Living the Dream: Three Thoughts from a Newly Contracted Author

Alley Pals, you're in for a treat today! We're hosting my (Laurie's) critique partner Kara Isaac, contracted author with Howard Books and creator of stories that never fail to leave me laughing and swooning. Without her, I never would have joined the ACFW or met my fellow Alley Cats :) Take it away, Kara!

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In December last year I got the news that every writer dreams of. After years (and a few more years) of experiencing every high and low that comes with being an aspiring author, my agent had received that call from Beth Adams at Howard Books. Since I found out via email as I was about to start a meeting for my “real” job, I also had to try and be present there for an hour when all I wanted to do was scream, hug everyone in the room, and possibly break out into a jig.

Over the last six months, I’ve had to keep it secret for three, handed my baby over to my amazing editor, and survived developmental and line edits, talked cover ideas, growing my platform (good news – it’s so small it can’t actually get smaller!), had author photos done, wrangled with the IRS, and started writing my second contracted book that is due in October.

So, when I got invited to guest blog at one of my favourite places (not that you’d know; I’m more of a lurker than a commenter – sorry!) I thought it could be fun to share a few of the things I’ve learned along the way :)

It’s Easy to Forget You’re Living the Dream (But Don’t)

When you’re wallowing in the mires of agent rejections and disappointing contest results, when you’ve been to so many editorial and publishing boards it feels like you’ve casually dated every publisher in town, you know, you KNOW that should you ever get a contract, you will spend every breathing moment relishing the opportunity.

The reality is that, when the ink has dried, your heart has stopped palpitating, the excitement has died down, the Facebook congratulations have stopped, and it’s back to you and your laptop again, the dream looks a lot like, well, work. It can be easy to lose the joy for everything required to get a book published to become just another “thing” on the to-do list.

Every time this process starts feeling like a burden, I know I need an attitude adjustment. Out of the thousands of aspiring authors, I get to live the dream. If life was fair and publication was simply about talent, every single one of my amazing critique partners would also have a publishing contract, but they don’t.

I’m not saying that those of us with publishing contracts should feel obligated to turn into Pollyanna. Writing is hard, life happens, deadlines land at the worst possible time, but above all of that is the crazy reality that we get paid to do what thousands of others spend their years working toward and may never achieve.

Know Your Boundaries (or at least know you might have to work them out real fast)

I wrote under the radar for a long time. For years, the only people who knew I harbored aspirations of being a novelist were my family, a few close friends, and my critique partners. I had a great career that I didn’t particularly want having “wannabe romance novelist” tagged to and, besides, I knew the odds of my crazy big dream were about as likely as winning big in the lottery.  

When my book deal became public, I was suddenly faced with a tsunami of decisions. With some I already knew what I was going to do; others I had never thought about. Some of mine were:

• What am I going to do with people wanting to be Facebook friends who I don’t know?
• Am I going to provide personal details/photos of my family on any of my public platforms (FB page, Twitter, website, etc.)?
• What public records are there of my address (and/or phone number)? Am I okay with that? If not, what are the options (if any) for getting it removed? 
• How am I going to respond from requests from people to introduce/connect them with my agent or publisher?
• How am I going to respond to requests to endorse other people's books (particularly writers I don’t have a personal relationship with)?
• What do I say to people who expect/ask for free copies of my book?

Know Which Hill You’re Prepared to Die On

Characters, plot lines, physical characteristics. There’s very little in your story that is out of the realms of possibility of getting changed, even when it’s contracted.

As a New Zealander, there is not much that gets me more peeved than reading New Zealand (or Australian, British, etc.) characters who aren’t authentic. Most often this involves American versions of words or phrases or using products that aren’t even available in their country.

Then There Was You, my debut romantic comedy, is set in New Zealand, and Allie, my heroine, is New Zealand born and bred. The one thing I wouldn’t move on was anything that would turn Allie into an American version of herself.  There was no way that she was ever going to pick up trash (or use a trash can), drink soda (or pop), use ketchup, or put gas into a car.

Fortunately, my incredible editor got this. While we’ve had to make a few changes to avoid confusion or replace products that Americans wouldn’t know with more generic terms, Allie has very much retained her “Kiwi” identity.

Since I knew that was the one big thing in my story that I wasn’t going to move on, working through developmental edits became much easier. Everything else was up for negotiation in pursuit of the strongest story possible.

