Claudia Hinz—author, former television reporter and Bend local — recently finished her fiction novel “Safekeeping,” and is preparing for its debut in September. In this Q&A she shares what inspired her to write the story and gives insight into her writing process, which she describes as a test of endurance, faith and grit.
the Source: What inspired you to write this story?
Claudia Hinz: I spent quite a bit of time as a television reporter reporting on stories from military bases in California, Washington state and Texas. I have always been intrigued by the civilian-military divide… I started researching many, many years ago to write about a Marine, a young combat veteran, and tried to imagine what his experiences in war might be. I started to think, ‘How could I bring together a mother of four children together with this young combat veteran?’ Two people from very different walks of life… That’s sort of the roots of the story and ideas that I’ve been interested in for a very long time.
tS: How do you stay motivated to continue writing on days when you find it difficult to express yourself creatively?
CH: Writing is hard. I think sometimes the best that I can do as a writer is protect my writing time and be really merciless about protecting my writing time, but then also really merciful with myself about what happens during writing time. For so many writers — as with artists, as with athletes, as with anybody who is doing a job where the habits itself is so important— so much of it is just the practice, the devotion of returning to do the thing even when it’s hard, even when you’re thinking ‘I’ve got nothing here.’
tS: What does the writing process look like for you?
CH: Sometimes frustratingly inefficient. I had to write an entirely different book just so I could get a handle on the character. Years of research and writing a completely different book with a different plot… Sometimes you need to write 300 pages in order to figure out what it is you’re trying to explore on the page.
tS: Who are your writing inspirations?
CH: I’m an obsessive reader. There are a lot of books and writers with whom my book is in conversation with. The writing of Ben Fountain, whose most well-known novel is “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” Another writer who is also a Marine, tremendous novelist, Elliot Ackerman. He writes beautifully about war and peacetime… I’m grateful for all writers who make me think about the craft of writing and what’s possible on the page in terms of bringing attention to what it is to be human on this planet at this moment in time.
tS: What do you hope readers get from reading “Safekeeping”?
CH: I really hope that readers will have conversations about the idea of the return of the draft and what that means to them personally and how that would implicate their lives and their family members who might be called to war… I hope people might look differently at veterans they come across in their everyday life and think about initiating meaningful conversation because I think so often in our world there’s a superficial interaction…I really hope readers will reach out to me and let me know what they think.
tS: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
CH: Read widely. Read all the time. Just keep writing. You’re going to face rejections. It’s going to be heart-crushing to be rejected, but you’re in good company. Keep writing and find a community of people who will tell you to keep going. I believe in you and your words matter.
tS: I love that. Anything else you would like to share with readers?
CH: We talked a little bit about the political element of this novel, but ‘Safekeeping’ is also really a novel about motherhood and identity and what it might feel like to be an aging woman in America in the present day. All of these issues and themes I hope will resonate with readers. I would love to hear from you and about what you think.
"Safekeeping" by Claudia Hinz
Available for purchase on September 30, 2026
A story about motherhood, grief, identity and the consequences of being drafted in the war.
https://claudiahinz.net/#page-0
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