Writers Conference: No Need to Fear

Okay, I’ve already touted the benefits of the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, as have a number of other bloggers.  But several people e-mailed me and whispered (virtually): “I want to go.  I should go.  But… but… I’m scared!”  For them and any others who have doubts:  Here is a helpful guest blog from Jeanette Hansome:

Help for the Scared-out-of-their-Mind

By

Jeanette Hanscome

I’ll never forget my first Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference. I arrived on campus in April 1995 excited, eager to learn, and scared out of my mind. I had a tight enough grip on reality not to go with overblown expectation, but I had a pitifully long list of fears. What if I got lost? What if the lady on the phone was wrong and I did need to sign up for workshops ahead of time? What if no one talked to me? What if the two stories that I sent in for critiques revealed that I stunk at writing? What if I couldn’t find my locker? (No wait; that was in seventh grade.)

Fast forward 17 years and I am not wandering the Mount Hermon grounds still looking for my room because I got lost and no one stopped to help because that would require talking to me. In fact, all of my fears got put to rest within 24 hours. I now oversee The Buddy System, a program especially intended for excited, eager, scared-out-of-their-mind newbies.

The Mount Hermon Buddy System was designed to help new registrants arrive at the writer’s conference with as many of their questions, concerns, and fears settled as possible. Those who sign up have a pre-conference resource—someone to pray for them and help them . . .

• Set realistic goals
• Know what to expect
• Be more open to what God might have for them at the conference
• Prepare to pitch projects to editors (if they plan to)
• Understand the ups and downs that come at a long, information-packed conference where they might face disappointments and where God often meets people in unexpected ways
• Work through nervousness and doubt

 At the conference, buddies provide . . .

• A familiar face
• Someone to check in with
• Someone to listen when discouraging hits and to celebrate with over exciting possibilities

Those who have participated in the past say that the Buddy System helped them feel welcome at this friendly but rather large conference. They felt better prepared and less overwhelmed. Those who serve as buddies find that the blessing goes both ways. There is something uniquely exciting about passing on tips and encouragement that we once needed.

So, you might be wondering, how can you get involved?

1)      If you are attending for the first time, simply contact me and ask to be added to the list. I will send you a few questions that help me in the process of matching people up.  

2)      If you are a returning registrant, I need a lot of buddies to make the program run smoothly. Even if you’ve only attended once, there are ways for you to serve.

I start matching first-timers with buddies a month before the conference. To sign up or learn more, e-mail me at jeaenttehanscome@sbcglobal.net.

Jeanette and Buddies

 

Of A Naughty Cat and A FREE Book

The bad news:

I’m “a day late and a dollar short,” and it’s all Owen’s fault.  She may be the sweetest kitty in the world, but when she sets her mind on hoisting herself up onto my desk, despite piles of work and a glass filled with water, she can wreak destruction.  And did she ever!  Notes and research soaked through.  Puddles dripping on my floor and chair.  And my beautiful keyboard, dead.  I tried to resuscitate it with towels and my hair dryer, but after several hours, it’s wonderfully illuminated back light fluttered, then went out for good.  Nothing to be done until I found a keyboard I liked as well.  Sigh~!

 

The good news:

The Hope of Shridula, book 2 of my new Blessings in India trilogy, will be released in two weeks.  It’s already available in Kindle format.  If you haven’t read book 1, The Faith of Ashish, it is available today and tomorrow—February 16 and 17—FREE as a Kindle download.

If you like the books, I would love to have your leave a review on Amazon, CBD, Barnes and Noble, and wherever else you think of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

George Eliot

Psssst… Want to Get Published?

“You’re a writer?  Really?  So, how did you get your start?”

I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked that question. Fortunately, I have a ready answer: “I went to a good writers conference!”