Thanks so much for having me, Writer's Alley! I’d love to chat and answer any questions, but apologies in advance that I won’t be here until later in the day. Morning in the US = middle of the night here in New Zealand. And with a three-year-old and a one-year-old, I need all the sleep I can get!!

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Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Then There Was You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien-themed tour of New Zealand. It will be an early 2016 release from Howard Books. 

When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. 

She loves to connect on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer and Twitter @KaraIsaac.

Writing Personality with No Holds Barred with the amazing Rachel McMillan

I am SO happy to welcome Rachel McMillan to be our guest at The Alley today! Besides being an avid Sherlockian, intelligent wordsmith, popular book reviewer, and all-around classy gal, she is also an author. The first of her Herringford and Watts series, The Bachelor Girls Guide to Murder comes out in early 2016 with Harvest House. I was thrilled to meet Rachel at ACFW 2014 and love our mutual weirdness.
But she's also brave - because she sent her words out into the world and now they're on the road to publication!

Please help me in welcoming her to our blog today!

A Writer’s Tale:

Once upon a time there was a girl who scribbled fastidiously for over 20 years. During that time, she amassed full notebooks and USB keys chockfull of words and ideas. But she was scared. She was scared to show anyone so she kept these words  and ideas under lock and key.

 

“What are you writing?” her parents/siblings/friends who ask as she took pen to paper in the back of a high school classroom, or on the subway or in a coffee shop.   But she would press her notebook to her chest and gulp her secrecy.

If I tell, then they’ll know.  If I let them see and I am terrible, then this lovely little secret that is mine and fills my brain and jolts my nerves and fills my heart with joy…will just fizzle. If these words are terrible then I am terrible, she equated self-worth with her passion for inky fingerpads and imagined worlds.

 

So, she wrote in silence. She wrote in secret.  She finished novel after novel.

Two years ago, she decided after hundreds upon hundreds of books read and thousands upon thousands of words written, that she would finally take the plunge toward publication.  She mapped out a book that she thought the CBA would like. She measured it, she populated it with characters and phrases and statements indigenous to the market she had studied and learned for most of her life.  She wandered under the misconception of a safety net.   She sent the book out into the world.  While the first chapters secured her an agent, the final product was passed at every publishing house in the CBA.   The feedback, rather than being full of scary rejections that would force her unwillingly back into her secret cave, was sound and encouraging. She took it to heart for its promise and not for guided limitation.

And she started writing more, believing ( as she still does) that a writer should always have something in their back pocket. Even while her first novel was still making the rounds of submission and eking its way to committee meetings (alas, to no avail) her agent sparked a fuse upon return from ICRS and the idea that the writer infuse her next story with her lifelong passion for Sherlock Holmes.

But this, thought she, is rather surged with something close to my heart, the winnows through me, that is so anomalous to me.  Can I possibly write something with so much of me in it?

With no holds barred and with no thought toward rubrics and metrics, imagined or not, she typed and tapped away and presented the final work to her agent…

Who was surprised. What writing classes have you been taking? Her agent wondered. What has changed since you first gave me that initial manuscript a year ago?

 

The writer hadn’t taken any classes. She had done nothing different except…except…..write a book sizzled with her personality and heart.  A book sprinkled with shards of her! She wrote a book in her voice, peppered with her thoughts, pierced with her vulnerabilities, trembling with her desires and ideas and wonderings.

She wrote it jubilantly….elated with the giddiness of crafting this sunny world with live, snarky, brilliant, zesty characters whose strings she jiggled like a puppeteer who just breathed to life.  She wrote while snifflingly realizing someday she would have to send her book friends out into the world with their quirks and depths and idiosyncrasies. She cried when she finally pressed send. She missed her book friends as they experienced the rounds of submission and meetings.

 

But she started something new, aware that…

Writing the book you want to read now meant splay your personality on page.

And this crazy book which coloured outside the lines of any imagined structure the writer thought existed was the project that landed her first book contract.

 

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Writers---write for yourselves first and foremost. Be savvy enough to study the industry, to read voraciously in a myriad of genres, to stay connected to the community, but write also knowing that what may be forging your path to publication is your indelible thumbprint.

Write uniquely.

 Write like no one is watching.  

 Looking back on my reading life, I am aware that the writers whose work orbits closely around my heart are the writers whose personality is embroidered into their pages. 

 Whether you be striving to hit publish on your first Indie book or whether you wait and wade through the uneven tides of traditional publishing, the secret to garnering the first loyal reader and to skimming the top of the dreaded slush pile is you! Wonderful, unique, zany, creative, human and insecure you.

