As I said a bit ago, Johnson participated in my Q&A series about writing in Idaho and now she’s back to talk about Stone of Asylum and writing in general. In case you’re interested, I gave my take on that novel a little bit ago. I hope you enjoy this Q&A, and I do expect to bring you more from Johnson soon, so stay tuned!
We’ve gone over your writer’s bio before, but I wanted to follow up on a couple of things. First, could you talk about your path to publication and what sparked your desire to write in the first place?
I wish I had known that writing could be a career choice, I might have finished school instead of this long journey: I was a young mama with time to read, and my grandma passed all her Christian historical romance books through the family. They always ended with a kiss at the altar…I started to feel like the only significant point of life for a girl was to fall in love and get married. Therefore, there was nothing left for me at the age of 20. I was happy in my marriage, but disgruntled that I had nothing significant left to look forward to in life. I had no idea there were other genres in Christian fiction.
One day while my 6 month fell asleep nursing, I daydreamed a complete story arc about a white missionary who rescues a baby from a village just before he was killed by his dad. They raise him up, until they are martyred, and he eventually returns to the his father’s village with the gospel of reconciliation. It was told from the two mother’s perspectives.
I jumped up and scribbled the outline down. It took me ten years to type out the first draft of that story. It was 50,000 words. I thought I was called to the mission field until I finished writing that book.
When finished, I was confident enough to consider myself a “wannabe writer,” and I got a job in publications. I got mentors, I published in local newspapers. I became the assistant editor. I spent five years writing my second book. (Neither are published.) Then, in 2005, I went to my first writer’s conference and started the path to publication. I wrote Sovereign Ground in a year and it became a finalist in contests before it was published. The editors and agents who liked it told me that the subject was too edgy for the current Christian fiction crisis and economic downturn. So I self-published.
Authors have dozens of ideas percolating at once (if not more), what was it about the idea that became Stone of Asylum that made you decide it was the one you wanted to focus on for a few months? Can you remember what nugget started that book? It’s pretty different from your first two books in terms of genre and tone (at least from what I can tell), was it a conscious choice to look for something different?
I heard once that artists are not satisfied replicating—they desire to create and they need to stretch themselves. My first book was about a dancer and lots of people thought it was my story, because you are supposed to “write what you know.” I was in a tight-knit critique group and they asked my why I didn’t write about martial arts (more about that in question 5). Also, I knew romance would never be the genre I wanted to spend all my time in. I love fantasy.
Was this always intended as part of a series or was it a stand-alone that couldn’t be restrained? How do you go about mapping out the overall arc of a series and what parts of that arc go into an individual book.
I intentionally planned the main story arc to spread over three smaller story arcs. It is intended to be one story told in three parts. I was going for a balance of unfinished but satisfying. It was fun and complicated. I think that was part of stretching myself to build a story differently than I ever had. My critique group helped in the initial brainstorming session. Many of the finer details about the magic and consequences were deliberated with my oldest son—an avid reader, nearly as irresponsible as you.
I like him already 🙂
Talk to me about the research you did for this—you’ve got two immigrant-Asian cultures in the nineteenth century. Immigration to the Western US during that period. Idaho history/mining history…and so much more. Was any of this “old hat” to you or did you have to start at the ground floor entirely?
It was all research. I do not have personal inside knowledge. I read fiction and non fiction written from Chinese Immigrant POV to start to understand motivation and perspective. I visited the Chinese historical museum in San Francisco. And another museum in Coeur d’Alene. It is one of the things I like about being a reader and a writer—trying to feel what someone else would feel while setting aside your own experience (which can make you unable to empathize).
You’ve got some pretty convincing fight scenes in the book, too. How do you compose one of those? I’ve heard of writers using action figures or something to map enact them first, for example. Also—what kind of martial arts background did you have going in—or was this even more research?
Thank you. It was mostly done in my head. But I did have the ability to act out some of the flow. I started practicing a Korean martial art called Tang Soo Do with my dad when I was 7. I met my future husband when we tested for our blackbelts at age 17. When I wrote the Dance of the Crane Series, I was working toward a Master Belt and had a school in Meridian, Idaho. It has been half a dozen years since I stopped practicing/training in martial arts.
What is it about storytelling/writing that keeps it fresh for you? Is this a compulsion to keep going, or is it more pleasure? Along those lines, are there genres you are still hoping to try, or are you sticking in the lanes you’ve picked? Are there genres you don’t see ever trying?
I think for me, it’s learning. I like new. I have a few stories in my head, but they don’t spin like they used to. I feel satisfied for now. I have been spending most of my writing energy on non-fiction. For storytelling, I’m starting to narrate other author’s books.
We should absolutely chat about that sometime.
What’s next for Hilarey Johnson, author?
I hope to continue my blog, Intimacy with God for the Over-Churched >. I’m contributing regularly to IdaHopeChristianWriters.org. And, I would like to set aside a few months to rewrite a non fiction I wrote, and then decide what to do with it.
Thanks for your time—and thanks for Stone of Asylum—I’ll be back for more of The Dance of the Crane soon, I have to know what’s next.
Thank you! That is every writer’s hope.
Grab a book, any book.
