Alley News + Author Spotlight on Joanne Bischof

Welcome to the new Writer's Alley Friday! They may look different from week to week and don't have a special name (at least not yet!), but if we could sum up the main idea for these Friday posts in one word, it would be community. That's what The Writer's Alley is all about, after all!

Notable News:

• We are SO excited that our Angie Dicken got THE CALL this week! Harlequin's Love Inspired Historical has offered Angie her first contract through the Manuscript Match contest. She has worked so hard, and we couldn't be prouder of her!
• In case you missed it this week, Pepper taught us what we can learn about characterization from the Marvel and DC universe, and Laurie discussed feeling like a fraud when it comes to your creative work. 
• The Writer's Alley is now on Twitter (@AlleyCatsTweet)! We would love it if you would follow our Tweets for posts, news, and more! 

Alley Spotlight:

Today, we'd like to welcome author Joanne Bischof to The Writer's Alley! We are swooning over her GORGEOUS latest book, The Lady and the Lionheart, and asked her to answer some questions for us:

What's the most random thing in your bag?

The world’s ugliest bookmark holder. My purse doesn’t have a pouch the right size to hold bookmarks where they won’t get bent, so I’m always caught without carrying any. Recently, I looked online to see if there was a protective case in that size, but couldn’t find anything, so made one out of cardboard and rubber bands. Whenever someone wants a bookmark, I try to remove one while the cardboard case is hidden inside my purse because it’s super embarrassing. Getting the rubber bands off without making snapping sounds is where practice comes in.

What are you reading right now?

On the top of my TBR stack is Lori Benton’s A Flight of Arrows. After devouring The Wood’s Edge in just a few days, I started the second book in the series and had just gotten a chapter or two in when I had to set it down to meet a few writing deadlines. Now that those projects are turned in, I get to pick Lori’s book back up and dive in again. I’m eager because the first book was so meaningful to me – the themes so rich and timely for what I needed.

Your movie snack of choice?

I’m on a strict, low-allergen diet right now so it would be something really thrilling like water. But if I could really have my choice, it would be Sourpatch Kids and Cadbury chocolate (preferably mini eggs) and homemade popcorn cooked on the stove top in a cast iron pot with olive oil. Then top it all off with drizzled butter and sea salt.


What's your favorite recent discovery?

I’d say Photoshop. I do all of my own design work and book covers and I’ve always used other programs because Photoshop and I don’t seem to speak the same language. For This Quiet Sky, I designed the cover entirely in PicMonkey which, while I love that program, was hard because you only get one shot. If your internet closes, bye bye cover. To make it work, I designed that cover in stages, creating and saving different versions each time I worked and over the weeks, built up to the finished product. The only problem was that, if I ended up wanting to change my mind about something, it was locked in. While I still adore and use PicMonkey for detail work, I knew I needed to finally figure out Photoshop. I took a lot of Youtube video tutorials and began to be able to navigate the basics and upward. Now I love it. The Lady and the Lionheart was the first cover I designed using that program and it made my job a million times easier. Plus it allowed me to work with layers and fonts that really brought it all together.

If you could go back in time to the beginning of your writing journey, what advice would you give yourself?

It would be that “God’s got this.”

That as a new author, you look into the great unknown and wonder how it’s all going to unfold. It’s thrilling because there’s a publishing house that believes enough in you and your writing to give you a chance and you’re also filled with so much fear and worry that you might not be enough or do enough and that you’re going to let them down. Or that no matter how hard you work to write the best book you can, that some readers just won’t like it.

And through it all, “God’s STILL got this.” He’s not surprised by any of the ups and downs and He’s steady beside you each and every step. To take a deep breath, enjoy every single part of the journey, and to trust that there’s no point of arrival. It’s simply a journey of getting to walk side by side with the Lord as you create with words for His glory. You’ll be learning so much more than you ever expected and that if you allow it, the journey will grow you and shape you and make you more of the person He wanted you to be. 

Ahhh! We love that so much. Thank you for visiting The Writer's Alley, Joanne! We are huge fans, and this made us love you even more!

You can find her on: Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest // YouTube // Her Blog

The Lady and the Lionheart is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

Have you read any of Joanne's books? Did you learn anything new about her? Hope you have a wonderful weekend!