Robin, describe yourself for our visitors.
I’m a mom and grandmother, and the caregiver for my 94 year old mother who lives with me. The latter means I stay pretty close to home most of the time. I’m an avid fan of Netflix where I’ve unearthed some real treasurers as well as more than a fair share of stinkers. My favorite music styles are Worship, Contemporary Christian, and Country. I took up knitting again in 2008 after about thirty years away from it and take great pleasure in knitting items for family and friends, praying for them as I work.
I’m very passionate about live theater, having done some acting myself in my teens and twenties, and I never miss a season at the Idaho Shakespeare Theater. Naturally I love to read, and I enjoy most genres except really scary books (I’m a card carrying member of the Big Honkin’ Chicken Club, so named by Brandilyn Collins’ whose books I can’t read, despite her being a dear friend). I love to lead women’s retreats and used to do a lot of them, but have had to stop while caring for my mom.
How do you find time to connect with God?
I try to begin every day with Bible reading/study and prayer. If I don’t, I feel at loose ends. I need to get focused first, and then the day goes right. Since 1997, I’ve been on a Bible reading schedule. Every odd numbered year I read through the entire Bible. In even numbered years, I read through the New Testament three or four times, usually using different translations each time. I have done a couple of years of Bible Study Fellowship and several Beth Moore studies.
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
I have many favorites, too many to name them all, so I’ll stick to the one author whose book planted the desire in my heart to write for the Lord. I read Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love in November 1991, then spent a day with her in April 1992. That encounter helped begin a change in my life. I hadn’t been walking closely with the Lord for a number of years, but it’s impossible to spend time with Francine and not long to be closer to God. Her love for the Lord is contagious, and her faith is deep. She is one of the most humble people I know, and God has used her talent in mighty, mighty ways. I’m privileged that I can call her my dear friend. Redeeming Love is, in my opinion, one of the top five best novels of all time, but all of her books have touched my heart in various ways.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
When I began writing fiction back in 1981, there wasn’t much of a market for fiction in Christian bookstores, so I wrote for the ABA. I wrote my first novel in 1981, writing long hand on legal pads nights and weekends, then typing the manuscript at the office during lunch hours and coffee breaks. It took me about nine months to complete it. I sold it to a publisher in 1982 but they went bankrupt about four months later. I resold the book and its sequel in 1983 and they were published in February and March 1984. Although my early books didn’t contain any of the things I personally found objectionable in fiction, as my own walk with the Lord grew lukewarm, I began making compromises in my writing, bowing to the demands of the market and the requests of my editors. But in the early 90′s, as God drew me back into right relationship with Him, He also drew me toward Christian fiction. I wanted to write stories that would please Him. I made the move from the general market (ABA) to the Christian market (CBA) in 1997, and my first Christian novel, The Forgiving Hour, was released in February 1999, fifteen years after the release of my first book. I’ve never looked back. I wish that those first 30 books didn’t exist in used bookstores and libraries, but the best I can do is tell readers I prefer they don’t read those. Look for my Christian fiction (you can find all of those titles on my web site).
Tell us about your current book?
In The Perfect Life, Katherine Clarkson seems to have it all. Her husband, Brad, is a loving and handsome man, respected in their church and the community. They have two grown daughters who are on the verge of starting families of their own. Brad heads a thriving charitable foundation. Life is good. Until the day a reporter appears with shocking allegations. Splashed across the local news are accusations of Brad’s financial impropriety at his foundation and worse, of an affair with a former employee. Without warning, Katherine’s marriage is shattered and her family torn apart. The reassuring words she’s spoken to many brokenhearted women over the years offer little comfort now. Can she survive the chaos her life has become?
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
There are some of my books that I can pinpoint the exact moment and the exact way the idea for them began. The Perfect Life is not one of those novels. Many of my books begin first in my subconscious. I play with them without even knowing I’m doing so until one day I realize I have the germ of a novel. Then I begin to brainstorm it, working consciously by this time to see if I have a story that will hold my interest from start to finish.
Writing for me is an act of discovery. Just as a reader reads a novel to see what happens, I write a novel to see what happens. I don’t know what will happen in Chapter Nine until I finish Chapter Eight. I don’t know how a book will end until I get there. As corny as it sounds, my characters become real to me and then I just sort of follow them and “report” what they do and say.
List your three most recent books.
Return to Me (Zondervan, June 2007, contemporary women’s fiction)
The Perfect Life (Thomas Nelson/Women of Faith, February 2008, contemporary women’s fiction)
Wagered Heart (Zondervan, May 2008, historical romance)
What’s next for you?
Bundle of Joy (Steeple Hill, October 2008, a Christmas contemporary romance)
When Love Blooms (Zondervan, January 2009, historical romance)
A pair of historical romances about twin sisters will follow in May and November 2009.
Where can visitors find you online?
My web site — where you can find my bibliography, my testimony, excerpts from my Christian fiction, and much more — is at http://www.robinleehatcher.com. My blog, where I bloviate about all sorts of things, from Bible studies to American Idol to my novel-in-progress to current events, is at http://robinlee.typepad.com.
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