Interview with Author Christa Allan

Christa Allan's first historical, Love Finds You in New Orleans, released in February. She is also the author of Walking on Broken Glass, and The Edge of Grace, which received a starred review from Library Journal. Christa's next novel, Threads of Hope, will be published in 2013 as one of the books in the Quilt Series by Abington Press. A generational, three-book saga will follow. She teaches high school English and lives in New Orleans with her husband, Ken, and their three neurotic cats. Christa is the mother of five and the grammy of three. 


Welcome to PASTimes, Christa. Tell us a little about your road to publication.

After three years of writing Walking on Broken Glass, I signed with an agent. About four months after that, my agent started shopping the novel. I was sure that at least one publisher out of that long list she’d sent it to would leap at the opportunity.

Not so much. One month later, she called to tell me that the editors thought the novel was “too issue-driven.”  She said she’d continue to look for a home for it, but I may want to start considering some ideas for another book.

I spent my summer working on proposals for my editor appointments at the next ACFW Conference. A few months before the conference,  my agent met Barbara Scott, the then-fiction editor of Abingdon Press, a Methodist publishing house launching fiction for the first time. She pitched my novel, and Barbara asked to see it. A few weeks later, Barbara said she was interested. My agent called at 11:43 am on October 30, 2008 to tell me Abingdon bought my novel.

How cool that you know the exact time!
When you first entered the publishing world, what surprised you the most? Was there any aspect of the business that caught you off guard?

The time from signed contract to holding the book in my hands was longer than I expected, but then I was totally clueless as to all of the steps the manuscript had to take. If anything caught me off guard, it would have to be marketing. I knew I needed to do it. I didn’t know how all-consuming and sometimes costly it could be.

Tell us about your latest release.

Ever since her parents died of yellow fever when she was two years old, Charlotte LeClerc has lived with her grandparents, who rarely speak of their son and his wife. They are on the verge of negotiating a contract with a suitor, a man whose company Charlotte dreads, when they discover that she enjoys the company of a young Creole man. Charlotte's future hangs in the balance as her grandparents consider whether to stop keeping secrets and reveal the truth that they've known since before their granddaughter's birth. A truth that will make the difference between a life of obligation and a life of choice for Charlotte.

Why historical fiction?


Having grown up in New Orleans, I am blessed by a city that has more stories to tell than I have time to tell them. I knew the Love Finds You series by Summerside Press focused on cities around the country, so I was thrilled to be offered a contract for Love Finds You in New Orleans.

This is my first historical novel, so let the nail biting begin…I learned very quickly the difference between historical and contemporary fiction. When writing about New Orleans in the 1840s, I just couldn’t make things up!

Tell us how a move to a historical house has kept your life interesting.

My husband and I had tossed around the notion of his going into business for himself as he was driving 1.5 hours one way every day to get to work, which meant leaving at 4:30 in the morning and not arriving home some nights until 8:00. At the time, we lived in a suburban community about an hour outside of New Orleans. As I was finishing my historical, my brother called to tell us about a home that just went up for sale near him in the Bywater District of New Orleans. This particular area was established in the early 1800s.

So...that afternoon, we put an offer in and by the next day, we owned an 1840s home that used to be a Bed and Breakfast! It was especially notable, not only because the novel I was writing took place in 1841, but because one of the characters shared a name with the street on which the house is located. The owners told us about a few unusual happenings in the house, which we thought made it all the more charming. Sometimes, though, I have to admit that lights and fans turning on and off by themselves is a bit unsettling. There's also a dorr between our bedroom and my office that, and I'm not exaggerating, that as I sat grading papers, the door knob wiggled and the door opened. I haven't closed it since!

What are you working on now that you’d like us to know about?

Come back tomorrow for the answer and part two of the interview with novelist Christa Allan. To be entered into the drawing for a copy of Love Finds You in New Orleans, answer the following question in your comment and leave your email ID. (US and Canadian readers only): Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? (It’s a song, but you get the idea!) Leave your comment by this Friday, 8AM EST.