A Valentine's Day Chit-Chat with Gina Welborn

Happy Valentine’s Day! Susanne here, a cup of rose petal tea in hand, reveling in the romance in the air today at the Inkwell. What would February 14th be without a love story or two?


Today it's my honor to ask our own Gina Welborn a few questions about herself, her writing, and her fabulous, brand-new novella, Sugarplum Hearts, from Highland Crossings.

So Gina, do you have any plans for Valentine's Day? Heart-shaped pizza? Helping kids with homework? Any chocolate?

Actually, we have no plans because we already celebrated Valentine’s Day on the 9th. Hubby had been in Oklahoma for fifteen days. I drove up to the Baltimore airport to pick him up, and on the way home we had a delicious early-VD dinner at Uncle Julio’s in Bethesda, MD.


Sweet! I'm sure it was wonderful seeing your sweetie after fifteen long days. Speaking of your husband...We all appreciate a good love story. How did you and your husband meet?

Oh, gosh, lemme think. We met in August of 1993 at the Baptist Student Union at Cameron University. Funny thing is we’d both already graduated. When I was in high school, I knew God had called me to marry a pastor, but during college, I pursued my goals and, frankly, ignored God’s plan. Then God took me to my breaking point. From there I figured if I was going to marry a pastor, then the best place to go was where pastors-in-training hung out. Five guys were called, but one was already dating a girl so I scratched him off my list. Then I went about dating each guy on the list until I found the right one. Hubby was #3.

And you two have five kids! How do you find time to write?

Ugh. Some days finding time is harder than pulling teeth. Generally, though, M-F while they’re at school works best. Also, sometimes in the evening after they’ve gone to bed. I’ve long learned to be flexible because I may have a week where I get no writing done. Then I can have a week where the kids and hubby forget I’m in the house. Okay, the latter is only in my wistful thinking.

When did you decide to be a novelist, and how have you grown in your craft?

Now I’m really gonna have to pause and search my memories. Jadan was newborn . . . . hmm. The summer of 1999, I read a book by a multi-published historical author and was so vexed by how bad a story it was that I vowed to my friend, Cathy, “I could write better dreck than that.” Guess what? I could. And I did. From August to October 1999 (Jadan was born on Nov 2), I wrote five 90k-word manuscripts and they were as drecky as that novel.

Only I didn’t realize my writing was as bad as it was until about four years later. While critique groups helped me learn some aspects of craft, judging writing contests helped me learn to think analytically about what I was reading in craft of writing books and how to see flaws and strength in contest entries. Eventually I started seeing that in my own writing. Around that time I began praying two things: (1) that God would give me a teachable spirit and (2) that God would make me smarter than I am.

I know some writers begin with a natural strength in one or more aspects of writing. Not me. I sucked at everything. I really should have quit. Not really sure why I didn’t because I really don’t like hard work. Then one day I realized I wanted to learn to write as best as I could even if I never sold a book. Crazy thing is that was within weeks of me having baby #5 and my manuscript finaling in RWA’s Golden Heart. Niley will be 5 at the end of this month. Thanks to that final, I hooked my agent, Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.

What a story. And now you've experienced the thrill of seeing your name on a book cover! Congratulations on the release of your debut novella, Sugarplum Hearts! Can you share some of the memorable moments during the process, from getting “the call” to holding the book in your hands for the first time?

Holding one’s book in one’s hands for the first time is a pretty monumental moment in an author’s life. I was in the midst of a painting spree in mid-January. We needed to get our house put on the market, but to do that, I knew I needed to paint rooms all over the house. For the record, I did eleven rooms in ten days. Well, I was on a step-stool painting a ceiling when I heard the Fed-Ex truck. I thought, “Hmm, I bet my books are here.” So I meandered downstairs, brought the books inside, opened a box, skim-read my story, then went back to painting. Oh, I guess I did take a picture and post on Facebook. My oldest asked me how it felt seeing my name on a book cover. Eh. It’s cool and all, but I had rooms to paint and a house to declutter. Looking back, I probably should have gotten a little more excited than I did.

For memorable moments regarding getting the call, one can read an interview I did at ColonialQuills.

What’s your favorite thing about the hero of Sugarplum Hearts, Finley Sinclair? Valentine’s Day wasn’t celebrated as we know it back when Sugarplum Hearts is set, but if he were celebrating with the heroine, Seran, what sort of romantic thing would Finley do for her?

My favorite thing about Finley is his joy. He had a rather awful upbringing and overcame a lot to get to where he was, in particular breaking free of toxic family members. In combination with that is his gratitude for the salvation given to him through Jesus. Because he loves Jesus, he loves the people God brings into his life. So for him, loving Seren is easy. I had a chat with Finley and asked him how he and Seren celebrated their first Valentine’s day together. While she was in Elizabethtown visiting Nathaniel Best and his new bride, Finley whitewashed the inside of her confectionary and installed a new storage cabinet for her supplies. Seren returned home with two pounds of Nathaniel’s finest coffee beans. After Finley and Seren surprised each other with their gifts, they went home and . . . umm, well, Finley didn’t share what else happened.