When I first started writing, I had no clue what I was doing.  All I knew was that from the time I was 12, I wanted to be a writer.  Time was passing, so it was high time I got going.  A friend invited me to go with her to the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in California’s beautiful Santa Cruz mountains.  She backed out, so I went alone. I arrived to  cherry blossoms breezing across the road and dogwood trees just beginning to open their pink and white cross-scarred blooms.  More importantly, friendly writers and un-intimidating editors strolled close enough for me to touch–and talk to.  

I hurried over to an editor and proudly handed her my amazingly well-written children’s book manuscript. She was amazingly underwhelmed. (Her exact words: “Keep writing, Dear. You’ll get better.” Ouch!)  My first inclination was to take the next bus home. Instead, I attended a tremendous Major Morning instruction class on the craft of writing (8 hours total), plus a plethora of workshops, and I spent my off-time rewriting like a crazy person. The result was my first published book (Special Women of the Bible, Concordia Press).

That’s how I got started. And it is just one of the reasons I’m so quick to recommend writers’ conferences to writers, especially those starting out.

If you are wondering whether or not you should lay out the bucks to attend such a conference, consider:

1. You will get expert training. Most of what I know I learned at writers’ conferences. Believe it or not, the biggest reason manuscripts are rejected is because the writing isn’t up to par. Your writing may be good. Perhaps even really good. But to be published, it has to be great enough to stand out in today’s glutted market.
2. You can get individual instruction. In some of the best writers’ conferences, special mentoring tracks are available. (They are at Mount Hermon.)  A published writer works with you and your manuscript to help you zero in on whatever it is you need the most.
3. You can “network.” Okay, I don’t really like that word. In fact, I’m not that crazy about the concept. Gathering up people in order to use them? Uggg!  But it can also mean easing into a group of people with the same struggles and concerns you have, where you can gain mutual support and wisdom. That’s a concept I do like!
4. Hear challenging presentations. Most great conferences have a keynote speaker who is way more than just entertaining. He/she is an expert in the field of writing and has helpful, inspiring words to share. (This year at Mount Hermon:  Liz Curtis Higgs!!)
5. Interact with the Pros. Yes, pros. As in editors and publishers and agents and such.  They are at the conference for one simple reason:  to meet people like you. They want to read your work and consider it. They want to help you be all you can be as a writer.

Some really good writers’ conferences are coming up. But I especially want to mention the 43rd Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference that’s just over a month away: March 29 – April 3.  Need an extra boost to get started?  Check out the “head-start” offering the day before.

So, you ask, “Will you be there, Kay?”

Will I?! Couldn’t keep me away! In fact, I’ll be leading a Major Morning session entitled Want to Write With Sizzle?  Start With A Solid Foundation. I’d love to have you join me!

When? March 29 – April 3

Where? Mount Hermon (Santa Cruz Mountains), California

More info? mounthermon.org/writers

Want to talk to a real live someone? 888-MH-CAMPS

Calling Christian Writers~!

Time to start planning for the 2012 Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference (address: www.mounthermon.org/writers.)  You only have a few more months–it starts at the end of March. 

Why mention this now, you ask?  Because you may need time to save up your bucks.  And you should know that writers can learn enough in the five-day conference to skip right past the mistake-ridden amateur writer phase. 

Case in point:  I just received an email plea from an author I’ve never met who informed me I was to help her write a proposal for the book that “God told me to write.”  She had the manuscript ready to put in the mail, she said, and only needed my home address.  She knew I would help her, she wrote, because “God told me to send it to you and get your help.”

Hmmm.  There’s a problem here:  God didn’t fill me in on any of this. 

At the Mount Hermon Writers Conference, this writer would discover that the “God told me to tell you. . .” line seldom works.  Even more, she would learn to write her own proposal in her own distinctive voice. 

There is plenty of room in the marketplace for new writers.  But not for amateurs.  If you want to succeed as a writer, start by learning your craft.  And for Christian writers, the Mount Hermon conference is a wonderful way to do it.

God didn’t tell me to say this, by the way, but I feel certain He is nodding in agreement!

“God has not only read your story, He wrote it.”

