When author and city-slicker Deb Elkink fell in love and married an introverted cowboy, she moved from her bright lights to his isolated cattle ranch far off in the prairie grasslands. Still—between learning to pilot a light aircraft, sewing for a costume rental store, and cooking for branding crews of a hundred—Deb graduated with a B.A. in Communications from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN; she also holds an M.A. in Theology (both summa cum laude).
Her award-winning debut novel, THE THIRD GRACE, is set in the contrasting locales of Parisian street and Nebraskan farmyard, and incorporates Greek mythology and aesthetics with the personal search for self. Her writing has been described as “layered and sumptuous,” “compelling,” and “satisfying.”
Visit her website at www.DebElkink.com.
Friend her at Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/deb.elkink.
Pick up your paperback copy of Deb Elkink’s THE THIRD GRACE at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Third-Grace-Deb-Elkink/dp/1937573001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343080975&sr=8-1&keywords=third+grace+elkink
Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Deb! Can you tell us where you are from?
Lovely to join you today! I’m a Canadian living in the rolling hills and grasslands of southern Alberta, just north of the Montana border. Add the fact that I took my first degree at a college in the Twin Cities, and you’ll understand why I feel very at home with my American neighbors.
Q: How did you come up with your title?
THE THIRD GRACE refers to one of the figures in a particular marble statue trio of mythological Greek goddesses; “The Three Graces” captivated me on my first visit to the Louvre in 1989. My story’s main character, Mary Grace—now an up-and-coming costume designer in Denver on her way to Paris—changed her name the summer she was seventeen to “Aglaia” (sister of Thalia and Euphrosyne, all daughters of Zeus). That’s the summer she fell in love with a French exchange student visiting her family’s Nebraska farm, when his dark whispers filled her heart with desire for something more than her parents’ simplistic life and faith. So Mary Grace hardened herself and became Aglaia—the third grace. The motif of stone, as it relates to mythology and biblical metaphor, runs through the novel as well, so I thought the icon fitting.
Q: They say you can judge a book by its cover. Can you tell us a little about your cover and who designed it?
It was dreamed up by my publisher, Greenbrier Books—and I think the artist must have been a mind reader! I loved it the moment I laid my eyes on it because it represents the two main settings of my novel—the Sand Hills of Nebraska and posh metropolitan Paris.
Q: Can you tell us something about your book that would make me run out and buy it?
Well, one reviewer described my novel as “layered and sumptuous,” and wrote, “Elkink’s writing is a tailored garment of sensuous description, trimmed with just the right words to signal deeper meanings.” Another said: “Elkink has wrapped mythology, aesthetics, and theology in a blanket of sexual tension.” So . . . is it working? Are you checking the title out on Amazon?
Q: Are there any messages in this book that you want the reader to know about?
In my epigraph I quote G.K. Chesterton, who said, “Man has always lost his way. He has been a tramp ever since Eden; but he always knew, or thought he knew, what he was looking for.” Chesterton was alluding to that craving we all have deep inside to find where we really came from, and get back there again. THE THIRD GRACE is a novel of self-discovery—or, actually, of re-discovery. As my readers see Aglaia running from herself, stumbling over the “Mary Grace” within, I hope they will reflect upon where their own past is rooted, where their own faith springs from.
Q: What was your most favorite chapter to write and why?
I’m dithering on this one; is it where Aglaia loses herself in Paris, or where she finds herself on the farm? Both of these scenes were extremely satisfying to write because I could relive actual experiences in my real life: Paris is my favorite city in the whole world (I’m going there again in spring), and yet my years living at the end of a long gravel road on the Canadian prairies formed the country girl in me.
Q: Why did you feel you had to write this book?
I took great delight in writing THE THIRD GRACE partly because, as a hybrid between city-slicker and rancher’s wife, I understand a woman’s need to both shop and sew, to both dine out at fine restaurants and create comfort food at home. Like Aglaia, I was raised with the marvelous cooking of a Mennonite mother and yet fell under the spell of foie gras and champagne. I made the same rural-urban transition Aglaia did, though in the opposite direction—born and reared in “civilized society,” I chose to convert to the rustic countryside. But the conversion in THE THIRD GRACE occurs at a deeper level. Algaia is torn between her thirst for success in the world of the arts and her yearning for inner peace with her rural past, and this tearing is something we all need to face to some degree in our own search for who we really are.
