Author Q&A With Christine Gunderson

Christine Gunderson grew up on a fourth-generation family farm in rural North Dakota, where she read Laura Ingalls Wilder books in her very own little house on the prairie. She’s a former television anchor, reporter, and Capitol Hill aide. Her debut novel, Friends with Secrets, won the Women’s Fiction Writers’ Association Award for Best Debut Novel. She currently lives in the Washington, DC, suburbs with her three children, Star the Wonder Dog, and a very patient husband. When not writing, she’s sailing the Chesapeake Bay with her family, playing Star Wars Monopoly, rereading Jane Austen novels in the school pickup line, or unloading the dishwasher. Meet Christine:

You are an author, but is it your day job? Like many authors, I squeeze my “writing life” into my “other life.” And in my “other life,” I’m a mom. I have three children, and I started writing when they were very small. It took me ten years to land an agent and a contract with a large publisher. I wrote in the school carpool line, at swimming lessons, and at basketball and soccer practice. I squeezed my writing into the cracks and crevices of my “other life.”

Now my kids are in high school and college, and writing is my job. My publisher does a fantastic job of promoting and selling my books, but there’s still a ton that authors must also do, in addition to writing books. I write my newsletter and Substack essays, maintain a presence on social media, and appear at book club meetings, book festivals, and podcasts. And sometimes I’m editing the last book while writing the next one. 

But the best days are the days when there is nothing on my calendar, and I can sit at my desk for hours and write. I still can’t believe that I’m getting paid to write books. I’m incredibly lucky. It’s literally a dream come true.

If I have a brand, it’s “sex, lies, and minivans.” I try to combine the relatable, realistic characters and relationships you find in women’s fiction with a dose of domestic suspense to keep readers guessing and turning the page, plus a big splash of humor to make the whole thing fun. Readers often compare my books to novels like Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, or Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan books, which is a huge compliment because they are two of my all-time favorite authors.

What advice would you give someone wanting to succeed in your professional industry? Something like 1% of all people who want to become published authors actually succeed. Getting an agent and a traditional publishing deal involves years of rejection. It took me ten years, six books, and more rejections than I can count. I think tenacity is more important than talent, though it helps to have both. And you also need a community of writers to support and encourage you when you’re ready to give up.

Every successful writer I know belongs to some writing community. For me, it’s the Women’s Fiction Writers’ Association, the International Thriller Writers, and the Washington Romance Writers. Because my books straddle the line between domestic suspense and women’s fiction, I have friends in the thriller, women’s fiction, and romance genres. Each community is different, but they all provide me with advice, encouragement, and a sense of community. I would not be published today without these groups.

Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage your publicity and social media and maintain engagement with readers? I feel really lucky because my readers are both funny and incredibly kind. They email me, and I email back. They hit reply when I send out my newsletter, and we have a conversation. I love hearing what they’re thinking and what they’re reading. They give me great ideas for my books. I love doing book clubs and events with readers in person or on Zoom. We share the same sense of humor, and I feel like we’re a community of good people trying to put good things out into the world. 

I try to repay their faith in my books by being honest about the hard parts of the process and by writing the very best book I am capable of writing, every single time. I also try to give them something of value in the form of an original essay each month in my author newsletter. I put a lot of time and effort into writing it, and I think of it as a monthly “thank you note” for those who’ve been kind enough to support my writing by buying and reading my books.

What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? Like many creative people, I spent many years feeling like I was “different” or “weird” because I walked through the world with all these characters and stories inside my head. It was such a relief to walk into a room full of writers for the first time and realize that I wasn’t the only one. 

I think the things that make us weird are also the things that make us special. It’s deeply fulfilling to take this strange compulsion to make up stories and write them down on paper and use them to entertain other people, to make them laugh, to make them feel less alone. I’m incredibly grateful that I can use my gift to create something other people value and enjoy. And I think that’s why each one of us is here, to use our unique gifts and talents to make life richer for the people around us.

Learn more about Christine and her books through her website.