Meet Hoosier Author, Dawn Crandall!

I'm so excited I can barely type! I have a Hoosier girl for you, precious readers. Squee! None other than Dawn Crandall! Hurry, look up those gorgeous covers. Gasp. Are they not awesome?! I'm sure you're nodding, right now. What? You have no time? Oh, people, please don't miss it. Fine I'll give you a peek.

All right. Everybody now! Awwwwww. Ooooooh. Okay, enough drooling. But the great news is she's giving away a free copy of The Hesitant Heiress! LEAVE A COMMENT AND EMAIL SO WE CAN CONTACT YOU! Now, let's get on with this Inspirational Historical author's interview. With no more 

ado . . .Dawn Crandall.

PT:  Welcome Dawn! We're privileged to have you on the Diamond Mine! I've been blessed to meet you in person, and now I get to help others know you as well. And you've just been on a whirlwind to several major publisher contracts. Tell the readers your background and long it really took to make it to the "Bigs."

DC:  I'd always wanted to write a book someday, mostly just for the challenge of doing so. However, I never started anything until I was married, in my thirties and not having any luck getting pregnant. I needed something else to think about, and my husband just happened to find out about this long-buried dream of mine. So, I began writing The Hesitant Heiress in January of 2010--six years ago. 

When it was nearly finished, I went to the national ACFW conference in 2011, pitched to two agents, had two partial requests... and about a week after those were sent out, two offers of representation. I finished the book a few months after I signed with Joyce Hart. I'd already begun the second book in the series, because at one point I wanted to prove to myself that I could write two different heroines from first person POV {which is the POV I'd written THH in} and not have them sound at all similar. 

So my agent started pitching my series, and in the meantime all three of my manuscripts either semi-finaled or finaled in the ACFW Genesis Contest. About two years from the date I signed with Joyce, I received word of my first book contract with Whitaker House (November 2013). Since I had all three books written, they decided to release them a few months apart as ebooks, with the high possibility of releasing them as paperbacks in the future.

Three months after the third book released in ebook form we were notified that The Hesitant Heiress finaled in the debut category of the ACFW Carol Awards--which ultimately pushed up my publishers plans to publish the paperbacks all the sooner. The Hesitant Heiress, The Bound Heart and The Captive Imposter all three released as paperbacks in the fall of 2015. 

In November 2015 I also signed another book contract for a fourth book: The Cautious Maiden. It's related to the first three books--each book is basically a standalone book written from a different heroine's first person POV, but because you learn things about each character along the way, they're pretty fun to read all together. Readers will have seen the newer main characters in past books, but have never been inside their heads before.

PT:  Your debut novel, The Hesitant Heiress, won so many awards. The Bound Heart, and The Captive Imposter, also, brought you several accolades as well. Would you recommend a budding author to use contests to improve and possibly publish a novel?

DC:  I'd really only entered the ACFW Genesis contest before becoming published, and I'd already signed with my agent by then as well... soooo, I don't really know how much the benefit the process from experience. I've had friends (Sarah Ladd and Kristy Cambron) get their first contracts because of an editor seeing a manuscript through a contest submission or contest win, so I know it's possible.

PT:  A lot of folks are talking about reading more mainstream fiction rather than Christian fiction. As a Christian Author, give us your take on that.

DC:  I like that Christian fiction has become more "real" in the last ten or so years. I know a lot of readers gave up on reading Christian fiction a long time ago, but I've urged a number of people I know to try the newer (new in the last decade, at least!) authors out there, and they are stunned by the difference in the writing, character depth and interesting plots from what there was available fifteen or twenty years ago.

PT:  You write in first person, which is very unusual in Christian Fiction. What led to your choice in this, and how has it impacted your career?

DC:  I always knew whenever I got around to writing a book that it would be written from first person POV. My favorite books were always classics like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier--both written in this tense. 

Jane Austen is also favorite of mine, and although she didn't use first person, it feels similar because she never lets the reader into the head of her heroes, but simply finds a way to convey to them what he is thinking and feeling. And this is how I LOVE to write. My mind just works best coming up with the kind of plots that simply wouldn't work out as a book written from third person POV and multiple characters.

I really enjoy getting my heroine to fall for the hero--who is usually the last person she'd ever envision herself being with. But I also love the fact that my readers feel all of my heroine's emotions just as deeply as she goes through the highs and lows of falling in love and getting to her happy ending.

PT: Give us five things fast, about Dawn Crandall that have nothing to do with writing.

DC:  Okay!

1.          I have 3 cats.

2.          I have a little boy who was born right before my first three books released as ebooks!

3.          I am expecting baby #2 this summer right before The Cautious Maiden releases!

4.          I have Attention Deficit Disorder, but it's actually a blessing when it comes to this crazy author job I have!

5.          I graduated with a degree in Christian Education from Taylor University.

PT: So you’ve got a little boy and a new one on the way. Congrats! Such exciting news. But how do you handle being a mother and all the demands of writing/editing?

DC:  I didn't write much the year after having my first baby, but I did have to finish The Captive Imposter last winter when he was between 10-11 months old—and I did so in a blur just because it had to be done!

I focused a lot of my time and energy on launching the first three books without much of a break between them. I wrote chapter one of The Cautious Maiden in May and then spent all summer writing a very extensive outline to give to my publisher. My agent gave it to them in August--and then I became pregnant again!

I didn't write those first two months because I was so sick and tired, but fortunately by the time I got the contract in November, I felt better and could dive right into writing the story out. :)

PT:  You and your husband are pre-marital mentors at your church. Does this experience present fodder for story lines, scenes, or character quirks in your books?

DC:  Not really! I think most of it simply comes from my over active imagination and all the daydreaming that comes with having ADD!

PT:  Do you use a certain Bible verse or precept to base your stories on?

DC:  I use different verses in each story--something that the heroine and hero will either grapple with or learn to live by along the way.

PT: Tell us what the future holds for you and any peeks into your next novel.

DC:  Since I'm going to be one tired momma of two babes under two come summer, I'm not sure what the plans will be! Right now, The Cautious Maiden is it, but once I emerge from the other side of this "year of the second baby", I do plan to continue writing more books into the same line of characters I've been doing. And with how popular they are, I'm sure my publisher will be happy to see the novel outlines eventually come their way.

I don't have the official back copy blurb or the cover for The Cautious Maiden because I'm still writing it, and we won't get to that part of the marketing process until the spring. But I can give you what's on the book's GoodReads page as a teaser!

PT:  Sounds fabulous!

THE CAUTIOUS MAIDEN, FALL 2016!

Violet Hawthorne is beyond mortified when her brother transforms her deceased parents’ respectable country inn into a brothel to accommodate the lumberjacks in the area. When her reputation is compromised, she finds herself forced to enter into an engagement with Vance Everstone. Can she trust this man she hardly knows who has a scandalous reputation in his own right?

Wow, thanks Dawn. You can just feel her energy, and I think she's going to need it! (wink) If you want to follow Dawn, catch her at these links:

GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8065413.Dawn_Crandall

Website: http://dawncrandall.blogspot.com

Amazon page: amazon.com/author/dawncrandall

Twitter: @dawnwritesfirst

Facebook: https://facebook.com/DawnCrandallWritesFirst

Don't forget to leave your name, or a comment along with your email address so we can contact the blessed winner of The Hesitant Heiress!

Dawn Crandall is an ACFW Carol Award-nominated author of the award winning series The Everstone Chronicles from Whitaker House. The series consists of three books: The Hesitant Heiress, The Bound Heart and The Captive Imposter. 
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.