You offer both impeccable research and an imaginative flair in each of your novels. However, there have been times when there is very little information in the Bible about your characters. How are you able to create a story when there are limited details?
That question is what makes me ask my husband, “Why did I sign this contract?” When I wrote the Wives of King David series, there was a lot of material on those three women and a ton of writing on David in Scripture. When I got to Sarai in Wives of the Patriarchs, I still found a lot in Scripture to help tell her story. But when I hit Rebekah, I knew I was in trouble. There is very little in Scripture on her life, and even less on the lives of Hannah, Deborah, and my current work in progress, Miriam.
The way I deal with this is to study the main male character these women are related to. Sometimes that backfires, as there is very little on Isaac (for Rebekah) and nothing on Lappidoth (Deborah’s husband), and we don’t even know for sure that Miriam was married. This truly makes for angst and challenge, so I do what I can with what I’m given.
I studied Solomon to get an idea about the four women I wrote of in The Heart of a King. I needed to know the man before I could imagine his women. That’s not always true, though. For instance, in Miriam’s story, I need to know Moses and Aaron more than I would the man I assigned to be her husband. (I did pick a man from Scripture.)
After I understand the men that surround the woman, I begin to imagine what life was like for her. I “cast” my characters using real models of their nationality and start to envision them. Eventually, I loosely plot an outline and begin writing. I get to know these women as their stories unfold to me.
What methods or tools do you utilize for your research?
The Bible, commentaries from various schools of thought, reputable websites, cultural atlases, life-and-times books, and anything I can find that relates to the time period. A lot of my research has been done in the past, especially the cultural life and times.
But when we see a significant time jump from one era to the next, I still search to make sure of things like whether they had silk, used iron or bronze, lived in houses or tents, etc. As civilizations change, so must the settings for each story.
Visit Jill Eileen Smith’s author page:
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Star of Persia
Jill Eileen Smith
Revell
With her impeccable research and her imaginative flair, Jill Eileen Smith brings to life the romantic, suspenseful, and beloved story of Esther, queen of Persia.
To complete a war his father had planned to win, King Xerxes calls every governor, satrap, and official in his vast kingdom to his palace in Susa to strategize and feast. When they finally leave, he decides on one more week of frivolity, which ends in the banishment of his favorite wife, something he never intended to do. But when he discovers Esther, Xerxes is sure he has a second chance at happiness.
In her wildest dreams, Esther could never have imagined that she would end up as queen of Persia. Yet she knows better than to become complacent. Another of Xerxes’s wives is vying for position, and his closest advisor has a deep and dangerous grudge against Esther’s adoptive father. Caught in the middle of palace politics, Esther will find herself in an impossible position: risk her life or consign her people to annihilation.