Gayle Roper Interview

When did you begin writing? Why?

I started writing when my kids were little and I wanted something to challenge my mind. I’d taught junior high English for five years, and I missed the people and the stimulation. So I started writing to fill the gap. I’d always read a lot, so I loved words. The first thing I wrote was a YA about a summer working at a conference center. It never sold and was lost somewhere in a move. I’m sorry about that. I’d like to see how bad it was. The first thing I sold was a short story to a teen magazine for $10!

Did you feel called to write?

When I started writing, I didn’t feel called because I didn’t know I was starting something serious. But I feel called now. I feel the responsibility to present a Christian world view and to offer various insights into how faith starts and grows. Each book calls for a different piece of this insight pie, and mysteries and suspense are great vehicles to present these thoughts.

Tell us about your “road to publication.” Was it smooth? Rough?

You need to know that I’ve been at this for 38 years now, and things in the industry were very different in 1970 than they are now. When I wrote my first mystery, I decided to send it to Moody Press because I had read mysteries they published. I sent off a couple of chapters, and they asked to see the rest. I sent off a chapter at a time as I finished it. Some kind lady in Chicago kept them all until she got the last one, and then they accepted it. Today that method would never fly.

What are a few of the things you learned along the way?

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that nothing less than excellence is acceptable. I’ve also learned that I can’t control much at all except my own writing. I can’t control editors, salesmen, buyers, sales, you name it. Maybe the most important thing I’ve learned is that I must offer each book to the Lord for Him to use as He sees fit, not as I want. Keeps me humble, I’ll tell you.

Now that you’ve had several books published, is your writing career everything you thought it would be? What aspects are different than you imagined?

In many ways my writing career has been much more than I ever expected, and in other ways much less. It’s been more in the opportunities to teach writing at writing conferences across the country and in the people I’ve met as a result. The window to teach as I do is open about a quarter of an inch, and that I’ve been able to go through is one of my life’s biggest blessings. And the people I’ve met-editors, agents, producing freelancers and those striving to break in-super! There are some very wonderful people involved in Christian publishing. My career has been less than I hoped because I had the normal expectations of big sales and visions of fame and the normal experience of not achieving either. I must say that the pluses far outweigh the disappointments.

What advice do you have for unpublished writers?

The three P’s-Preparation, Perseverance, and Prayer. You can’t succeed in today’s highly competitive Christian market without all three-and there’s still no guarantee. There is no substitute for earning your stripes, for being willing to learn and learn and learn. Prepare by studying, going to conferences, taking workshops. I’m taking a fascinating one on line right now on being an undercover agent. I’m also reading a book on spousal abuse for my WIP at the recommendation of my editor. You never stop preparing. Then you persevere. I’m convinced that many more writers fail because they give up than because they can’t write. All you have to do is go to a writers conference and see all the eager want-to-be writers, most very talented. Those who persevere have the best chance of being published. And of course we all bathe our work in prayer, not the “Get it published, Lord” prayers but the “This is Yours to do with as You please. Use it as You will.”

Where would you like to be in ten years?

Still thinking clearly enough to be writing!

What is the most important message you’d like readers to get from your books?

Each book has its own specific message (which is so buried in the story that it isn’t seen as a message, of course), but my overall goal would be for readers to see how God longs to interact with us and is waiting for us to turn to Him.

Tell us about your latest book.

FATAL DEDUCTION is a romantic suspense with lots of family dynamics going on around the mystery. Libby and Tori are twins who have a hard time dealing with each other because they think differently. One’s a believer; one isn’t. One’s a single mom; the other lives with a loan shark. They are required to live together for six months in their late Great-Aunt Stella’s Olde Philadelphia row home to get their in heritance. If one leaves, they both forfeit.

The first morning Libby’s there, she finds a body on the front stoop with a crossword puzzle addressed to Tori lying on the dead man’s chest. One of the fun things about the book is that the threats all come in crossword puzzles that the readers can fill in if they want, or they can wait for the characters to tell them what they need to know. The answers are in the back of the book.

Of course there’s a handsome hero who lives down the street. Drew’s a Ben Franklin scholar who seasons his talk with Ben quotes.

It was fun creating the puzzles and searching out just the right quotes for Drew.

What’s next?

I’m working on the edit of a romantic suspense called HIDE AND SEEK for Focus on the Family. It’s due out next year. I just finished updating and expanding THE KEY, the first of my Amish trilogy of romantic suspense novels, originally published back in the mid-90’s. Harvest House will be re-releasing all three over the next year, starting in March.

Any last words?

I’m as Philadelphia sports fan. The Eagles lost yesterday, and so did the Phillies. But the Phillies just hit two 2-run homers tonight to take the lead over the Dodgers. What a metaphor for life. It’s all ups and downs, but we must never forget that the Lord walks those paths, both good and bad, with us. It’s like the verse says: “You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance” (Ps.66:12). I hope you’re all in a place of abundance, but if you’re not, He’s wherever you are, and you’ll get there soon.