So tell us about your book. Why did you write it and who is it targeted towards?
The Soultrekker Chronicles trilogy takes place in an outlying galaxy, one nonetheless shaken by the cancerous spread of Adam’s sin throughout the universe. In Bensor, elves, mortals, and dwarves live beneath the shadow of tyranny, groaning for redemption, until the day Margaret Ann Shepherd, preacher’s daughter from small-town Tennessee, appears in Bensor, having had her soul borrowed for a purpose she can little imagine.
In Book I, The Healer of Guildenwood, Margaret Ann Shepherd struggles to make a new life with her new name, Arwyn. Having qualities of the demure, sublime elf-kind, her passionate tendencies hint at a mortal nature. This forces Arwyn to carefully navigate her abilities in warfare and the art of healing, which she learns from a mysterious old hermit who seems to know more about her than he willingly admits. Three dwarves, fleeing Draigon’s oppression, inspire Arwyn to oppose the dictator to his face. She escapes his wrath, and Galamir, an elf, promises her a taste of his land. While she waits on Galamir’s return in the spring, Arwyn catches whispers of a secret Alliance set on rebellion and senses that she will have an important role to play in finally bringing about Draigon’s downfall.
I wrote the Soultrekker Chronicles trilogy for women who like the fantasy genre and for those who don’t. After being disappointed by some of the fantasy novels I read as a teen that didn’t quite live up to the standards of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, I wanted to create a heroine with whom young women could identify. I think there are many people who can identify with Margaret Ann’s/Arwyn’s dilemma of being a fish out of water, though maybe not to quite the extreme. She experiences all the emotions one would expect of a teenager who suddenly finds herself inhabiting the body of a woman, an elven woman at that, being forced to grow up overnight and survive in a world quite different from her own. The reader feels her frustration, her weakness and her triumphs. I hope the book speaks to young women in particular, helping them to know that there is a plan and purpose for their lives, even when they may be experiencing periods of awkwardness and uncertainty.
What were some of the biggest challenges in writing the book?
Getting married. Moving twice across the country. Having children. Carpools. After-school activities. In short — LIFE.
Any advice you would give to new novelists?
If God has placed the dream of writing on your heart and has given you a story that you have a burning desire to share with the world, write it! Even if it takes years, even if you can only write a paragraph or a page here and there, if you work steadily, sooner or later you’ll have a book! It took me 19 years from the moment I determined to write my trilogy to the time when I first held a copy of The Healer of Guildenwood in my hands. Don’t think that writing is limited to something you do while sitting at your computer. Some of my best scenes were conceived in the shower or while vacuuming the house. If God has put a story on your heart, He’ll give you the words. Just ask him! And sometimes you’ll have to run dripping wet out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, to your computer because the right words won’t wait until you dry off to be immortalized on your hard drive.
If you plan to self-publish, do yourself and your readers a favor and invest in a good editor.
If you plan to self-publish, don’t pay a hybrid publisher (even a “Christian” one) to publish your book. You’ll spend a ton of money and have little to show for it in the end. I made this mistake with my first book because I was afraid of going it alone. Then I became acquainted with people who helped me through the process of true self-publishing through Amazon’s KDP, and I did so with my second book for a fraction of the cost and with better results!
Tell us about your journey of faith. How did you become a Christian?
I grew up in a Christian family. In fact, my father was a Baptist minister. I accepted Christ into my heart at the age of nine and began my faith journey but still had the idea that Christianity was about being “good.” I set out to be a model preacher’s kid, always doing the right thing, but I knew that my heart harbored a lot of ugliness. It wasn’t until my twenties that I went through a rebellious streak when I questioned a lot of what I had been taught and exposed myself to people and beliefs that were antithetical to what I knew to be right. It wasn’t that I walked away from my faith, but I thought I could have it both ways. After messing up and thinking God would surely never bless my life again, I came hobbling back like the prodigal son, expecting to eat little more than scraps from His table when I returned. Instead, I found a Heavenly Father who welcomed me with open arms. It was then that I began to realize the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice, how I had utterly failed at being a “good” Christian under my own strength, and how I needed Him. In the years that have followed, God has blessed my life immeasurably. Yet, even during the difficult times, I have been assured of his presence and love. And, so, The Soultrekker Chronicles really mirrors my own faith journey. Like I “forgot” who I was in Christ for several years, Margaret Ann/Arwyn is totally amnesiac of her life in this world after waking in the other one. And, just like me, it is only when her own sin becomes quite evident to her that she “remembers” the antidote. But that doesn’t happen until the last book!
