Interview with Virginia Smith, a Christian Novelist

Virginia Smith, a Christian novelist, the author of Just As I Am and several other works, has kindly agreed to share about her latest release, her road to publication, and Christian fiction and writing in general.


LL: How and when did you decide to become a writer? Were you one of those born with a pen in their hand, or did it "just happen" because your road in life took you that way?

VS: No, I was not one of those people who dreamed of writing as a child. Actually, the idea didn’t occur to me until I was in my mid-twenties. I was a major science fiction / fantasy fan (still am!) and someone introduced me to Isaac Asimov’s short stories about that time. That man was a master of the short story, and he made it look so easy! I thought, “Gosh, I can do that.”

LL: And so you tried?

VS: I wrote my first short story way back in 1985 and sent it in to the top sci-fi magazine. It was rejected, and I was devastated. I was too inexperienced to know that a personal, handwritten note from the editor was good, and I had no writer friends to encourage me. So I didn’t send anything else in for many years. But I did keep writing, and even started a fantasy novel that I worked on for years. I was a closet writer, though, too embarrassed to tell anyone about my writing. But during those next few years the dream to become a real writer took root.