That's all right, I think we get the gist. The novellas in this collection are connected with a family heirloom. Can you tell us about it?

The heirloom that connects the stories is a lion’s head brooch. I think the cover artist did a great job capturing our description. When Pamela, Laurie, Jennifer and I were discussing how to incorporate a connecting item in each story, one beginning point we all agreed on was that we wanted the item to have a purpose in each story. One of my struggles was how do I make this brooch significant when my heroine has already sold it by the time my story begins.

Love Inspired author Naomi Rawlings was the first person to read my finished first draft. She pointed out where I needed to layer in the significance of the brooch to Seren. I had her behaving as I would: Oh it’s just a bauble that I can use to sell for something I want more. For someone who yearns for roots, for a heritage in one town, Seren had born more guilt and shame over selling it than I would have.

Faith plays an important role in the story. Can you share a time you’ve grown in your faith?

Oh my. The hardest year in my life was 2011 with hubby being asked to resign from his youth pastor position, with the church not giving us any severance, and with my mother-in-law’s sudden passing two days before Thanksgiving. I never thought it would be that difficult to go to a food pantry until I actually had to do it. Through it all, God kept taking me back to the place where he showed me my identity is in him, and not in things or in position.

Being a pastor’s wife yourself, you know how some church members can treat you like you’re The Popular Kid. Everyone wants to be your friend. In the course of a week, I went from being The Youth Pastor’s Awesome Wife to “don’t look her way, don’t say anything to her, ignore she’s there.”(Here’s where I should clarify to readers that even though my husband had been asked to resign, and he did, I continued to take our kids to the church.) I remember sitting in my adult Sunday School class silently pleading with God, “Please don’t make me come back to this church, please tell me I can go.” God kept saying stay. Sure, my kids wanted to keep going because they didn’t want to lose their friends. But going to a church where very very few people made me feel welcome . . . well, it hurt. And I wasn’t sure why God kept telling me to stay because I kept reminding him how much I didn’t like pain.

That was May. Then in the summer, God took me through a book called The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial gospel has worn you out. *sigh* That was me. Only I was worn out not with the gospel, but with organized church. After my mother-in-law died, I cried for what seemed the entire month of December over losing her but also because I hadn’t really cried over the loss of a church family. There’s a reason they’re called “growing pains.”

Oh Gina, this story makes my heart ache, but I'm inspired by how you've handled these difficulties and losses. I admire how you always seem to want to grow and glorify God. Another think I admire about you is how many books you manage to read. You're quick! Are there some books you return to again and again?

Two books I read every 2-3 years are The Accidental Tourist and To Kill a Mockingbird. I’m currently re-reading Accidental. Love that book! It’s so quirky. And it breaks sooooo many of those stupid writing rules we hear about. The other books I re-read are anything by John Eldredge and The Great Work of the Gospel by John Ensor. My copy of the latter had dog-earred pages and lots of underlining and highlighting from all the times I’d read it. But when I went to the ACFW conference in St. Louis in September, I think I left it on the plane, so I bought myself a new copy for Christmas. It’s so pristine-looking that I’m hesitant to mark it up again. But I will.

In addition to not wanting to mark up a pristine book, what would your family say is quirky about you?

Nothing. I’m so utterly normal that I don’t have any quirks. Sad but true. However, I did ask my oldest son once if he would rather have one of his friends’ mothers for a mother instead of me. He easily answered, “nah.” I was rather stunned. “So there’s no one else you’d rather have for a mom besides me, really?” After a minute or two, he finally answered, “Chuck Norris’s wife because then Chuck Norris would be my dad.”

Ha! How old is Chuck Norris, anyway? Not that it matters. Moving on.

Gina, I wish you and your husband--and all our readers--a Happy Valentine's Day. I'm going to spend  part of my day cozying up to Sugarplum Hearts!

Oh, I almost forgot! Gina has kindly offered a giveaway of a  basket that includes all kinds of goodies including a copy of Highland Crossings. Please leave a comment with your e-mail address, and we'll be sure to enter you in the drawing!

To learn more about Gina, including why my new nickname for her is "Guppy," visit my personal blog today, where Gina shares ten things about herself--click here!

Susanne Dietze has written love stories since she was in high school, casting her friends in the starring roles. Today, she writes in the hope that her historical romances will encourage and entertain others to the glory of God. Married to a pastor and the mom of two, Susanne loves fancy-schmancy tea parties, travel, and spending time with family and friends. Her work won the 2011-2012 Phoenix Rattler's Historical Fiction category, and has finaled in the Genesis, Gotcha!, and Touched By Love Contests. You can visit her on her personal blog, Tea and a Good Book, http://www.susannedietze.blogspot.com/.