Thanks for checking in with us as we continue our talk with Michele Ashman Bell, best-selling LDS women’s fiction author. Here are the links to parts one and two.
Michele, of all your novels, do you have a favorite?
I love my Vietnam series even though I’m still not sure why I wrote about a war and a country I knew nothing about. My favorite stories are those that show a person overcoming great odds and triumphing. I love stories of survival and beating the odds. That’s why my favorite book is “Without A Flaw.” I love the main character and her strength to change her situation and her courage to face her fears. I think I live vicariously through my characters because they do things I would never dare do myself. Isabelle is my hero.
Were any of your books particularly difficult to write?
As I mentioned, the Vietnam series was particularly difficult to write because of the intense subject matter and the fact that I knew nothing about the war in Vietnam or the country. But, I was determined to pay tribute to the soldiers who fought during that war and honor those who survived and those who didn’t. I needed that story to be accurate and powerful. I learned so much during the process but have vowed to never tackle something that huge again. I’m too old!
Oh, you’re not that old! You have also written two Christmas booklets. What would you like to tell us about them?
I happen to be a Christmas junkie and love everything about the season, especially uplifting stories. My first booklet, “A Candle in the Window” is about my Grandma, Norene Ashman. She lost her mother when she was eight years old and the story I wrote is about the first Christmas after her mother died. Somehow my great-grandmother knew she wasn’t going to be around for Christmas, so she made dresses for her three daughters and purchased black patent leather shoes for them out of the catalogue. Their father gives them the dresses and shoes on Christmas Eve so they can wear them to the church for the Christmas program. On the way to the church, my grandma loses one of her brand new shoes that she had tucked in her coat pockets. She carried them and wore her snow boots, so her shoes wouldn’t get ruined in the snow.
The story illustrates how much God loves us and how even the little things are important to him. And, that miracles do happen at Christmas. This year the book was released as a beautifully illustrated hard back book.
The second story is “A Cardboard Christmas” which I wrote after my father-in-law told me of a Christmas when he was a young boy, growing up during the Depression, and how poor his family was. One year they couldn’t afford a Christmas tree so they found a big cardboard box and cut out the shape of a Christmas tree, colored it green with crayons and poked holes in it and put the lights through. I was so touched by that story that I decided to write a Christmas story about it.
Is it hard to condense all the emotions of the story into a booklet form, or do you find that it’s easier to write booklets than full-length novels?
I almost feel guilty how much easier it was to write than a novel. I only had to focus on one aspect of the story and not spend too much time developing characters or plots. The story was simple, the plot uncomplicated. My goal was to set the tone of the era and give enough background to make the reader care about these people.
As we close this segment of our interview, I might broadly hint that these booklets of Michele’s would make wonderful last minute Christmas gifts, if you live near an LDS bookstore.
We’ll finish up our conversation tomorrow. Thanks for joining us.
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