Author Interview: Laurie Batzel
Laurie Batzel’s debut novel With My Soul releases September 10th, but the cover released today and she’s agreed to give us a bit of insight into the book and her writing journey. I’m anxiously awaiting the day Anaiah Press finally says, “Here, Kelli. Buy it, already!” So keep checking mine and Laurie’s social media pages for links come over the next week!
Laurie, can you share the blurb/synopsis with us?
Absolutely! (Blurb from Anaiah):
Betrayed by her husband, Willa Jane Wilson and her daughter are left penniless and alone in post-war Germany. She returns to her hometown in rural North Carolina and prays that a new beginning will soothe the anger still raging inside her heart. But no matter how many miles Willa Jane puts between her and her shame, the peace she seeks is drowned out by the ignorance and abandonment.
When yet another tragic loss in Willa Jane’s life threatens her with utter hopelessness, she’s presented with a new opportunity. Tasked with caring for children at a local orphanage, she dedicates herself to transforming the financially-strapped institution into a real home filled with as much love and faith as the large family in which Willa Jane was raised. But when her fundraising mission lands her in the middle of Raleigh’s glittering social scene, she encounters PJ Townshend, a handsome young lawyer with a dedication to service that matches her own. There’s only one problem: PJ is on track to change the country from its political epicenter—Washington D.C.—and the closer they grow to one another, the farther apart their worlds seem to be taking them.
A natural disaster of Biblical proportions threatens to part them for good, at the same time it puts the orphanage and everything Willa Jane has worked for in peril. An offer for help arrives from the most unexpected source. Accepting it will require forgiveness of the past…but it might also reunite her with the person her heart desires most.
Where did the idea for this story come from?
I was inspired by my grandmother’s courage as a single mother in the 1940’s and 1950’s, as well as her advocacy for children when she worked as a social worker for an orphanage in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Your characters sound thought-out and interesting. How did you come about creating the character Willa Jane?
Willa Jane is someone who lets her passions overrule her sense of logic-sometimes this is a good thing, other times not so much. Her journey navigating loss, ignorance and circumstances beyond her control takes her to a displaced persons camp in wartorn Germany, back to her small town in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina to the glamorous bustling capitol city of Raleigh.
All of the research put into crafting a story that is historical is extensive and tiring, but interesting, I can imagine. Is there anything you found in your research that influenced your story and stands out in your memory?
I read a lot of first-hand accounts of individuals who grew up in orphanages like the one depicted in my story, and what stands out to me is that many of them remember the orphanages not as the cold, clinical institutions we tend to think of, but as found homes and found families where many of them experienced stability and love. I wanted to illustrate that, as well as the financial difficulties many of these facilities faced at a time when the focus began to shift towards in-home foster care.
Writing quirks: what’s yours?
Writing apparently makes me very thirsty: I have to have hot coffee and ice water on hand in large quantities or I will have to keep jumping up to get them as I’m writing.
Your journey to getting published: What was the hardest part for you?
For me the hardest part has been writing the promotional blurbs and one-line copy that is used to sell the book. Condensing the entire story into a few snappy phrases is a lot harder than it looks!
I imagine it requires a good bit of time-planning to get anything done with four kids and an adorable corgi running around! What hours do you do your best writing?
Out of necessity, I write in the afternoons when my children are napping or having “quiet rest time.” I set word count goals for myself that I try to achieve each week, and if I have a day where I didn’t get a chance to write, I will stay up into the wee hours to get the words in, but it’s definitely a different process LOL.
Your cover has just been revealed! (*happy dance*) Is it everything you hoped it would be?
Definitely! The theme of the book is heavily influenced by one of my favorite hymns, “It is Well With My Soul.” Willa Jane often seeks solace in the water and eventually finds the peace like a river not within herself, but by accepting help from those she loves. To have the cover feature the water so prominently really puts that theme out on display.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
Anywhere in the United Kingdom. I’m a total Anglophile, so my dream vacation would be walking the hills and old homes of the English countryside,
Do you have a favorite author?
That’s like picking a favorite child! I love L.M. Montgomery and still read the Anne of Green Gables series every few years, C.S. Lewis’s fiction and non-fiction, and when I need a good Regency Romance, Sabrina Jeffries is my absolute go-to.
