AN INTERVIEW WITH SALLY JOHN
My good friend, Sally John, is back to chat about her latest novel, Desert Gift.
Welcome back Sally! I’m so happy to be interviewing you again.
Thank you, Debbie! It’s always a pleasure to talk with you and your readers.
Your bio states you taught Reading in your first career as a teacher. What grade(s) did you teach?
I taught 6th – 8th graders in a middle school. The program was for students who scored below their capabilities in reading. Basically I helped kids get hooked on reading by finding books that interested them. It was a joy to mix my passion for reading with my fondness for kids in this perplexing season of life.
Having read all of your books, I consider you somewhat of an expert on relationships, particularly marriage. How did you become so knowledgeable in this area?
Sixty years on this earth has provided some insight. LOL. Then there are the 37 years of marriage. . .
I’ve always been a good observer, which is sort of a cursed blessing. Children who grow up in an alcoholic home, as I did, tend to sit back and watch others’ reactions in order to measure their own responses. The upside for me has been this ability to observe and to imagine what is happening from another’s point of view.
Perhaps what appears as insight via my characters is simply letting them show what their life is like. Because my settings are contemporary, it’s easy to draw from real-life situations and then spin a tale that is not someone else’s real-life story, but can present relational truths.
Also, when Tim and I were first married, we learned much from an amazing couple (the Mouers; I mention them in the Desert Gift Acknowledgments) about inviting God into a marriage. It wasn’t a set of rules (like Jill in DG believes in the story’s beginning; “if I do such and such then God will do such and such and we’ll live happily ever after”) but rather a way of living together, a means to build a lasting relationship.
Of course I’ve always been an avid reader too, and books about marriage and relationships in general intrigue me. Gary Smalley’s books have been helpful, some I discovered quite early in my marriage. For Desert Gift research I read The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work; it’s not Christian based but full of helpful information.Nowadays, we’re bombarded with relational experts’ advice on the radio, television, online, and in magazines. I find nuggets everywhere.
Why did you gravitate to relationship stories, as opposed to, say, straight romance?
I kept wanting to push my characters deeper into their experiences than a straight romance allows. I kept introducing married couples into the stories, people way beyond their first blush of love (which is so much more fun to read about). I kept asking myself “what happens after that ‘happily ever after line at the end?’”
Thankfully I’ve had editors who have allowed me to explore. I know some readers lost interest when I branched out. I myself fuss when a favorite author goes a different direction in his/her work, so I totally empathize with anyone who wants more characters like Gina and Brady and less like Claire and Max.
The turning point came when my agent, Lee Hough, asked me to “brand” my work. This was the most difficult assignment ever. How could I lump together into one catchy phrase stories about: small towns, big-city Chicago, married people, singles, death, divorce, menopausal women, young unwed mothers, and sometimes a little suspense? Ack!
I found notes I had taken years before at a writers conference. The speaker described the “relationship novel.” It was not solely about romance, although that could be included along with mystery or suspense. It could include traditional and non-traditional families. It might be about friends.
Ta-da. This was what I was writing. I never did come up with a catchy phrase, though. LOL.
In an older interview you stated your favorite book you’ve written is In a Heartbeat. Having written a bunch of books since, would you still call that one your favorite?
I have to say I have more than one favorite now.
The Beach House is on the list, probably because it was my first attempt to major on friends rather than couples. The four women characters “presented” themselves to my imagination in four distinct voices; writing them was very hard work but I am happy with the result.
A Time to Mend stands out because a San Diego County wildfire changes characters’ lives and because of the fact that I turned in that manuscript eight months before this actually happened in real life to me and my husband. By the time it was released, we had lost our house and relocated. I had a hard time looking inside that book. I think it’s a favorite because it represents God’s healing in real life.
Ransomed Dreams is a favorite. I love the settings (Chicago and a small village in Mexico), the touch of suspense (a genre I enjoy immensely), and Sheridan and Eliot’s unique marital dilemma.
Sally, please tell us about Desert Gift.
Here’s a synopsis I wrote for my website:
Jack and Jill went up a hill. . .
They hadn’t planned on the trek, but there it was: after twenty-four years together, the Galloways find themselves talking divorce.
Jack simply wants out. Jill wants to fix things. She should know how. She hosts a radio program devoted to growing healthy marriages. She has even written a book, a how-to on marital communication.
Surely a solution is at her fingertips.
Instead she learns that her marriage has not been healthy for a very long time.
Searching for answers, Jill journeys from Chicago to her childhood home in a California desert. With the help of her wacky sister, an odd stranger, and a visit to Hollywood, she begins to hope that she and Jack do not have to go tumbling down that hill after all.
If I’m counting correctly, this is your 17th novel. Is it just as exciting to hold that first copy of a new release in your hands, as it was in the earlier years of your career?
Most definitely. For almost a year I’ve been living in my imagination with these characters and their story. To hold a literal representation of fills me with gratitude. I still bury my nose between pages to inhale that age-old scent of book.
One of your recent blog posts says your copies of Desert Gift were reportedly delivered already, only you hadn’t received them. You went walking through the neighborhood (which consists of some vacant vacation rentals), and found your books at a house with the same numbers, but transposed. My question is, how did you get your books back without any onlookers thinking you were stealing mail packages from that house?
That does sound odd, doesn’t it? I could just say, this is California. LOL.
Generally our street is fairly quiet during the daytime, not much traffic. Because many of the houses are vacation rentals, strangers come and go at random, carrying luggage and packages. The houses all look alike and every front door is actually located on the side, out of sight.
Tim made three trips up and down the street to carry the heavy boxes home one at a time while I stood on the sidewalk jumping up and down. I don’t think anyone even noticed.
Thank you so much for being here, Sally. As always, it’s a pleasure having you, and hearing about your books.
Thank you for inviting me, Debbie. You know I always enjoy sharing about the books.
Sally has graciously offered to donate two of her books for drawing. If you wish to enter, use my Contact page, and type “drawing” in the comments box. The deadline to enter is June 24th.
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