Susan Meissner is an award-winning newspaper columnist, pastor's wife, high school journalism instructor, and author. She lives in rural Minnesota with her husband and their four children.

Favorite Verse: Isaiah 43:1 Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!

Visit Susan Meissner in our Writers' Corner

 Our Interview with Susan Meissner

Please tell us a bit about yourself.

I am married to a pastor and USAF Reserves Chaplain and we are the parents of four wonderful young adults. When I am not writing I direct the Small Groups and Connection Ministries at my church. I also love traveling, music, the beauty of the outdoors, Italian food and reading by the fireplace!

What inspired the concept for writing Lady in Waiting?

I have long been intrigued by the sad story of Lady Jane Grey and have wanted to write a novel that somehow incorporated her life story as a historical thread. She was an actual British monarch who lived during a time when women of noble birth had no opportunity to make their own choices – about anything. We live in a culture today, especially in the Western world, where women can and do make many choices but sometimes life deals you a hand that seems to leave you in wait mode, unable to choose what will happen next. What do you then? Are you ever truly without choice? I brought in a contemporary fictional woman named Jane Lindsay to consider this question. She is an antiques dealer in Manhattan and one day she finds a very old ring hidden inside the binding of an ancient prayer book. Her name is engraved inside: Jane. But she doesn’t know whose it was or how it ended up hidden inside an old book. The ring then becomes our portal to the past.

How did you choose the time settings for your story?

Lady Jane Grey lived in the mid 1500s so my time period for her was already decided for me. I chose a parallel story in present day Manhattan since it seemed the farthest removed from Tudor England as I could get. New York is a metropolis very much like London was and still is. But 450 years and an ocean separate these two places. I wanted the two stories to seem like they were distant and yet still dovetailed.

Is it difficult to write in different time periods?

I prepared myself for some rather polarized writing days, figuring that immersing myself on NYC’s West Side on one day and then plunging into England’s 1500’s on the next would have me feeling fragmented but I was surprised at how seamless the writing days were. Contemporary Jane’s story was actually harder to write for some reason, perhaps because I had spent months researching Lady Jane’s world and assumed I knew enough about my own to just jump right in.
 
Is any part of Lady in Waiting factual?
  
The chapters told by Lady Jane’s dressmaker are based on fact. Much of what my fictional Lucy describes for the reader really happened, certainly all of Lady Jane’s life-defining moments. There is no historical record of her having loved a young man but I wanted to imagine that there was someone who Jane Grey loved, and who loved her. That part of the story was delicious conjecture.

How closely is Lady in Waiting based on your real life experiences?
 
I can honestly say I am nowhere near as docile as present day Jane Lindsay. She is someone who likes to defer and I tend to assert, at least in matters that have a direct bearing on me. I love some of the things present-day Jane loves, though, like things with a past and train rides and French press coffee. I also loved the three years I lived in England when I first heard Lady Jane’s story. We were stationed there during the years my husband was active duty. I visited the castle that appears in the first section narrated by Lucy and absolutely fell in love with it, even though sad things happened there.

How long did Lady in Waiting take you to complete?
 
If you count from the moment I sat down to sketch out a plot to the day I finished the fourth go-around on edits (I love my editorial staff at WaterBrook – they push me to excellence!) it took about 10 months. If you count from the moment I’ve wanted to write a story with Lady Jane in it somehow, about 20 years!

What is the symbolism for the title Lady in Waiting?

A lady who waited on a woman of nobility was a common position in old England, which is where half of this story takes place. But really, for my two Janes, Lady Jane and present-day NYC Jane, they are both waiting for their lives to be decided for them. Lady Jane waits because she has few other choices. Jane Lindsay in New York waits because she is afraid to take the initiative; she’s afraid to trust herself to make her own choices. They are both waiting, but for different reasons.

Do you have a favorite character in Lady in Waiting? Why?

I enjoyed creating Lucy Day, the dressmaker to Lady Jane who narrates the chapters in the past. There is no one like her mentioned in any of Lady Jane’s historical accounts so she’s completely my own little fly on the wall, the quiet witness to the tragic and heroic events in Jane Grey’s life, including the things about Lady Jane that I most admire.