Max Lucado

Mount Hermon Writer’s Conference…

The Mount Hermon Writers Conference was wonderful… as always.  But this time seemed to be especially glorious. The sun shined and everything was in bloom.

Specific highlights:

• Our Eat, Pray, Write class.  Oh, what a wonderful spirit in that group!
• Hot fudge sundae with B.J.
• Discovering joys of writing that have nothing to do with getting published
• Reunion with old friends
• New possibilities for expanding our writing reach
• Great meeting with my agent, Janet Grant
• Interview with Guideposts contest winners Lisa Bogart and Marci Seither
• Instruction from Jim Bell, fiction guru
• The smell of popcorn in the evening air
• Salad bar every lunch and dinner
• Having my cousin there
• Soaking in inspiration
• The fabulous Palm Sunday communion service
• Reconnecting with old friends… and some not so old
• Puffing up trails that balanced out the hot fudge sundae
• Spiritual renewal
• Instruction, official and unofficial
• Eating, praying, writing

 The Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference is always the week before Easter–March next year.  Check it out at www.mounthermon.org/writer.  See you next year?

 

Glowing Author: Mona Hodgson

Glowing Author #22

One of the many great things about writers’ conferences is the people you meet.  I met Mona Hodgson at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference more years ago than either of us wants to acknowledge.  She is a well-published writer and a wonderful writing instructor.  But you’ll see that from her words.  So…

Heeeeeeere’s Mona!

Welcome, Mona!  Tell us a bit about how you got started in your illustrious career.

I was introduced to the impulse to write for publication in 1983. Before then, writing hadn’t crossed my mind. I planned to be a nurse like my cousin Irene. I met Bob Hodgson in 1972, soon after I graduated from high school. We married that same year and I forgot about nursing school. In 1975 and 1977, I gave birth to daughters, Amy and Sara.

In 1983, the four of us attended a retreat for Law Enforcement families. That’s where I had my first encounter with a real writer, Carol! She interviewed Bob and me for a magazine article. I remember sitting across the table from her and thinking . . . hmm! A writer?  

Mid-summer 1987, I responded to an ad for a correspondence course offered by Christian Writers’ Fellowship International. My instructor, Marlene Bagnull, recommended that I enroll in the unit on writing daily devotionals. I did, and in November 1987, I received my first acceptance letter and non-acceptance letter in an envelope from The Secret Place, a quarterly daily devotional. I moved on to correspondence course units in various genres including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; all the while taking writing courses at the local community college and attending at least two writers’ conferences each year since the Spring of l988.

I like the emphasis you put on learning the craft of writing.  So important!  I also like that you do various kinds of writing.  Where else have your fingers dabbled?  

I do enjoy the freedom to write in various genres and for various audiences. I’ve published several hundred articles and short stories for adults and children. I’ve also published several dozen devotionals and dozens of poems. For two years, I wrote a weekly newspaper column called, Letters from Home.  I’ve had eleven pieces, poetry and non-fiction, published in anthologies and I have twenty-eight published children’s books—eight picture books, nineteen early readers, and one middle-grade non-fiction. Six are Zonderkidz I Can Read books.

About twenty-two years ago, while walking down a dirt road, I discovered a deserted and dilapidated cabin not much bigger than my dining room. My imagination immediately began planting seeds from which the premise for a contemporary novel sprouted. Since then I’ve taken countless novel-writing courses to learn the craft of writing fiction. As part of that process, I also began writing a historical novel set in an 1890’s copper mining camp in Arizona. In 2008 that story won first place in the Genesis Contest Historical Fiction Category at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference.

My debut novel wasn’t the story set in Nutrioso, though, nor is it the historical I started nearly a dozen years ago. On March 31, 2009, a fiction editor at WaterBrook Multnomah contacted my agent asking about a not-yet-published novelist who could write historical fiction set in an 1890’s gold mining camp in Colorado. Two Brides Too Many was first released in October 2009, and Too Rich for a Bride will release to all major distributors May 3, 2011.

