Christine Gunderson

Christine Gunderson grew up on a fourth-generation family farm in rural North Dakota where she read Laura Ingalls Wilder books in her very own little house on the prairie. She’s a former television anchor and reporter and former Capitol Hill aide. She currently lives in the Washington, DC, suburbs with her three children, Star the Wonder Dog, and a very patient husband. When not writing, she’s sailing the Chesapeake Bay with her family, playing Star Wars Monopoly, rereading Jane Austen novels in the school pickup line, or unloading the dishwasher.

Gunderson's debut novel is Friends with Secrets.

My Q&A with the author:

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I've wanted to be a writer since 4th grade when I attempted my first novel, which I entitled Millicent's Revenge, a sort of Anne of Green Gables meets Trixie Belden mash up.

My teenage self would be unsurprised by all of this because my teenage self had absolutely no idea how hard it is to actually become a published author. My teenage self was a wonderful combination of hope and ignorance.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Friends with Secrets is the only book I've ever started in the right place. I have six unpublished novels sitting in a drawer, and in every other book, I had to re-write the beginning multiple times to figure out where the story actually starts. I don't have trouble with endings, but the opening of a book is always hard for me, for some reason.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Such a great question. I am basically Nikki, one of the main characters in Friends with Secrets. I struggle to stay organized, to keep track of my phone, to keep track of the 7,412 things I need to keep track of as the mother of three kids. And I dread school supply shopping every year.

Like Nikki, I left a job I loved to stay home with my kids. That transition from working person to stay-at-home mom was really hard, and I tackle that in Friends with Secrets.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My kids are a huge influence on my writing because they made me a mother. They provide the material and life experience that allows me to write novels like Friends with Secrets.

I've gotten so many e-mails from readers who tell me that Friends with Secrets made them feel seen, as women and as mothers, and I love that so much. I am able to write these characters because I am these characters, and being a mom makes that possible.

Some days my kids and their many activities and orthodontist appointments also make writing im-possible. But that's another story...and maybe my next story.

Visit Christine Gunderson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue