Interview with Dawn Crandall

About the Author

Dawn Crandall is a graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble. She is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary and is a member of Romance Writers of America, American Christian Fiction Writers, secretary for the Indiana ACFW Chapter (Hoosier Ink), and associate member of the Great Lakes ACFW Chapter.

The Everstone Chronicles is Dawn's first series with Whitaker House. They were originally released as eBooks, but will all be released in paperback Fall 2015. Dawn's debut novel,The Hesitant Heiress, is the winner of the 2015 Birmingham RWA Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for the inspirational category, the winner of the 2015 Wisconsin RWA Write Touch Readers' Award for the Inspirational category and is currently a finalist in the 2015 Carol Awards--ACFW's recognition for the best Christian fiction published by traditional publishing houses in the previous calendar year. Dawn's second novel, The Bound Heart is the winner of the 2015 Clash of the Titles Laurel Award.

All three books composing the series were semifinalists in ACFW's Genesis Writing Contest for unpublished manuscripts, the third book going on to become a finalist in 2013.

Connect wtih Dawn on:
Goodreads      Facebook      Twitter      Amazon      Blog

The Interview

1. How did you get started as an author?  What or whom inspired you?
I started writing The Hesitant Heiress in January of 2010. I'd never written much, but I knew I would someday write a novel. It ultimately took my husband finding out about it to get me to actually do it. He encouraged me to stay home and write, so I finally did. He believed in me 110%, which was exactly what I needed.

2. How many books have you written and in what genres?
So far, the three books in The Everstone Chronicles series: The Hesitant Heiress, The Bound Heart and The Captive Imposter are the only three books I've ever written. Most of the book ideas I have fall under the Historical Romance genre, but I have one Contemporary Romance story idea—just because I wanted to see what it was like. It was a lot easier to write the first three chapters of that CR, but my heart will forever belong in the Historical Romance genre.

3. What writing projects are you currently working on?  What can you tell us about these projects?
I happened to have my first baby four months before The Hesitant Heiress released as an eBook last year.... and although life is crazy and busy—and did I mention crazy?—I am still committed to writing. I just have to do it a little differently now that my first and only three manuscripts have been published! Now it's all about pitching book ideas and seeing if a publisher is interested in publishing them. They will all be historical romance from first person POV, I know that much! I have a few of them all ready to pitch, but it’s hard to describe them. They will be filled with drama, romance, deep emotions, conflicts, LOVE and plenty of twists and turns!  
    
4. What does your writing process look like?
I have ADD, so there is no real process besides making a pretty detailed outline of my chapters… but I usually only know about half of it at the beginning and figure the rest out as I go. I’ll start with a bunch of characters and ideas and scenes, goals and conflicts that all come together in my head, and I just have to focus long enough to get them in order and down in words on paper. Writing from first person POV, I can say that I always have to get deep into the character of my heroine as I write her and feel her reactions and feelings throughout the novel. That’s the one thing that has always stayed the same throughout writing the three books. Now that I’m published already, I have to actually figure out the ENTIRE story to pitch before writing it! That’s been taking me a few months pre story lately, having to do so around the demanding schedule of an 18 month old!

5. Where is your favorite place to write?

Before I had a baby, this was where I would write (see photo of desk).

But now that I have an 18 months old boy, I do a lot of my writing on my iPhone whenever I can. After bedtime, I get on my laptop—sometimes at my desk in the writing room, or sometimes at my dining room table.  

---

6. How important are the names in your novels? How do you choose names for your characters?  Do you have any name resources you would suggest?
Names are VERY important to me. I collect them. I don’t have a resource, I just watch out for interesting names and save them up. I actually had Amaryllis Brigham named when I was in college, at least a decade before I started writing the novel in 2010. I knew I would write her book someday, I just didn’t know what it would be about, or when I would get around to it. I also made up the name Everstone back then, knowing it would be the last name of the hero. I named her hero Nathan because the name is in my husband’s name, Jonathan. J

7. What authors/novels that you enjoy would you recommend?
Jody Hedlund, Julie Klassen, Julie Lessman, Sarah Ladd, Roseanna White.

8. Where is your favorite place to read and why?
I usually read in my bed.

9. What period of history interests you the most?
I would have to say most of the 1800s. It was such a great century with so much change and inventions!

10. If you could choose someone famous to star in one of your books made to a movie, who would you choose and for which character?
I would choose a young Zooey Deschanel as Amaryllis. As soon as I saw her in this photo years and years and years ago, I knew this was her.

---

11. What inspired the idea for your Everstone Chronicles series?  How many novels do you plan to have in this series?  Do you have other story ideas that are not part of the Everstone Chronicles?

I think the biggest inspirations for my books were the classics I’ve always loved—the first books I’d ever completely fallen for: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Christy by Catherine Marshall, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and then later, books by Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

One of the books I’m working on—the one I hope will be my next book contract—is another three book series to go along with The Everstone Chronicles. The first in the series will be a book about Violet Hawthorne, whom the reader will have met in the third book, The Captive Imposter… and Vance Everstone, the black sheep Everstone brother in need of some serious redemption. My working title for this is The Cautious Maiden, and the other two in the series are {tentatively} called The Reckless Bride and The Sensible Widow.   

I have a few other series in stages of development. Most will likely take place around the same timeframe—the late 1800s. But I do have one series idea that takes place in New York City during the 1920s.   

12. What other hobbies do you enjoy when you are not writing?
Having a baby, I hardly have enough time (for me, anyway) to write and read, so I don’t get around to much else! 

Check out my reviews for the novels in The Everstone Chronicles:
The Hesitant Heiress
The Bound Heart (coming soon)
The Captive Imposter (coming soon)