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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET JEAN DARBY
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| Jean Darby |
I wrote my first poem when I was eight years old, from then on, I knew I would write. Early in my childhood I learned to love the rhythm of a sentence and the sound of interesting words. Having two parents who taught literature in a Southern California College, my background was one of poetry and fine literature.
How soon after that was your first book published?
My first publications were for children. It was 1960, my first job as a school teacher, and I wrote a series of science books that first graders could read. The books were accepted immediately. I was extremely fortunate and sold to several educational publishing houses. My work also became popular in Australia, England, and Canada. Today my biographies are published in Korean and Chinese.
Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Which do you prefer? Do you find one easier than the other?
I write both fiction and nonfiction. Many of my children’s books covered science. I did an adult book on Alzheimer’s which I consider narrative non-fiction. JOURNEY OUT OF DARKNESS is an adult novel. Other topics include biographies of Eisenhower, MacArthur, and Martin Luther King, Jr., humorous newspaper columns, articles for educators and parents, story and science books for young children, a memoir and a Christian romance.
Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?
My goal is to write four hours a day. I usually am able to keep this promise to myself.
Which of your books did you most enjoy writing?
I can’t say which piece of writing I enjoyed most. I cried on every page when I wrote my Alzheimer’s book, but I love its rhythm and the thought that prevails throughout. My heart beat faster as I put on paper my foster daughter’s story: JOURNEY OUT OF DARKNESS. I smiled as I wrote THAT’S ME IN HERE. It’s my grandson telling how he felt and what he learned as he grew inside my daughter.
What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers?
My romance, TEMPTATION ISLAND, is in the hands of an agent. It is my first attempt at this market so I am eager to see what becomes of it. I aimed it for the Christian market. It is placed on an island in Puget Sound. The main character is a young teacher. It is filled with humor. THAT’S ME IN HERE received a Book Award. My children’s novel: AI-LAN CHUNG MEETS JOHN THE PERFECT received the Society Of Children’s Book Writer’s Work In Progress award. During my thirty years in the classroom, I have often wondered if my first love were writing, or teaching children. My most recent book: THE FOOL PROOF WAY TO TEACH READING takes the reader into a classroom seldom scene. People will either say, “Wow! Tell me more” or they will say, “The woman is insane.”