I’d like to thank Diana Stevan for inviting me to join her
blog hop! Her new book, A Cry from the Deep sounds fantastic! Please take a
look at: http://www.dianastevan.com/a-cry-from-the-deep/
.
She has asked me to answer a few pointed questions as a
writer, and it’s been my pleasure to post my answers here on my blog. At the
end of this blog, I will introduce you to a writer who has inspired me along my
journey. She will follow me with her own blog post on July 21st.
Question:
What are you working on?
Answer:
My new novel, The Sanctum, is currently in the hands of
several publishers. I’m hoping for a book deal in the very near future since my
literary agent has been working hard toward that endeavor. As she does that,
I’m writing the sequel to The Sanctum, called The Pinnacle. I’m extremely
excited as I see this turning into a series. So to bring you up to date, it’s
my pleasure to give you a short description of The Sanctum:
Neeley McPherson accidentally killed her parents on her
fifth birthday. Thrown into the care of her scheming and alcoholic grandfather,
she is raised by his elderly farmhand, Gideon, a black man, whom she grows to
love. Neeley turns thirteen during the winter of 1959, and when Gideon is
accused of stealing a watch and using a Whites Only restroom, she
determines to break him out of jail.
The infamous Catfish Cole, Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon of the
Carolinas, pursues Neeley and Gideon in their courageous escape to the frozen
Blue Ridge Mountains. After Gideon’s truck hits ice and careens down a steep
slope, they travel on foot through a blizzard, and arrive at a farm of sorts—a
wolf sanctuary where Neeley crosses the bridge between the real and the
supernatural. It is here she discovers her grandfather’s deception, confronts
the Klan, finds her faith in God, and uncovers the shocking secrets of the family who befriends her. Giving
sanctuary, the healing power of second chances, and overcoming prejudice
entwine, leading Neeley to tragedy once again but also granting her the desire
of her heart.
The Sanctum is a coming-of-age
Southern tale dusted with a bit of mystery, and set in a volatile time
in America when the winds of change begin to blow.
And, one short note on something else I’m working on. I’ve
started a non-fiction book called The Congregation. A book of testimonies, if
you will, on the lives of those who have escaped the horrors of churches with a
choke hold on their members. Legalism runs rampant in congregations across this
country, and since my novel Televenge was published in 2012, so many people
have come to me with their own stories. It’s time to put their words to paper.
Question:
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
Answer:
For me, it is within sanctuaries of brick and mortar; places
of clapboard and canvas that characters hang ripe for picking. From the
primitive church services of the mountain clans to the baptisms and sacraments
in cathedrals and synagogues all over the world. From the hardworking men and
women who testify in every run-down house of God in America to the charismatic
high-dollar high-tech evangelicals televised in today’s megachurches, therein
lie stories of unspeakable conflict, the forbidden, and often, the unexplained.
Question:
Why do you write what you do?
Answer:
I write about religion and spirituality with paranormal
twists unearthed from my family’s history. I studied creative writing, but I
believe my best education came from the professionals—mentors and writers in
the trenches. I write about my passions, what moves me, what shoots out of me
like a rocket. My key inspirational force is my spirituality.
I was born in the
South, a coal miner’s granddaughter, but my father escaped the mines, went to
college and moved his family to Ohio to work for the rubber companies in 1959.
I spent every weekend as a little girl traveling back to the Appalachian
Mountains. My memories of
my childhood run as strong as a steel-belted radial tire and as deep as an
Appalachian swimming hole. As a
little girl, I was a transplanted hick in a Yankee schoolroom. I grew up
in the North. So my influence comes naturally from both regions. But the dust laden roads in the coal towns
of the ‘sixties are where my career as a writer was born.
Question:
How does your writing process work?
Answer:
Process? What process? I get out of bed, stumble to the
kitchen for coffee, and then plant myself at my computer until noon. Some days
I spend the morning on social media, but usually it’s to review and edit what
I’ve written the previous day. I can spend as many as 12 hours a day writing,
or as little as one or two. But generally, it’s an eight-hour day. Although
lately, I’ve been distracted by house-hunting with my realtor, and other family
matters so it all cuts into my writing time. I think my best hours spent with
my characters are between 9 p.m. and two or three in the morning. That’s when
the house is quiet, every distraction flies out of my head, and there is
nothing between my story and me. I guess you could say that’s my process. Mix
it up with research and reading time, it seems I have no solid process. But
that will all change … if I ever find a new publisher!
Now, allow me to introduce you to my guest blogger.
Please check out her books. I assure you, you won’t be sorry!
J. Hannah Lloyd, author of Survivor Dynamics, Living Life
on the Edge
Bio: J. Hannah
Lloyd is an author, poet, and freelance writer whose articles, stories, and
poetry have enhanced the lives of many. Although she spends many hours
developing her writing craft, her family is most important. She hangs out with
an understanding husband, two grown (but irregular) children, a gymnast
granddaughter, and two demanding felines.
In 2007 she received two awards for her work at the Blue
Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference in Ridgecrest, NC. As poet and
writer, her articles, stories, and poetry have been published in adult and
children’s Christian literature, as well as online through www.christiandevotions.us. Miss
Lloyd also contributes poetry bi-monthly to Critter Magazine.
Other works have been published in Slate & Style,
Shemom, Harold and Banner Press in Primary Pal: Pacific Press Publishing
Association in Our Little Friend, MS Focus and MS Connection Magazines, Who’s
DANN?, Gospel Publishing House in LIVE, The Pentecostal Evangel, Heartland
Boating, and The Upper Room magazine. She has served as Assistant Editor at www.DevoKids.com. Several poems were
presented on WORD Radio in Greenville, SC. She was also interviewed on WGGS
TV16, and contributed grief documentation via video at www.GriefShare.org.
Currently, she retains membership in Greenville, SC with
CrossNPens, The Writer’s Plot, and Women in Crime.
Books by J. Hannah Lloyd
Ordinary Sayings and Southern Cliché
Tied to Terror – Secrets of a Battered Wife
Escape from Abuse Survivor Guide
Visit her online at www.JhannahLloyd.com