 Zing your books with your personality, even while cognizant of the market you are writing for.

And send that snippet of yourself into the world like Polonius (“To Thine Own Self Be True”) and see what happens.

It could be something awesome.

And it will be you….all you.

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Rachel McMillan is a keen history enthusiast and lifelong bibliophile. When not writing, or reading, she can most often be found drinking tea and watching British miniseries. Rachel lives in bustling Toronto where she works in Educational Publishing. She is a frequent contributor to Breakpoint and Novel Crossing. Her first novel, The Bachelor Girl’s Guide to Murder releases with Harvest House in early 2016.

www.rkmcmillan.com

 

When Your Friends have Book Deals . . . And You Don't

 

Reality check! Our emotions aren’t always pretty. We’ve all undoubtedly been on both sides when the green monster rears it’s ugly head! Jealousy. No one is immune but luckily we are not solely run by our inner-caveman. We have highly evolved reasoning skills and coping mechanisms. Whoo hoo! Go us! And yet, we still hear authors lament broken friendships as a casualty of their success. Almost as if we are bound together by our mutual flightless struggle, yet when one of the birdies catches some air they are leaving the rest behind. No room for superstars in our nest of brooding, misunderstood artists. Bullocks!

The thing I LOVE about the writing community is the antithesis of this jealousy issue. From the newbie to the best-seller, we ALL actually rely on each other in so many ways. In publishing the big fish helps carry the risk the publisher takes in signing the debut author. The award-winning author endorses your book or gives you a shout out because someone once did it for them. And conversely, the dedicated blogger reviews that best-selling book. Posts and tweets about their favorite author’s newest release. The middle of the roader hones their skills under the tutelage of the masters. Getting a leg up when they start floundering and succumbing to the heavy-hitting rejections. It may feel like a hierarchy at times but in reality, it’s a family. Each one of us starting as kidlets looking up to the big brother, or the mom and dad, or wise grandparent to mentor us along the journey until we can walk on our own and carry the torch they passed along.

No matter what you are feeling, we are better and more successful as a team.

And while it may suck that someone else has a book releasing and you don’t, it only sucks because you don’t have a book releasing right now and they do. If you don’t give up, your time will come. Perseverance is key. So while we wait…let your friends have their day in the sun.

So here’s what you do:

1.  Muster up some enthusiasm! Start with a “Congratulations!” and work your way toward more genuine happiness. Baby steps.

2. Street team like a superfan! Post, share, retweet! Help spread the word!

3. Be the bigger blogger! Have your friend guest post on your blog. This is great networking and gives your friend their due in the spotlight.

4. REVIEW and SHARE! Because books live and die by their reviews. Help give a friend a fighting chance to climb the ranks in an utterly saturated marketplace like Amazon where great books might easily fall through the cracks.

5. BUY BOOKS! Don’t expect a handout. BUY THE BOOK. Buy extra! Throw a giveaway! Give some as gifts. Do what you secretly wish someone would do if it were YOUR debut.

6. GUSH! Be a gusher. No matter how good it is, someone is going to hate your book. You will get dinged by a reviewer. You will be rejected over and over. And quite frankly, the writing life can be really discouraging at times. So when you have a kind word, say it. Say it with enthusiasm and give that tortured writer the validation they need to keep on going when the weariness and doubts are winning.

7. BE happy for them. Make up your mind to be happy and then do it. Mind over matter. Your time will comes and your community will have your back!

 

Alright… How about I practice what I preach a bit here? GIVEAWAY TIME!!!! And since this post is inspired by my immense pride for my crit partner and bestie Pepper Basham whose DEBUT novel The Thorn Bearer was just released yesterday, if you help spread the word I’ll buy someone a copy of her book!

 

 

 

Here’s how we’ll play this!

1. Leave your email address in the comments section (Or your facebook addy so I can message you there).

AND

2. Share this post on Facebook with a SHOUT OUT for Pepper Basham and the giveaway for her outstanding book The Thorn Bearer!

I’ll draw a winner out of a hat and gift some lucky winner a beautiful read for Mother’s Day!

The Creative Spark - Exercises for the Burned-Out Writer

Ever been in a position where you feel like your writing well has gone dry? Maybe you're in between projects, discouraged by some disappointing writing/contest feedback, or you're just in a place where you feel like writing has become a ho-hum event.

