Today I have the honor of hosting one of my good friends, Lena Dooley. If you’re not familiar with Lena’s work, here’s her bio:

Award-winning author, Lena Nelson Dooley, has more than 690,000 books in print.

In addition to her writing, Lena is a frequent speaker at women’s groups, writers groups, and at both regional and national conferences. She has spoken in six states and internationally. She is also one of the co-hosts of the Gate Beautiful blog radio show.

Lena has an active web presence on Shoutlife, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Linkedin and with her internationally connected blog where she interviews other authors and promotes their books.

Lena is giving away her brand new book, Mary’s Blessing, so please leave a comment at the end of this interview and on Sunday evening we’ll draw a winner.

AND NOW FOR MY INTERVIEW WITH LENA!

1.      What genre do you write in? (Historical, contemporary, romance, etc.)

I have written both historical and contemporary books in several genres, but all of them have a romantic thread woven through. Right now, I’ve finished one three-book historical series, and I’m starting writing another contracted historical series for the same publisher.

2.      How does your faith affect your daily life?

Faith is an integral part of my life. I’ve walked with the Lord so long, that to remove Him from my daily life would require major surgery, which would be life-threatening.

3.      What message do you hope to convey to readers, either in this latest book or in all your books?

The last four books I’ve written have had a strong thread of unmerited forgiveness, and learning to trust God in all things woven through the stories.

4.      Do you believe there is evil in the world and, if you do, how do you portray it in your novels (or do you portray evil in your novels?

Yes, there are all forms of evil in our world, and if some of them appear in my story, I try to make them realistic without being offensive in the way I write it. I want reader to feel safe about reading my stories.

5.      Did you ever have a memorable book-signing? (Sad, humorous, or awesome?) If so, please share it.

I’ve had a couple of wonderful book signings at Mardel’s for a Book Release party for a novel. I’ll have the one for Mary’s Blessing there as well. One thing I’m going to do with this book is to have a signing at Chan’s Mongolian Grill. One of the characters is the book is named for Tony Chan the proprietor, and he wants to have a book signing there. I think it will be fun and interesting.

6.      How do you deal with rejection letters or an irate reader?

Rejection is part of a writer’s life. I learned years ago to trust the Lord with the sales of my manuscripts. If I receive a rejection, I know He didn’t want that publisher to publish it, because he had other people He wanted to read the story that publisher wouldn’t reach.

About irate readers, I will answer their emails or messages and agree with them, because it’s a valid opinion. I won’t please everyone all the time. I sometimes ask the reader how they would change the book. I try to make a friend, even though we don’t agree about my book.

7.      What’s next for you as an author? Any books in the hopper?

As I said before, I’m starting a new series, and I’m excited about it. This is my Restored Hearts series about people whose hearts have been broken in some way.

I totally agree with your last statement, Lena. I wrote a book about that very thing called Broken Things. The updated version is available as a Kindle download on amazon.com.

Thank you so much for being my guest today, Lena! I’ve watched your career take off from your first Barbour novellas to your trade fiction for Charisma House. (Oh, and by the way, Lena and I both write for the Realms Authors’ Blog called Just theWrite Charisma. Stop by and take a read some time.)

 

And remember, Readers, Lena is giving away a copy of her brand new book Mary's Blessing. Be sure to leave a comment and your name will be entered into the drawing.

Until next time, keep those pages turning!