Interview with Lauraine Henderson #3

About the Author

Lauraine lives with her husband, dog and cat on 68 acres of woodland 40 miles north of Portland, Oregon. After growing up in Oregon, they moved their family of three children to Utah. From there they moved to Hawaii and Arizona, finally coming back to Oregon in 2015. Their three children, two girls and a boy, are all grown and live across the United States. After being a professional bookkeeper for over twenty years, she turned her hobby of writing into her first published novel in 2016. She loves to write inspirational romance and hopes her readers will be both entertained and uplifted by her stories. When she’s not writing, she loves to paint (watercolors, oils, and acrylics), sew, knit, crochet, and read (of course!).

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The Interview

1. What kind of research do you do?
I’m still in the phase of writing what I know. I’ve been around awhile so there is still a lot in my life to draw from. J How long do you spend researching a book before you begin writing? Any research I do I usually do as needed. If I have a question about a medical condition, for example, I Google it while I’m writing and then use the information I discover when it’s appropriate.

2. What does your writing process look like?
I struggle with making time to write every day, so I have participated in NaNoWriMo twice and have had great success writing that way. It gets me going and committed to writing at least a little every day. Other than that, it seems like I can’t focus on writing until the dishes, laundry, and my other part time job are done. Once of these days, I plan to put writing first. Once I’m in the groove, it’s hard to stop, but I always take time out for my family.
In the sense of how a book comes to fruition, I write the rough draft, send it out to critique partners, revise, revise, and revise some more. Then I hire a professional editor, revise some more, and then work on cover art, back cover copy, and book description. Finally it’s ready for publishing.

3. Do you have a day job?
I have a very part time bookkeeping job for a company in Hawaii that I used to work full time for. I work from home and remote into their computers. It’s a little silly because I only work one day a week for a couple hours, but I like to keep the connection to Hawaii. Do you like it? I’m a bit weary of bookkeeping. I’ve done it for over 30 years. Writing is much more fun!  Does it ever get in the way of your writing? Not really. I don’t have enough work for it to get in the way.

4. Do you enjoy book signings?
I’ve only been to one book signing and it was a mass signing at a writer’s conference. Honestly, it was more interesting talking with authors whose books I’ve read than the actual book signing. It would be interesting to do a book signing at a book store. I still think it’s kind of funny that anyone would want my autograph.

5. What of your books was first to get published?  How did it feel when you finally had your first book published?  What did you do to celebrate?
My first published book is called The Triple-Date Dare.
Since I published it myself, it was a quiet press of the computer key that finally published the book on Amazon. I was adequately stupefied. It all seemed so unreal until I met other authors who were just normal people like me, and I realized I could be part of that community.

It was in the middle of the Christmas holiday season, so my celebration was limited to acknowledging the event at dinner and lots of support from my family and friends. I did a big post on Facebook, though!

6. What inspired the idea for Building a Life?
My husband is a builder and I’ve been surrounded by building ever since we met over 40 years ago. He’s told me for years that I could probably run a building project since I’ve been involved in the building of so many of my own homes. The actual story came to me suddenly while I was on my way home from work when we lived in Hawaii. I remember the exact place in the road when I had the thought. I firmly believe Heavenly Father helps me come up with story ideas. It truly just popped into my head.

7. What did you as a writer take away from writing Building a Life?
I wrote this book during a NaNoWriMo month. Every day I sat down at the computer and although I had a general outline, the details of the story were vague to begin. As I would write, the characters took the story line in their own hands and I simply followed. There are many parts to this story that I feel wrote themselves. That’s the miracle of writing for me and this book amazed me in that way. Every book isn’t that way, but I love the writing process and the inspiration that comes as the story unfolds.
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8. What is your current WIP? What can you share with us about it?
My current WIP is called Daisies in the Driveway.  It’s about two unrelated grandchildren who take over their grandparents’ bed and breakfast and campground so the grandparents can retire and get married. The story centers around the younger generation learning the ins and outs of running the Inn and the campground and the various problems along the way as they fall in love with each other.