How much research did Lady in Waiting take?

I bought seven or eight research books, read a couple doctoral dissertations and checked half a dozen books out of my local library. I also spent many weeks reading online biographies and historical records of the Tudor monarchs and the years immediately following the death of Henry VIII. Half of the ten months it took to write the book were spent in research for it.

What was the most interesting fact that you learned while writing Lady in Waiting?

Lady Jane Grey, the young woman who seemingly had no choices left to her, had one remarkable moment to make a definitive decision that was all on her own. I won’t spoil anything for anyone but she actually was not a helpless puppet the entire time. Not the entire time. I found that one moment quite remarkable.

What are some of the challenges you face as an author?
 
There never seems to be enough time in the day for everything I want to do writing-wise. Writing and research could consume every spare minute after the day job and the family and there are always so many extraneous things to be done that are peripheral but apparently necessary. When my youngest says “I am bored,” I have to think for a moment what that feeling used to be like!

What aspects of being a writer do you enjoy the most?

I like being a little creator, a little like God in that one, tiny way. As a novelist I create something that wasn’t there before. I invent people who don’t exist but feel as if they do. That’s pretty cool.

What writing clubs or organizations do you belong to?

I moderate a writers group at my church and I belong to American Christian Fiction Writers, Christian Authors Network, The San Diego Christian Writers Guild, and I am the fiction panelist on the Writers View 2

What were your favorite books as a child?

I loved Curious George, all the P. D. Eastman books, and Beverly Cleary, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Nancy Drew. When I was a little older, I adored classics like Island of the Blue Dolphins and A Little Princess.

What is your writing style?   (Do you outline? Write “by-the-seat-of-your-pants?   Or somewhere in-between?)

I like to say that I outline by the seat of my pants. I outline the basic story and I spend a lot of time creating biographical sketches of my characters. I have a fairly good idea of the main plot pivots when I start but I don’t always know how I will get to those points. That happens as I write. The path is always revealed a little more each day.

Do your characters begin to take on a life of their own as you write?

Without fail. They always become someone more dynamic than I had planned. Scary and wonderful all at the same time.

What other new projects do you have on the horizon?
  
At the moment I am writing a book that will release in 2011 titled A Sound Among the Trees. The story is set in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in a 160-year-old house called Holly Oak that survived one of the more horrific battles of the Civil War. The family living in the house includes the current day matriarch, a woman whose great-great grandmother was accused of being a spy and who hid Union soldiers at Holly Oak. The family also includes the matriarch’s grandson-in-law, a widower with two small children who has just remarried and has brought his new wife to live at Holly Oak, which is, of course, his deceased first wife’s home - an interesting little situation for this new bride. At her wedding reception there is talk that there is a ghost at Holly Oak, which is quickly discounted. But still, the house seems to project an aura of regret, like it can’t forget what happened within its walls during the war. And here is this new bride, trying desperately to fit in . . .

Who was the person who influenced you the most with your writing?

There are many people on my life journey who played a part in my becoming a writer. Three that come to mind easily include my parents, as well as a stellar ninth-grade English teacher, Mr. Frank Barone. He was the first to tell me I could be published one day. He is retired now and sometimes we have coffee together. I love that!

What message would you like your readers to take from Lady in Waiting?

You can’t always choose the things that happen to you, but you can always choose how you will respond to the things that happen to you.

What is your greatest achievement?

It may sound strange but I never think about that. Maybe at the end of my life I would have an answer for that question, but even then I think I would still leave that to be decided by the mark I leave on the planet when I leave it.

What is your goal or mission as a writer?

Communicate truth in ways that engage the senses.

What do you do to get away from it all?

A quiet beach or mountaintop with good coffee, cozy slippers, expensive coffee, my sweetheart by my side, a great book, and a view of beauty. That pretty much does it for me.

Is there any additional information that you’d like your readers to know?

I love hearing from readers. Your comments and insights – positive, negative and everything in between – are invaluable to me. Writing can be such a solitary art; I love to hear what those sentences I crafted in the loneliness of my writing space meant to you or spoke to you. Thanks for taking the time to drop me a line. It really does mean a lot to me.

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