I rarely do) to my boys during our homeschooling years. They loved the stories as much as I did! I’ve been a fan of Lynn’s ever since!

Lynn Austin was blessed to have parents and grandparents who instilled in her the Christian values that are so important to her today. And it was Lynn’s mother, a retired librarian, who nurtured her love for books. Lynn attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan for three years, where she met her husband, Ken, and completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors at Southern Connecticut State University in 1972. Although she had a desire to write for many years, the demands of her growing family and their frequent moves (which included Bogota, Colombia; several U.S. states; and Canada), postponed her career. When her husband’s work took their family to Winnipeg, Manitoba, she finally unearthed her dormant dream to write during the long Canadian winters.

Along with reading, two of her lifelong passions are history and archaeology. While researching her Biblical fiction series, Chronicles of the King, these two interests led her to pursue graduate studies in Biblical Backgrounds and Archaeology through Southwestern Theological Seminary. She traveled to Israel with her older son, Joshua, during the summer of 1989 to take part in an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Timnah.

I loved touring what archaeologists have uncovered!

Lynn resigned from teaching to write full-time in 1992. Since then she’s published fifteen novels. Three of her historical novels, Hidden Places, Candle in the Darkness, and Fire by Night have won Christy Awards in 2002, 2003, and 2004 for excellence in Inspirational Fiction. Her novel Hidden Places has been made into a movie by Hallmark, starring actress Shirley Jones. She even had the privilege of traveling to Hollywood to watch a few days of filming on the movie set.

Awesome!

Lynn and her husband currently live in Illinois where one of their favorite pastimes is bicycling with friends. For the past two summers they’ve logged more than 200 miles each season—but she’s made sure to choose states without mountains! One of her more unusual hobbies is home decorating, and when she’s not writing she can usually be found moving furniture around or sewing new curtains. In fact, whenever she completes a book, she treats herself to a new decorating project. Her husband’s reaction usually is, “Hooray, your book is done…Oh, no! What room are we painting next?” Her most recent book deadline was January 15, 2008 and three days later she bought a can of paint and 5 yards of fabric.

Are you for hire? My house needs redecorating! :)

Lynn’s latest release is A Proper Pursuit from Bethany House, which by the way, is a delightful, fun read! Here’s the blurb:

The World’s Fair. Chicago. 1893…It seems a perfect backdrop for what Violet Hayes longs to experience: a little mystery, a little romance.

To be honest, it is more than a little mystery. She schemed her way to Chicago to discover the mother she barely remembered. As for romance…well, with the help of her grandmother and three great aunts, that is coming along nicely as well—perhaps too well. Each of her relatives—including her saintly grandmother—seems to have a separate agenda for her.

In the course of a summer, Violet’s world will open wide before her eyes. But in the wake of discovery, she must find a way to determine which path—and which man—will ultimately be the right lifetime choice for her.

You can purchase A Proper Pursuit at these three online bookstores:

CBD, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.

I asked Lynn to give us some insight into how God is using her and her writing.

Jill: When and how did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

Lynn: : I thought about writing ever since my college years but never had enough time to make the dream a reality until I was in my thirties. Our family had moved to Canada and I was a stay-at-home mother with a newborn, a two-year-old and a nine-year-old. The cold winters kept me housebound, so I spent a lot of time reading. After a while, the hopeless story lines in many popular books left me feeling disappointed. The theme of so many books seemed to be “life is hard and then you die.” I agree that life is sometimes hard, but I also know that God is good. He alone can give our life meaning and purpose. So one day I got out my typewriter, which had been gathering dust since my college years, and I started to write while my children were napping. From that moment on, I was hooked. I loved everything about the process of creating and writing stories. I decided that, God willing, I would be a writer.

Jill: Can you share with me some of the highlights of your writing journey – something particularly memorable or humorous?

Lynn: Once I completed my first novel a few years later, I began the long, difficult process of finding a publisher. I received my share of rejections until finally one publisher asked me to submit my manuscript. I waited nearly a year for their decision as various committees considered the manuscript, and eventually I was told that I would hear from them “any day.” I waited anxiously for the telephone to ring, but instead, the postal carrier delivered a black plastic garbage bag to my door with my name and address taped to it. My first reaction was, “I don’t have enough garbage of my own? Who is sending me more garbage?”

But when I opened the bag—there was my manuscript! Evidently, the packing box had fallen apart somewhere in transit, so the postal service shoveled everything into a garbage bag and taped my address to it. I dug through the bag and found a letter from the publisher saying, “We’re sorry, but we’ve decided not to publish your book.” I was devastated.

I can laugh about it now, but at the time the garbage bag seemed like an editorial comment or a sign from the publishing world that my writing was “trash” and I should give up. And I did give up, for a while. But my longing to write was just too strong to resist. I persevered and that “garbage bag” book is now published under the title “Gods and Kings.”

Jill: Tell me a bit about what you write now and what you hope/plan to write in the future. Do you have a favorite genre?

Lynn: Most of my books probably fall into the historical fiction category—and that’s probably because I love history and enjoy doing the research. But at the same time, I think my books are all very different—and I have made them that way on purpose. I don’t want to limit myself to a particular category and end up writing the same type of book over and over. I would become very bored with a single genre. I throw a little of everything into my stories—suspense, romance, history, a mystery to solve—yet I think my books are all similar in that they all deal with women who discover their source of strength in God. Another similarity is that they deal with women’s relationships: mothers & daughters, husbands & wives, sisters & friends. The book I have just finished writing, Until We Reach Home, is about the relationships between three sisters who immigrate to America together from Sweden in the 1890’s.