Q: Now, some fun questions – What deep dark secret would you like to share with us?
Hmmm, maybe that I’m a binge writer and sometimes neglect my manuscript for months on end. I might tell myself this is a creative period of “steeping,” but I suspect it’s more just the distraction of everyday living, which is such pleasure in itself! I fight off a feeling of guilt as I long to get back to my abandoned work-in-progress by reminding myself of what one of my university profs stated so profoundly: “Don’t fret about not writing if you’re too busy living; it will all come out in the end.” One other deep, dark secret—when I’m actively writing, I often don’t get out of my PJs till 4 PM, when I put on sweats to walk on my treadmill while watching Dr. Phil. (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!)
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
A year ago I’d have said Istanbul because of its historic importance and the fact that I wanted to visit a Muslim country—and, okay, shop in the Grand Bazaar! But my wish-fulfilling husband whisked me off last winter to the land of the Blue Mosque and the Hammam bath and—of course—the knock-off Prada purse. So now a return visit to Japan is on the top of the list; I celebrated my twentieth birthday (oh! so long ago) in a Buddhist monastery during a summer-long tour with two other university students, and I’d love to experience that ancient and gracious culture again (perhaps this time involving an Asian beauty treatment at some swanky spa). I’m writing a novel now that includes one character’s compulsion to visit the world’s “sacred sites,” and Istanbul and Kyoto will definitely be included.
Q: Are you a morning person or a night person?
Interesting that you should ask that—my mom and I were just discussing it the other day. As an extrovert glorying in city lights, my original bent was definitely night owl. But when I married my decidedly introverted cowboy and moved to his isolated cattle ranch in the Saskatchewan Sand Hills, my circadian rhythms were put out of whack during calving season, when I learned to fry bacon and eggs at sunrise! Those days are over (we usually eat packaged cereal now, at a more reasonable hour), but I’ve never totally recovered and am quite mixed up, getting sleepy at 8 PM but reading till midnight while a great horned owl hoots on our barn roof, and waking up groggy and bitter at the chirpy robins. It’s like permanent jet lag! But being a writer at home, I can promise myself a nap when I might feel the need (not that I usually do).
Q: Are there any members in your family who also like to write?
My son is currently crafting his master’s thesis, and he writes copiously and wittily on less academic subjects as well. My sister pens absolutely lovely poetry, and my dad (though not committing his stories to print) spun wonderful yarns for us five kids as we were growing up. Storytelling as a lifestyle definitely runs in the family.
Q: As a child, were you a dreamer?
Yes, my imagination often ran away with me. I recall (long before discovering C.S. Lewis’s Narnia) creating a kingdom in a deep ditch near our house, where a trickle from the culvert became a towering waterfall and grasses grew to be mighty oaks. I named it “Nature’s Own” (wasn’t that a brand of diaper rash cream?), envisioning wee people in acorn caps and leaf clothing living among the weeds and swimming among the reeds.
Q: Last but not least, the magic genie has granted you one wish. What would that be?
I wish I were multilingual. I mean, I speak a smattering of French and Spanish, and on occasion recall a few Japanese phrases, but I wish, being at heart a communicator, that I spoke many tongues fluently—ancient Hebrew and Greek, for starters (I’d love to read the Bible in the original languages). I took a couple of semesters of Latin long ago, but wouldn’t it be great to chatter in Italian with the dreamy pizzeria owner? And Cree or another of the Algonquin languages interests me (there’s an aboriginal aspect in my upcoming novel). All that said, I’m glad that English—the most international language and so expressive—is my mother tongue.
Q: Thank you so much for this interview! Do you have any final words?
This is a dangerous question to ask a chatterbox! There’s no such thing to me as “final words” when it comes to talking, so why not invite your readers to check out my website (www.debelkink.com) and start a conversation with me there?