Links! Share them all. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, whatever you’ve got!
Facebook.com/laurielouwrites
Twitter: lbatc2_lou
Rebacanyouhearme.wordpress.com
Laurie, can you share the blurb/synopsis with us?
Absolutely! (Blurb from Anaiah):
Betrayed by her husband, Willa Jane Wilson and her daughter are left penniless and alone in post-war Germany. She returns to her hometown in rural North Carolina and prays that a new beginning will soothe the anger still raging inside her heart. But no matter how many miles Willa Jane puts between her and her shame, the peace she seeks is drowned out by the ignorance and abandonment.
When yet another tragic loss in Willa Jane’s life threatens her with utter hopelessness, she’s presented with a new opportunity. Tasked with caring for children at a local orphanage, she dedicates herself to transforming the financially-strapped institution into a real home filled with as much love and faith as the large family in which Willa Jane was raised. But when her fundraising mission lands her in the middle of Raleigh’s glittering social scene, she encounters PJ Townshend, a handsome young lawyer with a dedication to service that matches her own. There’s only one problem: PJ is on track to change the country from its political epicenter—Washington D.C.—and the closer they grow to one another, the farther apart their worlds seem to be taking them.
A natural disaster of Biblical proportions threatens to part them for good, at the same time it puts the orphanage and everything Willa Jane has worked for in peril. An offer for help arrives from the most unexpected source. Accepting it will require forgiveness of the past…but it might also reunite her with the person her heart desires most.
Where did the idea for this story come from?
I was inspired by my grandmother’s courage as a single mother in the 1940’s and 1950’s, as well as her advocacy for children when she worked as a social worker for an orphanage in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Your characters sound thought-out and interesting. How did you come about creating the character Willa Jane?
Willa Jane is someone who lets her passions overrule her sense of logic-sometimes this is a good thing, other times not so much. Her journey navigating loss, ignorance and circumstances beyond her control takes her to a displaced persons camp in wartorn Germany, back to her small town in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina to the glamorous bustling capitol city of Raleigh.
All of the research put into crafting a story that is historical is extensive and tiring, but interesting, I can imagine. Is there anything you found in your research that influenced your story and stands out in your memory?
I read a lot of first-hand accounts of individuals who grew up in orphanages like the one depicted in my story, and what stands out to me is that many of them remember the orphanages not as the cold, clinical institutions we tend to think of, but as found homes and found families where many of them experienced stability and love. I wanted to illustrate that, as well as the financial difficulties many of these facilities faced at a time when the focus began to shift towards in-home foster care.
Writing quirks: what’s yours?
Writing apparently makes me very thirsty: I have to have hot coffee and ice water on hand in large quantities or I will have to keep jumping up to get them as I’m writing.
Your journey to getting published: What was the hardest part for you?
For me the hardest part has been writing the promotional blurbs and one-line copy that is used to sell the book. Condensing the entire story into a few snappy phrases is a lot harder than it looks!
I imagine it requires a good bit of time-planning to get anything done with four kids and an adorable corgi running around! What hours do you do your best writing?
Out of necessity, I write in the afternoons when my children are napping or having “quiet rest time.” I set word count goals for myself that I try to achieve each week, and if I have a day where I didn’t get a chance to write, I will stay up into the wee hours to get the words in, but it’s definitely a different process LOL.
Your cover has just been revealed! (*happy dance*) Is it everything you hoped it would be?
Definitely! The theme of the book is heavily influenced by one of my favorite hymns, “It is Well With My Soul.” Willa Jane often seeks solace in the water and eventually finds the peace like a river not within herself, but by accepting help from those she loves. To have the cover feature the water so prominently really puts that theme out on display.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
Anywhere in the United Kingdom. I’m a total Anglophile, so my dream vacation would be walking the hills and old homes of the English countryside,
Do you have a favorite author?
That’s like picking a favorite child! I love L.M. Montgomery and still read the Anne of Green Gables series every few years, C.S. Lewis’s fiction and non-fiction, and when I need a good Regency Romance, Sabrina Jeffries is my absolute go-to.
Links! Share them all. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, whatever you’ve got!
Facebook.com/laurielouwrites
Twitter: lbatc2_lou
Rebacanyouhearme.wordpress.com
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