1. Where did you get the idea for Prairie Christmas?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: A few years ago, I began to research frontier medicine for a non-fiction book which would become Frontier Fever. For more than six months, I went to the Huntington Library each day, working at my desk located two basements down in the center of the medical books section.

As I outlined, I saw that the data was falling into distinct subject heads, one of them about women in medicine. I learned that women were not wanted in medicine when they first applied to study. They were treated badly, forced to sit behind screens if they were allowed to attend lectures at all, booed in class, and not given equal opportunity or equal pay. It was no better when they graduated. Some of them lived alone on the prairie, taking care of patients who lived miles away, making house calls in abysmal weather, yet saving lives and even inventing methods of doing so.

I'd wanted to write a Christmas picture book for a long time, and one day it suddenly occurred to me that I might have the vehicle for a story. I use the word "suddenly," yet all of these nuggets of opportunity had been simmering in my brain for several years. Then my story head took over and about 20 re-writes later, I had a finished manuscript.

An aside to all this information about women in medicine: two of my daughters are physicians; one is an obstetrician/gynecologist and the other is in family practice.

2. Have you spent any time in any of the prairie states?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: I spent my childhood and college years in Galesburg, Illinois, a town made famous by Carl Sandburg who wrote memorable poetry about the prairie. I also spent time in Iowa, visiting my aunt and uncle on their farm, and summer vacations with another aunt and uncle in Colorado. I remember long sunny days that drifted into twilights when the sun seemed reluctant to leave and the horizon was interrupted only by the wind. I also remember winter days and nights at home in Illinois when we ventured out to school, or play, or visits with the relatives at Christmas when stars looked so brittle in the night sky I worried they might crack from the cold.

I know the prairie well and tried to put some of that special winter feeling in my story.

3. Is Emma in Prairie Christmas based on anyone you know?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: Emma is not based on anyone in particular, rather a memory of many children I have known, including myself. Emma is the name of my granddaughter.

4. How much research do you do before you begin writing? Can you give any examples of unusual research for any of your books?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: As you can tell from a previous question, I research a lot if it's important to the story and because I love to do it. I answered that question in my previous Eerdmans interview regarding A Traitor among Us — which remains my favorite research experience.

5. Which is your favorite illustration from the book?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: That's a bit like asking which piece of candy in the box is my favorite. Ron Himler is such a talented illustrator that he has brought the right spirit and feeling to each page. I think I was particularly moved by the next-to-last illustration showing Emma giving her old scarf to the new baby.

6. Do you have any advice for would-be authors?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: My advice to would-be authors is to learn the craft and then enjoy the process of creating a story. Putting down the words to create a new world is the ultimate high.

7. Are you working on anything else right now?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: I am working on another novel. I have about 100 pages written on a first draft, so I have a long way to go to complete it. That's the bad news. The good news is that I like the world in which the story exists, I like the 13-year-old protagonist and I'm pulling for him to succeed. He's a daydreamer, he worries incessantly, he thinks that most girls smell good, but they don't know much, he wants to be the star player on his roller hockey team but seems reluctant to work at it, and he loses his temper more than he should. He also idolizes but wonders about his grandfather. Why did he come to live with them? Where did he come from? Will he leave as suddenly as his dad did one day? I hope I will have something valid to say with the story. That's called theme.

8. Do you have a recipe for Christmas porridge?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: Yes, indeed. I have a great recipe for Christmas rice pudding, as we refer to it. My recipe has been handed down from my grandmother to my mother and her sisters, and finally to me, and now my son even makes it for his son on his birthday. No Christmas Eve smorgasbord is complete at our house without a dish of rice pudding being carried in grand style to the table from the oven where it's been dressed for the occasion with heavenly meringue. It's always served with lingonberries, and there's an almond buried somewhere in the pudding waiting for the person who finds it to be guaranteed good luck for the coming year.

Here's my recipe:

• 1 cup rice cooked in 1½ cups water with 3T butter until tender — about 14 minutes or until water is absorbed.
• Meanwhile, separate 6 large eggs or 7 medium. Set aside whites for meringue.
• Beat yolks slightly, add ¾ cup sugar and continue beating with 2 tsp salt until smooth. Add 1 tsp vanilla, or cardamom, or almond flavor. (I use almond with just a dash of cardamom.)
• Gradually blend mixture into rice and then slowly add 1 to 1½ quarts whole warm milk.
• Pour mixed ingredients into buttered 2 to 3 quart casserole. Add 1 cinnamon bark and one blanched almond to mixture. Dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Be sure the almond stays below the surface so it can't be seen.
• Place casserole in pan of hot water and bake in 325 to 350 degree oven for approximately 75 minutes or until set. If there is extra liquid that doesn't evaporate, it can be poured off after the baking is finished. Pudding can be cooled at this point.
• Shortly before serving, beat the egg whites until frothy, gradually add ½ cup sugar and continue beating until glossy. Pour the egg whites over the pudding, make the meringue stand in soft curls, and bake for approximately 10 minutes at 400 degrees until it is lightly browned and set.
• Carry with great ceremony to the table and serve while warm with lignonberry sauce. Leftovers are great for Christmas morning breakfast, but you will have to double the recipe for that. I usually triple the recipe to avoid family fights over one lucky almond. With more pudding, there's room for more almonds.
• Enjoy!

9. Can you tell us one thing people may not know about you?

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk: I've always wanted to conduct a marching band as it plays the Stars and Stripes Forever, preferably on the Fourth of July.

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