Wow!  Does any genre come more easily or present a challenge to you? 

Making the leap from writing poetry, devotionals, and fillers to full length novels continues to offer a challenge. The unfamiliar freedom in word count allows lots of room for plot and character development. I’m allowed to get a little wordy, which isn’t all that easy for someone trained to write “tight and concise.”

Tell us about your latest release.

As the business-savvy Sinclair sister, Ida never wanted to settle down. Instead of love, she craves success. But while searching for one, she just might find the other.  In Too Rich for a Bride, Book Two in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series, Ida Sinclair has joined her sisters, Kat and Nell, in the untamed mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, to work for the infamous but undeniably successful businesswoman, Mollie O’Bryan. Ida’s sisters may be interested in making a match for their determined older sister, but Ida only wants to build her career. 

Under Mollie’s tutelage, Ida learns how to play the stock market and revels in her promising accomplishments. Fighting for respect in a man’s world, her ambition leaves little room for distractions. She ignores her family’s reservations about Mollie O’Bryan’s business practices, but no matter how she tries, she can’t ignore the two men pursuing her affections—Colin Wagner, the dashing lawyer, and Tucker Raines, the traveling preacher.  Ida wants a career more than anything else, so she shrugs off the suitors and pointed “suggestions” that young ladies don’t belong in business. Will it take unexpected love—or unexpected danger—for Ida to realize where her priorities truly lie?

WaterBrook Press will officially release Too Rich for a Bride on May 3, 2011. To read the first chapters of this and Book one, Two Brides Too Many, and to watch the videos, go to www.monahodgson.com. Click on Mona’s Novels, then on Sneak Peek.

Which writer made the biggest impact on your life?

Grace Livingston Hill comes to mind. As a teenager, I enjoyed reading her inspirational love stories: Attraction. Conflict. Choices. And how one lives out their Christian faith in the midst of it all.

What’s one thing that would surprise us about you?

I’ve ridden a camel, fed a giraffe mouth-to-mouth, and held a baby crocodile—all in East Africa.

What’s next for you in the writing arena? (Could it be a book on strange experiences with animals??)

No… not yet anyway!  I’m working on the edits for Beyond a Bride, book three in the series. I’ll soon begin writing book four. After that? A new historical series. Still in the 1800’s, but earlier in the century. 

Thanks, Mona.  See you at Mount Hermon! 

 

Connect with Mona at www.monahodgson.com.

Also at www.facebook.com on Mona Hodgson Author Page.

 

“Recognize and remember that writing for publication is a process and a journey that requires intentional and persistent steps. Expect detours. Enjoy the adventure!”

Mona Hodgson

Glowing Author: Sarah Sundin

Glowing Author #30

Sarah Sundin lives a busy life in northern California with her husband and three children.  She is the author of the Wings of Glory series—A Distant Melody (Revell, March 2010), A Memory Between Us (September 2010), and Blue Skies Tomorrow (August 2011).  And she’s with us today!

Heeeeere’s Sarah! 

Hi, Sarah!   Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Oh, I’m just your typical writer/pharmacist/carpool mom. My husband and I have three children, an anti-social cat, and a yellow lab who chews up wooden spoons and reading glasses. I started writing fiction in 2000 after a compelling dream—an odd start, but it’s been exciting to follow God’s lead in this crazy venture.

Pharmacist, huh?  Does this “day job” influence or inspire your writing?

I work one day a week as a hospital pharmacist. Since the work is completely analytical, it helps the creative side of my brain recharge. Also, hospitals are full of dramatic situations, and drama fuels story ideas.

Tell us a bit about your book that came out this summer.

A Memory Between Us is the second book in the Wings of Glory series, which follows the three Novak brothers, B-17 bomber pilots with the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England during World War II. Each book stands alone.
Major Jack Novak has never failed to meet a challenge—until he meets army nurse Lieutenant Ruth Doherty. When Jack lands in the army hospital after a plane crash, he makes winning Ruth’s heart a top priority mission. But he has his work cut out for him. Not only is Ruth focused on her work in order to support her orphaned siblings back home, she carries a shameful secret that keeps her from giving her heart to any man. Can Jack break down her defenses? Or are they destined to go their separate ways?