Who are some of your favorite authors and or books to read?
I really love books set in reality but have an element of fantasy. I have enjoyed the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon because it takes place in history yet has that time-travel element. Plus, having Scottish ancestry myself, I have enjoyed the Scottish history lesson.Now that you’ve written the book what other projects if any are you working on?
Now that you’ve written the book what other projects if any are you working on?
The second book of the Soultrekker Chronicles, The Secret of the Hold, was published earlier this year. I am currently working with my editor on the final edit of the third book of the series, which will be released toward the beginning of 2020. But I’ve lately had some ideas about a sequel to the Soultrekker Chronicles, a story that will take place in this world.
When did you start writing?
After reading The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia as a young teen, I became enchanted with the idea of people from this world suddenly popping into lands filled with creatures such as elves, dwarves, dragons, and hobbits. And, so, I set out to create my own fantasy world, which I eventually put to paper over three summers during high school. Looking back, I see this creative endeavor as the way I dealt with the anxiety, the loneliness, the uncertainty that often accompanies adolescence. But by the time college began, I didn’t need it anymore. I put my book away in a box and left it there for years as I pursued a career as a psychotherapist.
After eight years of working in a psychiatric hospital for adolescents and having come through a difficult period in my life, I felt the need to find myself again and to return to the things that brought me the most joy in the past. That’s when I got the idea to re-write that story I had written in my youth and to finally realize my dream of being a published author. Over the next several years, God slowly revealed to me ways to make my story richer, with more plot twists, deeper character development and with a spiritual theme that hadn’t been there before, basically making it into HIS story.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
That there is a plan and purpose for every life and every set of circumstances, no matter how awkward or uncertain or afraid you might feel in the present. And it is also ultimately a story about sin and the way to redemption.
What books have most influenced your life most?
Besides the Bible, The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia have had the most impact on me. It was these two fantasy classics that inspired my own fantasy story as a teenager.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
C.S. Lewis. The idea of children from this world magically popping into a world filled with amazing creatures, adventure, and magic intrigued me as did the abundant Christian symbolism in his books.
What book are you reading now?
I am currently reading (and enjoying!) the book, Fallen, by Melinda Viergever Inman, which speculates about the relationship between Adam and Eve both before and after the Fall.
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Even before I learned to read, my mother recalls that I loved to tell stories. In elementary school, I went from writing basic picture books to writing short chapter books, and then in middle school several of my short stories were the only ones selected from my school to be entered into a national writing contest. I always knew I had a gift for writing and wanted to someday be a published author. But I was discouraged from writing prior to college when the reality hit that it would be tough to earn a living writing novels, at least in the beginning. That’s when I decided to go into psychology, instead, and to work in a field where I could help people in a different way.
Who designed the cover?
Westbow Press designed the front cover of The Healer of Guildenwood from my idea. Ashley Fontainne of One of a Kind Covers designed the cover of my second book.
What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Finding the time to write as a mother to three young boys.
What were the challenges (research, literary, psychological, and logistical) in bringing it to life?
Writing the trilogy was the fun, creative part. The challenging part has been the publication and the promotion. It was very disheartening at first when the response of my Facebook friends when my first book came out was not what I expected. Every path I went down to promote my book led to a dead end, and I began to question why I had bothered to write this trilogy to begin with. I found myself in the midst of a full-blown pity party. Though I believed God had given me the story, I had difficulty understanding why it was so hard to generate interest. In the end, I realized I had to go beyond my friends on social media and find other ways to target readers of fantasy, Christian fantasy in particular, by doing interviews such as this, selling my books at farmers markets and craft shows, giving talks to home school groups and, well, the list goes on. And I now find the process challenging and even a little fun! So I thank God for helping me to overcome my fears and believe in my story, to get out there, and to trust Him with the results!
Thank you so much Mary Beth for taking the time to be interviewed. I wish you the best of success in your publishing efforts.
Interested readers can learn more about Mary Beth at here website Here.
And you can also find her book on Amazon here.
Until next time…
Donovan