Comments for booksandsuch.biz

Comment on The Writer as Hero by Rich Gerberding

Rich Gerberding — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:26:19 +0000

“The Call” to write scared me to death. I’d always loved to read, but never gave a thought to writing myself. Then, in March 2007, about 1 month after presenting a workshop that I had only put together to have a ’second workshop’ at a conference, a writer who has influenced many people’s lives around the world and published several books heard about my idea and told me I had to write the book – and took on a mentoring / encouraging role in my life. I’ll never forget his response when I said “I was thinking maybe a Bible study.” – “Yes, a Bible study too, but this needs to be a book. You don’t have any idea how big this idea is, how helpful it could be, or how badly the church needs this message.”

We need to dream big to get through the rough patches and keep us going, but it took some time for my mind to ‘accept’ the dream – I was too busy being Moses and listing all the reasons I shouldn’t do this.

God had other ideas, and with His prodding and opening doors, I look forward to hearing from people who’s lives are changed after being challenged to move beyond the rote memorization of Bible lessons. Next spring will be my first speaking trip out of Illinois, as I head to Detroit for Iron Sharpens Iron (pray for some publishing employees to head over from Grand Rapids maybe?)

In His Timing!

Oh, and thanks Paul C!

Comment on Lightening and Sharing the Hero’s Burden by Brian T. Carroll

Brian T. Carroll — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:06:07 +0000

My WIP novel isn’t a hero story, but characters can jump onto the page in other kinds of stories, as well. I put my novel on a back burner for 30 years while busy with other things, but had always pictured a scene where my character shows up late at a San Francisco gathering to support his wife’s candidacy for office. But when I actually wrote the scene and got him there, I realized I wasn’t sure what else he needed to do there. So I had him saunter over to the campaign manager and ask what he could do to be helpful. To my total surprise, the manager pointed across the room and said, “Fellow in the chair, the sumo wrestler with the Elvis hairdo…” Two chapters later, this new member of the cast showed up in a different scene where I had not expected him. Now he’s in for the duration.

Comment on Lightening and Sharing the Hero’s Burden by Teri Dawn Smith

Teri Dawn Smith — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:22:51 +0000

One surprise I had was that after I started writing, it turned out that the antagonist wasn’t really the antagonist. (I think I started loving him too much.) Someone in the periphery ended in being the bad guy.

Comment on The Writer as Hero by Rachael Phillips

Rachael Phillips — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:30:42 +0000

I owe my unplanned writing career to a church secretary seeking newsletter articles at gunpoint. While my pastors hated writing them, I, the choir director, loved it. People told me they shared my humor with friends and relatives and urged me to write a book. I attended a writer’s workshop where speakers told us to submit our articles for publication. I sent a column to my local newspaper and the editor called for more.

That was the beginning, but it was at my first ACFW conference an author asked for those who needed prayer to line up. I’m not into prayer lines at all, but I almost ran to join this one. As she prayed for me, I received a strong, uncharacteristically lucid sense of God’s calling in my writing.

Today, several years later, as I apply butt to chair and fingers to keys, it’s good to remember that.

Comment on Lightening and Sharing the Hero’s Burden by NikoleHahn

NikoleHahn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:51:14 +0000

“How is Rainy going to travel into time?” My husband asked with both hands on the steering wheel. We were on our way to church while my mind churned on a new ebook idea.

“A time machine has been used and used.” I rubbed my lower lip. Granite Mountain rose from the flat praries still covered with last weeks snow. “An old basement. A supernatural being, maybe an angel, who wants to teach this hippie about the lessons of our past. An old basement below a coffee shop filled with old books and collectables owned by a ecentric coffee shop owner with his own problems.” What evolved from this thinking was my ebook, The Time Traveler, my monthly adventure into honing my writing craft. The coffee shop owner is the background character and after the prologue and the first chapter has evolved into another background story that will change Rainy’s life and alter things. Of course, then there’s Rainy’s “boyfriend,” and he is going to cause trouble.

Comment on The Threshold by NikoleHahn

NikoleHahn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:45:00 +0000

As Nikki pushed reluctantly into adulthood, she realized she was not the greatest writer in the world and publishers were not waiting, pens aready, to sign her up on a book contract. Determined and wearing her heart on her sleeve, she wrote and sent en mass. Her file became thick with rejection notes, but some of those notes were encouraging. Occasionally, her hard work was rewarded by the publication of an article. To those waiting for her instant success, the successes were not enough. To Nikki, these successes were by no means small. A writer, she realized, is a soldier boring through the slush pile with a heart revealed to the world’s censure or applause.

Then, one day, she matured. She thanked God she did not get any major publishing contract at so young an age. Her stories became more in depth as trial after trial plagued her life. Writing became her journey, her ministry, and her life. No mountain appeared too daunting to try to climb.

Comment on The Threshold by LeAnne Hardy

LeAnne Hardy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:43:18 +0000

I decided early on to not complain about publishers taking a long time to consider. It usually meant my work had gotten past the guardian of the slush pile and was getting multiple reads. Sometimes I even got suggestions of alternate publishers to query, often ones I had already queried. Sigh. Eventually, a publisher took 4 books, and I have found them very gracious even when they have turned down several things since. A manuscript I am currently trying to place comparing a child with HIV to a superhero says, “Sometimes superheroes have to do things they don’t like. They wouldn’t be superheroes if it wasn’t hard.” I guess that applied to me as a writer too.

Comment on The Writer as Hero by LeAnne Hardy

LeAnne Hardy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:32:52 +0000

My writing started with a daydream that got so complicated that I had to start making notes to keep things straight. When I let my teenage daughters read my notes, they said, “Mom, this sounds like a real book. You should write it.” So I got a book on how to write and sell Christian fiction, adapted the practice exercises to my plot and characters, and ended up selling 5 other books before that one (Crossovers) made it into print.

Comment on The Threshold by Teri Dawn Smith

Teri Dawn Smith — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:14:20 +0000

Great post! I think it helps immensely to look at the agents and editors as threshold guardians. Any time an agent or editor teaches us, blogs, or takes the time in a one-on-one appointment to give feedback, I think they become a mentor. I guess the day one of them offers a contract, they’ll become the hero! The article you quoted sums up the new century so well!

Comment on The Threshold by Lynn Dean

Lynn Dean — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:05:07 +0000

I can so relate to all that has been said!

My “gatekeepers” are the various aspects of the craft that keep me on a near vertical learning curve. But along the way, so many in ACFW have been kinder to me than I deserved. I am referring not only to fellow writers, but also to two editors who, instead of sending form rejections, took the time to communicate with me personally, point me to the next step in the journey, and invite me to resubmit. They were not gatekeepers, but mentors.