Breakfast with an Author?
Once again, I don’t have a lot of time to write a long post (I promise, I’ll get back to the background stuff on A Case for Love as soon as possible!), but don’t want to short-change you on your opportunity to post a comment for the Make A Case for Love contest.
I had a nice long breakfast with bestselling author Rachel Hauck this morning. We talked about everything under the sun . . . and had a really good time talking about our books/series under development and sharing/brainstorming ideas (along with my being the peanut gallery while Rachel helped Susan May Warren brainstorm a new book proposal over the phone).
So here’s my question to you. If you could go to breakfast with any author, living or dead, who would it be and why? (And please be honest. Sucking up to me won’t earn you any extra entries in the contest!)
Patty Smith Hall, Kaye Dacus, and Rachel Hauck
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KayeDacus.com 
Francine Rivers. Or Nora Roberts. Or Dave Barry. Or Anne Rice. Or you. 🙂
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Oops — responded too fast. You wanted to know why!
Francine Rivers, because she has mastered the art of conveying spiritual truth through a fascinating and well written story without beating you over the head with her Bible.
Nora Roberts, because her characters’ dialog sounds EXACTLY like how people talk.
Dave Barry, because . . . I want to know if he’s as funny in person as he is in his writing.
Anne Rice, because I want to talk with her about how she got from Lestat to Christ the Lord. (I’ve read her memoir, but still.)
You, because from your posts you sound like you’d be a hoot to spend time with.
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I’m going to have to break down and read one of Nora Roberts’s books one of these days. And I’d like to read Interview with a Vampire and then one of Rice’s current works, just for comparison’s sake.
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Funny thing is, I never read any of the vampire books, other than skimming a few pages here and there standing in the bookstore, and I walked right past the first in the Christ the Lord series when I saw it on the shelf, because I thought, “The woman who wrote those gory vampire books couldn’t possibly have anything to say about Jesus that I’d be interested in.” After I thought about it for awhile, though, I thought I just had to give it a read, so I bought it. Was pleasantly surprised. I don’t agree with some of her theology, but I loved the book so much that I went to her website and wrote her a note about it. To my absolute SHOCK, she responded to my message with an email that same morning (and it was Christmas day, no less), and we traded a few emails about it. I really enjoyed her memoir about the whole process of her return to faith — I think it’s called “Out of Darkness” or something like that. Pretty cool.
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Hmmmm . . . If I could just pick ONE, it would have to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. Why? Because she’s the reason I became an avid reader way back in the fourth grade, I’ve been to several of her historical sites, and through her books, I feel I could carry on a conversation with her. The museum at her house at Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri is the only museum at which I have literally CRIED. And it was when they pointed out the clock that her husband gave her on the occasion of their first Christmas together. I had read about it in her book. Sigh.
Others? Agatha Christie, Jan Karon, Debbie Macomber . . . you . . . just to name a few!
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LIW is on my short-list!
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Hmmm…good question. And so many fascinating possibilities! I’ll go with Brock & Bodie Thoene – I love their writing, and how they bring history so “alive” in their novels. I also read that Bodie is a severe dyslexic – and since my dad & brother are as well, I think it would be fascinating to hear about their collaborative process that results in such great writing. Oh – and they worked for John Wayne’s production company once upon a time – sure there are some great stories there!
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Yep–would love to hear the stories they’d have to tell about Duke.
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This is hard. I would want to meet so many. I think I would have to go with Janette Oke. She was 60% of what I read from ages 10 through 19 when I finished the last of her books that I had. I only have 2 that I’ve acquired since and then the 2 she’s recently published with Davis Bunn that I haven’t read. She was my introduction into both Christian fiction and romance. Her books will forever be in my favorites.
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I read the entire Love Comes Softly and Canadian West series when I was in junior high school, so I have to say that the romance storylines in her books are part of my foundation in the genre.
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Well this is a pretty difficult question to answer (I have a lot of favorite authors) but I would have to say Jane Austen. It would be interesting to hear what she would think about the continuing popularity of her books hundreds of years after they were first published. I would also ask what she thought about all the books, movies, etc being released based on her books. I’d also have to ask which portrayal of Darcy by an actor most suits her version of Mr. Darcy since, after all, Mr. Darcy is my favorite of Austen’s heroes!
xoxo~ Renee
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She would say David Rintoul, of course! 😉
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Francine Rivers, for sure. I love how she combines gripping contemporary stories with spiritual insight–all without hitting you over the head. I’d love to write like her someday. 🙂
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I saw a rumor on Twitter yesterday that Redeeming Love is being made into a movie. It doesn’t show up on IMDb, so it’s probably still in negotiations/pre-pre-pre-production.
