Today, I’m excited to have Virginia Henderson, author of many Christian fiction novels, on the blog. I’ve read and enjoyed three of her books so far and am looking forward to reading more. You can check out my reviews of 24 Hour Lockdown, It’s Called Grace, and A Stolen Heart by clicking on the titles.
The Interview
Kristina: What inspired you to first start writing?
Virginia: I’ve always loved writing. I think I inherited it from my mom who also enjoys writing. I remember coming up with stories when I was little and proudly looking them over when I was finished. I wish now I had kept them. I didn’t get really serious about writing until my sister showed me this app called Wattpad. It’s a place to write and share stories and read other people’s work. My first work on there was titled The Haunted Pumpkin Patch. From there on I did Lord of the Rings, Narnia and Maze Runner fanfics. I found a lot of amazingly talented authors and made some great friendships along the way.
Kristina: How did you decide to publish?
Virginia: After about five completed books on Wattpad, I began to consider publishing but had no idea how to go about it, and at the time I didn’t know self-publishing was a thing. Not until one of my friends and fellow writers announced that she was publishing through Amazon. I asked her more about it, and the more I looked into using KDP, the better it sounded. I took one of my recently completed books, The Beast, and published it.
Kristina: What authors have been most influential to your writing style?
Virginia: Margaret Peterson Haddix, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkin, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Flanagan, and Brandon Mull.
Kristina: I love the plot in 24 Hour Lockdown? How did you come up with it?
Virginia: There’s a funny story about that, actually. I was working at my church office one day, and suddenly we got a call from police that we were in a lockdown. I didn’t get all the details, but there was some drama going on at one of the nearby apartments. The exit doors were locked, shades pulled, and we waited for the police to call back. Meanwhile, I’m finding all of this exciting. It didn’t last long at all, maybe ten minutes, and when I got off work I told my mom all about it, including a story idea about a neighborhood in a lockdown written in everyone’s POVs. Then it dawned on me…what about a lockdown in a library? Even better, to fashion the fictional library in the story after my own local library. Hence, 24 Hour Lockdown. It was a real pleasure to write.
Kristina: What has been the most exciting moment of your writing journey so far?
Virginia: Hmm…I’ve had a lot of great moments, but I think the most exciting would have to be the 2018 author fair I got to take part in at my library. It was my very first event, and it was a blast! I learned a lot, met fellow writers, and sold some books of course. 🙂
Kristina: I’ve read three of your books, 24 Hour Lockdown, It’s Called Grace, and A Stolen Heart. All of them had such distinct, well-developed characters. How do you go about creating your characters?
Virginia: Thank you! I want the characters to come off as real and believable so I treat them that way. Sometimes, I’ll get a line of dialogue in my head. From there I try to visualize their expressions, their attitude, emotions, and personality. From there I get a name (I always struggle with last names for some reason) then comes the descriptions—hair color and length, eye color, limps, scars, etc. As the story progresses, they make themselves more known and take over the story (it is their story after all).
For It’s Called Grace, I did things a little different. Since there were so many characters, in fact, this was the most amount I’d dealt with at that time, I searched online for their character images until I found what I was looking for. It really helped to keep them distinct.
Kristina: What is your favorite part of the writing process? Your least favorite?
Virginia: Crafting the characters is always fun, but I think my top favorite part is working on the dialogue; preferably for the antagonist. I feel the story really coming together once there’s conflict, if that makes sense. Food descriptions are fun too! My least favorite part is writers block. It’s the worst when your characters suddenly refuse to talk to you.
Kristina: What’s your current project? When do you expect it to be available?
Virginia: I’m currently working on the third (and possibly final) book in the Abundant Blessings Series, Peace, Be Still. I’m very close to finishing it but as for a release date, I can’t give an exact date at the moment.
Kristina: What idea do you want readers to take away from your current project?
Virginia: Peace in the storm. The peace that passeth all understanding. The story is centered around family, and deals with themes like blind faith, letting go and letting God, and trusting His will. It also covers not taking family members for granted and an interesting how-not-to for dealing with loan sharks.
Kristina: What’s your best writing tip?
Virginia: There are so many great tips, but one that I’ve really taken to heart is to never throw anything out. Characters you decide not to use? Needless dialogue? Descriptions you don’t need after all? Don’t delete them. I copy and paste them to a new document and save them. You never know when they’ll come in handy.
About Virginia
Originally from Ohio, I now reside in Texas with my folks and little sister. I’m a born again Christian and I want to give all the glory to God.
I love writing (obviously). I tend to lean toward suspense, thrillers, the occasional wholesome Christmas story and “what if” scenarios. Such as what if you were to check out a library book and someone unknowingly left a document in the pages that contained life-altering secrets concerning the government. That sort of thing.
Aside from writing, I’m always reading. I love the classics, historical fiction, fantasy, adventures, fairy-tale retellings, suspense, and any and all things Newsie related.
I very much enjoy plays and musicals, embroidery, road trip adventures with the fam, retro arcade games, and board games. I’m also very interested in weaponry (archery, swordsmanship, etc).
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Kristina Hall 
Great interview!! I loved hearing about the backstory on the plot for 24 Hour Lockdown. Plots come from unexpected places, don’t they? 🙂 Also, congrats on the upcoming book release!
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Margaret Peterson Haddix is one of my favorite authors, too!
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