Hmmm….  Way to leave us on the ends of our seats!   So which character is your favorite?

It has to be Lt. Ruth Doherty, the heroine. She fascinated me. On the surface she is so strong she doesn’t need another human being—and she has a great sense of humor. But underneath she has deep hurts and shame. It was fun for me to tease out what made her the way she is and to watch her change and grow.

Do you find that you put a little of yourself into your main characters?

I try to think like my characters do, so a bit of me goes into each one. I may never have experienced what my heroine is going through, but I know what it’s like to feel rejected, joyful, angry, terrified, ashamed, or content. However, I’m careful not to make my characters just like me. How boring would that be? Since I’ve always loved to observe behavior, I enjoy filling my novels with a variety of types.

It’s one thing to write a book and another to edit it. How do you feel about the editing process?

I love editing. I find a lot of deeper meaning and ah-ha moments in the editing process. While I’m writing the rough draft, I resist the urge to edit. I’ll scribble notes (“more emotional reaction,” “add her best friend to the scene,” “stupidest sentence ever!”) rather than doing an actual rewrite. This keeps me from parking in chapter one forever. Once my rough draft is complete, I do a content edit, analyzing the story and characters, and incorporating input from critiques. Even though I outline extensively, my characters still surprise me, and changes have to be made. Finally, I do a thorough copy edit before turning it in to my publisher. I even like the copy edit. I’m weird that way.

Do you have a writing mentor, Sarah?

I have a mentor “cloud.” I’ve belonged to a critique group since 2001, and I’ve learned so much from them. I can also point to dozens of faculty members from the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference who have taught me, encouraged me, and pointed me in the right direction. I’ve also greatly benefitted from membership in American Christian Fiction Writers.

A mentor “cloud.”  I like that!  In regards to your writing career, is there anything you would do differently if you could go back with the wisdom of a published writer?

I’d go back to my 2003 self and tell her to take a deep breath and relax. My rejection-letter years were painful, but now I see it was all in God’s timing. Back then I could only write 15-20 hours a week, and now writing takes at least 40 hours a week. When my children were younger, I couldn’t have made the time to meet the demands of being a published author. So I’d relax, savor the process of learning, relish the unhurried writing of the uncontracted writer, and get a lot more sleep.

What a lovely perspective!  Thanks for being with us, Sarah.

 

Contact info

Email: sarah@sarahsundin.com

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sarahsundin

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin

 

 “If God has given you a dream, have the courage to do what He asks you to do. Persevere, learn, seek support, and keep praying.”

Sarah Sundin

 

42nd Annual Mount Hermon Writers Conference

“So, how did you get your start as a writer?”

I cannot tell you many times I’ve been asked that question.  Fortunately, I always have a ready answer: “I went to a good writers conference!”

When I first started writing – back when the earth first cooled and dinosaurs still roamed – I had no clue what I was doing.  A friend told me about the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in California’s beautiful Santa Cruz mountains, and I went.  I loved it from the minute I stepped out of the car.  Cherry blossoms breezed across the road and dogwood trees blossomed pink and white. More importantly,  friendly writers and un-intimidating editors strolled close enough for me to touch.  I showed my writing to an editor.  She was singularly underwhelmed. (Her exact words: “Keep writing, Dear.  You’ll get better.”  Ouch!)  But I took a tremendous Major Morning instruction class (8 hours total), plus a plethora of workshops, and I spent my off-time rewriting like a crazy person.  The result was my first published book.

That’s how I got started.  And it is just one of the reasons I am so quick to recommend writers’ conferences to writers, especially those starting out.

