The History Lives series by Mindy and Brandon Withrow recently became available as a box set. In honor of the momentous occasion, we wanted to share a brief interview we conducted with Mindy.

Q:  How did you get started in writing?
A:  I discovered a love of words in early childhood. Since then, writing has been my primary method of exploring what I think, sorting out ideas as I put them on paper. I wrote short stories in high school, newspaper articles in college and now write professionally as a book author, book reviewer, blogger, and copy writer for a digital agency.

Q:  Why did you and Brandon feel compelled to write the History Lives series.
A:  We both grew up in the church but didn’t discover much about Christian history until college. Then we learned that the history of Christianity is a complex story, full of politics and personal ambition and bloodshed. It’s hard to tell a nuanced story like that to kids–but we wanted to try, if only for our nieces and nephews (we have 17 now!). We found that stories about “heroes” make it seem like those who came before us were better than us, stronger or smarter or more committed, and that’s not true. They were just people trying to do the right thing based on the information they had, but often not knowing what the right thing was and sometimes screwing everything up. So we wanted to tell their stories from their perspectives as real people and not heroes, and do it in a way that captured kids’ imaginations. We started in the ancient church and the rest of the History Lives series flowed from there.

Q:  Is there a specific period of or “character” from church history that stands out as your favorite?
A:  I can’t say that any one period or person stands out, probably because there is something in each of them that I appreciate or relate to. The ancient church is endlessly fascinating because life in those days was just so completely different from the modern world. The Middle Ages was dark with war even as the light of education was beginning to dawn in the universities. The modern era finally sees a social shift against slavery and toward the full personhood of women. I’m grateful for the lessons of each one but so glad to live in the time that I do!

Thank you Mindy for this brief interview. For more information about Mindy and her writing, visit her website at www.MindyWithrow.com. You can also follow Mindy on Twitter (@mindywithrow) and Facebook.

History Lives Box Set

Buy Now: Box Set: Christian Focus, Barnes & Noble, 10 of Those, ChristianBook.com, WTS Books and many other good bookstores and online retailers. Individual Titles Print: Christian Focus, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, 10 of Those, ChristianBook.com, WTS Books Individual Titles Ebook:  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Monergism Books