Violette Between

Violette Between is the latest book by author Alison Strobel. I am currently reading it and engaged from the first chapter. It tells the story of an artist who is no longer struggling, and lives life with joy. Because of a twist (that I won't reveal), the novel goes back and forth between years. I didn't pay enough attention to the chapter headings (oops!) and got to go back and figure this out.

Here's the official summary: Violette is the quintessential artist: passionate, emotional and full of life. After suffering a great loss she finds herself enamoured with a new relationship and asking if it is truly time to move on. Christian lost his wife years ago and understands Violette's pain firsthand. He offers her a chance to love once more and hopes to build a future with the spirited artist. But just as Violette and Christian begin to feel something unexpected, tragedy strikes again. Violette retreats into her past - and she finds that she may not want to come back. To find out more read the first chapter here.

I asked Alison a few questions about the book. The first was where she got the idea for Violette Between.
The idea for the book came from the combination of a real-life event and a song. One line in Norah Jones's "The Painter Song" says, "If I were a painter I would paint my memory, if that's the only way for you to be with me." I heard this song just after finding out that a high-school friend's husband had died, at age 30, from an undetected heart defect. She just woke up one morning and he was gone. I started thinking about a story about a woman--a painter--who reconnects with her dead husband through her paintings. That was the original idea for the book, though readers will see the final version is quite a bit different!

Alison, I know you are a mom with a young daughter. How do you find time to write while balancing the needs of your young family? Heh--right now I hardly do. I'm still working on that. It's SO hard to leave the house to write--I don't want to miss anything with my daughter, and there's always something that needs to be done, like laundry or dishes or whatever, and I can't write at home because there are far too many distractions. I'm not under any deadlines at the
moment, though, and I have a feeling that, once I have one looming, I'll find it a little easier. :)

Thanks for joining me, Alison. Final question: if you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and who would you take with you? Aberdeen, Scotland, and I'd take Dan and Abby (my husband and daughter). My brother and his wife just moved there for four years,
and we're dying to go visit! I lived in Scotland for a year (Glasgow) and it's an amazing, beautiful place. It's also where I experienced God for the first time. That year in Glasgow is the subject of one of my current manuscripts.