In a recent Q&A interview with Christianbook.com, author Ginger Garrett discusses "Chosen" (September 2005, NavPress), her upcoming work of fiction based on the life of Esther.

Ginger Garrett:  I had to write to keep my scholarship in college (SMU - Southern Methodist University). I got a scholarship in acting. My pet peeve is strangers staring at me, which is a problem for an actor. I wanted to move away from acting but the only way to keep my scholarship was to focus on playwriting or directing. I tried playwriting, and it was terribly hard for me. As soon as I could get away from it, I was happy to graduate with my degree and get out. I didn’t seriously write again until I had a really difficult season of infertility and miscarriages. When I would go into the bookstores, particularly Christian bookstores, I could never find anything that comforted me. I found a lot of books about the morality of reproductive technology, but nothing that just comforted me. I decided I would try to write that book that I needed to read. It was New Year’s Day 2000 that I made the resolution that I would find out how to write a book proposal and approach a publisher. Eventually I wrote “Moments for Couples Who Long for Children” and NavPress bought it. Then they asked me to write another and that’s when I began thinking about writing on Esther.

Christianbook.com:  How did you go from a nonfiction title on fertility to writing a fiction book on Esther?

Ginger:  I think it was my sister-in-law, who is friends with John and Stasi Eldridge. She’s attended many of their seminars and retreats. She and her husband are so passionate about the “Wild at Heart” message that I began to feel a little bit out in the cold that there was just nothing out there stirring my heart for women the way John Eldridge had found a way to tap into the hearts of men. I kept thinking how it all came back to the story of Esther and the Bible. There was something in her story that was essential to the experience of today’s woman. I just knew instinctively that this was going to be the book that I would want to write next. I actually sold it to NavPress as a nonfiction but the more I tried to write, the more I realized it could only be a novel; which scared me because I couldn’t write a full-length play in college. I had no idea how I was going to write a full novel. But sometimes I think you just feel passionately something has to be done and unfortunately, no one steps forward to volunteer but you.

Christianbook.com  How did you come up with the format of a diary?