This week we are celebrating Lori Benton's fabulous debut with an interview today, a review Wednesday, and a giveaway on Friday! Be sure to leave a comment with your email to enter both today and Wednesday.
Welcome Lori! We are
so happy to have you here this week, and thrilled that you have agreed to share a bit
about yourself.
Q: First of
all—biscotti and coffee, tea and crumpets, or scones and latte? J
A: Coffee in the
mornings, tea in the afternoons. But, alas, I am eating gluten free these days.
Before that it would have been scones
and tea. Thankfully there are gluten free alternatives, and some of them aren't half bad. J
Q: When did you first
know you were a writer?
A: I remember it well.
I was nine years old when my best friend announced (already an avid reader)
that she had written a story. She showed it to me, and that was a moment of
revelation. Anyone, whenever they felt like it, could write their own story,
about whatever they wanted. Of course I had to give it a go. I wrote Yellow Feather and the Wild Mustang (and
thanks to a grandmother who saved that story, dated 1978, I still have it). I
never lost interest in storytelling from that day on, although writing took a
back seat to painting for a few years during high school and art college. But in
1991 I began writing again with an eye toward one day being published.
Q: How does New York
State history play into your writing?
A: My debut novel, Burning Sky: A Novel of the American
Frontier, is set in upstate New York in 1784, months after the
Revolutionary War ceased raging in the back country so close to British Canada,
and the inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley and along West Canada Creek were
finally able to straggle back to their homesteads (if they still existed) and
pick up the pieces of their lives. Burning
Sky presents a portrait of one such (fictional) settlement at this time,
and the scars that both the land and people were left to bear and overcome.
European settlers and their neighbors
the Iroquois, who experienced their own struggles, defeats, and triumphs during
the War.
Q: If you could sit
down and interview any person, fictitious or real from any time, who would that
be and what is the first question you would ask?
A: The answer to this
question evolves, since I’m always researching the 18th century,
learning about the people of that time, sometimes scratching my head over their
choices and actions—or marveling at their bravery and dedication. Just now a
certain man comes to mind. I’ll introduce him, as I don’t believe he’s well
known. His name was Peter Agwelentongwas, also known as Good Peter. He was an
Oneida Indian who helped lead his people during the Revolutionary War era. Unlike
most members of the other Iroquois Six Nations, the Oneidas fought for the
patriots. And they suffered for it. Many Oneidas were by this time Christians.
Good Peter, born in the 1720s, accepted Christ as his Savior in the 1750s. He
was a warrior known for his fervent faith—he taught himself to read the Bible,
translated into Mohawk—and for his loving nature. In spite of the terrible poverty
and suffering the Oneidas experienced after the war, he maintained a hopeful
optimism about his nation. He would travel from village to village, offering
kind words and prayers, singing hymns, and preaching sermons to encourage his
brothers and sisters, until his death in 1794.
This is what I’d like
to ask Good Peter. Tell me what is the
reason for the hope that is in you? Not because I don’t already know the
Answer for myself. Because I would very much like to sit beside this beloved man
and hear him tell me about his Savior.
Q: Beautiful portrait. I looked up Oquaga, where Good Peter regularly preached--near what is now Deposit, NY--and it's less than 2 hours from where I live. In that vein, who have been your
mentors, and how did they help you most?
A: So many writers
have mentored me during my 20+ year writing journey, most of them unknowingly.
Some of the best mentoring I’ve received has come from simply reading novels of
the sort I long to write myself, paying attention to what it is that’s ringing
that bell for me, and attempting to recreate it in my own words.
There is one place
where I’ve learned a great deal about writing fiction over the past 15 years,
and that’s the Compuserve Books & Writers Community. It’s the oldest books
and writers forum on the internet. It’s gone by different names over the years,
and there are writers who’ve been members there since its inception. One of
them is bestselling author Diana Gabaldon, and it’s down to her books that I
became interested in the 18th century in the first place. I’ve
learned much about writing from Diana, and others on the forum, many of them
multi-published authors and journalists. But there was one woman, Lauri Klobas,
who had never published any fiction of her own, who helped me tremendously.
Lauri had a gift for editing, especially for wading through a tangle of
overwritten prose like I once produced (and still often do in my first drafts),
and cutting away the excess to find the core of a story. It’s largely because of
Lauri that my writing finally captured the eye of an agent, and I’ve dedicated Burning Sky in her memory.
Q: What do you
hope your readers will take away from Burning Sky and your other books in
general?
A: Aside from the
obvious—being entertained and feeling like they've gained a new circle of
friends in the characters—I would like the reader who finishes Burning Sky to be encouraged and
reaffirmed that God is working all
things together for good in their lives. That they can trust Him without fear,
through pain and disappointment, through hardship and hard work, no matter what
the situation looks like on the ground. He has good plans for us, blessings
now, and on into eternity.
Q: Do you have a
question you would like our blog readers to answer?
A: I’ll put to them
the same question you asked me (it’s a good one!). If you could sit down and
interview any person, from any time, who would that be, and what is the first
question you would ask?
Thank you for being
with us this week. I wish you every blessing as you write for His glory!
Burning Sky
Abducted
by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is
driven to return to her family’s New York frontier homestead after many years
building a life with the People. At the boundary of her father’s property,
Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path and feels obliged to nurse
his injuries. The two quickly find much has changed during Willa’s twelve-year
absence—her childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to
be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired has grown into a man
twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land.
When
her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the
cultural divide blurs Willa’s vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to
the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil
MacGregor, the kind and loyal botanist who does not fit into her plan for a
solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the
Revolutionary War, strong feelings against “savages” abound in the nearby
village of Shiloh, leaving Willa’s safety unsure.
Willa
is a woman caught between two worlds. As tensions rise, challenging her
shielded heart, the woman called Burning Sky must find a new courage—the
courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is
she brave enough to love again?
I am giving away a copy of this beautiful book to one lucky commenter. Answer Lori's question about who in history you would love to interview, and you might win this beautiful story of the NY frontier. To increase your chances of winning, tell me if you follow this blog, Lori's blog or FB author page, or share on Twitter, FB, or Google+ That gives you 8 chances. Good luck!
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