Tuesday, November 19, 2024

An Interview With Ohio Author, Hanna Kraft

 


 An Interview With Ohio Author, Hanna Kraft

 

Hailing from the tranquil and picturesque landscapes of rural Ohio, Hanna Kraft is an author whose storytelling prowess is as deeply rooted in her heritage as the ancient trees that surround her home. With a fervent passion for genealogy, Hanna masterfully intertwines the threads of her ancestors' lives into her fiction novels, creating rich, evocative narratives that honor the past while captivating the present. Her writing aims to reflect the profound truths of the greatest stories ever told, bringing to life the legacies of those who came before her.

 

When she's not immersed in the intricate tapestry of her family history, Hanna finds joy in the simple yet enriching activities of her daily life. You might find her strumming the banjo, its melodies echoing the traditional tunes of generations past, or practicing her German, a language that connects her more intimately with her roots. Hanna's love for the tactile and nostalgic is evident as she often crafts her stories using a manual typewriter, a symbol of her dedication to preserving the art of storytelling in its purest form. Her home in rural Ohio serves as both a sanctuary and a muse, inspiring the heartfelt and historically rich novels that have garnered her admiration from readers near and far.

 

Hanna Kraft is not just an author; she is a guardian of history, breathing new life into the stories of her ancestors with every word she writes. Her work is a testament to the enduring power of storytelling and its ability to connect us to our shared human experience.

 

Welcome, Hanna!

 

GM: What is the premise of your new book?

HK: My latest release, Friendship at Flat Creek Road, follows the everyday life of Carol Ayers, a fourteen-year-old living in upstate New York during the beginnings of the Great Depression. Through the fun and boring times, the hard and the easy days, Carol offers a look at the daily routines and changes while keeping a diary. Carol’s diaries—real historical artifacts of the author’s ancestor—provide the basis for the Heritage Diaries books, and most chapters close with a real diary entry written by Carol herself.

Blurb:

It's 1931 in the rural countryside of Sprakers, New York. Carol Ayers' home on Flat Creek Road is tucked between the dairy farms of Montgomery County. Amid the daily routines of housework and schoolwork, social visits and special events, Carol finds her friendships are not trouble-free--even the ones in her own family. Follow Carol, Margaret, and Pete as their sisterly devotion is tested.

 

GM: What would you like readers to take away from your books?

HK: I hope to provide readers with an enjoyable relaxing experience while reading the stories of Carol Ayers; in the chaos and high-stakes tension that appear in so many of today’s books—not to mention real life—I want my readers to find a peaceful alternative.

 

Through Friendship at Flat Creek Road, I also hope to communicate to young and old readers alike the value of family and keeping family relationships through even severe tensions. And because the subject of the book is a normal girl living normal life, I hope to show that anyone’s lives can be interesting—they don’t have to be famous or live a particularly unusual life. As individuals made in the image of God, everyone has their own unique experience worth being shared.

 

GM: Do you have advice for novice writers?

HK: I’m always full of advice! (Now, good advice? That may be another matter…).  A lot of what makes “good” advice depends on the main goals of individual writers, but one comprehensive guidance I would offer is to seek to emulate the Lord Jesus and study how He writes the stories of life. This includes observing certain extraordinary “storylines” you might see in real life, as well as reading the Bible.

 

GM: The best advice, Hanna! What are you currently reading?

HK: Too many books at one time. I always like having a nonfiction in progress, which currently is a 1952 biography of Abraham Lincoln by Benjamin P Thomas. I am also reading two fiction reads at once: one vintage and one by a current author. The latter, Confessions to a Stranger by Danielle Grandinetti, is an historical romance released last year. The setting of 1930 Wisconsin along Lake Michigan was intriguing, not to mention a time period of particular interest to me. My vintage read, from 1917, is The Secret of the Storm Country by Grace Miller White. I usually derive pleasure from reading a book my own book characters may have read, and this is no exception!

 

GM: What are you currently writing?

HK: Rewriting is the better term for what I’m doing to my debut novel The New Diary (and the prequel to Friendship). After correcting historical inaccuracies and applying some (good) writing advice I’ve since learned, I will move on to writing Book #3 of the Heritage Diaries series!

 

My scheduled time of fiction writing, however, is often interrupted by other duties of mine, like genealogy reports and features in my Author Newsletter.

 

GM: Congratulations on your success. We look forward to future titles! Who is your favorite author?

HK: An impossible question to answer, unless you will allow me to depart the human-author realm and name God, as the Author of life itself, as the Greatest Author by virtue of His words which have the power to give eternal life.


