Christmas @ LRACW: An Interview with Linda L. Scisson

Since our very own Linda L. Scisson will be sharing about her book, One-of-a-Kind Christmas Quiz at our LRACW Christmas party (tomorrow, December 11), we thought we'd share a little more about her with you. Read on to discover more about this Little Rock writer and her exciting Christmas book...

How long have you been writing?

I’m 62 years old, and I’ve enjoyed writing most of my adult life. A major milestone was in the early 1980s when I shared my poems with a psychiatrist, and she suggested I enroll in a poetry class. I’m so glad I took Dr. Rosemary Brandt’s suggestion. Those early poems eventually led me to a heightened appreciation of the things of God. That is, God started showing up, in some form or fashion, in my poems, and I recognized a deep longing to get to know Him. He is called “Wonderful Counselor,” you know, and He does not charge for therapy sessions.

Two decades later, I submitted my first article, sort of on a lark, to an online Christian magazine called Excel Online, which was an outreach of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock. “Seeing Ourselves in Seabiscuit” galloped into cyberspace in August 2003, and I received compliments from the editor, along with encouragement to continue to write and submit.

Are you originally from Arkansas?

 I grew up in Crossett, a small paper-mill town in Ashley County. I moved here after college graduation: The small-town girl moving to the big-city theme, as did my twin sister Brenda Scisson.

           Is One-of-a-Kind Christmas Quiz your first book?

One-of-a-Kind Christmas Quiz (Mustang, OK: Tate Publishing, 2012) is my first book to be marketed by someone other than myself. My contract with Tate included a marketing contract, and a marketing representative who gave me pointers and a gentle push to promote this book. I prefer the writing and research, rather than marketing, and Travis King understood that and did not push me into a place that would have been highly stressful for me.  

Yet, my first book —that I also had self-published, elsewhere — is Durables: Articles, Poems, and Reviews. I had a grand total of 230 copies printed, starting back in 2007. There was no official marketing, and I gave many copies away as gifts.

What inspired you to write this book?

I remember at my sister’s dining room table on Christmas Day, 2010, sharing a few Christmas quiz questions. And I knew I could compile all my questions from several years, and add some more, and turn it into a book. I had the desire to do so, and I chose to pursue it.

Also, I had a sense of failure with Durables. While I have a revised and expanded manuscript, I have not had the energy or the emotional stamina to do any more with it. And I translate that lack of mine as God’s prompting to close the door of Durables, which revised manuscript is a few yards from me (as I type my responses to these questions), housed in a three-ring, durable notebook.

So I turned to something lighter in scope.

And I had a sense there would be something unique about my Christmas quiz book: that it is one-of-a-kind, but ultimately the reader will determine that.

Have you used One-of-a-Kind Christmas Quiz with your own family?

I will speak about its use with family, in pertinent part, at our meeting on December 11. The basic answer is: Yes, I have used this book with family members.

Without a doubt, it has generated family fun and bonding. I recall one day after sharing one of the spiritual questions in One-of-a-Kind Christmas Quiz, one family member asked me a deeply theological question, and I had to suggest the inquiry be addressed to a pastor. I had little or no idea of the depth of this relative’s spiritual quest.