When we take those first few steps to become a writer, especially a fiction writer, the process is almost magical. Everything seems possible. We could be a NYT bestseller. We could write stories that God uses to bring hope and healing to people's hearts. We could be authors. Our books may even make it to bookstores.

But have you noticed time has a way of dulling that excitement, even perhaps making us cynical? The edges of those dreams grow frayed and even sharp with each disappointment the road brings. But is that the way it has to be?

I don't think so. While some disappointments may be inevitable for growth, I think we can find our footing, so to speak, in any situation.

So here are some suggestions if you're feeling your creative spark has fizzled out!

• Pick up a new book to read, even a new genre. I did this just recently... I decided it was time to branch out and read some genres I don't usually. I was shocked how much this pushed me out of my comfort zone and stirred fresh excitement in me about my own writing.

• Don't be afraid to write just for fun. Remember those days when writing wasn't about what a publisher/agent might reject or following a certain set of rules? Even staying true to your selected genre/brand? Remember how much fun writing could be? It can be that way again. Even if it's only a page or two, write something you've always thought would be fun, even if it's way out of the box. Who knows! Maybe you'll spark a new story idea, or if nothing else, you'll recharge your writing energy.

• Go back through old manuscripts you've long forgotten and remind yourself what a great writer you are. Sometimes we become overly critical of ourselves when we get very invested in a manuscript. While it's oh-so-important to self-edit and accept criticism, it's also important to remember the people who have invested in us and why we're writing in the first place. Don't be so focused on what you're doing wrong that you can't see what you're doing right! I have found if I go through old manuscripts, while I sometimes cringe, I also sometimes laugh at lines I'd long forgotten. Give yourself a confidence boost by remembering stories that once held your heart and time.

• Get our of your comfort zone. Go to a park and people watch. Interview someone with the same job as your main character. Try zip lining or attend an animal adoption event if that's what your characters do. We tend to get comfortable in a writing routine. You'll be surprised what pushing yourself beyond that routine can do!

• Pray, pray, pray. If you see your writing as a ministry/calling, you will go through dry spells. It's as simple as that. Pray God will cause a spring to shoot up in your desert season. Not only will it refresh you, but it will also take your writing to a new layer of depth as you come to depend solely on Him.

Do you ever find your writing spark has fizzled? What do you do to get it going again?

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Ashley Clark writes romance with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story hour. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.

Walking in Faith Through Rejection

"Had I heard God wrong? I really felt He'd told me I would write books that help women." 

This is a quote from Lysa Terkeurst's What Happens When Women Walk in Faith . I've been doing studies along with Proverbs 31 Ministries for several years but this one hit close to home.

In March, Lysa talks about receiving a rejection letter in this blog post: "Just use this letter as the liner of your cat litter box as I'm sure one day things will work out with you." I suppose the letter was made to be humorous, but you may be able to relate to Lysa who didn't laugh at the time.

I have received two rejections in the last few weeks. I know the number isn't huge, but they did come pretty close together and both were for freelancing jobs I was very interested in doing.

Today, TerKeurst is a nationally known speaker and author who travels with Women of Faith and leads the She Speaks ministry encouraging thousands of other writers and speakers.

Says Lysa:

"Eventually, I got the bright idea to write a book. I typed out my outlines in chapter form, thought of some catchy chapter titles, slapped a cover sheet on the ragtag collection, and called it a book proposal. Another friend of mine, Sharon Jaynes, and I naively headed to the annual Christian Booksellers Association International Convention, fully expecting to find a publisher eager to publish our proposed books. After all, the hardest part of getting a book published was writing it, right? Well, I quickly learned that couldn't be further from the truth. The wave of rejection letters that littered my desk in the months that followed the conference dashed my great hopes and big dreams." (page 32)

Has your writing life failed to meet your expectations? Did you dream about when you would receive that contract and perhaps it didn't materialize.

Here are some things I learned about Lysa's journey to publication. Hope it encourages you!

1) Her ministry started very small, within the walls of her own home.

God desires us to honor him in our relationships. Is there something we need to work on right now? Someone we need to forgive? Is there a strong need in our family during the season we are in? Our ministry in writing will pour out of the way we live our life. I know during this season my daughter's learning challenges have taken some extra time. I might not have the time for this if either of these jobs materialized.

What is God wanting to teach you in your home and family in order to grow you for your writing life?

2) God wants us to be honest and real in all our life, including our writing.