If you are wondering whether or not you should lay out the bucks to attend such a conference, consider:

1. You’ll get expert training.  Most of what I know I learned at writers’ conferences.  Believe it or not, the biggest reason manuscripts are rejected is because they just aren’t up to par.  Yours may be good.  Perhaps even really good.  But to be published, it has to be great enough to stand out in today’s glutted market.
2. You can get individual instruction.  In some of the best writers’ conferences, special mentoring tracks are available.  A published writer works with you and your manuscript to help you zero in on whatever it is you need the most.
3. You can “network.”  Okay, I don’t really like the word.  In fact, I’m not that crazy about the concept.  Gathering up people in order to use them?  Uggg!   But give it a different name and it can mean easing into a group of people with the same struggles and concerns you have, where you can gain mutual support and wisdom.  That’s a concept I do like!
4. Hear challenging presentations.  Most great conferences have a keynote speaker who is way more than just entertaining.  He/she is an expert in the field of writing and has helpful, inspiring words to share.
5. Interact with the Pros.  Yes, I really mean the pros.  As in editors and publishers and agents and such.  They are at the conference for the simple reason that they want to meet people like you.  They want to read your work and consider it.  They want to help you be all you can be as a writer.

There are some really good writers’ conferences coming up.  But I especially want to mention the 42nd Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference that’s just over a month away– April 15 – 19. 

So, you ask, “Will you be there, Kay?”

Will I?!   Couldn’t keep me away!  In fact, I’ll be leading a Major Morning session entitled Eat, Pray, Write: The Spritual Life of the Writer.  I’d love to have you join me! 

 

When?  April 15 – 19

Where? Mount Hermon (Santa Cruz Mountains), California

More info?  mounthermon.org/writers   

Want to talk to a real live someone?  888-MH-CAMPS

Glowing Author: Dr. Richard Mabry

Glowing Author #14

Common wisdom: Write about what you know about.  So who should write medically based fiction?  A person with first-hand medical knowledge, of course! Someone like today’s Glowing Author, Dr. Richard Mabry.  (His latest book was just awarded a coveted 4-1/2 star rating from the Romantic Times Book Reviews!)  So, now, to share his words of wisdom with us…

Heeeeere’s Richard!

First, would you tell us something about your writing journey?

It began after the death of my wife, Cynthia, in 1999, when I journaled as a coping tool to help me through my grief. I wanted to use that material to help others, and so I ended up at a Christian Writer’s Conference. The end result was my book, The Tender Scar: Life After The Death Of A Spouse (Kregel, 2006), which is still in print.

That’s a great book, by the way.  It really touched me that you sent a copy to my dad last year after my mom died.  But I must say, that first book seems a long way from fiction.  How did you make the leap from one genre to another?

At the conference, James Scott Bell and Alton Gansky encouraged me to try my hand at fiction.  I wrote and submitted three novels (four, if you count completely reworking one of them), but received only rejections, along with “you’re very close” comments. Eventually I decided to give up. I terminated my relationship with my agent and quit writing.  Then a series of events occurred that can only be attributed to God’s working in my life. I entered a “first line” contest on Rachelle Gardner’s blog, and she liked the work I submitted for a critique (the prize of the contest). We corresponded, I queried her re representation and she took me on as a client. After I reworked my last novel, Rachelle pitched it to Barbara Scott at Abingdon Press, who bought what was to become Code Blue, the first in my Prescription For Trouble series.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Tell us a bit about book 2 in the series.

Medical Error features Dr. Anna McIntyre, whose life was going along just fine until someone else began living it. Soon she was under investigation by the authorities for writing illicit narcotics prescriptions and threatened with a malpractice action because one of her patients died from a medication he should have tolerated.  She struggles to set her personal life back on track.  The book is out now, and I’m extremely pleased with the feedback from readers.

Many writers have a “day job.”  How has yours influenced your writing?

I retired eight years ago from my “day job” as a physician, after twenty-six years in private practice and ten as a professor at UT Southwestern Medical School. However, because medicine was such a part of my life for so long, I write stories featuring physician protagonists. Some of the medical scenes in my books are based on scenarios I’ve seen or heard about from colleagues, while others are fabricated. In either case, I do my research to make sure the medical scenarios and techniques are accurate.

