A few months ago, I asked our local children’s librarian if she recommended any series for elementary-age girls. Our librarian is a true kindred spirit because she has two daughters and is also a Christian. She knows I’m always on the lookout for character-building fiction that is also FUN for kids to read.
She led me straight to Dandi Daley Mackall’s Winnie the Horse Gentler series (Tyndale House), which I reviewed here. I discovered Mrs. Mackall is the author of over 400 books! I also noticed some of her books are from Christian publishers — so I was curious to learn more about her writing and her faith.
Well, here she is! I think this interview is one of the most inspiring I’ve ever been a part of, one I will read again and again. I hope you enjoy getting to know her too!
Dandi, you’re absolutely prolific! In your writing career, you’ve published books in every genre, from picture book to adult. You must have an endless well of ideas! Where do you find your ideas for writing stories?
I think we all get an endless well of ideas, don’t you? We just need to recognize them, connect the dots, listen, and then work like crazy.
It’s funny, but I’m still insecure enough to have those writer-thoughts that each book is probably the last I’ll have, that I’ll never get another idea, that no publisher will buy anything ever again.
But ideas are everywhere. I love the ones that seem to come out of nowhere—like Larger-Than-Life Lara, a middle-grade novel that “came to me” at 3 am one night/morning, and then kept coming. More often, the thoughts have been simmering for years and then rise to the surface.
My kids supply me with many scenes, parts of characters, plenty of suspense and humor (my husband, too). And I’m still writing out my past—events that happened when I was in elementary school.
You have three children. Do you feel that being a mother has helped you in your writing career? In what ways?
Absolutely! When I started writing, I wrote long “inspirational nonfiction,” humor, and how-to books for grown-ups. Never dreamed I’d write children’s books. Then I had children, and I rediscovered kid books.
I love how compressed the language is, how important the sounds of words become. My writing career has paralleled my children’s lives. When they were little, I wrote board books and picture books. I knew first-hand the humor, problems, language, lives of my child readers.
My kids got older, and I wrote chapter books, then middle-grade fiction, then young adult books. I always knew the lingo, what was in, what was out, what was troubling. I kept writing the earlier genres, too, never giving that age up just because my kids moved past it.
Now I write for every age group. We are extra-blessed in the Mackall household. We have a special-needs daughter who’s turned 20, but lives the age of an 8-10 year-old. I will always have a child who colors me pictures for my refrigerator. We have a live-in child, who helps me stay a child myself and tune in to what children need.
Another way being a mother has helped me write is that I think it’s one of the tools God gives us to force us deeper. Being a mom pretty much guarantees we’ll pray!
What mother can go through the agonies and anxieties of motherhood without glimpsing how God cares for us? We begin to get an idea about sacrifice, about loving so much that we’d give our lives for our children. And that’s a piece of the puzzle of why Jesus would sacrifice for us.
Oh, that’s so very true. When your children were babies or toddlers, how did you carve out a time and place to write?
I was writing before I had children, so I had some good habits established. I was used to getting up really early and grabbing that time for personal devotion, and then writing.
But I had to learn to be flexible when the kids came along. What if they got up early, too? Wrecked my whole plan! When I had two kids under 3, my entire day revolved around pulling off the amazing feat of synchronized napping. My goal was to get them to sleep at the same time, so I could write! I’d have everything ready so I could jump into that book or article the second their eyes closed.
Daughter Katy was diagnosed with a life-threatening and chronic disease when she was 9 months and her sister was 3. A month later, my husband left all of us for another woman. Writing suddenly became much more than a hobby! I supported the kids by writing anything and everything—articles, hospital brochures, college handbooks, Scooby Doo books as work-for-hire. Anything!
Those desperate days made me work hard at writing and finding the time to write. I’d write while my kids colored and did sticker books, while they watched Sesame Street. When I could, I’d hire a high school girl for 2 hours and write every second of it. (BTW, five years later, God brought me my wonderful husband, Joe.)
Do you have any advice for today’s busy parents who dream of writing magazine articles or books?
Do it! John 3:17 loosely says, “You know this stuff. Now do it!”
Hate to tell you, but you’ll probably always be really busy. Writers are. I’m every bit as busy as I was when the kids were small. I still care for Katy all day. We’ve moved my mother in with us. I have writing deadlines and speaking engagements…and life. But that’s where we get our material, right?
You have an edge! Use it! You’re in the thick of parenthood. If I want to write about toddlers, or elementary school kids, I have to research now. You’ve already done your research. I’m jealous.
Enjoy the process of writing. That’s the real gift, a secret joy as you discover stories that I honestly believe started in heaven. We unravel them. We accept them. We write them.
Rewrite. Find at least one other writer who will exchange manuscripts, critique, encourage. Ask for criticism. Don’t reject it. Consider it. Your work isn’t your child.
Ask your family to give you the gift of a writer’s retreat. One weekend can change your life. When they ask what you want for Christmas, that’s it.
Do you recommend any home study programs for helping writers become better at the craft of writing?
Read what you want to write. Read a lot. I know it’s hard, but we must do it. My favorite how-to book is Wyndham’s Writing for Children and Teenagers. It’s a classic and gives a lot of information in a concise package that works for grown-up books, too.
If I could be so bold, I’d love for you to read a book I wrote for middle-grade readers/writers, a story about story, called Larger-than-life Lara, published by Dutton/Penguin. It’s my 400th book, the one God sent in the middle of the night. Each chapter deals with a part of story (character, rising action, climax, setting, etc.), while the action of the story keeps moving forward.
Your website says your book, Eva Underground, “parallels the author’s experiences before ‘The Wall’ came down.” Can you tell us a little about your teaching experiences in Poland and how that led to your writing this book?
Thanks for asking about this. This book only took me about 25 years to write! I lived behind the “Iron Curtain” and was a missionary from 1978-1979, during Soviet-controlled communism. I lived with 20 Poles (and no hot water) on the border of Poland and Czechoslovakia, teaching them to write and teaching the Bible.
It was an amazing time, involving an underground freedom movement, an illegal printing press, and many other experiences than sat in my head for years as I wrote other things. Finally, I wrote this historical novel (frightening to realize I’d aged so much that my life was historical!), fictionalizing the events that took place when I lived there.
EVA UNDERGROUND came out last year with Harcourt. Among other things, I used the countless journals I’d kept during those two years.
Since many of us reading here are bloggers, can you tell us a little bit about your Blog On! teen fiction series?
We all know how into blogging teens are! I wanted to write a series of fun, fast-paced, character-driven novels for teens, about teens who blog. In the books, I don’t rant against blogging. I just show how these four girls eventually form a positive blog.
They avoid the pitfalls of gossiping and bullying online. I wanted to show how these four, very different teens discover that their real-life relationships matter more to them than shallow cyber-relationships, and that their relationship with God is the most important one of all.
My publisher, Zondervan, has developed a great website loaded with safety tips and Q and A for teen bloggers. We printed safety tips in the backs of the books, too. Hopefully, the books can help teens as they navigate through cyberspace.
This sounds wonderful. Thank you so much for coming here and sharing with us!
You can learn more about Dandi Daley Mackall and her books for kids and adults at her website, Dandi Books.
I’ve started a new category on this blog, children’s books. I thought about going back through my archives and updating my posts to include this category … but nah! I’ve got a little spring fever.
