Bonnie, describe yourself for our visitors.
I’m a Canadian – my family and I make our home in Saskatchewan. My husband, Steve, is the senior pastor of a Nazarene church and we have two children, a boy age 8, and a girl age 6. Before I embarked on a writing career, I developed and wrote social programming for families at risk, focusing on issues of addiction. Now a days, I use my training in counseling, psychology, and theology in my writing. We have a busy, happy life that keeps us all hopping.
How do you find time to connect with God?
For me, it’s a matter of not disconnecting from God – I believe that God is with us always and the best way to move through my day is to remain connected to God praying always, remembering Him in all my decisions and recalling His Word (which, after decades of reading and contemplating, I have a fair amount of it tucked in my heart for easy access!), and speaking to and of Him frequently. I consider my life a partnership with my Creator – with Him being the Senior partner.
Do you have a favorite bible verse and or quote you wish to share?
The bible is so full of life-giving words it’s really impossible to pull out a “favorite”. I’ve found, in my years journeying into my faith, that God’s word provides strength and hope in different ways at different times. But there is a verse in Ephesians (and the thoughts here are represented in many places throughout the bible) that reads: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2) This, to me, represents the lifelong challenge of what it means to be one with Christ. If I lived out only one verse, let it be this one.
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
I’m a reader! Like all readers, I have a stack of books I dig into every spare moment I can, so the list of favorites grows weekly. I read everything from the academic to kids books (I love having young children in the house- they serve to introduce me to wonderful children’s books like the Just Grace series, and fun books like The Stinky Cheese Man), poetry to chick-lit, non-fiction to short fiction and everything in between. I’m privileged to blog with five amazing writers (Sharon K. Souza, Patti Hill, Kathleen Popa, Latayne C. Scott, and Debbie Fuller Thomas) and have come to love their works. Books that have amazed me in the past year include: The Time Travelers Wife (re-reading before the movie releases this summer), The Shape of Mercy, The Canadian Book of Lists, and Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times – just as a small sampling.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I suppose it wasn’t the most conventional journey. I started writing full time after we moved to a different province and I wanted to be home with my young children full time in order to help with the adjustment. I wrote two books – a non-fiction and a fiction. I’m privileged to say that both have found their way to publication. The non-fiction is called Your Best You: Discovering and Developing the Strengths God Gave You, and the fiction is Talking to the Dead. I’ve had the help of my wonderful literary agent – I couldn’t have accomplished what I have without her knowledge, guidance and expertise.
Tell us about your current book.
Talking to the Dead is the story of twenty-something Kate Davis who can’t seem to get this grieving widow thing right. She’s supposed to put on a brave face and get on with her life, right? Instead she’s camped out on her living room floor, unwashed, unkempt, and unable to sleep—because her husband Kevin keeps talking to her.
Is she losing her mind?
Kate’s attempts to find the source of the voice she hears are both humorous and humiliating, as she turns first to an “eclectically spiritual” counselor, then a shrink with a bad toupee, an exorcist, and finally group therapy. There she meets Jack, the warmhearted, unconventional pastor of a ramshackle church, and at last the voice subsides. But when she stumbles upon a secret Kevin was keeping, Kate’s fragile hold on the present threatens to implode under the weight of the past…and Kevin begins to shout.
Will the voice ever stop? Kate must confront her grief to find the grace to go on.
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
My inspiration for Talking to the Dead is difficult to nail down. The novel came in bits and pieces – I’d love to say I was so smart and savvy I had it all planned out, but that’s simply not what happened. In part, the story came out of my experiences as a counselor, sitting with people who were attempting to articulate their pain and distress. It occurred to me that many of the things these people were doing (the behaviors I saw) were often an attempt to accomplish something very different that what they were doing – in other words, behavior didn’t match intentions. It caused me to truly see why Jesus commanded us not to judge others. We simply don’t know what’s going on under the surface.
The second inspiration for the novel came from watching how God was always present in the messy lives of these people who were hurting. He mingles with our humanity. And that is the story I wanted to tell; God in the midst of our messy lives.
What influence you to write this book?
I drew from different sources – those of the people I’ve counseled (not their actual experiences, of course, but their descriptions of grief, loss, etc). It has been a privilege to sit with these people in the midst of their pain. Also, I’ve lived a fairly messy life myself. I didn’t mean to – but I’ve experienced some significant losses and betrayals in my time, and I’ve discovered the costly grace of God is there, always, chasing me down and drawing me closer to the One who knows me.
But, before you picture me sobbing at my keyboard, reliving the pain of my past, let me say it wasn’t like that. I don’t believe God called me to write in order to rip open old wounds – rather, I believe that God has allowed me to write in order to bring healing, hope, and humor.
Did you have a favorite character(s)? Who and why?
I loved writing Kate Davis’s journey. For Kate, three things stood out as I began writing her. First was her strong sense of irony – this developed into a character who is socially and psychologically aware, but could still manage to find traces of humor and lightness even in the midst of dark circumstances. Secondly was her feistiness. Kate works hard to get her life back and just won’t give up until she gets the answers she needs – that tenacity pays off for her. Lastly, what stood out about Kate was her confusion. She keeps having these conversations where she gets lost in what was said and what wasn’t. She means to say one thing but ends up saying something else. I enjoyed writing those scenes because I think we can all relate to feeling confused sometimes.
What’s next for you?
More fiction – I’m currently working on a couple of books and finding the creative process is a wonderful, complicated dance. My next novel will come out in 2010 – a story of a woman asked to journey to a place she never wanted to go to.
Where can visitors find you online?
My website is www.bonniegrove.com. I also blog at www.novelmatters.blogspot.com. I’m on Facebook and Twitter (@BonnieGrove).
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