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About C.J. Darlington

C. J. Darlington won the 2008 Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest with her first novel, Thicker Than Blood. She has been in the antiquarian bookselling business for over twelve years, scouting for stores similar to the ones described in her novels before cofounding her own online bookstore. In 2006 C. J. started the Christian entertainment Web site www.TitleTrakk.com with her sister, Tracy, and has been actively promoting Christian fiction through book reviews and author interviews. A homeschool graduate, she makes her home in Pennsylvania with her family and their menagerie of dogs and cats.


FAQS

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I have written stories ever since I was a little kid. My most ambitious was called “The Horse’s Story”. I remember starting it when I was eight or nine on my Dad’s old word processor. It was about a horse named Loopter who would become Joshua of the Bible’s horse. He was going to be a witness of the walls of Jericho falling down, but . . . I never finished it.

Then there was my epic (started when I was twelve) called “Moby”, about a Labrador Retriever trying to find his place in this world. He tried being a lap dog (with some humorous consequences!), a fire dog, a police dog, a sheep dog . . . he never did find out what he was meant to be ‘cause I never finished that story either! Around this time was when I started dreaming of having a book published. I knew nothing of how it worked, but the seed was planted.

When I was fifteen I started a story that would change the way I thought about writing. It was about two sisters who hadn’t seen each other for years but eventually met again. That story eventually became my first novel, Thicker Than Blood.

It wasn’t until I was sixteen and discovered writing how-to books and magazines like Writer’s Digest and The Writer at the library that my apprenticeship as a writer began. I devoured everything I could on the craft. I was so excited that you could actually learn to write. Being homeschooled taught me how to teach myself, so it was a no brainer to teach myself how to write better. I learned so much from those books, but I learned the most from reading other novels.

Were books a big part of your life growing up? If so, what books would you say influenced you most as a child?

I loved to read! One of my favorite activities was going to the library. My sister and I would come home with bags and bags full of books. I didn’t read every single one, but what a luxury to have so many available at my fingertips.

I’m trying to think of what book influenced me most . . . interestingly, I loved reading fictionalized accounts of historical figures. I loved the Childhood of Famous Americans series (Will Scout, Boy in Buckskins was a favorite), the Landmark series (I re-read The Swamp Fox of the Revolution several times), the We Were There series, and of course Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jr. and the like filled my bags, too. And then there were the animal stories like 101 Dalmations, the Dr. Doolittle series, and a book called Brimm’s Boat. And Narnia. I LOVED Narnia. Wow . . . I could go on and on and on.

I guess they all influenced me without me even realizing it. But later, when I was an early teen I picked up Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti. Nothing was ever the same after that!

How did you get published?

I’ve wanted to have a book published since I was a teen. But it didn’t happen overnight. Aspiring writers would do well to go into the profession assuming it’s going to take at least ten years to be published. Maybe longer. It’s like an apprenticeship. A silversmith doesn’t show up at the shop and expect to craft a masterpiece their first day. It’s the same with novel writing.

I started writing my first novel when I was fifteen. After many years I completed it, and in 2004 I entered Thicker than Blood in the very first Operation First Novel contest run by the Christian Writers Guild and sponsored by Tyndale House. At the time the book was only 67,000 words and needed lots of work. But it still became one of twenty semi-finalists that year. That was a huge boost to my writing self-esteem.

So I started submitting to publishers. And received rejections. And more rejections. I wasn’t submitting simultaneously in the beginning, so often I ended up waiting months for a response. But some editors were kind enough to offer suggestions on how I could improve the story. I tweaked and revised. Added 10,000 words. Continued to submit. And got rejected some more.

By this time I was really getting discouraged. It had been almost fifteen years since I began writing the book, and I was ready to put the novel in a drawer and start submitting my almost finished second book. I was, literally, days away from doing this when lying in bed one night a thought hit me (and this time it really did come as a Eureka! type of moment). “Wait a minute,” I thought. “I have a completed novel that’s even better than when I first submitted it. Why don’t I send it to this year’s Operation First Novel contest?” I would use the contest as a test of the novel’s worth. If it placed again, I’d know it wasn’t complete rubbish. If it didn’t, then it was time to move on.

At this point I had something like two weeks before the cut off for submissions in the contest. I got my manuscript sent in the nick of time. That was in September 2008. In November I found out Thicker than Blood was one of four finalists. Needless to say, I was elated. Maybe the story was publishable after all.

In February, at the Christian Writers Guild’s annual conference, I was amazed when they announced on stage that Thicker than Blood had won the contest! The winner received a contract with Tyndale House, and my little novel that could will release in January 2010.

