Elizabeth Musserhttps://elizabethmusser.com/
Author of From the Valley We Rise
T4JYM: Can you tell us about your latest book and what readers can expect from it?
EM: French Resistance agent Isabelle Seauve, US Army Chaplain Peter Christensen, and young René Amblard, a maquisard in the Resistance, each face danger and harrowing choices on the eve of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France, in August 1944. The Germans have a stronghold on France; fear has a stronghold on Isabelle; regret has a stronghold on Peter; survival and rage have strongholds on René. But when the town of Sisteron is bombed during Operation Dragoon, they will discover someone who has a stronger hold on them than any of the evil in the world.
The Valley of the Penitents is set against the stunning background of the Penitent Cliffs in the craggy mountains of the Hautes Alpes of France.
This review from Library Journal also made me smile—the reviewer nailed it!
What do an American Protestant missionary, a quiet French Catholic girl, a U.S. Army chaplain, a young farm boy, and a grieving Jewish girl all have in common? They have all decided that opposing the Nazi regime in Europe is more important than their own personal safety… (They are) counting down the hours to the second D-Day on the southern coast of France and awaiting the salvation the Allies will bring, even as they worry that a traitor in their midst may destroy their network that conceals and protects Jewish children all over the French countryside. Musser explores deep spiritual themes, like the interconnectedness of humanity and continuing to do the right thing even as faith in God and humanity starts to falter. Readers who enjoy nuanced French Resistance stories will appreciate this novel and root for victory for its motley crew of ordinary people who become heroes during a terrible time in history.
T4JYM: What comes next? Are you working on something new?
EM: From the Valley We Rise just released a few weeks ago, so it is brand new! But yes, my next novel is a dual-time story which takes readers to Atlanta, Georgia during and after the Winecoff Hotel Fire in 1946 and in the preparations for and during the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.
T4JYM: Where do you get ideas for your books?
EM: Just about anything can spark an idea for a novel. For From the Valley We Rise, my first interest (unbeknownst to me at the time) started way back in 1983 when my teammates and I, newly arrived in France, took a group of college-aged Americans to a village near Sisteron called Entrepierres, where we spent two weeks lifting stones and digging ditches to help build back this dilapidated village.
Heading up the work project was a visionary British missionary who lifted his hands to the sky and challenged us in our thoughts about faith, work, and love. His vision, which became a reality, was to create a retreat center for full-time French pastors and missionaries. God has mightily used Entrepierres, the real name of The Camp Between the Hills, and I knew it needed a central part in my story, although I move its timeline back into the 1930s and 40s.
A few years ago, I ventured to Entrepierres for a week-long debrief. While there, I visited Sisteron and learned of the bombing of the city on August 15, 1944. That piqued my interest, since I like to include little-known parts of history in my novels. Although I’ve lived in France for over 35 years, I had heard very little about Operation Dragoon and the Allied invasion of Provence during World War II. And so my research deepened.
I’ve posted 10 brief videos and many photos taken on location in Sisteron, Entrepierres, and les Mées which can be viewed on my social media platforms.
T4JYM: Please describe your writing process for our readers – from the spark of an idea through writing it, editing, and finally to publishing.
EM: First I’ll describe where I write. My bio states that I write ‘entertainment with a soul’ from my writing chalet outside Lyon, France. Doesn’t that sound charming? The ‘writing chalet’ is an adorable little tool shed that was on the property when we bought our house. After cleaning out the rusted tools and spider webs, my husband insulated the shed and put in flooring. I walk about fifty steps from our front door down to the chalet every day where I happily share the space with friendly granddaddy-long-legs, although occasionally I chase them out.
My husband made me a long desk from where I look out onto our front yard. My desk has bookshelves with my research books on one side and files with all my notes for my current WIP (work-in-progress) on the other side. I have a bookshelf with all my novels in English and in other languages, and I have framed covers of most of my novels hanging on the wall. During the pandemic, we built open shelving where I keep my favorite classics, my anthologies of English Literature, family photos, and stacks of my journals written in spiral notebooks, plus plenty of photos and memorabilia from my kids, grandkids, and readers. I’m a very sentimental soul.
The chalet is truly a cozy space that I’m blessed to have.
Once I have an idea for a novel, I start jotting down ideas, making documents about my main characters, and loosely outlining a plot. Eventually I come up with a short synopsis (less than 2 pages) and an ‘elevator pitch’ (a one paragraph description I could share in an elevator ride). Then I send my ideas to my publisher. They give some suggestions to tweak, then present my ideas to a committee which hopefully will give me a contract. As I wait, I’m writing. I usually write for 3-4 hours a day, aiming to write a chapter a week. I edit as I go along. To begin with, I just write down my scenes in a very unpolished way, but as I get to know my characters better, they often surprise me, so often I need to go back and tweak earlier scenes. My characters keep me on my toes!
