A Conversation with Robin Jones Gunn

Robin (and some of her family) attended the first stop on Women of Faith’s 2005 Extraordinary Faith tour in Shreveport, Louisiana. (Appropriately enough, since much of Gardenias for Breakfast takes place in Louisiana.) We caught up with her at the conference during a break and asked a few questions.

Q: Gardenias was described by Publisher’s Weekly as “one of Gunn's best offerings to date”. Do you think that’s just due to experience, or is there something special about this book?

A: I had to go to a different place to write this book. I really wanted to figure out what I was passing on to my daughter, who is 18, despite the tangled relationships I have with other people in my family. Being at mid-life at that point, I truly realized that I don’t know - I don’t have the answer. For me, that kind of exploring has always been through story, trying to write it out and see what it looks like once it’s on the page. One day I was talking to my editor, Janet Grant, and she said to me, “You just need to write a book. You need to get it all down on paper and see what comes out as you explore the relationship between mothers and daughters.” So that’s how Gardenias came about.

Of course it’s fictionalized, but I really extracted my situation and put it out there so I could twist it around and look at it. It’s interesting because my aunt told me. “I read part of your book to Uncle Chuck and both of us said, ‘Oh, you got Grandma just right!’” I really think there’s something to how we view ourselves as a mother and then how our daughters view us, and how we look to give some blessing back to this generation. I think I had to go to a place of exploration to look at the relationship between mothers and daughters, to figure out whether I’d totally demolished my daughter’s life or if there was hope for her.

Q: So you had a Grand Lady of your own?

A: I did. We called her “Great Lady” and I absolutely adored her. She just passed away three years ago; she was 95. She really gave so much to me by sort of skipping that generation. Maybe I won’t understand that until my kids have kids and I get to be the grandma and I can give something to that daughter that a mom sometimes can’t. There’s a disconnect sometimes. My daughter and I are very close and I would love for it to stay that way, but if she were here, maybe she’d say . . . no, actually, I’ve heard her answer that question. What she has said is that what really makes a difference is authenticity. You’re going to make mistakes, but we just do life together. We do this journey together and figure it out. I do tell her that, “You’re my daughter and I just think you’re it, I adore you, and I’m here. I’m your mom, and that’s not going to change.”

Q: In the book the characters go on this lengthy cross-country trip. Have you actually done one of those?

A: Yes. My daughter was twelve when we left Portland, Oregon and drove our van, just the two of us, to Atlanta. That was really nice. I didn’t really want to do it, but there were reasons for it; we had to get the car to a certain place. So as long as we were going I thought, “We’re going to go see Grandma since we’re going through Louisiana.” There was so much value to that - it was different than just hopping on a plane and getting there. The way Rachel and I journeyed for those 9 or 10 days to get there just made me realize how much we are at such high speed with all of life. When you’re stuck in a car with somebody, you really do have conversations; authenticity has a place to start and grow. I highly recommend it. Just getting away from the routine and all the distractions with just the two of you.

Q: Did you have to go to all those places to research location? Hawaii, for example?

A: Yes, it’s very important to be authentic in your research! Actually, we lived in Hawaii when our son was in third grade (he’s now 23), but it never left me. The opening scene where Abby is the judge for Lei Day - I was a judge for Lei Day that year and those were descriptions of some of the leis I saw. There was such a difference in the Hawaiian culture, the way they honored their elders. Growing up on the west coast we really didn’t have that as much. Then coming to the south to Louisiana with Grandma, everybody at church called her Great Lady; I really liked that people esteemed her.

Q: Gardenias covers a lot of geographic territory, but it’s mostly set in the South. For someone who lives in Oregon you’ve got that Southern thing going on. Are you from the south originally?

A: No-did I get it right? Whew!

Q: You’ve written about a bazillion books (50-something). How long have you been doing that? How do you keep up the pace?

A: I’ll tell you a little secret: my mom sent me all my report cards a few years ago. I was looking through them and in first grade the teacher wrote, “Robin has not yet grasped basic math skills, however, she keeps the entire class entertained at rug time.” So I realized that’s how God gifted me, that’s how He wired me – I’m a storyteller. I still can’t balance my checkbook but I can tell stories.

Q: Do you start with characters or plot? What’s your process?

A: Characters. I get a three-ring binder and I just start collecting information. I cut pictures out of magazines and I take photographs and I just look at these faces and go, “Talk to me. Who are you? Why do you think you’re worthy of being in my story.” I get these characters and I figure out their name and their middle name, what shoe size they have – I really get to know them.

Then I think about what kind of problem they have and what the situation would be. Sometimes a story idea will come and I get these characters to work on the story. I work in longhand until the idea is sort of solidified, then I go to my editor and tell her “This is what I’m thinking, what do you think?” Then she gives input and I start writing. Often I don’t know how it’s going to come out!

One day I was out in the back yard in the hammock thinking about the mother/daughter thing and the prologue for Gardenias for Breakfast just kind of started dancing across my imagination. Everybody has a story, Honeygirl. You listen to that story and your story will come find you.

I thought, “I was going to take a nap but I’ve got to write this down!” I just wrote, like, three pages and sent it to my editor.

She said, “This is your Women of Faith story. This is what you have to explore.”

Q: Do you have a favorite reading spot of your own?

A: I do. Well, the hammock when the weather’s nice, but I do live in Portland, Oregon so it’s pretty drippy. I have this snuggle chair that I love because it’s by a window and the sun comes in in the afternoons. When we have sun, which isn’t that often, so that makes it really a treat!