What was it like meeting Jerry B. Jenkins?

Jerry is one of the most humble and soft-spoken people you will ever meet. His one liners can take down the house. I remember sitting at his and Dianna’s table for dinner at the Writing for the Soul conference. I was looking over all the fancy place settings and said, “My goal for the night is to keep from spilling something on myself.” Jerry leaned over and said, “Good luck.”

Do you put yourself into your books/characters?

There’s a little of me in all the characters I write. For example, the main character of Thicker than Blood, Christy Williams, works at a large used and rare bookstore. That stems from my own experiences in the antiquarian book world. I’ve been a used bookseller for over thirteen years and was able to incorporate a lot of what I’ve learned into this story. But there’s also some of me in the other main character of the book, May Williams, sister to Christy. She loves the outdoors and animals like I do.

How much research did your first novel Thicker than Blood take?

The most research I had to do revolved around cattle ranching. Half of the book takes place on a modern day Colorado ranch, and I knew nothing about ranching when I first started. But over the years I have amassed a collection of books on the subject, subscribed to magazines like Farm & Ranch Living, and kept my ears tuned to anything and everything ranching. So really, I’ve been researching this novel as long as I’ve been writing it.

The rare books parts of the story didn’t take as much research since I’ve been involved in the antiquarian book industry for about as many years as I’ve been writing. But even so, I had to check my facts and make sure I was getting everything right.

What was the most interesting fact that you learned while writing Thicker than Blood?

It still surprises me what books end up being valuable. Old doesn’t always mean rare. You can have a book from 1850 that’s worth five bucks and a novel from 1991 worth thousands. Think Harry Potter. A true first edition Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone (UK edition) can fetch over $20,000. And sometimes a book’s dust jacket can be even more valuable than the book itself, which is crazy.

What is the main theme of Thicker than Blood?

The main theme of this novel is that love is thicker than blood. God’s love, that is. As Christy and May Williams find out, their blood ties were not enough to keep them together. It takes something more to make them a family again.

Another theme that’s important to me is that no one’s ever too far gone for God’s love to reach them. We might think we’ve screwed up too many times, that God could never love us for what we’ve done, but in reality God’s just waiting for us to take one step toward Him so he can wrap his arms around us.

Did you have any say in choosing the book cover for Thicker than Blood?

Tyndale surprised me with that cover on stage when they announced my book as the winner of the 2008 Operation First Novel contest. It so beautifully captures the story. I couldn’t be happier with it. The designer, Jennifer Ghionzoli, is brilliant. She actually took that picture of the books on the cover herself.

What is your writing style? (Do you outline? Write “by the seat-of-your-pants? Or somewhere in-between?)

Oh, how I wish I could outline a book and know all the twists and turns before I start! But then again . . . that might take away some of the fun of discovery. I’m pretty much a seat-of-the-pants writer. I do generally have a basic concept before I start. For Thicker than Blood I knew I wanted to write about two estranged sisters, but I didn’t know exactly how the book would end. In early drafts I had things stopping rather abruptly. It usually takes a couple re-writes before I discover exactly what it is I want to say.

Are there certain foods or snacks which keeps the words flowing for you?

I love a good cup of strong tea, and a triple cappuccino doesn’t hurt the word count either. I don’t really snack on food much when I’m writing, which is probably a good thing. Though those Chili & Lime chips are calling my name . . . Unfortunately, I do sometimes find myself in the kitchen when the words don’t come.

How does your faith affect your writing?

My faith is the reason I write. Several years ago I was questioning the value of writing as a ministry, and the Lord brought to my attention that Scripture in Ephesians which talks about each of us being called to different things. When I got to the part about evangelists, I felt like the Lord was telling me that was my calling. Through my writing I have the chance to share the greatest story every told. Maybe someone who would not receive from a pastor or a preacher would pick up a novel. That’s my hope---that people would read my stories and understand how much God loves them.

Tell us about your site TitleTrakk.com.

TitleTrakk.com is a Christian entertainment website my sister Tracy and I started in 2006. We update weekly, and so far we’ve featured 200+ author, musician and filmmaker interviews, as well as hundreds of book, music and movie reviews. The future is bright for TitleTrakk, and we see ourselves continuing in the same direction we’ve been running for the past couple years, only hopefully more and more folks will discover us.

It’s been an incredible experience to interview so many talented people. I’m often blessed by the interviews myself because pretty much everyone we’ve interviewed has been so nice!

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