I am so happy to have Leslie Gould as a guest today! Leslie’s new book is Courting Cate and I absolutely loved it. Would you like the chance to win a copy? If so, leave a comment for Leslie at the end of the interview to be entered! Good Luck and Happy Reading………
Why don’t we start by you telling us a little about yourself?
I’ve been married 29 years, have four children (ages 15 to 25), and live in Portland, Oregon. I’ve held a variety of jobs—museum curator, Port of Portland community relations specialist, bridal magazine editor, and adjunct fiction writing professor, to name a few. I’ve been writing novels fulltime for the last three years, although my first one was published in 2003. I can’t fathom going back to a “real” job after spending so much time in my head. 🙂
Can you tell us about your new book Courting Cate?
The novel is an Amish retelling of “The Taming of the Shrew.” Several years ago I went back to school for a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing and took a Shakespeare class where one of the assignments was retelling plays as short stories. I loved those assignments! Fast-forward a couple of years when I began co-authoring Amish fiction with Mindy Starns Clark. Right away I thought retelling Shakespeare stories in Amish settings was a great idea, but I wasn’t so sure a publisher would agree. Thankfully that wasn’t the case! Courting Cate is my first in the Courtships of Lancaster County series, all inspired by Shakespeare’s plays.
I must say that I loved Cate! She is such a great character. Do you have a favorite character from any of your books?
I’m so glad you like Cate—so do I! She is definitely one of my all-time favorite characters out of my 15 novels, definitely in the top three (I can’t choose beyond that! Lan in Beyond the Blue and Lexie in The Amish Midwife are the other two on the list—today. Tomorrow it might be entirely different). I wrote Courting Cate while my husband was commanding a field hospital in Afghanistan. I poured my love for him into the novel. In many ways, Cate’s story kept me company through those many long months when he was gone.
How do you do your research for your books? Do you have Amish friends?
I’ve spent time with several different Amish families, and I have quite a few Mennonite contacts. I also read about Plain communities, as much as I possibly can, and I subscribe to The Budget, a Plain newspaper, and to The Connection, a Plain Magazine. I have an Amish friend that I write letters to, asking all sorts of follow-up questions. I’ve learned so much! It’s really been an adventure!
If you could not be a writer, what would your ideal career be?
That’s such a hard question! I love editing fiction and teaching fiction writing, but I also love the idea of being a midwife or working in an orphanage in a third-world country or coordinating relief work. The nice thing about being a writer is that you can “live” so many different careers through writing about them.
What do you do when you are not writing?
My youngest is still in high school and playing soccer, both varsity and then club the rest of the year, so I still spend a lot of time driving and watching a lot of games, which I love. My husband and I serve on the planning committee of Young Life in Portland and are big supporters of the ministry, so that takes some time. We also belong to a couples’ fellowship group and an awesome book group that’s been meeting for over 20 years. Life is good.
Do you read Amish fiction? What books are you reading now?
I’m reading Life with Lily right now by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher. It’s amazing! I love everything of Suzanne’s that I’ve read. I also really enjoy Beverly Lewis’s books, Mindy Starns Clark’s work (including the ones we haven’t co-authored :), plus Kathryn Cushman, Olivia Newport, Kelly Long, Beth Wiseman, and so many more.
What is your favorite thing about being an author? As far as the actual writing, I especially enjoy developing characters. They start out fairly one-dimensional, like paper dolls, and throughout the process turn into totally believable people, like an imaginary friend. 🙂
Do you have anything else that you would like to share?
Beyond the writing, I really value the relationships I develop with readers, and I especially treasure hearing their stories. That’s the double blessing in all of this—getting to know real people whom I’ve touched, who then bless me in return. God teaches me so much through my writing, in so many different ways.
What’s next for you?
I just finished the rewrites for Adoring Addie, the second book in The Courtships of Lancaster County series. It releases next May and was inspired by “Romeo and Juliet,” although my version is a little different than the traditional story. I’m currently writing the third book in the series.
Thank you so much for interviewing me!
Simply leave a comment on this post below to be entered.
Contest starts today November 5th and ends on November 9th. Winner will be announced on Saturday the 10th.
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Leslie Gould is the award-winning author of fifteen novels, including the #1 bestseller and Christy Award winner The Amish Midwife, co-written with Mindy Starns Clark. Leslie’s novel Beyond the Blue was the winner of the Romantic Times Book Club Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Inspirational Novel in 2006. Her latest release is Courting Cate, a retelling of the “Taming of the Shrew.” Leslie and her husband, Peter, and their four children live in Portland, Oregon. Visit her at www.lesliegould.com.