Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a Colorado native, though spent years living in western Europe in outdoor education with a nonprofit, where I wrote cross-cultural humor essays for our in-house newsletter. I wrote two nonfiction books after I discovered the beauties of the Eastern Orthodox Church; Regina Orthodox Press published them and that experience of publishing was quite addicting. Now I’m finding that fiction writing is a very different animal!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Gold in Havilah is the result of writing the book I always wanted to read. From the time I was a kid in Sunday school staring at the pictures of Adam and Eve in their fig-leaf loin cloths puzzling over an apple, I wanted to understand that story. I wanted to know what Eden must have looked like, and what life might have been like for those first people and their kids once they got the boot out of paradise. I’ve tried to make Akliah, my lead character, as much like the rest of us as possible, a reminder of how much like each other all of us really are, despite barriers of time or culture. For as Akliah herself says in the book, “There are few stories on the earth. We are all derived of one Heart.”
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I mostly subscribe to Hemingway’s famous quote: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” I prefer to end the writing day in a heap on the floor, preferably begging the muse for mercy either way.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m inspired by historical fiction authors Tosca Lee, Geraldine Brooks, and the fabulous indie author, Libbie Hawker. The British writer Elizabeth Goudge wrote novels that break my heart every time I read them. I like Annie Dillard for her unusual word choices–what an essayist! For the spare, quiet phrase, I turn to Kent Haruf and Ron Hansen. E.B. White and G.K. Chesterton are my current favorite essayists. And I’m in awe of many other authors in between.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on another novel set in the antediluvian world, on the world’s first polygamous family.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m trying to learn the ropes with social media, which seems to be the way people learn and discover things now. My website is www.jeanhoefling.com
Do you have any advice for new authors?
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield quotes the Dalai Lama, “The enemy is a very good teacher.” The enemy is the self-doubt and inertia that stalks most of us daily. How we manage those tendencies says everything about us. Also, be open to critique and editing. The self-insulated writer is doomed.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Hemingway again: “Don’t worry; you have always written before and you will write now.”
What are you reading now?
The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough
Angel’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to write more fiction stories based on the early chapters of Genesis. I’ll do that until I’ve gotten it out of my system.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Bartlett’s Quotations
Funny stuff…
Author Websites and Profiles
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