This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Marie McGaha will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
When did you first consider yourself to be a writer?
I was born a writer. It’s a talent I was born with, and I began writing as soon as I learned how! I wrote stories for classmates and cousins, and at 13, I wrote my first novel about a lady from Boston who moved to the wild, Wild West to teach school and falls in love with the town marshal. There are many authors out there. With the advent of online publishing and self-publishing, everyone thinks they are an author, but a writer is someone with true talent and may or may not have authored a book.
What advice do you have for a new writer?
Speaking as an editor and publisher, first, do you have a true talent for writing, and secondly, have you pursued the technical part of writing? Being a natural storyteller is a good indication of a born writer with true talent. I can teach a writer the mechanics of writing, but it’s impossible to teach someone how to be a storyteller no matter how finely tuned their writing is. Another part of writing is rewriting, polishing, rewriting, polishing, and rewriting again. The best way to polish and rewrite is after you think your work is perfect, put it away for a couple of weeks, then read it out loud, and anywhere your tongue trips up, needs to be rewritten. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, to get another person’s opinion, and make sure it’s someone who will be honest with you and not tell you what you want to hear. Also, and maybe most importantly, get a tough skin. Don’t be offended by critiques of your work, don’t be offended by rejection letters, instead, ask questions and find out what you can do differently or which areas you need to pay attention to.
What is the easiest part of the writing process for you?
I like writing my outline. I use the bubble method first of all, which I think is fun to do. I can be as crazy and wild as I want, and then start toning it down when I go to the standard outline.
Tell us about your book.
Shine His Light 3 Instructions in Life is the third in this series and came out last October. Book 4, the final book in the series is due out this spring. Originally part of my blog He Reign! The Light of Jesus, my friend Carolyn asked why the posts weren’t in a book, I didn’t have an answer, but she was right, why weren’t they in a book? So, the first book, Shine His Light: Lessons in Life was released in October 2017. I only planned on releasing the one book, but it turned into four! And in summer 2023, I plan to release a surprise book that I hope to be able to talk about in the near future. This series is based on incidents in my own life and how I applied biblical principles to the situations. We all have ups and downs in life, we experience some very low lows, and sometimes, we just don’t know how to handle what life throws at us, so I hope this series helps others to get through life in relatively one piece!
The gospel tell the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by the devil. He was shown food and riches and all He had to do was bow down and worship satan. Of course, that sounds ridiculous because Jesus already had everything satan offered. He knew who He was and didn’t have to prove anything. He couldn’t be tempted to show off to the devil a little bit either, which is what I think the devil wanted. The devil knew who Jesus was too, but he couldn’t resist trying to get the better of the Son of God; satan does the same thing to us.
He is not too concerned with those who don’t know the Lord personally, his target is those of us who do. He wants us to fail, he wants us to look at our situations, and at what we don’t have, instead of at Jesus, who gives us salvation and everlasting life. He wants us to look at the bait and forget about the hook. The devil can only tempt us when we let our lusts and desires take control, but if we keep our focus on Jesus, He will always stand between us and the devil.
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ReplyDeleteWhat's something you learned about yourself from writing this book?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your question. I think I’ve learned how resilient I really am, and how big a part faith has played in my life. I can look back on my life before I became a Christian and compare events from then to events after I became a Christian, and I can see how differently I’ve handled life’s crushing blows.
DeleteThank you for sharing your story.
DeleteThis sounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I hope you will let me know what you think after you’ve read it.
DeleteI hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very interesting. Great cover!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I love the cover too!
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