But in the human realm… well, I admit I am overthinking this to a dreadful degree. My overloaded brain, in choosing the limiting criteria, came to the conclusion that even the best authors fail to meet them all.

 

However, I do want to give this question a satisfactory answer, so I’ll offer a few names. Grace Livingston Hill is a vintage author to whom I frequently return to read Christ-centered romantic sweetness. Because apparently I like three-named authors named Grace, I must mention Elisabeth Grace Foley as one whose witty writing style has—multiple times—caused me to drop everything and read one of her short stories, no matter whether the genre is western, romance, mystery, or a combination thereof.

 

If one can become a favorite author after only one novel, I bear no shame in lauding author Jayna Baas for her early American story Preacher on the Run. Plus, I find she has excellent taste in music, so that must count for something … regardless, I am highly motivated to become more than a onetime-reader of Baas.

 

GM: Take us through a day in your life as an author...

HK: This is indeed a difficult task! My days, especially when it comes to writing, are so varied, I cannot explain what a “normal” day might look like. So I shall choose one particular day for which to lead you on this odd tour: November 11, 2024.

 

Morning: I look at, review, and update my to-do list. Many of the things on there are not related to writing, but this month, I’m especially focused on completing The New Diary (Heritage Diaries #1), so that takes priority today. I must also send out a newsletter by the end of the week, so I hope to carve out a chunk of time to start writing that today.

 

It’s a beautiful day, so I choose the task that doesn’t require a computer—drafting my newsletter feature out on paper—and take it outside.


Afternoon: I force myself to get some manuscript writing (really editing at this stage) in before lunch. In between staring at my Word doc and wondering how on earth words are used to communicate, I manage to type words that are mostly acceptable (for now).

 

After lunch I read a bit of my Abraham Lincoln biography in the gorgeous sunlight before heading back inside to sit at my computer and make more writing progress. Of course I can’t write anything before hand-picking some music to help me focus. I take a break when I decide I’ve finished a chapter.

 

Evening: I take advantage of the special offer by the military records site fold3, which is allowing free searches of WWI and WWII records in honor of Veterans Day. I don’t have a specific project for which I need to find war documents, so it’s only an unofficial genealogical hunt. Still, I have fun, and it’s much easier than wrangling words out of my WIP. Someday the information will be used to create characters in future stories…

 

GM: How do you keep ideas, outlines, and storylines for future manuscripts?

HK: I have so many sources of possible ideas, I couldn’t possibly write them all down for later. That’s the life of a genealogist—every bit of my research could result in story material. The research and historical documents themselves, of course, is one way I keep ideas/storylines—information I learn about Carol Ayers’ life is saved either through electronic files, transcription, or various forms of corporeality (such as photographs, vintage books, maps, and etc.).

 

Aside from the history-based story inspiration, my imaginative story ideas make it into a notebook. Once a small idea or outline blossoms into a full plot, it earns its own notebook, and every related thought/plot aspect is added to it, however disorganized. Oh, I try to keep it organized—character descriptions in this section, plot structure in that section, backstory over there … but inevitably, I run out of room somewhere, and then things start running together.

 

GM: Writing is easy, but marketing takes work…

HK: That’s an understatement! Well, I disagree on the “writing is easy” part, but I guess in comparison…

 

GM: Do you have author promotion/marketing insights to share?

HK: Understand (or choose) a target audience, and put efforts into finding those people, instead of presenting yourself to the whole world in hopes they’ll find you. Even within specific genres or age ranges there are readers of smaller niches which are perfectly willing to enjoy your books, even if the Amazon bestseller list doesn’t. There are plenty of ways to do this—I won’t get into it all here, especially as I’m no expert—but it’s only too clear the difficulty of competing on the same platform for the same wide world of readers. That’s one potentially fruitful way of marketing, as long as your product fits the box well. But for out-of-the-box stories, like mine, I find it rewarding to engage with smaller communities, all of whom are more likely to be interested in the product.

 

GM: What do you like to do for fun?

HK: God has blessed me abundantly with such a passion for genealogical research, that even though it could be considered “work,” I find it no less than fun. Other writing-related fun things I do include writing on my manual typewriter, reading, and studying German (I tell you, everything is related to genealogy, and genealogy is related to my writing). I do have a few hobbies which don’t involve the written word, such as swimming, listening to music, and playing the banjo—and, once in a while, daydreaming new stories …

 

Connect with Hanna…

Sign up for Hanna’s NEWSLETTER

Purchase Friendship at Flat Creek Road

Goodreads

 



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