God wants full authenticity in our writing life. Often that means writing stuff that hurts. Our writing ministers to our own hearts before it leaves the email to touch anyone else. Are we willing to write hard things? Whether fiction or nonfiction, we are called to a vulnerable softness. Are you ready to share this with the world. Or are you holding back in your writing? Maybe God is also wanting to build in us a greater humility so we will be ready for publication that isn't the glitz and glamour life. He wants full servanthood throughout the whole process of the writing life.

3) God's dream will come true with his formula.

Lysa decided in order to be published she needed to go where the editors are: the convention. But God had a plan of His own. He brought a publisher to Lysa in due time (though not on her timetable).

It is good to be diligent in pursuing growth in our writing. Publishing may or may not be God's dream for us and the timing may not be now. But he knows the dreams of our hearts. He gave us our love of writing for a reason. Believe that he will use our writing in His wayand timing.

Go to conferences, seek out editors, but keep your eyes open for God's doors and know that he often uses ways that don't seem to make sense to our eyes. My husband's job is a current example. He received this current job from recruiters who found him on LinkedIn without his own actions. God has a plan and timing all his own.

4) God's plans may start out smaller than ours.

In Lysa's case, she began writing a newsletter with another friend. This led to small speaking engagements, then magazine and newspaper articles. Maybe God's plan for you starts out with a blog, a devotional, a poem in a magazine. God waters our dreams and waits, watching while they grow. Are we willing to be patient, water the soil, and walk in faith?

5) Believe God has a plan for your writing.

God gave you a love for the written word for a reason. He loves your creative heart and wants to use it. Lysa put her manuscript in a drawer and thanked God in advance for what he was going to do. Then she decided she would let God show her when the time was right. Three years later, her first book was published.

"God was calling me to lay my desire to write a book on the altar." (page 35)

Is there anything you have to lay on the altar?

Even when Lysa received the first "yes" from a publisher, that "yes" came along with two pages of changes. Two pages of changes that translated to change most of the manuscript. Rejection will follow us all of our writing life even if we were to become the next Stephen King.

I recommend Lysa's book if you are struggling with walking in faith in any aspect of your life.

Dear God, help us to lay aside our writing plans on the altar and embrace your plan for our writing life.

Julia Reffner lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, two elementary aged children and adorable ragdoll cats. She writes for Library Journal and the website Wonderfully Woven.

From The Valley, The Writer Speaks

Last week, I had the chance to sit in a room full of women and listen to the best selling author, Glennon Doyle Melton of Momastery share a bit of her testimony, and a whole lot of wisdom.  Coming from a past of addiction and heartache, she not only found God, but His greater purpose for her--to write. Glennon doesn't just speak as a writer, she speaks (and writes) as a "valley" girl...a woman who has found her calling to write in the very bottom of one of life's valley.

freedigitalphotos.net by Boaz Yiftach

Glennon said two things that resonated most with me (and if you've talked with me these past few days...I have probably told you this because it's something I am constantly processing!):

First thing, is when she spoke of walking in a valley, she said: "Life-changing work begins at the broken heart."

And second-- Glennon realized she needed "to be still--to sit in the pain (of life)" and let it change her.

 The two above points meet me on a personal level,  reaching to the very core of me, my very valley-treading soul that sits in the pit and waits to let the pain change me.

BUT.... what God calls me to do, as I sit--in the waiting for change-- is to WRITE.

freedigitalphotos.net by anankkml

In that writing, I am changed. And the pain pours out, and my heart is healed...BY my calling, IN the valley. 

The writing does not save me from the valley, but it changes me, and it explores the pain to reveal God's healing. And even in a fiction plot, and the made-up characters, His Truth begins to minister to the wound of my very real heart, and  life-changing work begins.

So...I would like to reiterate that, especially for me, "life-changing work begins at the broken heart". And, to sit in the pain, and "be still", and allow the pain to change me, perhaps it's not just a time for waiting, but for writing?

Have you poured your heart out on paper and found healing through it?

