Interview with Nicole Baart
February 2007

Let’s start with the basics.  Where are you from?  Tell me about your childhood.  How old are you?

How old am I?  I thought it was taboo to ask a woman her age.  If you must know, I’m 29--the real 29, not the one that I will be from my next birthday until the day I can’t fake it anymore.  As for the rest of it, I’m from a sweet little town in Iowa and my childhood was idyllic.  Nothing that will come out in counseling years down the line anyway.

Favorite color?  Animal?  Food?

Green.  Horses.  Anything and everything.  I love food, period.  The only thing I don’t like to eat is sushi, and I wish that I liked it because it’s so trendy to like sushi right now!  I’m so uncool.

What are your hobbies besides writing?

I go through stages.  For a while after my first son was born I was a scrapbooking enthusiast.  He has a lovely scrapbook and I’m afraid the rest of my children will someday resent him for that.  After that, we moved into a different house and I became a bit of an interior decorator wannabe.  I even tried my hand at sewing.  That phase has also passed.  And so has my interest in crocheting, knitting, painting… A few hobbies that I don’t think will ever change are my love for cooking, gardening, and reading.

What do you read?  What is on your nightstand right now?

Brennan Manning’s “The Importance of Being Foolish”, The Lonely Planet’s Guide to Ethiopia and Eritrea, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (I’m reading it out loud to my husband--he’s never read Harry Potter), and “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran.  There’s more, but I can’t think of what they are right now.  Usually I have two big stacks of books on my nightstand: one stack for books I’m currently reading and one for books that I just like to have nearby at all times.  Oh, and a stack of kids books.  My son likes to read books in our bed.

But if you’re asking about some of my all-time favorites, they would have to be “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard, “A Passage to India” by E. M. Forester, “Peace Like a River” by Leif Enger… I know I’m forgetting something big.  Oh!  “A Tale of Two Cities” by Dickens.  I know it’s cliché to love that book, but I so do.  And, of course, anything by Austen.  I’m a closet romantic.

Harry Potter?  Kahlil Gibran?  Scandalous!

Hardly.  I believe all truth is God’s truth.  All beauty is God’s beauty.  I find sections of “The Prophet” so beautiful they move me to tears even after countless readings.  If I believe that my good and loving God created this world, I have to believe that he created every last part of it.  Nothing that is lovely or moving or real can exist without his hand in it.  And, praise the Lord, he created me with a discerning mind.  I can read and enjoy Harry Potter without being consumed by an inexplicable desire to be a witch.  I find it frustrating when we closet ourselves as Christians instead of actively engaging our culture.

How long have you been writing?

For as long as I can remember.  One of my first tangible, coherent works of fiction was a poem titled “I Must Go Down to the River Again”.  My mom still has it tucked away somewhere and it is absolutely hilarious--so sentimental and obviously the work of a six or seven year old.  But hey, that’s how old I was. 

What is your genre of choice?

Poetry has always been a love of mine because it is so immediate and raw.  Rather than journal, I’ll often write a poem.  To me, a short story is merely the fleshing out of the emotions behind a poem and a novel is the whole enchilada.  It all comes back to poetry--to the basic, almost elemental, emotion. Even when I am writing a novel I often think of it in terms of poetry.  What are the feelings here?  What would I see and experience if I stripped it all down to the bare essentials?

Where do you get material for your writing?

Life.  I am an interminable observer of people and circumstances, and I tuck interesting little tidbits of existence away for future use.  I am deeply in love with God’s awesome world and fascinated by the crown jewel of his creation: people.  I feel that the closer I examine everything around me the better I understand it.  Sometimes I’m asked if I include real people in my stories.  The answer is definitely no and absolutely yes.  There is never one carbon-copied character, but all of my characters are a tapestry of every person I’ve ever met. 

But that’s all pretty theoretical.  My actual ideas come from experiences that interest me.  Usually a scene, story, or person grips me so much that I absolutely have to write my feelings down.  Sometimes those little explorations end up as scrap paper, but sometimes they continue to grow and develop in my mind.  For example, After the Leaves Fall started with a graveyard scene.  I had a picture of this beautiful, fall funeral in my mind and when I wrote it down I couldn’t seem to forget about it.  I sort-of fell in love with the character of Julia.  So I started asking myself questions about her, creating her story and drawing from things that were very real to me at the time.

So do you sit at the computer to type?  Or are you a purist--do you use a typewriter?

Typewriters are so romantic, aren’t they?  I still read interviews with respected authors who swear they would never dream of using anything else.  Unfortunately, I can’t relate.  I tried to use a typewriter once and I hated it.  I couldn’t punch the letters hard enough to make a dark mark, my wrists hurt after a while, it was so noisy…  Anyway, I’ve never tried a typewriter again. 

Actually, when I start a new project, the first thing I do is go out and buy a six-pack of legal pads and a bunch of my favorite pens.  I’m really, really picky about my pens (they have to be extra fine felt-tipped) and I just love a fresh pad of new paper.  I write a chapter at a time, longhand, and then I transfer it to the computer.  So I kind of write my first and second draft at the same time.  I can’t move on to a new chapter until I feel like the one before it is as good as I can get it without an editor.

What are you working on next?

I’m in the middle of writing the sequel to After the Leaves Fall.  It is yet untitled and quite different from the first book.  After the Leaves Fall is very character-driven; it is, essentially, a study of Julia Bakker.  The second book is much more plot-heavy.  There is a lot going on and it is both exciting and difficult to balance all of the emotions and events that are stirred up in the first few chapters.  It’s a lot of fun for me to watch Julia grow and change through a second book.  Beyond that, I have tossed around the idea of writing a third book about Julia.  I’m not entirely sure I want to do that, but we’ll see how I feel when the sequel is finished. 

Honestly, right now I’m getting very anxious to start something altogether different.  I have an idea for a book that is just eating me up inside… It’s a kind of romance/drama with a bit of a thriller/suspense edge…?  But then again it is not at all a romance… It’s very hard to describe and I really can’t categorize it.  Maybe it could be called an emotional thriller.  A study in forgiveness…?  Have you seen the movie Memento?  Nothing is as it seems…  Anyway, my husband and I went out for dinner the other night just so I could tell someone about it, and he was just so stunned and excited by what I want to do.  He is definitely encouraging me to pursue this idea next.

You mentioned your husband.  Can you tell us a little about your family?

I’d love to. 

I have a house full of boys.  My husband, Aaron, is the senior pastor of a vibrant, growing church.  He grew up in Canada, and after we got married we moved there for a number of years while Aaron got his Master’s of Divinity from Regent College.  I think he is the coolest pastor I’ve ever seen!  Aaron is busy with work a lot, but we try really hard to protect our time together.  We love gardening, cooking, being outside, playing with our boys… Basically anything we can do together.

As for my kids, Isaac is my firstborn.  He is three years old and absolutely awesome.  What a fantastic age!  He calls me “honey” and it melts me every time he says it.  Judah is our baby and we adopted him from Ethiopia.  We flew to Addis Ababa to pick him up the day after Thanksgiving of ’06.  He is seven months old and the cutest little butterball you’ll ever lay eyes on. 

Aaron and I would love to have more kids and we’d especially love to adopt again.  Judah gave us the “adoption-bug.”  Besides, I definitely need a little girl in my house someday!