Author Q&A With Debra Borchert
One of Debra Borchert’s first jobs was as an Elf at Santa breakfasts, where she served juice and cookies to tiny tots all aglow, so it makes sense that her first romance novel, His Last Christmas Gift, takes place during this festive season. She is the author of the award-winning Château de Verzat series (Her Own Legacy, Her Own Revolution, Her Own War), and its companion cookbook, Soups of Château de Verzat: A Literary Cookbook and Tribute to the French Revolution. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, Costco Connection, and The Writer. Meet Debra:
What advice would you give someone wanting to succeed as an author? Follow your intuition. Learn from rejection. If you feel like giving up, honor your emotions and let them reveal why writing means so much to you. If you can follow those emotions within yourself, you’ll be able to convey them in your characters when they feel like giving up.
When I receive a particularly disappointing rejection, I set a timer for ten minutes. I then throw myself onto my bed and allow myself to have a full-blown meltdown. It usually takes less than five minutes. Then I ask myself what I learned from this situation. Answering that usually shines a light on something I didn’t know about myself. I come to a deeper understanding of what is important to me and why. After expressing all that stuff, I feel better, freer, replenished. Then I go back to writing. Understanding myself and why I write is a lot like research.
What is your most recent book, and what inspired you to write it?
My most recent book is a later-in-life holiday romance. I noticed that many people have mixed emotions about the holidays, and I wanted to honor the deeper emotions we all feel while still celebrating the joy of the season.
My protagonist, Claire, is a widow who has strived most of her life to patent a swimsuit with a built-in life preserver. When her creation blows up, she is fired and, in want of comfort, dons her late husband’s jacket, only to discover a photograph in the jacket pocket of a child who resembles her husband. Wanting to believe in her husband, she doubts he was unfaithful, but she also sees that he fathered a child who is now seven years old.
Although Claire is devastated, she realizes that the boy might have inherited the heart condition, Sitosterolemia, that took Claire’s husband, and, instead of thinking about her feelings, she sets out on a journey to France to find the child and let the child’s mother know of the child’s danger. If discovered early, the disease is treatable, but people as young as five years of age can die from it.
By putting the child’s safety before her feelings, Claire embarks on a journey of self-discovery, and because she is concerned for the child, her life turns around. I also included information about this underdiagnosed disease, which is more common than we realize, and I want to raise awareness of it.
How do you hope your book will uplift readers? As Claire suffers setbacks that we’ve all been through, I hope reading how she struggles and uses her courage to protect another human being will be inspiring to us all.
One reader put it succinctly: “It’s embarrassing to see what I miss when I take a negative attitude. Claire’s steps to protect the innocent became steps toward peace, contributing to harmony and love everywhere. As a result of her refocusing, Claire was able to love again. I appreciated the lesson on the importance of transmuting negativity.”—Norma.
What are you most excited about with this book? I hope I will always be as inspiring and courageous as Claire is when she is down. Fortunately for Claire, she has a generous and loving best friend, Marti. Also, along her journey, she meets two unique members of the clergy. Her memories of her marriage sadden Claire as she strolls through the magical Christmas markets of France. She stumbles into a cathedral and decides to confess: she lied to her husband.
Father Matheo surpasses Claire’s expectations with his kind and honest insights. He asks her why she lied and helps her to realize that she was lying to herself as well. Instead of penance, the priest asks her to visit Sister Georgette. Sister Georgette bakes cookies and adds a bit of brandy. “Brandy is the only good thing in fruitcake, so I add it to my cookies.” These two quirky characters give Claire the gift of listening to her. They ask her questions that encourage healing. I hope readers see the value in the great gifts of listening, caring, and helping people explore who they are.
How did writing a book help your career take off? I’ve written a trilogy set during the French Revolution: The Château de Verzat series. Readers told me that they love the characters and wanted another book. Before I continued the series, I wanted to grow as an author, so I switched genres! This is something many publishing professionals will advise you should do only with a pen name.
I tried my hand at a contemporary story that readers would love, with characters they would love as well. His Last Christmas Gift is my first contemporary romance. All my books are written under my real name. And readership for all my books has increased. I believe it is because I write complex, flawed, and very human characters who take huge risks for those they love and even for those they don’t know.
How do you handle setbacks and criticism? Some authors think editing is criticism. I think the editing process is a journey that requires strength and courage. Every editor I’ve ever worked with has helped me become a better writer. Because I am open to improving my craft, I find editing and revision to be an exciting adventure. It will take a lot of hard work, but I embrace it because I trust the people I work with and know that the final book will be better than the latest draft.
I consider setbacks to be necessary for growth. If I weren’t upset about a setback, there would be nothing to improve upon. I’m not always optimistic. When I feel negative, I give it voice and listen to it. Negativity usually protects something important to me, and I try to find the courage to discover what needs protecting. When I discover that secret, I can then explore how to honor my feelings while writing. Having compassion for myself enables me to have compassion for my characters and others.
Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage your publicity and social media and maintain engagement with readers? I try to make my social media posts about engaging with people and often with humor. I often post recipes and cooking tips, like why you should keep shower mitts in the kitchen. I realized that in my books, my characters make soups, something I am passionate about. I included their recipes at the back of my books. One day, they got together and told me to write a cookbook compiling all their recipes.
So, I listened to them and created Soups of Chateau de Verzat. I then pitched my cooking of one of my character’s soups on air to a local TV station that has a cooking segment. Within seven minutes of sending the email, the producer responded with, “We don’t have authors on the show, but this sounds like a fun segment.”
The next month, I was on the show describing how my characters convinced me to write the book (which I used to promote my series). I also post reviews of other authors’ books and congratulate them on awards and launches on social media. I enjoy supporting other authors—doing so builds a robust author/reader community.
What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? I find the creativity that flows through me to be thrilling. I never know where it’s going to take me, and sometimes, I’m reluctant to go there, but I convince myself to try. I am amazed at the twists and turns my stories take, and I can’t take credit for it, but I do take credit for following that creative flow, for honoring what my intuition tells me, for just getting on the creativity train and holding on. This journey is the most fulfilling career I’ve ever had.
What book uplifts you? Books in which common people struggle to overcome difficult situations uplift me. Books in which the triumph of the human spirit is at the heart of the story resonate with me long after I finish them.
Meet Debra and learn all about her journeys and books through her website.
