How would you write if you were a homeschool mom of ten? Would you choose to go back to the time pre-flood if you could go back in time? Well, author Shannon Skaer is here today to chat about that and more. And y’all, her answers are fascinating! Make sure you read all the way to the end for a laugh.
As a homeschool mom of ten, how on earth do you find time to write?
I find time to write by waking up at 5:30. Which is unfortunate, because who wants to do that? Certainly not me!
My incredible husband wakes up even earlier than I do and has coffee waiting for me when I come stumbling out, which is some comfort. By the time I’ve finished my cup and my devotions around 6, I’m excited to write.
What first drew you to science and history and made you want to learn more?
When I was ten, my parents brought me to a Creation Science seminar.
I was captivated. For the first time, I realized that our faith is grounded in testable facts. Christianity isn’t a fragile idea that needs to be handled with kid gloves—the Bible has withstood thousands of years of scrutiny and criticism. Jesus Christ is the most historically verified person of all time. Truth endures. We don’t need to be afraid to dig.
And that is terribly encouraging, especially for those of us who enjoy asking questions.
If you could visit one place and/or time period, which would it be and why?
Just one? Well, then… If I were certain I’d come back in one piece, I would want to visit the pre-flood world around the time Noah was born. What level of technology did they have? What literature, music, and architecture? I would love to know!
What do you hope people learn about history from your stories?
There’s a gaping hole in our understanding of history somewhere between a picture-Bible Noah and the Egyptian Pharaohs. And in that hole occurred some of the most cinematic moments in human history. We were living on a post-apocalyptic planet. Our lifespan dropped from over 800 to 450, and then to 80. We had sloths bigger than elephants, the last few dinosaurs, and, as the planet recovered from the destruction of the flood, an incredible series of natural disasters. We even had an ice age, people.
My goal is to write fiction that introduces readers to this time period, a time period that can’t help but spark questions about science and history, and how they fit in with the Biblical account
What are you working on right now? Can you give us a sneak peek?
I’m writing the first draft of a novel set during the days of Nimrod, and I’m also working on the audiobook for my free short story, The Last Climb, set during the Ice Age.
Here’s a sneak peek from the opening scene of The Last Climb (the full story is available on my website!)
The earth began to tremble as we neared the village. Bleached grass rustled, flattened against the sloping valley walls by last winter’s snows, and the surface of the wide brown river sparkled in the afternoon sunlight with strange little ripples. The movement went on and on, as gentle, as deadly, as the panic that rose in my chest.
Behind me, my little brother Cusi chattered on, his words, and the ripple of the river, nearly masking a sound so soft that my ears could not tell me when it began, or where it came from. A roar, a hum, like a beehive—only deeper and nearer.
“We need a better stick,” Cusi said. “This one cuts into my shoulder. I told you we needed a different one.”
I glanced back, but the deer carcass suspended on a pole between us blocked his face. All I could see were two hooves tied with a strip of fresh rawhide. “Do you hear that noise?” I asked.
“You should have cut the deer in pieces back where we killed it. Then it wouldn’t be so heavy. Wait—wait, stop. I need to switch shoulders.”
I stood, staring at a nodding spike of spring wildflowers. Here, behind the shelter of a rocky outcropping that jutted into the narrow valley, the wind was still. Some other force touched the purple blossoms and set them trembling. I turned my head from side to side, trying to catch the source of the sound echoing across the river and back from the hills on the other side. Behind us? From the mountains to the left? “Cusi…”
What is one of the most interesting things you’ve discovered in your research?
I cannot keep it to just one. In fact, I love historical oddities so much that I write about exactly these sorts of things in my monthly newsletter. How about a lake in the remotest parts of India—miles from the nearest human habitation—that melts every summer to disclose hundreds of human bones? Did you know that vast areas of South America are covered in ancient human-made potting soil? What about the “white” mummies buried in canoes in a desert in China? Every month I get to pick a new mystery and chase down the story behind it. (If that sounds fun to you, join my newsletter! It’s free and only goes out once a month.)
Last but not least, what is one fact about yourself that very few people know?
When I was a teenager, I learned to play the medieval lute. I decided on the lute solely because the instrument looked so pretty (in pictures).
I distinctly remember trotting it out for the benefit of an uncle who was musically inclined. He listened politely, waiting until I was finished before asking if I would like to learn how to tune my instrument. Until that point, I was under the impression that musical instruments only needed to be tuned once every few years, like a piano.
After we married, I sold the lute and used the money to buy my husband a chainsaw, which at least had the virtue of making a beneficial noise.
The Last Climb: Christian Historical Fiction set during the days of the Ice Age…
The Last Climb is a pulse-pounding, bite-sized tale of survival based on one of history’s greatest floods.
When young Chief Tupak feels the ground shake beneath his feet, he knows something is terribly wrong. The great river is not just rising—it’s coming, a wall of water taller than the trees, faster than an arrow in flight. As an unstoppable deluge crashes toward his village, Tupak must make an impossible choice: follow the advice of the past or forge a new path before the water swallows them all.
Inspired by real catastrophic geology, The Last Climb is a gripping survival story that echoes the legacy of the global flood. With the article What Was the Missoula Flood by Michael Oard, this snapshot of the apocalyptic disaster that shaped the landscape of the Pacific Northwest will be hard to forget.
Shannon Skaer is a homeschool mom of ten, ancient history nerd, beekeeper and author. One of her favorite books as a kid was The World’s Last Mysteries by Reader’s Digest. It chronicled “ancient civilizations, archaeological discoveries, unexplained catastrophes, and other mysteries from man’s past.” Or, in other words, exactly the kind of thing she geeks out over. As an author of historical and science fiction, she enjoys exploring forgotten peoples and vanished places from a Christian worldview informed by creation science.
You can find her online at www.shannonskaer.com or download a free Ice Age short story here.