Welcome to Buzzing About Books, Darlene! Please share a little about yourself.
My greatest claim to fame is that I write full-time from a nursing home. I live in Oklahoma, near my son and his family, and continue my interests in playing the piano and singing, books, good fellowship, and reality TV in addition to writing. I am an active member of Oklahoma City Christian Fiction Writers, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Christian Authors Network. I have written over thirty books and has written more than 250 devotionals.
When did you decide to pursue writing and eventually publication?
After I was divorced, 23 years ago now, I felt compelled to write about the things God was teaching me. Once I got into the habit of writing every day, I never stopped.
What is your writing process like? How has it changed in the last few years?
I tend to have a warm up routine. I check any recent interviews and blog spots for comments, emails to answer, sales trends to follow . . .in other words, I waste a lot of time. My computer rests on a movable table in my room. Turn on light and computer and television and get to work.
When I entered the nursing home 2 years ago, I had to adjust my daily goals. I have less time to write, and so I take longer to write a book. I do play fewer online games than I used to.
What is your favorite part of the writing process? Least favorite?
My favorite part? Brainstorming ideas. Seeing the finished product. The satisfaction that the process worked and I have another good book on my hands.
The least favorite is the writing itself. It is long and hard and boring. At times, it is agonizing. In the book I’m currently writing, I’m reliving my days of raising troubled teens as a divorced mother.
What is one of the most interesting things you’ve discovered while doing research?
I was in the Colorado History Museum researching the history of Italians in Colorado when I heard elephants bugling. When I tracked down the exhibit, I learned that circus elephants who spent their winter months in Denver helped with clearing the streets after the worst storm in state history. That scene made it into my story, Dressed in Scarlet.
Please tell us about your latest release, An Apple for Christmas.
An Apple for Christmas is Book 4 in the Christmas Traditions series. Ruby Nelson trades her job in the laboratory for teaching in a small girls’ school in Vermont. Twin sisters challenge her position—and their father captivates her imagination. Will the orchard grower graft Ruby onto his heart?
What inspired this delightful story?
I have been writing about Vermont for years – nine books in all, from the Revolutionary War to contemporary. I don’t expect to write any more books set in Maple Notch. But I love the setting (I’m a native New England), so I looked at Vermont industries in the 1890s and was surprised to learn they were leaders in apples nationwide. So I wrote my apple story.
In An Apple for Christmas, I enjoyed the characters’ names and their meanings. How did you decide which names to use?
Choosing Mac(intosh) for the hero was the easy part. I originally chose the last name “Brown” but then decided that Cortland was a fine last name which also happened to refer to apples.
Choosing the girls’ names was harder. Today there are several apples with female names. However, few of them were in production in the 1890s. Margil and Pippin were among the few I could confirm were grown in the United States in that period.
I could nearly smell the scent of apples as I read, especially during the scene where Margil was cooking in the kitchen! What are some of your favorite apple treats?
McDonald’s apple pies. Apple pie of any kind. Apple crisp. Caramel apples, except I can’t chew them anymore.
Is there anything else you would like to share? What will you be working on next?
Thank you for asking. I am finishing up my 8th Maple Notch story, Runaway Love. It should come out from Harlequin Heartsong Presents next August. After that, I will write the final book of the series, Homecoming.
In December, my novella Miss Bliss in the Bear will appear in The Preacher’s Bride Collection. This year, people seem drawn to Colorado Melodies and The New England Romance Collection.
Thank you so much, Darlene. Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
For now, the best places are my author page at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Darlene-Franklin/e/B001K8993A/.
They can also find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Poet.Darlene.Franklin
An Apple for Christmas is available on Amazon.
GIVEAWAY!
Darlene has graciously offered to give away one Kindle copy of An Apple for Christmas! Leave a comment, including your email address, to be entered to win this delightful novella. This giveaway ends Saturday, Oct. 25 at 11:59 p.m. CST.
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Tags: An Apple for Christmas, Christian fiction, Christmas novella, Christmas Traditions series, Darlene Franklin, Historical Fiction, Historical romance
Gina Welborn wrote public service announcements for a news radio station until she fell in love with writing romances. She’s the author of three Barbour novellas, including the 2014 Selah finalist “Mercy Mild” in ECPA-bestselling Mistletoe Memories, with more novellas to be released over the next two years. 2014 ushers in the release of her novels: The Heiress’s Courtship, The Marshal’s Pursuit, and Masterpiece Marriage. A moderately obsessive fan of Community, Once Upon a Time, and Chopped, Gina lives in Oklahoma with her pastor husband, their five Okie-Hokie children, a box-lab, two rabbits, four guinea pigs, and a fancy Russian dwarf hamster named Tom Bob Deucalion.
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