Jill Eileen Smith has made a career out of re-telling the lives of Old Testament women for a contemporary audience, and fifteen or more books later she’s still going strong, a best selling and award winning author with an appreciative following.
Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and to mark this coming Easter weekend we’re doing something a little different. We talk to Jill about searching the biblical and other secular records to make the women, who were originally little more than shadows in the original accounts, come alive.
Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:
Jill's long road to publication'No secrets' - except hard work and practiceThe fascination of women's Biblical storiesWhy Jill has focused on Old Testament dramaRich material from the Kings and their many wives Who Jill is reading now
Where to find Jill Eileen Smith:
Website: www.jilleileensmith.com
Facebook: @JillEileenSmith
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JillEileenSmith/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest/JillEileenSmith/
Feedburner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Journal-JillEileenSmith
Twitter: @JillEileenSmith
What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.
But now, here’s Jill.
Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Jill, and welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us.
Jill Eileen Smith: Thank you for inviting me. It's really nice to meet you.
Introducing author Jill Smith
Jenny Wheeler: We're doing this as a special Easter podcast episode, because you've made your career out of telling Bible stories for a contemporary audience, haven't you, and particularly the women of the Bible. How did you get started on that?
Jill Eileen Smith - bringing Biblical women alive.
Jill Eileen Smith: I actually started writing about the men of the Bible. It began with a Bible study on King David, and I wanted to write a book about his life when the study ended. And I did.
I wrote two volumes, but I didn't know how to write back then and after years of rejection and finding out that male characters for a lead in a book don't sell, I was asked by one editor to consider rewriting it from the point of view of Michal. I turned her down, but I didn't know anything about writing at that time.
Twenty years later, I had finally written about Michal and Abigail and The Wives of King David, and it sold to Revell. I've been writing about old Testament women ever since, except for a few men.
I do have The Heart of a King which is about Solomon, and I have a new one coming out in a year that will be about Joseph and Judah, but most of them are about the women.
Jenny Wheeler: For those who perhaps aren't so familiar with the Bible stories, tell us a little of Michal’s story, because it is rather a touching one, isn't it?
King's daughter who lost everything
Jill Eileen Smith: Michal had a rough life. To write her story you have to understand King Saul and David and her brother, Jonathan. I had to study the whole era around them and what was going on in her life, from being a princess with her father a king to married to David.
David was not royalty at the time and became a fugitive, and so she wasn't back in his life, there was a separation for a really long time. She lost every family member. She had a rough life, so studying her was pretty fascinating.
Michal - King Saul's daughter, Kind David's wife and a sad story - Jill Eileen Smith
Jenny Wheeler: Also, King Saul married her off to someone else during the years when David was his enemy, and then she was forced to return to David when he came back, so it was very difficult, wasn't it?
Jill Eileen Smith: It was, yes.
Jenny Wheeler: Do you enjoy focusing on the women? When I was reading Miriam's Song, which is the most recent one out, I felt that a lot of the women in the Bible had quite a hard road to hoe,
