Today I’m excited to have author Jill Penrod on my blog. I just finished her book Fat Caterpillars (which is a free download!), and I definitely want to continue this series and share it with my family. Here’s an interview with Jill:

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LB: What role do coming-of-age stories serve in the lives of young Christians? 

JP: As parents we teach our children our values, but what I love about coming-of-age stories is that the reader can see those lessons play out. We see someone else ‘try on’ good decision making, bad decision making, coping skills, all the things we face growing up. I hope it helps each reader think through her own ideas about facing similar issues and decisions. I hope it also builds some compassion and empathy as beloved characters sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong, but we’re always cheering for them to make it in the end.

LB: That’s a vivid explanation, and I think you hit the nail on the head with it. In Fat Caterpillars, I loved the friendships between honorary grandparents Bud and Meg and the children, Gus and Molly. It’s not an uncommon thought that young people can benefit from time spent with the older generation. You take this a step further in Fat Caterpillars as readers see Bud and Meg light up when the kids are over. Tell us a little about how older people can benefit from time spent with youth.  

JP: My parents are now in their late seventies and early eighties, and I see this all the time, how being with their grandkids and great-grandkids fills them up and gives them purpose. They seem to feed off the energy of the younger ones. I think it improves physical health to keep the mind and body working and playing, and being with youth requires both. Also, in the story, what lit up the older characters the most was feeling needed. We all need connections that make us feel useful and needed. Older people in our society can feel discarded. Being with youth–in church settings, holidays, any way we can make those connections–renews that sense of value and purpose. Who can be with a child and not get swept into his stories and dramas and passions?

LB: Yes! I agree completely. Your characters face some very difficult trials. Why is it important to put fictional characters through tough experiences?  

JP: This can be a tricky balance. It allows the reader to do a little mental role-playing to try on their own thoughts about tough experiences. Also, it enforces the reality that everyone goes through hard times. In a Christian novel, readers can see the character wrestle with God, wrestle with situations, and then find strength in God to grow in hard times and not walk away. However, as parents, sometimes we hesitate to let our children read about hard times or people’s sins. We want to shelter them. My writer self and my mother self sometimes debate what to put in a book for teens. I want to be real and honest about the world, which isn’t always a good and fair place to be, but my mother instinct is to make the fiction world a little too neat and tidy and sweet. 

LB: It’s a difficult balance to achieve, and it’s great that we have brave, skilled authors who take on the important challenge. Do you have a favorite character you’ve written? 

JP: My favorite YA character is Cody Highland from my YA Cody Bear. He’s a computer geek, a little heavyset, easygoing. The next-door neighbors ask him to show their new foster daughter around school on the first day, and he finds himself driven to protect this girl, a terrified, underweight girl who refuses to share her history. He has to grow so he can be what she needs, what God needs him to be. Cody is loosely based on my youngest son, a big bear of a guy with the gentlest heart in the world, and watching Cody the invisible computer geek come to life to befriend this girl and help her heal always warms my heart.

LB: He sounds very lovable! Tell us about your Girls Aglow series and why it’s important to you to write for teens. 

JP: Girls Aglow has three books about high school girls, and the rest are college age, but I wrote it for teens, and I think it’s one of my gentlest teen series. They’re navigating friendships, questions of faith and identity as they step out on their own, and first love. Not as many traumas as some series. It’s important to me to write for teens because they’re still in process–these are the years they set a lot of things in their personalities–and I want them to see that we adults respect and value them, know that these years aren’t easy, and are confident they can overcome and become amazing adults. Also, all characters make mistakes, and so will they, so I want them to know that their messes are redeemable.

LB: Teens change so much in such a short time. Please keep writing for this age group! Can you tell us what you’re working on now? 

JP: I’m a few days away from publishing a YA book called Prompting Noah about a talented, broken teen who practices his art using spray paint on an abandoned warehouse at the edge of his small town and the neighbor girl who tries to save him from himself. Noah is a mess (as Madelyn’s grandmother would say, illegal hobbies don’t end well), and Madelyn risks a lot to rescue him, but in the end both of them need God’s transformation to fix the problems in their lives. I watched many videos of amazing spray paint artists and muralists to research, and that was fun. Then I’m back to Christian romance and fantasy books for the next few releases. I switch up genres a lot. 

LB: Congratulations on the release of another book! Haha to “illegal hobbies don’t end well.” I bet that research was interesting. Prompting Noah sounds like another meaningful book. Where can readers find you?

JP: Find me at JillPenrod.com, where you can download some free books to try out my writing. The two free YA books are Fat Caterpillars and Holding True. I’m not around much on social media at the moment. Everything I write is on Amazon in eBook and paperback form. Some are in KU. Those not in KU are available everywhere.

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Jill Penrod writes to encourage and invigorate Christian readers with captivating novels and non-fiction. She has authored over fifty novels in multiple genres of Christian fiction—romance, YA, and fantasy. She also blogs about the Christian life and will be putting out her first non-fiction Christian book later in 2024. She lives with her family on a few country acres where she spoils her cats and dogs and putters in her gardens. Find her at JillPenrod.com and BareFeetOnHolyGround.com

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Thank you, Jill, for the interview!

Readers, have you read any of Jill’s books yet? Comment below 🙂