Abigail Hayven is a wife, an entrepreneur, coffee-enthusiast, bookworm, storyteller, and lover of color. She grew up in a family of passionate entrepreneurs. Abigail was homeschooled, and her parents always encouraged her to take the things she was gifted in, perfect her craft, and use it to serve others.
You can find out more about Abigail on her website and Instagram. Her book, The Colors of Rain released YESTERDAY, so here are some questions I asked her over the weekend:
• I know who I think this book is for, but who do you say this book is for?
Our culture is heavily pushing its agenda on our children and young adults, and we have to face the reality that the media we take in does affect our world view—especially those of us with younger, impressionable minds.
I wanted to tackle a relevant topic to teens and young adults from a Christian perspective. My generation and younger has had “women’s empowerment” and “abortion is our right” shoved down our throats by every source of entertainment. My goal was to let teens look at the big picture. To explore the lives of the individuals that abortion affects in a tactful way that was suitable for their age. I wanted them to see the “domino effect” that abortion has, and help give them a foundation of truth on which they can build their beliefs upon.
In short, the answer is that The Colors of Rain was written for teens. But I would also say it’s for anyone who loves unique characters, poetic prose, and a story laced with truth that will leave you inspired.
• Was Joni Erickson Tada part of your inspiration for Rain Brooks?
Though not directly, in some ways, yes! Joni’s life and teaching have always inspired me, and I know some of that poured into my storytelling. Her approach to suffering and her incredible art are definitely similarities that Rain shares with her.
“JO ONCE TOLD ME when I was very young that we all live out a story
but only some of us are born with one. She was wrong. I think
we’re all born with one. Some just happen to have a plot twist
very early on, like mine.”
• Why do you think it’s important to put big issues such as divorce, abortion, and disability in books? Is there a book you’ve read that included controversial things and influenced/touched you? To Kill A Mockingbird is one of those for me for example.
I think it’s helpful for us to be able to zoom out and get a big picture of real world issues that we’ll likely experience in some way or another. Especially for teens. All of these topics are extremely difficult navigate when we’re faced with them in our lives. I believe getting to watch characters not unlike ourselves handle them in the fiction world can provoke thought and lead to wisdom for us in the real world.
I hope it causes readers to consider truth, and helps them form a belief of their own. I know as a teenager, I had many “beliefs” simply because my parents or pastors told me what was right and wrong (a very good thing, by the way!). But at some point, I had to make those beliefs my own. I hope this story is used as another avenue for truth to entire their minds, to provoke thought, and to help them form personal convictions about what they believe.
One book that impacted me as a young reader that handled similar issues was Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. It’s one of the few books I would say has impacted my method of storytelling most.
• What is your desire for this book when it comes to romance and teen readers?
Romance for teen readers can be a tricky thing, but not always a bad thing. God created us with a love and desire for romance, and it’s a healthy and beautiful
desire. Personally, I want my future teenagers to love love, and desire to one day enjoy romance God’s way. In media, we just have to handle it rightly so that they have something pure and healthy to look up to.
When I added romance to The Colors of Rain, my goal was to do it realistically for the characters, as well as exemplary for the readers. My characters are teenagers, and they do “crush” on other teenagers (which is a pretty normal occurrence ;) ). I also had to write with their parents in mind. Realistically, what would my characters’ parents allow or restrict? You’ll notice my teen characters don’t kiss, and there’s a healthy boundaries throughout. Not to give spoilers, but there’s a brief scene that hints at a male character waiting to deserve a girl’s love.
I hope I’ve successfully written an innocent romance that readers can admire and not learn from in a negative way.
“A good book can be enjoyed once just fine, but a great book
leaves you never wanting to walk away, and so, every once in a
while, you indulge in the pull to go back and relive it.”
• Are you team Darcy or Mr. Knightley? (I had to lol!)
Mr. Knightley 100%! Haha! In real life, I think most of us would decline Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal after how rudely he treated us, and I will die on that hill ;-)
• Can you tell us about your writing process? Are you a plotter or a pantser? Where/when do you write?
The discipline that helped me finally finish drafting TCOR was to stop waiting for my favorite time to write. I used to be a night writer, and only a night writer. But that wasn’t producing finished drafts. So I put a writing log beside my keyboard and decided that every time during the day that I had a pocket of time, no matter how small it may be, I would write and I would time myself. Essentially, I replaced scrolling social media and wasting time with sitting to write. And as I looked over my writing log, I realized I did WAY more writing in the afternoon than at night. It was then that that I would sit down to write for five minutes, but stay for an hour. It turns out, that after lunch each day, I had a pocket of time before getting back to work and it was then that I was able to accomplish the most. I highly recommend giving this practice a try!
I fall somewhere in the middle of a plotter and pantster. I start the writing process with a general outline of the beginning, middle, and end, and have a few major scenes planned out. But the rest, I take chapter by chapter.
Fun fact about TCOR though: I had ZERO idea how I was going to end The Colors of Rain, the entire writing process. And when you read the book, you’ll see that Evan’s parting thoughts were my own about the story. :)