Interview with Dawn Crandall

Dawn Crandall is the latest brave author to be interviewed for our slam book. The Hesitant Heiress is a historical novel with both romance and suspense.

I loved The Hesitant Heiress number of reasons. One is that it doesn’t follow the formula romance or suspense novels and yet delivers well on both points. It’s told in the first person only from Amaryllis’s point-of-view. Good writing is in the details. I loved how Dawn brought depth not only to the hero and heroine but also the minor characters. The same goes for the setting, that is especially true of the scenes on the Maine coast. I want to go there after reading this book!

Often we don’t get to meet authors in person, but I had the pleasure of meeting Dawn Crandall last year at the ACFW conference. Now it’s time for you to meet her.

Dawn Crandall

Genre of choice: Historical Romance
Favorite quote: “Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.” ― Ludwig van Beethoven

In high school I was a… loner.

Do you see yourself a Christian author or an author of Christian fiction? What do you think the difference is?

Tricky question, Gretchen! I think my answer is that I’m a Christian author. I knew when I first started thinking about plotting “the book” I’d always wanted to write that it would definitely have a Christian theme and would very much involve the spiritual journey of the heroine.

The Hesitant Heiress is written in first-person which is my favorite voice but not one often used in historical novels. Why did you choose this voice and have you ever written anything in third person?

I’ve only written these three books of this series. They’re all written in first person, each a new character POV for the reader. I debated about writing in first person at first because I’d heard it was more difficult to be good at. However, I just couldn’t write this book in third. The journeys of each of my heroines are ones of self-revelation. It’s just not the kind of book that can be told from third person with multiple characters. I love writing this kind of book through—it was like an all-consuming puzzle that finally becomes clear at the end. That is how I want my readers to find it as well.

Amaryllis is a gifted pianist. Is this a talent you share with your heroine?

Haha… no. But I wish! I love music, and especially classical music.

I loved Amaryllis and Nathan’s story. Is there anything about them you can tell us that we don’t get on the pages of The Hesitant Heiress?

Most of Amaryllis is already on the page since she’s the only POV. However, there is a lot of Nathan’s side of the story that the reader has to envision from what pieces of his life Amaryllis sees. I loved this! I really got to know him through the process of writing the book, and was then able to know where he was coming from in every situation. The reader sees his actions, hears his words and learns these same things–and I believe, gets to know him just as well as Amaryllis does.

You recently became a mom for the first time. How has that changed your writing?

It has definitely cut down on my writing time so far! I used to write at least 20 hours a week! Where are those 20 hours now? My job has changed from “stay at home writer” to “stay at home mom who tries to find time to write” and I haven’t quite figured out how to combine these two tasks yet.

I know you’re a huge Jane Austen fan. Who is your favorite Austen heroine?

I love them all!! But I guess if I had to choose, I would pick Elizabeth Bennet because of the way she was humbled into realizing, for all her strength of character and ability to deal so straightforwardly with others, that she didn’t really know what she wanted until it seemed she couldn’t have it.

How about Austen hero?

Mr. Darcy, because I love the way Austen unfolded his character. I read P&P while I was in college and didn’t know a thing about it except for that it was a classic English novel. I remember quite vividly how shocked I was at his proposal, and then later realizing how I’d misjudged him right along with Elizabeth Bennet. Even though Jane Austen didn’t write from first person, she did only write from the POV of her heroine. 🙂

Amaryllis and Nathan have several single friends and I know you have other books in the works. Can you tell us about whose story we get to read next?

The next book in the series {The Bound Heart, which comes out it is November!} is about Amaryllis’s friend Meredyth Summercourt, Amaryllis’s cousin Lawry Hampton and Nathan’s brother Vance Everstone. The third book {The Captive Imposter, which releases next February!} is about Nathan’s youngest sister, Estella Everstone… and I’m not going to go into much detail about who else. You’ll all have to wait and see. 🙂

Favorite scriptures:

 

I used three of my most favorite scripture verses for themes in my books so far:

Amaryllis’s verse in The Hesitant Heiress is: Ephesians 3:20 ~ “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…”

Meredyth’s verse in The Bound Heart is: Jeremiah 29:11 ~ “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

Estella’s verse in The Captive Imposter is: James 1:17 ~ “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change…”

Thank you Dawn for stopping by The Scriblerians on your blog tour!

 

THE HESITANT HEIRESS BLOG TOUR

 

As part of her book launch, Dawn is taking part in a blog tour featuring interviews, book reviews and giveaways. She’s giving away a prize pack every weekend for the six weeks of the blog tour and one larger prize pack at the end. Each of YOU who comments on any post will be entered into the drawing for that specific week, and then also for the end of the tour Grand Prize–all of which will be announced on this blog. Many of the blogger’s posting in the blog tour are also giving away a digital copy of The Hesitant Heiress.

THE FIVE WEEKLY PRIZE PACKS: a $10 Amazon Gift Card, an eBook of The Hesitant Heiress, a mug with all three book covers and a moleskin journal.

THE GRAND PRIZE (at the end of week six): a Kindle Fire, a $10 Amazon Gift Card, an eBook of The Hesitant Heiress, a mug with all three book covers and a moleskin journal.

 

CONNECT WITH DAWN

 

Blog: www.dawncrandall.blogspot.com

Facebook: facebook.com/DawnCrandallWritesFirst

Book Review Blog: APassionforPages.blogspot.com

GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/dawn_crandall

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/dawnwritesfirst

Email: dawncrandallwritesfirst@gmail.com

Twitter: @dawnwritesfirst

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Dawn-Crandall

 

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER FREE!!! {link} http://whpub.whitakerhouse.com/dawncrandall/heiress.html

 

{About The Hesitant Heiress}

After being unjustly expelled from the Boston Conservatory of Music, Amaryllis Brigham sees her dreams of founding a music academy disappearing before her very eyes. Now the only way to achieve her goal comes with high stakes for someone set on avoiding men as much as possible: marry within the year to inherit her grandmother’s fortune. Amaryllis reluctantly takes part in her aunt’s society, intent on getting to the west coast on her own… and without a husband.

Despite her own misgivings, she soon finds herself falling in love with the most unlikely of men, Nathan Everstone, whose father not only had a part in her expulsion, but whose ominous presence has haunted her dreams for a decade since her mother’s tragic death. Nathan turns out to be much more than he seems and everything she never knew she wanted. But just as everything Amaryllis has recently hoped for comes to fruition, it all falls apart when she finds that the real culprit who has been managing her life isn’t who she thought at all.

 

{About Dawn Crandall}

 

A graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn Crandall didn’t begin writing until 2010 when her husband found out about her long-buried dream of writing a book. Without a doubt about someday becoming traditionally published, he encouraged her to quit working in order to focus on writing The Hesitant Heiress. It didn’t take her long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do. Dawn is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary.

Apart from writing books, Dawn is also a first-time mom to a precious little boy (born March 2014) and also serves with her husband in a pre-marriage mentor program at their local church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dawn is a member of the 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. All three books composing the series were semifinalists in ACFW’s prestigious Genesis Writing Contest, the third book going on to become a finalist in 2013.