Interview Bonnie Jo Burman

by

Kelly McDonough

 1) It’s with great pleasure that I interview Bonnie Jo Burman author of PASSING FANCY. Bonnie Jo, could you start by telling us a little bit about PASSING FANCY?

Passing Fancy is set in a small Pennsylvania town at the turn of the twentieth century. Lorna, the heroine, is so busy taking care of every one else that she doesn't really know how to live her own life. She's afraid to take any chances because she feels responsible for everyone else's happiness. James, on the other hand, is trying to make up for past mistakes. So he doesn't really know how to live in the present. Lorna's family and friends decide to do a bit of matchmaking and things get a bit crazy, especially when you throw in one of my favorite characters, Rufus the loveable, but sometimes rather destructive dog. The setting for the story feels a lot like the town I grew up in. Everyone knows each other's business and tends to stick their nose in perhaps more than they should. But everyone looks after one another, too.

2) Where did you get the idea for the story?

It started with one scene. I remember it was a rainy day in the fall and I was sitting at my kitchen table staring out at the rain and feeling rather glum. We had recently moved to Pennsylvania from Alaska and my husband had just started a new job. Finances were pretty tight. My oldest son was two years old at the time and I didn't have a car of my own to go anywhere. I was just feeling really low about being stuck in the house and wishing I could take my little boy and go to the park or something. Instead, I took out a notebook and started to write about this girl sitting on a bench in the rain waiting for someone. I kept writing and soon I had half of a book. The final version is completely different from what I envisioned at the time. But that one scene of the girl sitting on the bench still remains. I just couldn't bear to part with it. By the way, Passing Fancy has a lot of humor in it, despite the rain scene.

3) How long did it take for you to write?

Well, my son is now almost fourteen, so quite a while. Actually, I ended up setting it aside for a long time and working on something else. Then when I was pregnant with my daughter (she is now five) I rewrote the whole thing from start to finish. So it took me less than nine months. I waited for a long time to have another child so I have a lot of really sweet memories of carrying her and working on the book. I've dedicated the book to her because I feel like she and the book will always be intertwined.

4) Do you have any other books that have been published or have any upcoming releases?

Passing Fancy is my very first book to be published. I’m very excited to finally share it with others. Not even my mom or my sister have read it yet. I also have one other finished novel, a romance that takes place in Wyoming in the late 1880's. I sent the full manuscript off to a publisher who had expressed interest in it ages ago. Hopefully, I will hear something soon.

5) What’s your writing style? Do you outline first and then write, or do you fly by the seat of your pants and let the characters guide you?

It's more like I crawl by the seat of my pants. All of my stories are definitely character driven. Usually, I am hit with a scene out of the blue. Dialog in particular just pops in and out of my head constantly. Then I become intrigued by the characters and have to figure out what their story is. Then somewhere in the middle I decide I don't like any of it (and that I really should have written an outline) and I start something else. After a while, I go back, read what I have, decide it's pretty good after all, and finish it.

The other thing that slows me down is that I edit as I go. By the time I type "the end" the story needs very little revision. But it's a tedious way to write. I can spend an entire day rewriting one paragraph. I've tried to just barrel through from start to finish (like the experts tell you to), but I just can't. I admire people who do, though.

5) If you had to pick one other great love, other than writing, what would it be?

Well, besides my family, my other great love would be music. I hear music in my head all day, along with all of the dialog (my brain is rather chaotic at times). I direct a church choir and also do a lot of solo performances in church and at other events such as weddings. My sister and I have taken to writing musical parodies, which we perform for family get-togethers. Those can be incredibly funny. In a nice kind of way, of course.

6) Who are your favorite authors and have they in anyway influenced the way you write?

Victoria Holt is my all time favorite. I especially love her early work. I can read her books over and over. Her heroines are always so compelling and that's something I hope to emulate with my work. LaVyrle Spencer has influenced my technique the most. I dissected a couple of her books when I first started writing trying to figure out what I found so compelling about her style. I admire her use of dialog. It's always very natural sounding but every line has significance. She also knows how to include description in a way that adds to the story instead of being a distraction. Sometimes I read books where the descriptive passages seem out of place, as if the author is just trying to prove she did her research. LaVyrle Spencer's descriptions enhance the story, but they don't intrude. Finally, Francine Rivers, has influenced me the most as an inspirational author. Her novel, Redeeming Love, showed me just how incredible a Christian romance could be. Her writing is very beautiful, but also very real and never preachy.

7) What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received along the way?

Hmm, I guess I’ll just say that the worst "type" of advice I've been given is the kind that is completely black and white. Adjectives are bad. Words ending in "ly" are bad. Passive voice is bad. First person is bad. Tags other than "said" are bad. As a new writer who didn't know any better, I remember going through my work and trying to change so it wouldn't have any of those things, and after I did, all of my critique partners were telling me I needed to add some adjectives and so forth perk things up a bit. Yes, too much passive voice or adverbs or whatever can really muddy up your writing. But the important thing to know is that the rules don't apply in every situation. A good writer knows how to break the rules in a way that works.

Best advice. Read your work out loud.

8) Are you working on any stories at the moment, and, if so, could you give us a little sneak preview of what’s to come?

I'm working on a contemporary romance that I want to submit to Wings. I also have a ton of other works in some stage of progress. I have been wrestling with a gothic romance set in late 19th century England for some time. I think it's my best work, but it's also the longest project I've ever tackled. I'm determined to see it in print someday. And I can't leave out the sequel to Passing Fancy. That story is about half finished too. If you read the book you’ll see that Clarissa, Lorna’s sister, is demanding that her story be told, too.

9) Finally, how do you find time to write?

It's tough, especially since I home-educate my son and daughter. I really never have any alone time. Plus, I just had a new baby this past August. He was a huge surprise, but an even bigger blessing. I basically squeeze it in whenever I can find the time, which means some days, and even weeks, I don't write at all. I'm okay with that though. To everything there is a season. Sure, I'd like to be producing more work, but I also know that some day, when the kids are grown, I'm going to have a lot more time to devote to my writing. I'm content to wait until then. Now that my firstborn is a teenager, I realize these days with my kids are so very fleeting and I want to make the most of them. It's hard to imagine, but there will probably come a time when the house will be so quiet that I’ll miss people saying “Hey, Mom” every two minutes.

Thank you, Bonnie Jo, it’s been great chatting with you. We wish you great success with Passing Fancy and all your books to follow.