Welcome Jill Williamson!!!!

I am excited to welcome the fabulous Jill Williamson to our blog today.
But before we dive into some questions,
please leave your mark in the Slam Book.

Nickname: Don’t have one. Someone once called me Jill Bean, but it didn’t stick.

Genre: fantasy

Personal philosophy: If you can’t say anything nice, don’t speak.

Fave Scripture: There are too many favorites! Here is one: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” ―Romans 8:28

Fave Quote: Here too! Here is one I like: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ―Dr. Seuss

In high school I was… a basketball player, a Girl Scout, and a wannabe fashion designer.

Jill Williamson was the first Christian author who showed me that writing weird stuff was OK. 😉
It is a pleasure to have her on the blog today and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. 🙂

     “You will be releasing the second book in The Safe Lands series, Outcasts. What inspired you to start this series?”

My publisher was looking for dystopian books. Knowing that, one day when I was at my Bible study group, we were working through Beth Moore’s study on the book of Daniel. At one point she asked listeners to think about some teenage boys we knew and imagine how they might cope if they were taken captive to a city like Babylon. That instantly got me thinking about a fantasy idea I had that was inspired by the book of Daniel. And I thought, “Hey! That idea might work as a dystopian!” And it did.

     “The world you portrayed in the first book, Captives, had some very cool futuristic items. Can you name your favorite one?”

I like SimTalk. I’m always forgetting to take my cell phone with me, so this way I’d have it with me always. The only bad part would be remembering to turn it off. I’d have people waking me up in the morning!

     “I found the world that you built within the walls of the Safe Lands very convicting and some of their practices mirrored what our world is like today. Did you find yourself convicted as you wrote it? How so?”

Yes. Levi believes that all Safe Landers are the enemy. He doesn’t trust them, and he doesn’t care about them. And that’s probably because he can’t relate to them. But Omar feels compassion for them. And while Levi wants to scrape them off and worry about the remnant from Glenrock alone, Omar thinks Safe Landers deserve to know the truth. I feel like Levi sometimes. I get frustrated with hateful people or people who are so caught up in themselves that they have lost any shred of goodness. But God loves them still. And they deserve the truth. I thought about that a lot as I wrote this book.

     “If you wanted the reader to walk away with one thing after reading this series what would it be?”

To remain strong when you face trials. Don’t give in to anger or despair, but trust that your faith can carry you through even the most terrible circumstance.

     “Is there a writer New Year’s resolution you wouldn’t mind sharing with our readers?”

I’d like to try and stay on task more. I’m going to try very hard to write a weekly To Do list for myself, then keep up with it all week. The weeks that I did this have always been the most productive, so I’d like to make it a weekly thing.

     “If you could be any character from any of your books who would you be?”

Don’t know. I kind of like being me. I wouldn’t mind being Vrell Sparrow for a few days, but I’d miss electricity. It might be fun to be Spencer and play a basketball game and be able to dunk. But I’d want to be myself again rather soon, I’d think.

 

Thank you so much for joining us today Jill.
If you want to learn more about all aspects of Jill Williamson be sure to check out her website.
Attend her online launch party on January 10th.

In case you didn’t know,
the next installment of The Safe Lands series is coming out on January 7th.
In honor of the occasion I will be giving away one copy of Outcasts to a blog follower.
The winner will be announced on Jill’s release date.

Have you read any of Jill Williamson’s books? Which was your favorite and why? Leave me a comment and join in the conversation. 🙂

Karen deBlieck

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