Behind the Scenes: The Seafaring Women of the Faithful

Set sail behind the scenes with Scrivenings Press authors Susan Page Davis and James S. Davis as they share the creative journey behind The Seafaring Women of the Faithful, the third book in the Hearts of Oak series. From swapping chapters and combining their individual strengths to crafting scenes filled with adventure, danger, courage, and faith, discover what it’s like to bring a historical novel to life as a writing team.

Hear from Susan:

What inspired the two of you to write this book together?

For the series, we wanted to write a historical novel together. For this book (#3 in Hearts of Oak series), we have some avid readers who clamored for more adventures of the female crew

How do you divide the writing process, and what does each of you bring to the partnership?

Mostly, we swapped off chapters or sections. But if one of us seemed better equipped to handle a topic, we switched. And we filled in details for each other. For instance, Jim might ask me to describe the women’s clothing, and I might ask him to turn Fiona’s speech into Scottish-sounding dialect.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

Satisfaction from a story of adventure, courage, and faith.

Which character surprised one or both of you most while writing?

Sri. Jim introduced her unexpectedly, late in Book 1, and she has become a beloved crew member.

Was there a scene one of you especially loved writing?

I always enjoy writing “Women in danger” scenes, and this one has several. I especially had fun with the kidnapping scenes.

Do you ever disagree about characters, plot, or how a scene should unfold? If so, how do you work through it?

Occasionally we do, but we don’t go forward with those unless we’ve hashed it out and come to an agreement.

 

Hear from Jim:

What inspired the two of you to write this book together?

This is the third book in the series, so we wanted to continue what we had begun and explore some successes and goals obtained for our characters. The Seafaring Women of the Faithful sees some great gains and triumphs for our crew, as well as some difficult decisions and tragic consequences. We wanted to see our crew characters mature and enjoy the fruits of their labors, as well as resolve some questions and concerns from earlier books.

How do you divide the writing process, and what does each of you bring to the partnership?

It’s fairly intuitive and somewhat uncharted. We work together to hash out a basic plotline in the beginning, then we make a synopsis of what needs to happen. From that point, we take it chapter by chapter, with no fixed method of determining who writes what. However, scenes that involve more heart introspection, ladies’ fashions, womens’ concerns, etc. are more likely to be Mom’s chapters, whereas fight scenes and technical sailing chapters, or anything with a lot of action, are usually mine. Once each section is drafted, though, we both go back over it and discuss the details and point out flaws in each others’ logic or any plot holes or problems, and fix them.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

Faith, courage, and diligence pay off in the long run. God is real and accessible. God loves and restores even the hardest cases when people trust Him. The value of loyal friends. The value of prudent decision making.

What was the most interesting or unexpected thing you discovered while researching the book?

I had to rethink my ideas of Dunbar Castle (a fictitious structure) based on the reality that very few medieval castles still exist in Scotland, or did in the 1850’s for that matter. Therefor Dunbar Castle took the form of the more mansion-like castles built from the 1500’s through the 1700’s in Scotland.

What is the best part of writing with a family member or writing partner?

I think there’s a huge value in knowing each other well and trusting each other with the process. Knowing we can disagree and struggle along together about the plot or details, all in the confidence that it won’t end our love and loyalty to each other, and that we’re not going to quit on the project and leave each other high and dry. If I wrote with a non-family member, especially someone I didn’t know well, it would be a much different experience, and I would feel I had to be more cautious in the interactions.

If you could spend an afternoon with one character, whom would you choose?

You know, that’s a tough question because I love all my characters so much. If I were young and single, I would probably choose a date with Kate or Emma. If I were taking the more grandfatherly approach, it would be fun to go fishing with Sonja, play pirate Legos with Ned, or sit and have a deep theological discussion with Eileen. On the other hand, Sri cracks me up, and having taught English to a whole classroom of Asian girls once upon a time, I would enjoy teaching her English out of Richard Scarry’s Storybook Dictionary or a Doctor Seuss book.

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The Seafaring Women of the Faithful by Susan Page Davis and James S. Davis

Genre: Historical Fiction

Release date: September 22, 2026

Other books in the Hearts of the Oak series: The Seafaring Women of the Vera B and The Scottish Lass

Read the first 3 chapters for FREE here.