My parents were involved in Christian education. I was born in Kentucky, but we moved to Quincy, Mass., when I was in kindergarten to 3rd grade, where my father was the principal at Cambridge Christian High School. After a short detour in Texas, my family finally settled in Seattle where my parents were involved many years at King’s Garden Christian Schools (now CRISTA), where I lived until I left home.

Tell us about yourself.

My husband and I have been writing fulltime since 1986. We also teach creative writing to homeschool students and visit Christian schools about once a month—two or three events in one of the States, taking anywhere from 3-7 days. (We’re hoping for an invitation from Hawaii—grin.) At first these trips seemed like an interruption to our writing schedule, but we got so many requests we realized this is something God wants us to do, to encourage young writers. That's something we've taken as part of our vision.

Lately I have been getting a few requests to speak at women’s retreats growing out of the Yada Yada novels. I always ask if I can bring someone from my prayer group along—the women that inspired The Yada Yada Prayer Group—because I want to share the reality of relationships that cross barriers; the richness that we can experience with other sisters in Christ crossing denominational lines, crossing ethnic and cultural lines. I'm doing two retreats with another sister from our group on the topic of (surprise!) prayer. At another conference it’s going to be the power of praise. We also have a mini prayer retreat that’s sponsored by a book club in Michigan, where we're taking our whole prayer group! The experience is so powerful when people see these relationships can be a reality, not just fiction.

What are some of the challenges you face being an author?

It’s one of those paradoxes that God likes to throw at us. The same thing that's a challenge is the same thing that's a blessing. Financially, it's been a challenge at times. The fact that my husband and I both write means we have no regular salary coming in, but we're also able to produce more then just one person can. So, God has met our needs. We've been doing freelance since 1986 and we haven't gone hungry yet and managed to pay our bills so that's a great blessing.

It has also taught us about trusting God and continuing to go before Him and ask, "Is this really what we’re supposed to be doing?"

The Trailblazer series, which my husband and I wrote for young readers—historical fiction about great Christian heroes—is a 40-book series that took thirteen years to complete. That was wonderful! We did other book projects along the way, but it was nice having a backbone to our writing work. And I love working with my husband. The privilege of working together has been an awesome blessing to us as a couple.

Going solo on The Yada Yada Prayer Group novels (three in all) was a big leap of faith for me in many ways. I've never written a book in first person before. But many readers comment how uncanny it is to be privy to the main character’s thoughts. That appeals to many people. “I didn't know other people thought that way!” Especially when you get into racial or ethnic or cultural differences, we tend to tip-toe around the issues and try to put on a good face, but we all have reactions and we all have thoughts. Jodi—my main character—tip-toes around too; but because it’s written in first person, the readers are reading her thoughts and her reactions. They're not always pretty, but they’re real.

How long did "Yada Yada Gets Down" take you to complete?

Each Yada Yada book has taken about six months. It's been an intense year and a half! I haven't had much time in between. Now I’d like a six-month vacation! (Hmm. Not likely.)

How do you think up your characters?

First of all, I belong to a women's Bible study that inspired this book. I wasn't thinking about writing a novel based on my group experiences, but my husband, Dave, who knows all the sisters, woke up one morning with this idea saying, "You need to write a novel about all these stories, the people are just so incredible." The idea began to grow because the quality of the stories and the variety of people and relationships has impacted my life so much. I thought this would be a way to share it. I have been amazed at the response, giving readers a glimpse into our experience in this corner of Chicago. What I've discovered is that there are many women out there who long for sisterhood with a group and are hungry for prayer and worship.

Some of the characters are inspired by real people, others are either totally fiction or a combination of different people I’ve known, but they are all fictionalized. Though, some of the stories come close. If you notice the dedication in the front of the book "Yada Yada Gets Down" there is a quote about "bandana woman." She's been put into our life and her story is so powerful. I'm thrilled that she's been helping me tell it in a fictionalized way.

How did you choose the name "Yada Yada"?

The idea for the name came from a youth dance group in our church, which is called Yadah, Yadah, Yadah. I asked the director of that group where the name comes from. She told me that she found it in the Hebrew lexicon to the Scriptures. Y-A-D-A-H (with an H) means “to sing, to give praise to God”; and the other spelling, Y-A-D-A, means, the connotation of intimacy. It's used in Scripture to describe the intimacy between a husband and wife, also the kind of intimacy that God wants with us and that we can have with God and other relationships. I thought those two meanings would be so powerful for my fictional prayer group, to give praise to God and to develop that kind of intimacy. (Actually, our real group is not called Yada Yada, though it gets called that sometimes since the book came out.)

Are you Jodie?

There's a lot of the journey that I've been on that I tried to work into her character. However, ever since my niece said that Jodi “is so annoying,” I'm not sure I want to identify totally with Jodi Baxter!

How did choose the setting?

We live in the Chicago area, and attend a racially diverse church.

Is that the reason you chose Chicago as your setting?

