Today on Inklings, I’m excited to interview author pal Jenny Proctor. We met a few years ago when we were both writing for Mormon Mommy Blogs, and I’m super happy to have her as a sister author at Covenant.

Here’s Jenny. Isn’t she pretty?

Here’s her book:

How did you come up with the idea for your book? The House at Rose Creek is about a woman named Kate who reconnects with her family history. I actually wrote a short story about Kate’s ancestors first, and then her story evolved from there. The short story, in many ways was based on my own family history and has a few parallels to things that actually happened to my ancestors. For example, I have a great, great, great grandfather that sailed to America from Scotland, where he lived for six years before he could afford to bring his wife and children across. Nine months after his wive arrived in America, another son, my great, great grandfather was born. He was named after George Washington, in honor, I expect of him having been the first born in the United States. The idea of families separating for long periods of time all to try and make a better life for themselves is what originally inspired my writing.

How long did it take to write? The first draft took three months. After that, I edited and tweaked for six more before I was ready to look for a publisher.

How do you find time to write with little ones? Many days, I don’t! I have to be forgiving. I read a lot about authors who commit to write a certain number of words everyday. I’ve tried it, but I generally end up feeling very frustrated with myself when it doesn’t happen. I have six kids… from age 1 all the way up to age 12. I write when I can, but I try really hard not to stress when it doesn’t happen. For the most part, if writing does happen, it’s either really late night, or super early in the morning.

Did you pitch your book in person at a conference or did you cold-query? I knew so little about the LDS Publishing world when I first started writing. I’d never been to a writing conference and had no idea what querying even involved. I did a little bit of research, then sent the book to Covenant through their online submission process, and they said yes. Not a very dramatic story, huh?

How did you feel when you saw your book cover? Okay, so a little bit of back story . . . the novel is about a house. A BIG old, white farmhouse. Because the title of the book is The House at Rose Creek, I just assumed that the cover would include a picture of a house! When I saw the cover, I loved it right away, but I was totally surprised because it wasn’t at all what I expected. In retrospect, I’m glad it doesn’t include the house. Because I know in my mind what Kate’s farmhouse looks like, and had the lovely graphics team at Covenant gotten it wrong, I would have been disappointed.

Are you working on a follow up book? Is it a sequel? The second book is written and submitted to Covenant. I’m just waiting to hear back on whether or not they want to publish it. It’s not a sequel, but it is set in the same small town and has a few characters in common. If you didn’t read the first one, you could still read the second book and not miss anything, but if you DID read the first one, you’ll recognize a few things, and (I hope) will be pleased to get a little update on what Kate is up to.

Here are some purchase links:

Amazon

Seagull Book

Deseret Book