A Conversation with SCWC keynoter and Southern novelist Valerie Fraser Luesse

Readers and reviewers have described Valerie Luesse's novels with glowing words.

"This is the kind of book you can't wait to get home and read every night--to meet up with characters you genuinely like in a feels-so-real place you want to be."

"Valerie Luesse has an ear for dialogue, and eye for detail, and most of all, a profound gift for storytelling."

Her books, including the Christy Award-winning novel Missing Isaac (the story of unexpected friendship and mystery set in the 1960s in the the fictional small town of Glory,  Alabama), proclaim powerful messages of hope and faith.

Her other books, all published by Revell Books, include Almost Home (2019), The Key to Everything (2020), Under the Bayou Moon (2022), and the upcoming Letters from my Sister (2023). Valerie also has extensive experience in the magazine industry, having worked as Senior Travel Editor at Southern Living Magazine; she earned numerous national awards for her work there, including the 2009 Travel Writer of the Year.

We're thrilled to have Valerie serving with us at this year's Southern Christian Writers Conference, which will be held on June 9-10 at Valley View Baptist Church in Leeds, Alabama. She will present a Saturday keynote address titled "Southern Fiction: Where Storytelling and Faith Meet," and will also lead a workshop on "Fiction Techniques: Setting, Dialogue, and More." 

Our conversation with Valerie gives you a glimpse into the way she writes and how faith influences her writing, and it should make you excited to hear from her at this year's conference.

When did you first learn you wanted to be a writer? Was this something that came to you early in life, or as you got older?

I don’t think I can remember a time when I didn’t write. Even as a kid, I dabbled. I kept changing my major at Auburn because I didn’t think I could make a living as a writer, but I was never happy doing anything else. So I eventually stuck with my English major and then got a master’s degree at Baylor. I guess I always dreamed of writing books, but early on, my goal was to get a job with a magazine. I spent many happy years writing for Southern Living and its parent company in Birmingham. 

Why are you drawn to the type of novels you write?

All my books are set in the South because that’s the place I know best. It’s the place that inspires me most. 

As for subject matter, a long time ago, I read an essay or interview—can’t remember which—with Eudora Welty, and she said (I’m paraphrasing here) that you could find all the big questions that writers love to explore within a family, all the powerful emotions—love, hate, jealousy, compassion, loyalty, betrayal . . . I believe that, though I sometimes play around with the definition of family and community. In Almost Home, the community is contained within a Southern homeplace turned boarding house. In The Key to Everything, the protagonist finds a family—essentially creates his own—while bicycling a coastal highway. And then in Letters from My Sister, the primary community includes two families, one Black and one White, forever joined by powerful bonds among the women.

How has your experiences in magazines, specifically Southern Living, helped your fiction?

There’s a difference between knowing how to write and knowing how to tell an engaging story. I grew up hearing great storytellers in my own family, but the writers and editors at Southern Living really taught me how to understand the elements of a strong story and build on them, from asking the right questions during an interview to finding places with visual power.

It was such an education, and I’m very grateful to everyone at the magazine who took me under wing over the years. All the time I spent traveling the South and creating a sense of place for magazine readers has been such a help to me as a fiction writer. Sometimes, readers tell me they feel like they’re watching my story instead of reading it, which I love. That wasn’t something I intentionally set out to do, but I’m glad they feel that way.

What is your writing schedule/life like?

Chaotic! My husband has been having health problems for the past couple of years and requires a lot of care right now. Both of my parents needed extra care this spring, and I’m an only child. All I can say is thank heaven for cousins! Mine have been an enormous help over the past few months. For now, I’m a caregiver first and writer second. I do my best writing very early in the morning, while the rest of the world is asleep. I have a little studio I call the Story Shack, which my husband had built for me next to our house. It’s a tiny little cottage with a front porch and big windows. My happy place! That’s where I do most of my fiction writing.

How does your faith shape your writing?

I didn’t set out to be a Christian writer. I was just looking for more creative freedom when I first attempted fiction, and it turned out that the characters who interested me most were people of faith—the kind of people I grew up with in rural Alabama. The settings that drew me in were the type of places where the church would play a central role. I love small towns and rural communities. A few cities intrigue me, but my characters tend to pass through them on their way to someplace else. My writer’s prayer is simple: “Please give me the story You want me to tell.” And then I just let the story unfold, taking direction from the little illuminations that appear along the way.

How do you hope to encourage participants at this year's SCWC?

Two words: Fear not! The only way to become a writer is to write, but fear of failure keeps so many keyboards still and silent. I always tell aspiring writers that they’ll never have more control over anything than a story no one has seen. So write with freedom and joy and confidence. Yes, you will write some truly dreadful stuff, but that’s what the delete key is for. You’ll have plenty of time to take out the bad and expand on the good before you show anyone your story. So fear not. And write, write, write.

Learn more about Valerie at her website: www.valeriefraserluesse.com

See her books on Amazon: Valerie Luesse author page

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Are you interested in attending the 2023 Southern Christian Writers Conference? Join us on June 9-10 at Valley View Baptist Church in Leeds, Alabama, right outside Birmingham. Learn more about the conference by reading other posts here on our blog. You can also check out the SCWC website.  Email us at scwritersconference@gmail.com if you have questions; and you can go to the ONLINE REGISTRATION FORM to sign up.