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That would be soooo awesome!!!!!!!!!
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You don’t ask tough questions do you? 🙂 Tomorrow my answer could be different, but right now…
Living: Michael Blake, because his story, Dances With Wolves, is still so vivid in my imagination, and I’d love to hear about the experience of writing the novel, researching, script writing and filming the movie.
Living only through his works: James Fenimore Cooper, because he knew a lot of stuff about the 18th century New York frontier I wish I did.
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Good choice of JFC for the 18th century frontier aspect!
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And today I’d rather talk with Tolkien than either Cooper or Blake. No wait, the Apostle Paul….
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Robert Ludlum so I could ask him about his writing style & Douglas Adams to ask him how he pulled himself back in when things were getting too silly.
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Is it cheating to say the Apostle Paul…? He wrote quite a bit… He’d be an interesting character.
Actual fiction authors though, Francine River’s would be top of my list, but I think I’d throw up with nerves before I did so.
Yes, me and breakfast with important people that I am in awe of might not be a great idea. Hyperventilation might follow.
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I would say Shakespeare, but I guess this dinner wouldn’t include a translator. I could probably understand him, but would he understand me?
Also, he’d smell.
I think maybe Mark Twain. He seems funny, he might’ve bathed occasionally, and while I’ve never really gotten into Huck Finn, I love Tom Sawyer so much. But then he seems so modern for his time that it would be kind of pointless to bring him back.
Okay. I choose. Fitzgerald. Not because I love his books (though I do) or because I think he’d be good company (because I don’t) but so I could tell him (or show him? Does this dinner take place at a mall where there is a Barnes and Noble?) how popular he is nowadays. I know he doesn’t deserve it, but I’d really like to give Fitzgerald a happy ending.
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Why, Jane Austen, of course.
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Hard to say. I’d have to think long and hard. There are a lot of authors I enjoy but I’d want one whose books really take me to a special, higher place. Then, I’d narrow that down even more to a multi-published author who seems to have a heart for teaching/mentoring others so I could pick her brains for answers to every writing-related question I could think of.
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Jon Acuff, the guy who writes the Stuff Christians Like blog and a book by the same name due out in April by Zondervan. I’ve been reading the SCL blog since October, and it’s become my favorite website. It cracks me up by taking a sarcastic look at the silly things about Christian culture, hoping to clear away the clutter so people can see Jesus better. It has done me a world of good in softening up my heart toward “the Church,” which I got pretty cynical about after living in Tulsa for college. I would really like to meet Jon in person.
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I would love to have lunch with Louisa Mae Alcott. I think she must have heard some very entertaining and enlightening conversations while sitting around her father and his peers. She was also a great thinker for a woman of her time. She has always fascinated me. Each time I read Little Women I found something new. I haven’t had time to read it in a few years. Maybe it is time to do so again . . .
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I have three choices. Mary Shelley, given the small number of female horror writers today, I find it amazing she wrote Frankenstein in the era she did. I’d like to talk to her about her process for writing that story. Brandilyn Collins because I would like to pick her brain about how to create and sustain such intense suspense. Stephen King because his storytelling ability blows me away, and I would like to see if just a smidge would rub off on me if I were sitting across from him in a diner drinking coffee and chatting.
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I think it would be a tie for me between Jane Austen & Louisa May Alcott. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was one of the first classics I read when I was younger, and I fell in love with Meg, Beth, Amy and most especially Jo. If I could sit down and talk with Louisa, I’d ask her why Jo rejected Laurie and fell for the older professor instead. I took a class in college on Jane Austen and I fell in love with the courtships, the characters (ah, Mr. Darcy!), her writing style, and the time period. I have watched nearly every movie version of her novels and have read about her life. If I could sit down and have lunch with her, I’d want to know what was in those letters her sister burned and who was the man who broke her heart.
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Rachel Hauck would certainly be at the top of my list – she is one of my favorite authors! Or maybe Kristin Hannah, Debbie Macomber or John Grisham.
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It is so hard to pick a favorite that I would like to meet. Looking over all my bookshelves right now I would have to say Laura Jenson Walker. I absolutely loved Miss Invisible and Reconstructing Natalie. They are two classics that I will keep forever. Her two Dreaming … books were also great and I am loving the new series she is doing right now. I love her style of writing and think that she should would be someone interesting to have a meal with.
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