Meet Connilyn Cossette | Novelist of Biblical Era Fiction

We had the good fortune of connecting with Connilyn Cossette and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Connilyn, what are you inspired by?
When I first began writing, my dreams of becoming an author were very small. I was not inspired to write the next great novel, I was simply a naturally curious person, and a stay-at-home-mom with two toddlers and a lot of time on my hands to read and explore the internet. During that time, I’d been doing some deep-dive Bible study to get some insight into the historical and cultural context around the time of the Great Exodus from Egypt and connections between the Old and New Testaments. As I was doing so, my mind snagged on a line in Exodus Chapter 12 that I’d never really paid much attention to: “…and a mixed multitude went up with the Hebrews.” I began to wonder who these foreign people were who left Egypt with the Hebrews after the ten devastating plagues and why they would choose to leave behind their traditional gods to follow an invisible God who’d just ravaged their country into the wilderness. It was then that my mind began to spin a story of an Egyptian woman, a rich-girl turned slave, who follows the Hebrews to save her disabled eldest brother from destruction. Somehow, over a period of five years, an entire novel came out of that one little line in the Bible. That was fifteen books ago now and I am still surprised at how the smallest things can inspire a 100,000 word story. Sometimes it is another obscure Biblical passage, like the Cities of Refuge in Joshua 20 where murderers could run to save their lives, or a directive in Deuteronomy 21 for marrying an enemy woman in which she first had to shave her head, or even a fleeting vision that popped in my head during a trip to Israel of two Philistine children curiously following after the Ark of Covenant as it bumped along in the bed of a driverless wagon after its terrified captors sent the dangerous thing back to Hebrew territory (1 Samuel 6). For the past few years, I’ve been fortunate to spend a week each year plotting on retreat with a group of fellow authors, which is where a lot of my great ideas take root and begin to blossom as the five of us brainstorm stories together but it still all goes back to my own natural intellectual curiosity. I write books that give me the space to explore history at length while meandering down rabbit trails of interest, to dig my teeth into fascinating archeology, and to imagine what it must have been like for the ancient witnesses of the events in the Bible to experience such strange and wonderous things, Then, I work to weave of all of those things together into a story that I hope will not only keep readers turning pages well past their bedtime, but that hopefully sparks their own imaginations and gives them the desire to dig a little deeper into both the Bible and the fascinating world and culture in which it was written.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When people ask what I write, I can sometimes get some funny looks when I say I write Biblical Fiction, because my goal is, in no way to “rewrite” what I believe to be the historical truth of Scripture. So I much prefer to say that I write Biblical Era fiction which takes place during some of the events in the Bible but is written from a fictional “outsider” perspective, instead of a more traditional, well-known biblical character’s point of view. I love to think about what it might have been like for an ancient person to bear witness to Biblical events, like the plagues of Egypt or the falling walls of Jericho, and wonder what their reactions might be to such strange happenings, how it would change their worldview and the trajectory of their lives, and how they might come to better understand the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob through those experiences. Writing a book is not easy by any means and the journey from the first spark of inspiration, to getting that first draft on the page, and all the through multiple revisions and copy edits to a final, polished book on the shelf can sometimes be a difficult one and the road to becoming a published author in the first place was by no means easy either. But I would not trade my job, or any of the experiences I’ve had over the last decade of being a writer for anything in the world. Every day, I get the privilege of letting my imagination run wild and then spinning a story that gives my own answer to the age-old question of “What if….?” and there’s just nothing better than that!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Since being a writer means I am a bit of a homebody, and even though I’ve lived in the DFW area for eighteen years now, I haven’t spent too much time exploring the area. However, the two charming little towns I’ve lived in since I moved to Texas are full of gems. My favorite place in Waxahachie right now has to be Paper Leaves, a gorgeous bookstore/plant shop within a historic home with a lovely atmosphere and a wonderful owner and staff where I recently had a book launch party. There are also plenty of fun little antique stores and unique boutique shops like the Doves Nest around the old courthouse area downtown where one can get happily lost for hours! Midlothian, where I live now, is just the best little up-and-coming place to be, with a laid-back country-ish living vibe and awesome people. I’m excited about the revamping of the downtown area that will be bringing lots of great new businesses into town and particularly the new city library they are building! I may be partial since my teenage daughter works there, but the Roasted Beeanery Coffee shop is my favorite place to get a boost of caffeine when I pop my head out of my writer’s cave and Belluci’s Resturant is my favorite place to grab some delicious Italian food. Their pink cream meat sauce is to die for. As for a fun place to take an out-of-town friend, the Dallas Arboretum is one of my favorites right now. Their lovely and peaceful grounds are a fertile place for my vivid imagination. There are plenty of things there to stimulate all five of my senses which never fails to spark some new sensory detail to add to a story. I can’t wait to see what new installations they have for the fall (especially with the butterflies coming through), so I am planning a trip there soon!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Writing is, by nature, a pretty solitary vocation but I have been fortunate enough to have connected with four extremely talented authors who’ve become integral to my life, both professionally and personally. Each year, Nicole Deese, Tammy L. Gray, Christy Barritt, Amy Matayo, and I spend a week-long retreat plotting stories together and, at this point in my career, I’m really not sure how I would do all of this without them. Their continual support and encouragement keep me going when things get hard, their collective talents and insight constantly challenge me and help hone my craft, and their loyalty, friendship, and love make them true sisters-of-the-heart. If all of the wonderful things about being a published author went away tomorrow, it would all have been worth it because of them. Thank you, Coast-To-Coast Plotters’ Society!

Website: www.ConnilynCossette.com

Instagram: @connilyncossetteauthor

Facebook: Facebook.com/ConnilynCossetteauthor

Other: I have a periodic newsletter list for readers to sign up for on my website to get the latest news on my upcoming books, events, giveaways, etc. and also have a private Facebook Group called Connilyn’s Bibliophiles where readers can get more behind-the-scenes information, chat with other readers about historical tidbits and bookish things and interact with me on a regular basis.

Image Credits
Ami Trull Photography