Once my first draft is finished, I send it off to my publisher. There follows several months of back and forth with my editor as we improved the manuscript. I’m very thankful for editors. I’ve learned to hold my work a bit loosely so that I can accept constructive criticism. My novels are always better because of the editor’s help.
The final manuscript goes off to the publisher and it is usually a full year before it appears as a paperback book, and as an e-book and on audio.
T4JYM: How has your writing changed from your first work to now?
EM: As I said above, I write ‘entertainment with a soul’. Therefore, no matter the time-period, setting, or genre, my stories always have a theme of redemption. I weave history, art and literature, romance and suspense, faith and action in my novels. But I also want the reader to find the soul in my book and in my characters. I try to create realistic characters with strengths and weaknesses who struggle with questions about pain and suffering, faith and belief, and what that means in life.
My goal is to write the best literature I can, with real characters and themes that strike a chord in the reader’s heart and force the reader to think, to ask questions, to laugh and cry and hope. To be entertained way down in his or her soul.
Hopefully as I have grown and matured as a person, my writing has also deepened and improved. I say that I like to ‘bug’ my readers with whatever the Lord is bugging me about. But I want this to happen in an organic way.
T4JYM: Who has been your biggest advocate and supporter in your journey to success?
EM: The short answer is my husband, my parents, and my writer friends. But in truth, so many people have supported me, starting when I was in elementary school with my teachers.
Ever since I was 6, I knew I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. I could not not write. Writing was how I expressed joy and sadness, my questions about life, love, and faith. I always had stories running around in my head. At nine, I started what I presumptuously called “my first book”. I wanted to be the youngest writer ever. That book remains unpublished to this day=).
I was writing inspirational fiction long before there was any category listing at Barnes and Noble. In my mind, I could not separate my faith from my writing. What I believed just naturally found its way into my stories, even as a young girl. This doesn’t mean that I thought I was God’s gift to literature. Au contraire! But I recognized my gift, and with fear and trembling, I asked the Lord to bless it. My faith in Christ as Savior and Lord and my love for writing have been the two passions that have guided my life ever since I was a young girl.
Fast forward many, many years. My husband and I had been serving as missionaries in France since the early 1980s. During a summer furlough in America in 1994, I attended my first writer’s conference. There I met a book editor who, years earlier, had worked with our mission agency in France, and I knew him. We were quite surprised to find each other at this conference. I had a fifteen-minute interview with this editor, Dave, in which I said, “I’d like to write a women’s devotional.” To which Dave, ever the gentleman, said, “Well, we don’t need that…But we are looking for a woman novelist.” “I can do that too!” I replied.
I knew that a publishing house ‘needing a woman novelist’ was not an everyday occurrence. In my heart, I thought, “Lord, you’ve put me at the right place at the right time!” At the conference, I learned how to write a professional book proposal. Four months later, I sent Dave the proposal (via snail mail from France). He really liked it and presented it to the committee which decides on book contracts. Two weeks later, he called me long distance in France, and said, “How would you like to write a book?” I had my first contract for a novel. It was indeed a dream come true—but a dream proceeded by over 20 years of writing and prayer! I was ecstatic. Every day when I sat down at my computer to write, I felt like I was getting a hug from the Lord.
So Dave was also a huge advocate for me for all my writing life. He saw my gift and encouraged me and supported me as my editor and friend.
T4JYM: Now for something NOT book related. What is your favorite:
EM: Food? Dark Chocolate with almonds
Drink? Hot Tea: English Breakfast in the morning, Chai as my second cup, Lady Grey or Lemon Lift in the afternoon
Color? Impossible to choose, but I do love bright, vibrant colors.
Musician/Band? Amy Grant
Hobby? Reading, long walks in nature, and scrapbooking
Movie? A Beautiful Mind, The Shawshank Redemption, Notting Hill, and the BBC Anne of Green Gables
T4JYM: Besides writing books, tell our readers a little about you and the things that keep you busy.
EM: My work as a pastoral care provider (see below) is my other ‘day job’. I actually consider both writing and missions as wonderful vocations in which I am privileged to be involved. Although we travel a lot, I’m a homebody. I love working on scrapbooks, taking pictures, taking long walks in nature, and of course, being with our sons, daughters-in-law and our five grandchildren. When the grandkids are at our house, we are usually busy baking something yummy, having tea parties, doing puzzles, reading books, playing in the yard and even inventing stories.
T4JYM: Can you share a little about One Collective and what you and your husband do with the non-profit?
EM: We have been with this mission for over 40 years. One Collective works in communities around the world, bringing people together to help the oppressed. The overriding goal is that in the communities where we work no one is invisible and everyone has access to food, freedom, and forgiveness.
