We are joined today by LDS author G.G. Vandagriff. G.G., thank you for granting me this interview. It’s a pleasure to have this opportunity.
I’ve reviewed your first two novels, “Cankered Roots” and “Of Deadly Descent” here on Families.com, and will be reviewing your latest release, “Tangled Roots,” this next week. Each of these books feature a genealogist as the main character, and you’re obviously a genealogist yourself. How long have you been interested in genealogy?
I got interested in genealogy in the late eighties after a strong impression that I should do so. It was so fun, it was like gathering clues and solving a mystery.
It’s intriguing to me how you took your love of genealogy and combined
it with fiction to make a story. How long have you been a writer?
I have been writing since I was nine. I have a magnum opus that I began 33 years ago that I am hoping will be published in ’09. I have been writing mysteries since the early nineties. It was a natural extension of doing genealogy—the grand mystery. To someone who loves reading mysteries, I couldn’t think of anything more fun than combining a genealogical hunt with a hunt for a murderer (on paper, of course.)
How did you come up with the idea for your series?
It sort of evolved from doing writing exercises. One day I started a writing exercise about a woman named Alex Campbell who had lost her husband and had been rejected by her parents. I have experienced the feeling that comes from finding ancestors beyond one’s parents who are loving wonderful people. I wanted Alex to have that experience. I wanted to show how genealogy heals. Briggie is actually patterned after my great grandmother, a fisherwoman of great reknown named Brighamina Poulson. Her husband was a hunter, and I have no doubt she knew how to pack a deer rifle. I have a picture of her standing with a fish as big as she is. She is in my only Mormon line.
Do you have anything in common with Alex Campbell, your protagonist?
Things I have in common with Alex: panic attacks, depression (now
cured), strained parental relationship, love of Kansas City, inability
to trust (now cured), intense love of Oxford, love of the Gospel and
its healing properties, curiosity, passion for genealogy, I love to
wear turtlenecks and jeans, I dislike cooking (but all Alex’s recipes
are mine), I have ambivalent relationships with therapists, before my
marriage I fell in love with an Englishman. However, I am not as
brave as Alex and I don’t know karate. People who know me say I am
Alex.
Are you getting ready to release any new books?
“Tangled Roots,” the third in the series, came out in May. So far, it is my best. I am writing the next book in the series, “Tainted Roots,” which will come out next fall. In between those two, I am publishing “The Arthurian Omen”—a fast-paced thriller in the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark that takes place in the mystic green reaches of Wales. It will be published in March/April and will be available in all bookstores, not just LDS ones.
Interesting sidelight: All of these books were on my hard drive in
various stages of completion, however I had a severe illness the
treatment for which took away my memory. When my husband found them
on the computer, shortly after I was miraculously cured, I didn’t
remember writing them at all. It has been fun trying to figure out
the plots (there were no notes and just a few chapters) and
reestablish my writing career.
What projects do you have in mind for the future?
My epic about Austria during World War I and up to the Anchluss with Germany in 1937 is tentatively scheduled to come out in spring of ’09. It is not a mystery, but a true historical novel. My husband and I are taking a trip to France next summer to gather the material and atmosphere for a sequel to that novel. I will also write another Alex and Briggie novel in ’09.
These all sound great, G.G. I look forward to reading them!
Thanks for joining us for our chat with author G.G. Vandagriff. If you would like to learn more about her, be sure to visit her website.
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