Getting to know you Thursday's with Elaine Littau

This week on Getting to know you Thursday we have Elaine Littau visiting. Thanks Elaine for taking the time to join us. I am also including my review of Elk's Resolve with this interview.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi Jenny, thank you for your kindness toward authors everywhere. I am a very ordinary person with a burning desire to express to readers how God can make a difference in their lives. My husband and I have been married for 34 years and we have 3 sons, 3 daughters-in-law, 2 grandsons, & 2 granddaughters. We were both born to parents who were in their 40s when we arrived. We are both the 6th of 6 children. I guess you would say that we understand one another. We love living in the panhandle of Texas USA.


2. When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?
My mother loved all Grace Livingston Hill books and my dad loved Zane Gray and Louie L'Amore books. I read both. They liked to be read to so as soon as I learned how to read, I was their reader. I didn' t read many children's books until my children were little. Then I would say I grew to love "Green Eggs and Ham".


3. Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and right write? I love writing Western/Romance/Historical. I have a manuscript that is all humorous stories of the crazy things that have happened in my life. My sons are wanting me to submit that for publication as soon as I can. My thoughts on that are that my readers need to be ready to digest all that sillyness. I don't know if they can adjust to it.
I love to read funny books from Patsy Clairmont, Florence Littauer, and all the women of faith girls. I read Bible insight books by Beth Moore and Joyce Meyer. I also read a lot of random books to review on my blog and on amazon.com.


4. Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you? I guess they would have to be Grace Livingston Hill and Hilda Stahl. (Jenny Here, I enjoyed reading Hilda Stahl also)


5. When did you know you wanted to be an author?

In Junior High we had a creative writing section in our Literature class. Our teachers gave us writing assignments and I loved them. My classmates groaned when the assignments were handed out, but I enjoyed the challenge. My teachers were very supportive and encouraged me to write on my own. My best friend and I were very shy around the opposite sex, and we were secretly in "love" with quite a few guys. I wrote short stories that featured my friend and I as the main characters that the affore mentioned guys fell in love with. We got a lot of giggles at slumber parties from reading those stories. I guess I knew then that writing was fun and therapeutic.


6. How did you go about becoming an author? I wrote stories here and there when my children slept and were at school. I never thought that I would be published but I wanted to be able to say that I had actually written a book, even if it would always be in manuscript form. My friends became interested in my writing when I told them, in a moment of weakness, that I was working on a story. Through their encouragement I did finish that manuscript. I was pleased to have reached my goal, but my friends thought that the world needed to read my stuff. The same week I finished the manuscript for Nan's Journey, one of my friends told me that her niece had been talking to her on the phone. That niece happened to work in the acquisitions department of a small publisher. She mentioned that they were in need of some fiction books. My friend urged me to contact her niece and the rest took off from there. I sent in my manuscript and they sent me a contract.
I found out after the book was in my hands that the small publisher got 20,000 manuscripts per year at that time and only accepts 6% of them for publication. I don't think I would have had the nerve to even send it in if I had know that. Tate Publishing and Enterprises of Mustang, Oklahoma has been very good to me.


7. If you were not a writer what would you like to be?

My very favorite thing to be is a wife, mother, and grandmother. I love public speaking and think that doing that would come as a close second. I love writing and meeting the readers. It makes all the work worth it.

8. Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?

I love scrapbooking and travelling. (Jenny again, I love scrapbooking and travelling too)


9. Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?

I love going on cruises. My husband and I enjoyed going on two to Mexico. The first was a 4 day cruise on the eastern side and the second was a 7 day cruise on the western side. We want to go on an Alaskan cruise someday. We also love to camp in Colorado and New Mexico. Right now it is tent camping, but I hope to have a camp trailer someday.


10. If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and why?
Joyce Meyer and Sarah Palin because they inspire me. They are very down-to-earth. Joyce doesn't mind sharing her weaknesses with her audience in order to show how the Lord can help all of us overcome. Sarah is a strong woman who stands up for her beliefs.
The third person I would like to meet with is Janette Oke. Her writing has also impacted me greatly. (Jenny again, Janette Oke was the author that got be back to reading. Her Canadian West series got me excited to read. I read alot as a child but after leaving school hardly read anything for many years)


Finally can you tell us about your current books and/or any that will be coming out soon. Also where we can find you on the web.
I will put what the publisher put on the back cover:
Nan's Journey was released Jan 2, 2008. Desperate to save her life and that of her five-year-old brother, Nan packs and flees an abusive home, embarking on a journey that will test her faith, determination, and spirit. Set in the 1800s, Nan's Journey, follows Nan and her brother, Elmer as they seek safety and find refuge and hope in the arms of the family of strangers--including Fred Young, a disgruntled preacher turned mountain man, who reaches out to help, only to find a hope and love renewed in his own heart. In her first novel, author Elaine Littau weaves memorable characters into the vivid background of the wild, unsettled heart of America, presenting readers with the timeless struggle of overcoming adversity and seeking hope above all through Nan's Journey.


Elk's Resolve, Book II of The Nan's Heritage Series, was released July 7, 2009.

Driven to escape his past and the demons who haunt him, Elk discovers a love he long thought dead. Set against the rugged beauty of the Colorado Rockies of the 1800s, Elk's Resolve follows the travails and triumphs of Elk, the White Indian. Guided by the hand of God, he finds his true self and defeats the voices who demand his destruction. In Elk's Resolve author Elaine Littau depicts characters who struggle with hatred, depression, loss and fear. Full of passion, heartbreak, romance, rivalry, and hope, Elk's Resolve will fascinate you from the first page.

http://elainelittau.com/
http://nansjourney.blogspot.com/

My Review of Elk's Resolve.

Elk's Resolve is the sequel to Nan's Journey it takes up the story when Elk is grown up. If you haven't read Nan's Journey I would thoroughly recommend it and will not give to much away in this story. Elk was raised by Ute Indian parents and educated at the mission schools. We see abit of what its like being a white child raised as an Indian accepted by some but picked on by others who never really accept him. During the book Elk meets his brother and ultimately his birth mother. Characters from Nan's Journey also reoccur in this book and some story lines come to an interesting climax. Its hard to say alot without giving to much information for anyone who hasn't read book one. I didn't want to put this book down and would recommend both this book and Nan's journey. I give this book 5 out of 5.