Interview By Christianbook.com
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Christianbook.com recently asked Janette Oke to answer some questions about herself and her writing. She is the author of many books including the Love Comes Softly series and The Prairie Legacy series.
How did you get started writing?
I always had an interest in writing but put off trying for many years while raising my family to the teen years. I also hoped to get some proper training. That did not happen for me. After much praying, I felt the nudge to go ahead and try to write. The first book was Love Comes Softly, a story I had lived with for some time. It now became a matter of putting it down on paper.
How do you get ideas for your books?
I don't know if a writer can tell you how he/she gets ideas. Ideas come. A writer never knows what might spark an idea for a story. All of life serves to present ideas. Perhaps the only difference is that writers are "tuned-in" looking and watching for ideas that others might miss.
Do you ever base any of your characters on people you know?
No. They are all composites of many lives.
A lot of your stories focus on pioneer life. Why is that?
I have always been interested in that period of our history. I was born and raised in the West and heard stories of pioneer people from an early age. As I grew up I read countless numbers of books on the opening of the West. It was quite natural for me to pick that time frame for my book characters.
What kind of research have you had to do to write about pioneer life?
In a way, I lived a pioneer life in my early years. Our part of Alberta is a very young country. We had original pioneers as our neighbors when I was a kid. In my early years I read about the pioneers to such an extent that I had a great deal of information. I have also built up my own personal library with books about the early West. Now, all the research I need to do is check specifics.
You also write children's books. Do you prefer writing for one audience (adult or children) over the other?
No. They are different in presentation so both provide a unique challenge and interest. I have found that the creative approach to the two different genres keeps me fresher in my writing and gives me a broader scope.
You have written several books with T. Davis Bunn. Do you enjoy writing with someone else? How did your partnership come about?
T. Davis Bunn has also written for Bethany House. Over the years I have known him through meetings at CBA. He approached me about co-authoring a book and I agreed to try it to see if the process would work. Though we are very different in our backgrounds and our styles we felt that we could work together to present the readership with a new product. The books written together are different from either Davis' or my work alone. This blending of authorship is a longer process than writing solo as the working manuscript needs to pass back and forth so many times. I feel it has worked and gives each of us another way to communicate. Our individual strengths are sharpened and we learn from one another.
How do you decide who writes what? We meet together to begin with and thoroughly and carefully sketch the characters and plot the story. We each write a few sections to make sure that we are in sync. We decide section assignments on the basis of what the chapters hold. Davis does the bulk of the original manuscript, usually leaving the sections I have been assigned, for me to fill in later. From then on the manuscript goes back and forth, eventually drawing in the editor and staff for further input.
You were one of the pioneers of Christian fiction. Are you surprised at how the market has grown since you began writing? Why do you think that this growth has occurred?
Not really. I think that fiction readers were always out there. We of the Christian community were not supplying them with the choice of reading material. As a fiction reader myself, I found that I was needing to go to the secular shelves to find books – and often, I was not liking what I was finding. Perhaps we have been a bit "flooded" but it is wonderful to have so many choices.
I've heard it said that romance novels are nothing but fluff, that they have no real value. How would you respond to that?
In many cases, I would agree. Any genre is only what the writer makes it. On the other hand, each reader brings to the read who he/she is. What is she looking for? A take-away value or a quick man/woman encounter? Was there lessons she missed? Perhaps.
What do you hope to accomplish through your writing?
I see my writing as an opportunity to share my faith. We live in a hurting, confused world that is searching for answers and purpose. Many are also searching for love. Not frothy romance, though they may feel that is the answer to their inner need, but love, constant and committed, is what they really seek. We, in the Christian community, know where the answers can be found. We are wrong not to do our best to share that knowledge with others. My hope is that my books, which I do not regard as "romance novels" but as slices of life, will show readers that a personal faith in God and the fellowship of family and selected friends will bring harmony and inner peace to their lives. If my books touch lives, answer individual's questions, or lifts readers to a higher plane, then I will feel that they have accomplished what God has asked me to do.