We've been in the Chicago area over thirty years so I'm familiar with it. My son lives in the Rogers Park area of Chicago—supposedly one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in the nation—so I decided to set my story there. Also, I wanted a setting that would enable me to bring women of different backgrounds together. Even though we live in a diverse area, it’s still very easy to live in your own cocoon. We might be thrown together at work or school or other settings, but it really takes "intentionality" to cross the little barriers we set up between ourselves, even the invisible social barriers we embrace without even realizing it, to bring people into our personal lives and our homes. So I needed this setting for the kind of story I wanted to tell.

How personal are your novels?

Most writers pull little experiences out of their lives and plop it into their character's life. That’s certainly been true writing Yada Yada. In fact, I’d have to say these novels are very personal on many levels, though definitely fiction.

How many more Yada Yada novels?

There are three—what I call “one story in three books.” Actually, the time frame from the beginning of Book One to the end of Book Three is exactly one year.

What's the third book called?

It's called "The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real."

When will it be released?

Tentatively, February 2005. I'm in the home stretch, writing the last few chapters, and my publisher is telling me they want it in the winter/spring catalog 2005.

Are there any new projects on the horizon?

I have some children's picture books coming out. This past spring, my picture book, Grandma Aggie and the Bless You Bike Ride, was published by Kregel Kidzone. I was tickled that the children's book is also about prayer, done in a fun way with a quirky bike-riding Grandma, so kids are learning about seeing people the way God sees them and learning to bless them along the way. I have more ideas for "Grandma Aggie" books, and hope to work on some of those.

I also have a set of children's storybooks coming out called "Pet Parables.” Volume 1 will be out this fall containing two pet parables. There are eight stories all together coming out in 4 books (two stories in each volume). Those stories have already been written.

As far as any more adult novels, that's a good question; ask me in a couple months! I have been so focused on the Yada Yada series that I haven't had time to think about “what’s next.”

Do you prefer adult fiction or children's fiction writing?

I’ve always loved writing for children. My husband and I have written a whole series of novels (The Trailblazer series) for middle readers, the 8-12 year old group—historical fiction about great Christian heroes, which took us thirteen years to write. It was awesome because we learned so much about people like Charles Wesley and Florence Nightingale and Mary McLeod Bethune and William Tyndale, familiar names and unfamiliar names of people all around the world; people whose faith really made a difference furthering the Gospel or changing society. There are 40 books in that series.

The Yada Yada series is my first plunge into adult fiction. This is new for me. I wasn't really looking to write adult fiction, but it seemed God-given and it seemed timely. It’s been exciting, a real stretching experience both personally and as a writer. I’m totally amazed by the letters I'm getting, how God is using these books far beyond what I ever imagined. I think it's something readers have been hungry for.

Who was the person who influenced you the most with your writing?

My husband is my greatest encourager. Even when we had little kids, he strongly encouraged me to get back into writing. I was content to be a stay-at-home mom, but he's my number one champion fan and he made it possible. He set up an office for me and helped arrange childcare so I could have two mornings a week to write. He's always been the one to push me out of my writing comfort zone and into something new. He certainly did it with Yada Yada. He even took over the cooking so I could write this book! He took over some of my other writing responsibilities, handling the arrangements for the writing seminars we do, which I usually did, because I simply didn't know if I could do this. So he tried to just clear a path so I could.

What were your favorite books as a child?

In terms of people who influenced me in their writing, C.S. Lewis and Madelyn L'Engle for this reason: they wrote kids books that were good adventure stories, easy to read, and yet dealt with profound things. I was fascinated by books written for young people that adults also like to read, such as the Narnia series, and like Madelyn L'Engle's books about the Austin Family. They weren't trivial but they were simple, even young people could read them. That was the model we were trying to follow in our Trailblazer books, books for kids that adults could enjoy too and dealt with things that matter.

What message would you like your readers to take away from this book?

It's less a message then a vision for deeper relationships with other women, to come out of the comfort zones that we normally keep around ourselves, even though that is very understandable, very normal. Our comfort zones are there for a reason; we like to retreat when life gets hard. But there is so much richness in the Body of Christ. Much of our Christian experience tends to be a little anemic because we surround ourselves with people like ourselves. For me, I grew up in a wonderful Christian family, and had a relationship with Jesus since I was a child. However, since this prayer group came into my life, a lot of what I know about God and about the Christian life has come alive for me. I see it expressed in different ways. I see it lived out in situations that would probably totally blow me away. I’ve learned so much about different ways to worship. It has become an exciting journey, a new face on old truths that I’m eager to share.

Also, I want readers to catch a vision of the common ground we have at the foot of the cross. That includes the good girls and the bad sinners—we are all just sinners, saved by grace. When we embrace that reality, we find that we have a sisterhood and a brotherhood with a wide variety of people. Learning to see each other as God sees us, people He longs to love, longs to have in the Kingdom, in His life.

In the letters I receive, almost everyone says, I'm so hungry for that kind of prayer group experience, or, my worship is kind of stagnant and you just gave me a vision of how alive it can be. Almost every letter touches some kind of hunger there and that just blesses my socks off. I couldn't ask for anything more than to encourage people in that way.