I don’t have a favorite genre, even in my personal reading, but enjoy a wide variety of books and genres and authors.

Jill: Do you consider your writing the work God has given you to do for a lifetime or for a season of your life? If you could pursue anything else, what would it be?

Lynn: I was in my mid-thirties when I began to write and over 40 when my first book was published, so I firmly believe that God has given me different callings for different seasons of my life. Right now, I would love to continue writing for as long as I am able, but if God has other plans for my life I am open to that possibility, too. However, I can’t think of anything else I would rather pursue.

Jill: Are there people in your life who encouraged you, who are responsible for you becoming a published author?

Lynn: My mother was my primary influence early in my life. She is a librarian (now retired), so I grew up surrounded by books. She not only read countless stories to me, but she also did some writing herself and has published magazine and newspaper articles. Today, she is one of my loudest cheerleaders.

Another powerful influence was my friend and mentor, Alma Barkman. When I first decided to sit down and write during those long Canadian winters, God miraculously brought Alma into my life. My husband taught music lessons to Alma’s son, and when this young man saw me typing one day and heard that I wanted to be a writer, he brought his mother with him to his next lesson. Not only was Alma a published Christian author, but she also ran a Christian writers’ critique group in our city. She very graciously took me under her wing and mentored me every step of the way. Writing can be a lonely process, especially for a beginner, and God graciously gave me a wise friend to walk beside me through it all.

Jill: Can you share one struggle that entered your life as a result of writing and how God helped you to overcome it, to make you more like Christ? After so many books published, do you still have days where you question what you are doing or feel like you’ll never write another book?

Lynn: One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn was patience. As I mentioned earlier, I waited nearly a year to find out if my book would be published, only to have it rejected (in a garbage bag). I then had to start the submitting and waiting process all over again. And I’m not a patient person by nature. I remember one day when I had become extremely upset with a publishing company that I was dealing with at the time, I was just about to tell them off with an angry telephone call when I happened to glance at my computer screen. I had programmed my screensaver with random Bible verses and this one read: “Wait for the Lord! Be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord!” I put down the phone, and when I stopped laughing at God’s sense of humor, I took His advice. I learned to wait.

In the years since, I have seen so many examples of His perfect timing that I’ve lost track of them all. While I still tend to be impatient at times, I’ve learned that I can trust His perfect timing. One story illustrates this: after waiting eleven years for my first book to be published, it went out of print after a short, disappointing sales record. But in God’s perfect timing, my current publisher, Bethany House, decided to acquire the rights to it several years later and re-publish it. So many years had passed that my son, who had been two years old when I first began to write that book, had now become an adult and felt called to attend seminary. The royalties from the newly published book—now with an excellent sales record—arrived just in time to pay for his seminary tuition. I didn’t know the timing would be so perfect, but God knew.

Yes, I still have days when every word I write seems like drivel. But I’ve learned over the years, how to deal with writer’s block and with my inner critic and how to persevere on those bad days. When I’m discouraged, it usually means that I need to take a break and re-fill my inner well of creativity by taking an “Artist’s Date.”

Jill: Likewise, is there a particular joy in this writing business/ministry that God has used to remind you that He is, in fact, using your words to His glory?

Lynn: One of the greatest blessings has been meeting readers face-to-face or hearing from them through letters and e-mails. God has used my readers again and again to encourage and bless me. As I said, writing can be a lonely business, so it is always wonderful to hear from readers and learn how God has used my stories in their lives.

One of the biggest surprises and joys has been having my books published in other languages. It never occurred to me when I first sat down and started to write that my ministry would be worldwide. I can’t begin to describe the joy I felt, for example, when I received a letter from a young reader in the Philippines who told me how difficult her life was but how much my book helped her grow in her faith. Each time I hear a story like that, I praise God for His amazing goodness.

Jill: Has writing opened opportunities for you to give your testimony and witness for Christ or minister to fellow believers? If so, can you give one example?

Lynn: When my first book came out, I was asked to speak to a woman’s group at my church. My first reaction was, “I’m not a speaker!” But I did it anyway—with great fear and trembling. Soon, several other churches in my area began asking me to speak, and each time, I felt like Peter stepping out of the boat and trying to walk on water. Each time, Jesus kept me afloat. Eventually, I found myself speaking at women’s retreats and at conventions in front of thousands of people and I’ve learned that God wants to use speaking as part of my ministry as well as my writing. My struggles to become a writer have drawn me closer to Him and so I try to share that testimony in my speaking ministry.

For the last few years I’ve ventured into speaking venues that aren’t Christian-based, and I’ve had some amazing experiences. One of my favorite opportunities has been as a guest at area book clubs that are discussing my books. Usually one member is a Christian and she has suggested my book to the others, so these clubs are great places to share my testimony. I have also been invited to speak at several public libraries. In fact, I was the featured speaker at my own public library last evening (January 24, 2008).

Next up for Lynn—Until We Reach Home, releasing September 2008 from Bethany House.

Three Swedish sisters, each with her own dreams and secrets, undertake the long, difficult journey together to find a new home in America.

You can visit author Lynn Austin and get to know her better by checking out her website.

Thanks Lynn, for joining us this month on Spotlight!