Author Interview ~ Siri Mitchell

Siri Mitchell has lived on three continents. Currently, she makes her home wherever the military sends her husband. When she’s listening to a sermon and taking notes, chances are, she’s just had a great idea for a plot or a dialogue. When she re-reads her manuscripts, she laughs at the funny parts. And cries at the sad parts. Sometimes she even talks to her characters.










Plug time. What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

Something Beyond the Sky has just been released! It’s an ensemble novel, and portrays life at the intersection of four military wives. My military friends keep asking me if the characters are based on their lives, or the lives of other friends they’ve made during their military careers. People seem to have the sense that I wrote this book while I was looking over their shoulder. I didn’t, but I’m pleased it reads so true-to-life!

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head.

I started writing in 1994, wrote four books and gathered 153 rejections from agents and publishers before Harvest House picked me up in 2004. At that point, I had just finished having a heart-to-heart with God. I told him I loved writing, but that striving for publication was making it difficult to enjoy the rest of my life. And life should have been good: I’d returned to the States from living in Paris, just had a daughter, and would soon be moving to Tokyo.

I told God that if I had to sacrifice the enjoyment of life, then writing wasn’t worth it. I promised I’d follow up all the leads I had and if nothing worked out, then I’d consider it a sign and I’d stop writing. Harvest House was the very last of those leads on my list.

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

Yes, I do. I can hear my characters and I can see them, but you can’t. The only way they have a chance to live is if I write them and write them well. My characters make sense to me, but everyone reads subjectively. I always worry whether the characters I’ve known and lived with will make the leap from the page into your head. And if from there, they’ll find a way to your heart.


What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

Write. It all begins by writing.


What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

That to be a writer, you should start by keeping a journal or diary. I have stacks of diaries and journals, and I have about three entries in each of them. In my opinion, this is a myth akin to the assumption that writers also make good Scrabble players. I’m queen of the 3-letter word!

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

Rejections aren’t personal. They aren’t about me. They’re about the writing. Or the market. Or the publishing house. Or even the timing. If I’d realized that, I would have saved myself about 153 pints of Ben & Jerry’s.

Do you have a scripture or quote that has been speaking to you lately?

I have both. This quote from Stephen King: ‘If God gives you something you can do, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it?’…remembering that quote gives me a mission for writing. Psalm 127:1a, 2a “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…In vain you rise early and stay up late…” reminds me that my books are in God’s hands.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

At one point, a publisher was interested in my non-fiction manuscript (see question #11). Through the course of six months, it got taken all the way to committee and was even tabled and taken up again by committee before it was finally rejected. That was a dark day.

What are a few of your favorite books? (Not written by you.)

Possession by A.S. Byatt; anything by Rosamunde Pilcher; anything by Lindsey Davis; Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael mysteries; Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series; Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami; Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende; Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky. For medieval history I’ve enjoyed Sharon Penman.

If your authorial self was a character from The Wizard of Oz, which one would you be and why?

The first and last time I watched The Wizard of Oz, I was four years old. According to my mother, since then I’ve become uneasy whenever the wind picks up. I’d have to say I’m most like Toto. As a military spouse and in my spiritual life, I feel like I’m just along for the ride. I try to enjoy everything I see along the way.

I love writing but I figure the gig is up when God says it’s up. Until then, I’m quite content following along and being carried around in the basket. But given a chance, especially when I’m writing, I like to shake things up a little…investigate whether the things I assume about the world are really true (i.e. the book I mention in the next question)

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

It’s a non-fiction book that hasn’t been published: Christians Should Be More Parisian. It was written while I was living in Paris and I wrote it to examine whether American Christianity is cultural or biblical. Harvest House read this manuscript and the manuscript of Chateau of Echoes. They liked my fiction writing and liked the ideas in Christians Should Be More Parisian. They said if I ever turned the non-fiction manuscript into a novel, they’d be interested in reading it. That novel, the fifth one I wrote, turned into Kissing Adrien, my first novel in print.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

Why is the shelf life of a book only 3-6 months? Why can’t books have the shelf life of Twinkies?

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

My daughter attends pre-school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. On those days, I try to write 3,000 words between 8:45 and 11:15. When I’m writing my first draft, those words come easy. The closer I get to finishing, the harder it becomes. In the evenings, or if I can sneak away to the computer in the afternoons, I answer e-mails and do administrative work.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

I wish I were clever enough to write mysteries and children’s books. I love reading mysteries and the powerful simplicity of children’s books never ceases to amaze me.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

In fifteen or twenty years, I would love for my daughter to think her mom’s a pretty good writer.


Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

Yes. Every time I wrote a book which was rejected en masse. My husband would let me cry on his shoulder, feed me ice cream, and then use reverse psychology to trick me into writing another one. He deserves all the credit for my career. Without him, I would have stopped after writing my first book.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

My favorite part is writing: the actual creation of the story. My least favorite part is marketing.

How much marketing do you do? Any advice in this area?

With a young daughter, I don’t have much extra time. I try to make sure I spend my marketing time on those things with the most return. I respond to all the reader mail I receive. I keep my website up-to-date. www.sirimitchell.com

I love speaking in front of groups; I also enjoy doing interviews. Ginger Garrett and I work together on publicity. At least on my end, if I know she’s waiting for my half of the publicity campaign, I’m much more likely to actually follow through and get it done! With Something Beyond the Sky, I’ll be executing a press release campaign to several targeted military audiences.

I don’t teach workshops, write articles or write my own blog (see my answer to question #5). I do, however, blog twice a month on FaithChick.com and I’ve been interviewed on several other blogs.

In general, I feel the best thing I can do in terms of building a readership, is to write my next book. I could spend all my time marketing if I wanted to. I do the best I can at what I can reasonably do and expect that God will take care of the rest.

Parting words?

Trust your characters. Only God is God…and even then, he gives us the ability to choose to do what he’d like us to…or not. If you have to manipulate your characters in order to fit your plot, the reader will know. If you can trust your characters, then your book will ring true.