That research for accuracy is so very important for writers, isn’t it?  How much of yourself do you put into your writing?

Obviously, my medical experience comes through in my writing. Although my protagonists and antagonists don’t always act the way I would, their situations and responses are believable because I’ve either been there or seen it.  On the other hand, I have to work to make sure my personality doesn’t come through in my writing. When I first began producing fiction, my wife, Kay, told me I wasn’t making things difficult enough for my central characters. I wanted everything to be smooth sailing, which doesn’t do much to hold the reader’s attention. So I have to put aside my Pollyanna attitude and adopt the Donald Maass philosophy of “make it even worse.”

I’d say that women named Kay give good advice!  So, what books are on your bedside table?

I make it a habit to go back through books by writers whose work I admire. I find it makes my own writing fresher. I’m currently re-reading one of John Grisham’s legal thrillers, and before that it was a medical thriller by Michael Palmer. Of course, this is in addition to the to-be-read stack of works by my fellow CBA authors, which never seems to grow smaller. 

And that is a good thing for us!  You are an interesting guy, Doctor. Now I have to ask: what’s one thing that would surprise us about you?

I served three years as a medical officer in the Air Force, including a helicopter rescue of a crewman off a merchant ship, and I’m afraid of heights!

Ha!  Besides working through your fears, what writing advice do you have for hopefuls?

Accumulate as many good books on writing as you can afford, read them, highlight them, and review them periodically. Write regularly, have your work critiqued by someone who is knowledgeable and willing to speak openly (not your Aunt Erma), consider the advice and then rewrite…again and again. Editors tell me that it takes writing at least three books before a fiction author begins to “get it.” I wrote four and had my work rejected forty times before I got my first fiction contract. Don’t give up.

You can learn more about Richard on his website: http://rmabry.com

and at his blog, http://rmabry.blogspot.com

 

“If no one ever reads your work, the very act of producing it will change you. Maybe that’s what God had in mind all along.  You do the work. The rest is a matter of God’s timing and His plan.”

Dr. Richard Mabry

Because I’m A Writer Is Why…

Three out of four people who discover I’m a writer say, “Really?  I’ve always wanted to write.”  Or, “Me too!  I just happen to have my novel in my suitcase.  Will you look it over and tell me how to get it published?”  Or, “That’s what I think I will do some day when I’ve got lots of time on my hands.”

This isn’t a scientific study, mind you.  It’s just the way it seems to me.  One thing is certain, though.  Lots and lots of people hope to… plan to… write.

I think that’s great.  So much collective wisdom swirls around out there.  So much hands-on education gathered by first-hand experience.  There is a lot to be said… a lot to be read.

The thing is, writing isn’t as easy as everyone seems to think.  That is, writing stuff that other people want to read isn’t so easy.  It truly is a craft to be learned and developed. 

One of the most common questions I get is, “How did you get started writing?”

Well, I’ve always written.  Even when I was a child I wrote stories.  But the way I moved on to publishable writing was by developing my craft and making key connections at a writers conference.  That’s why I am so positive about them.

Today I will head out to the gorgeous redwood enclave of Mount Hermon, California, to participate in the pre-eminent Christian writers conference held there each year.  Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center is nestled in the low-slung mountains a stone’s throw from Santa Cruz beach.  It’s a lovely place… especially in the spring.  Especially if it doesn’t rain. 

This next week, my blog will be coming from the conference there.  We’ll talk shop some.  We’ll meet writers and we’ll chat with editors.  If you always wanted to write… if you have a novel in your suitcase… if you are planning ahead for when you have lots of time on your hands… stay tuned!  This week is for you!

Why do I write?  Because I’m a writer.

Why am I published?  Because I found a place to learn my craft and show my work to caring pros.

“Advice to young writers?  Always the same advice:  learn to trust your own judgement, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad–including you own bad.”

Doris Lessing