Author interview with Sondra Eklund

Always blessed with quirky interests, Sondra Eklund memorized the book of Psalms beginning in childhood, which illuminated her journey through an unwanted divorce to a new career as a librarian.  Now she’s passionate about shining light on good books and showing how patterns from Psalms can deepen your prayers. 

How did you become a writer?

I’ve been an avid reader as long as I can remember, so writing was a natural outgrowth of that.  After I started working in a library, I started writing book reviews to keep track of all the books I was reading, and I can’t seem to stop.  It’s been twenty-five years and I’m still going strong at Sonderbooks.com. 

Book reviews led to blog posts, and blog posts led to books.  The first books I wrote were children’s novels, but when I got on the 2019 Newbery committee, for conflict of interest, I had to stop seeking publication.  Then after all the outstanding children’s books I read for the Newbery, I needed to switch gears.  I’d been thinking about showing people how to write their own psalms and had tried it out in blog posts, so I decided that was the topic of my next book.

What inspires you to write?

As a librarian, I read so many good books!  That’s my main inspiration – wanting to tell people about those books in book reviews, and wanting to jump in, too.

How do you develop your plot and characters?

For my nonfiction book on Psalms, I did have to figure out developing the flow of the book.  I divided the 150 Psalms into ten types, and then I decided to illustrate their meaning by telling my own story. I matched up times in my life with the different types of Psalms, which gave me a framework.  For example, in the chapter on Psalms of Trust, I talked about starting over in a new place after my husband left me and getting my library science degree so I could work full-time as a librarian.  In the chapter on Laments, I talked about losing that new librarian job, but in the chapter on Salvation History Psalms I talk about how over time, it all worked out and my dream came true of getting on the Newbery committee.

Could you share some of your challenges as a writer?

Time.  That’s the big one.  I’m currently overcommitted.  I work as a librarian full-time, sing in the church choir, co-lead a church small group, and meet weekly with my adult kids online and with some local friends in person to play Euro games.  On top of all that, I try to post a book review almost every day and write my blogs and substack – and it gets to be challenging to squeeze in writing time.  I’ve learned that regular short bursts can add up, and I also like to take myself on writing retreats for some concentrated time.

Tell me about your protagonist. What's your favorite trait and/or weakness?

Well, it’s a nonfiction book about Psalms and writing your own psalms – but I decided to illustrate it with my own story.  So I suppose I’m the protagonist, and my big weakness was that I was totally unprepared to have my life upended when my husband left me.  For years, I tried to pray him back.  It took me a long time to realize it took more trust in God to let my husband go and file for divorce than to stubbornly keep praying that God would bring about the outcome I wanted and bring back the life I’d thought I was going to have.

How does your antagonist create conflict?

I’m not going to call my ex-husband the antagonist, but circumstances were.  Since we’d lived in Germany for ten years before he left me, I had to start over in a new place.  I hadn’t worked full-time since before I had kids – so I had a lot of obstacles to overcome to try to make a living for myself and my youngest kid.  Then I lost my job.  Then I had a stroke.  If I were writing a novel, I'm not sure I would have thrown that much at my character.

What are your current/future projects?

My current project is Praying with the Psalmists: Ten Patterns from Psalms to Deepen Your Prayers.  I give readers a plan to read through all 150 Psalms by type of Psalm and look at how you can use each pattern in your own prayers.  My tagline for the book is “Sometimes you need a Lament.”  I do believe that the Psalms speak to the entire range of human emotions, and you shouldn’t feel like you have to put on a happy face to pray.

In the future, I’d like to write a follow-up book called Laments for Lent.  It would be more of a traditional devotional book for the 40 days of Lent, looking at the six parts of a Lament in the six weeks of Lent, and still encouraging the reader to write their own.  For a couple years, I've done a weekly blog series during Lent following this idea.

Do you have a routine you follow when writing?

When I’m sitting down to write, whether for 15 minutes or a few hours, I like to spend a few minutes writing in a Word document I call my Writing Plan.  I make a new document each month.  I headline a new paragraph with the day’s date and write down what I’m hoping to work on that day.  It helps me focus.  I also keep a spreadsheet of number of words written, and I include the words I write in the writing plan that day.

If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would it be?

You’re going to be okay!  In fact, things will be good.  Don’t be discouraged.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Keep at it!  Also, writing online is a great way to get started.  I started writing Sonderbooks.com simply for myself to keep track of the books I was reading, so I didn’t care too much if anyone else read it.  Years later, I get thousands of hits each day.

What is your preferred method for readers to get in touch with you?

Comment on my blogs!

You can find me on social media as @Sonderbooks on BlueSky, X, or Substack, and there are links to those at SondraEklund.com