(To understand more of Glennon's story, click here:  http://momastery.com/blog/about-glennon/ )

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written five Historical Romance novels, has a Historical underway, and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets, selling Jamberry, and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check out her author page at www.facebook.com/dicken.angie and her personal blog at angiedicken.blogspot.com 

Five Common Misconceptions about the General Market with Guest Author Kimberly Buckner

I am excited to share this post with you from my friend and fellow Denver resident, Kimberly Buckner. If you haven't heard of Kimberly yet in the writing world, you will someday soon, so mark your calendars with today as the day. She's a fantastic writer with a great viewpoint on writing for the general market. ~Casey

“Oh…”

It’s a common reaction when you tell someone you write romance, right? You can just see them picturing a half-naked Fabio, hair billowing as he rips open some buxom damsel’s bodice. And you want to explain that there’s a lot more to writing romance than Fabio, and that you actually have a story and a message, and that just as God is a creator, you’re being true to your calling when you write these stories of growth, loss, overcoming trials, and of course, love.

I’ve been there. And I get a similar reaction from some friends when I tell them I write for the general market instead of the CBA.

I get it. Not everyone should write for the general market, but it’s where I’m meant to be. To be honest, it took me some time to accept that. My hesitation was in part due to the aforementioned reactions from friends, and in part due to misinformation about what this would look like.  The following are some comments I heard and believed but have since discovered the truth about.

1)     It’s cutthroat and unsupportive.

I went to my first RWA conference last year and was pleasantly surprised to meet wonderful successful authors who went out of their way to help others. I met a fantasy author who offered to read my manuscript. I have chapter-mates who have cheered me every time I’ve had success with a contest. And currently I’m in an email group with 45 other finalists—nine of whom are in my same category—who have become a sisterhood. We root for each other’s success, commiserate over each other’s disappointments, and help each other with query letters and pitches.  The truth is, all romance writers are a sister—and occasionally a brother—hood of people who understand that we’re artists, and the success of one is a success for all of us.

2)     You have to write smut.

Sure, there’s a lot of “edgy” stuff out there now. But there’s also a lot of rich, emotional, wonderful stories that focus not strictly on the physical, but on the beauty and vulnerability of falling in love. And the world needs those books too. I firmly believe that we need to put as much light out there as we can because readers may not know what they’re missing until they find it. We need to demonstrate what real love is and stir a hunger and a motivation to seek that.The difference between Christian publishing and general market is greater than just overt spirituality. Your characters probably won’t have the same worldview as you do. Their language won’t include spiritual references, and no one gets saved. But there’s still room for, and a need for, truth.

3)     It’s much easier to get published.

Yes, it’s a much larger market. But that also means there’s a lot more people trying to write for it. There are five major publishers and they didn’t survive this long by putting out lousy material. They’re still looking for the best of the best.Self-publishing no longer carries the stigma it used to, since there have been a number of highly successful authors who’ve taken that route. But the reason they’re successful is because they’re good. So in the end, story wins no matter what market you’re pursuing.

4)     It’s much harder to get published.

Almost immediately after making the transition I gained more traction than I’d gotten in all my efforts to pursue publishing in the Christian market. I’d found the place I’m supposed to be. And while I don’t think success is always a sign of God’s favor, for me it was the encouragement I needed to forge on. It’s a good fit for me. As a single girl living in the city I know what it’s like out there. Writing about the world as I experience it enables me to relate to my readers. To acknowledge their frustrations, their longings, their expectations, and hopefully to stir in them a desire for something richer than this world’s typical experience.A desire for love that never fails. Plus, my somewhat irreverent sense of humor seems to fit better.

5)     It’s just entertainment instead of a calling.

The truth I’ve come to embrace is that there’s a need in every realm for good literature that points to light and truth.  There are some things that transcend genre that I hope and pray speak through my words to those who need to hear them. The foundations of my faith are still there, still the most vital parts of character growth. Hope. Love. Freedom.

I heard an author I love speaking once, about the power of story. She’d gotten a letter from a woman who left an abusive relationship because the heroes of this writer’s stories gave her hope that better men existed. That moved me.

No matter where we find our place in the writing world, we never know how our stories will be used. But if we put them in the hands of the Creator, we can trust they will.

Kimberly Buckner writes contemporary loves stories set in the South. She is active in ACFW and RWA as a PRO member, and has used what she learned to teach at local chapter meetings and conferences. Kimberly won the 2014 Maggie for Single Title Romance, and the 2015 Emily for Contemporary Long Romance, and is a 2015 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist for Contemporary. After fourteen fabulous years below the Mason-Dixon, she currently lives in Denver.

She can be found online at:

www.kimberlybuckner.com

www.facebook.com/kimberly.l.buckner 

www.twitter.com/K_L_Buckner

www.instagram.com/kimberly_buckner