Paul and I personally have worked in three different cities in France, and we’ve been living outside Lyon for the past 23 years. For many of our years overseas, we were involved in helping French churches. Fifteen years ago, our role changed when the president of One Collective asked us to shift from giving pastoral care in French churches to doing the same thing for our One Collective colleagues.
Paul manages a team of ten of us—we’re called the mission’s Global Member Care Team—who give pastoral care to our 230 colleagues spread around the world. Basically, this means we have oversight not only for their spiritual well-being, but also helping these workers become or remain healthy physically, emotionally, and psychologically so that they can be effective in their ministries. As we listen to these dear ones, we see their needs and troubles are very similar wherever they are: how to get along with co-workers, how to integrate into a completely foreign culture, questions about faith and values and society, worries about their children’s schooling, health issues, aging parents, and the difficulty of being far from loved ones.
T4JYM: If you could spend only 15 minutes with Jesus, what would it look like?
EM: We are sitting on the lounge chairs in our little back yard and sipping on hot tea is in the morning or on something cool and refreshing in the afternoon as we discuss life and the people I love, my struggles and questions. He is so near and all of His attention is on me and He reassures me of His unfailing and deep love for me. As I praise Him, sometimes I have tears in my eyes and sometimes we are smiling at all the amazing ways He cares for me. I say, “Show me the way I should go today for to You, Lord Jesus, I lift up my soul.” And He always does.
T4JYM: What is your favorite verse in the Bible and why?
EM: Psalm 121 has been my life verse for missions. I memorized it in English and French before I went to the mission field. I love the promise that the Lord is my keep, my guardian. I often recite the last verses. “The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever more.”
He has always been faithful to do just that.
Other favorite verses: Ephesians 3: 19-21; Isaiah 61:1-4; Matthew 6: 20-34; the whole book of Philippians; I John 3:16-21 in The Message.
T4JYM: What kinds of books do you enjoy reading? What are you reading currently?
EM: I really enjoy historical fiction. I just finished Patti Callahan Henry’s The Story She Left Behind. I also enjoy a good detective story and am gradually reading all the Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny. A few of my favorite Christian authors are Lynn Austin, Sharon Garlough Brown, Susan Meissner, Deb Raney, Amanda Dykes, Charles Martin.
T4JYM: Will you share a short testimony of how you became a Christian?
(And thank you for such an amazing story of your life and experiences here: https://elizabethmusser.com/about-elizabeth/ )
EM: Even though writing was very important to me, I had another passion even more important and all encompassing: to know God. I attended church and loved Sunday school where I memorized Bible verses, listened to Bible stories, and learned to pray. Around the age of nine, I understood the basics of the Christian Gospel: God had created man in his image and loved him. He wanted a personal relationship with each human but I, even as a child, could never be “good enough” to merit God’s favor. So God did something extraordinary for me—it was the first Bible verse I memorized: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
So, at the age of nine, with the innocence and sincerity of a child, I did what the verse says, I believed in Christ. No one pushed me to make that decision—not my parents or my Sunday school teachers or anyone else. God drew me to Himself, and I loved him with my whole heart. And so I had this other passion in my life, to love God and live my life for him.
T4JYM: What advice would you give to someone interested in publishing their work?
EM: My simple formula is write, write, write, and pray, pray, pray. Also read, read, read. I also suggest that you attend a writers’ conference in whatever genre interests you. If you’re interested in Christian Fiction there are lots of possibilities. ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) has a conference every year and that is where I found an agent. Conferences will let you meet with editors and agents as well as attend seminars for all levels of writers. Learn about the craft of writing and do your research to know how to approach a publisher. Conferences offer a way to get a foot in the door. Start establishing a platform and pick one or two social media platforms to join. You can also join a critique group. Read a few books by authors. My two favorites are On Writing by Stephen King and Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott.
I am also sure there are plenty of forums for teens online who want to get into the publishing world.
T4JYM: What advice would you give to the youth of this world?
EM: Hold on tight to Jesus. The world will tell you so many confusing things. Hide God’s Word in your heart and learn how to let the Holy Spirit’s power work in you. You are not meant to figure life out on your own. Know your personality and your spiritual gifts and find a church community where you can be real and can exercise your God-given gifts. Do not worship a leader or a church or a politician or a friend or a parent. Worship God.
Learn the beauty of confession. When life gets hard to stand, kneel.
If you struggle with depression, anxiety, fear, confusion about your identity, or other deep issues, seek help from a pastor or professional. There is no shame in admitting you need help.
And you are so, so, so loved by Jesus.
And I love these verses from Ephesians 4: 1-6 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. For there is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, on baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
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