Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a wife and mom with 25+ years of professional writing in the technology space. But I have also spent nearly 15 years in women’s ministry leadership, pastoring and mentoring women and writing personal devos, teaching curricula, and Bible studies for women. About a year ago, I took a sabbatical from that role to prayerfully consider my next steps in ministry. It was during that season that God led me into the fiction space, giving me the beautiful impartation of my first fiction book – Running from Monday. During the writing of that book, a fire for writing fiction was lit in my soul, and I am presently writing six other books in this series. The series will focus on the redemptive journeys and faith narratives of women, infused with the stories I’ve heard and been a part of over my time in ministry, and will address everything from childhood sexual abuse, addiction, prodigal journeys, and redemption to the everyday challenges of women walking in faith and purpose–waiting on and trusting God in seemingly impossible situations, learning to lay down old patterns of thinking, walking in healthy friendships, and managing such challenges as divorce, coparenting, racism and prejudice, sickness and disease, and aging, death, and recovery. I have a passion for helping women get unstuck from the ruts in their road and watching them walk out of pain and into purpose to live as God created them to live.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book is called Running from Monday–the prodigal journey of Delaney Anderson, a young woman who emerges from a childhood of abuse and loss with more than a few strongholds and broken coping mechanisms. She’s kept her story locked inside her for most of her life. From the outside, she looks like a survivor, and the life she’s built for herself is an impressive one of career success, position, and affluence. But the painful stories of childhood have a way of banging on the doors we’ve locked them behind until we can no longer ignore them. Life for Delaney begins to unravel. Locked-away emotions and a numb conscience lead to sinful choices and painful outcomes. The unexpected death of a family member sends her back to her hometown, where she expects to confront her demons. What she finds there instead are amazing people and a series of divine appointments filled with grace and healing.
Since I had no idea I would be writing fiction until I spent time quietly seeking God for my “next,” I have to say that my primary inspiration for this story was the Holy Spirit–who both imparted this story (rather out of the blue) and pulled out of my own soul all the personal and ministry experiences I had been through to knit together this story. He used my own experience and those of so many women I’ve journeyed with to shape this story, and then he breathed across the page every day we were writing and gave it life. The word “inspire” comes from the Latin [in+ spirare] and means “to breath in.” This is what I experienced with the Holy Spirit. I didn’t craft the story on a napkin or have it rolling around in the back of my brain somewhere, nor was I prompted to write it by some external muse. It was by the inward impartation of God’s Spirit, and I hope to never write a book any other way but in that surrendered posture. The results are beyond what I could have ever written by my own design.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
If coffee is considered an unusual writing habit, then I raise my hand and say “guilty.” LOL
I do love my cup of java in the morning when I write, though some of my best writing is done late at night when my family has gone to bed and my house is quiet. Given the faith-filled focus of my fiction works and resources, I don’t write without prayer and inviting God to speak. I believe God gives me great creative freedom to dream and write with him, but I want his guidance and direction to take the story where he has already ordained and provisioned it to go. He’s the best literary agent you could ever hope for. Where I let him lead, he opens doors to people and places I could never gain access to.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As a child, I was heavily influenced by fiction–everything from L.M. Montgomery to C.S. Lewis to Tolkien. As an adult, I’ve camped out for long happy hours inside the walls of Hogwarts, sat in the courtrooms of Grisham, hovered over the post-mortem examinations of Robin Cook, wandered the dystopian world of Panem, and pondered my faction alongside Tris Pryer in post-apocalyptic Chicago. I am a lover of big epic stories and movies–Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, and all things Marvel Universe. Layered over all of that powerful fictional influence is the most stunning epic love story of all time…the Bible. Nothing has influenced me more nor wrapped itself around and infused all other stories I’ve read than God’s Word. It is the filter, the sifter, and the guide star of all other prevailing influences in my literature-loving world. Nonfiction Christian resources and theological studies have also shaped my soul in large and small ways. Beth Moore’s Breaking Free and other deep Biblical dives have fed my hunger for transformation and growth, Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter greatly illuminated my understanding of God’s epic rescue mission from Eden to Revelation, and Ravi Zacharias’ works continue to shape and solidify all of my “isms,” ideologies, and theology. All of this is brought to bear on the way I write and how I want to tell stories.
What are you working on now?
Working on the accompanying personal devo and small group discussion workbook that will accompany Running from Monday, and I am now 12 chapters into book two in the series, Waiting on Tuesday.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m relatively new to the world of self-publishing, so I’m still learning. I’m engaging across multiple avenues right now, but Facebook is a stand-out platform for brand visibility and relationship building. There are a lot of Christian fiction and clean fiction writer’s and reader’s groups on FB, and building relationships and visibility there has been a valuable investment of time.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Prayerfully consider your gift and calling in life. There are a lot of people pursuing talents when they should be sifting their talents to find their gifts. All of us have seen the difference watching shows like American Idol and The Voice. Some people are talented and you can appreciate them in the moment. But the truly gifted leave an impression you don’t forget. You know a truly gifted artist when you see their art, hear their songs, or read their books. When I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I experienced a surge of emotion and a flood of tears–not at the story (which was wonderful), but at the WRITING. A truly gifted writer had penned those words, and I was the grateful recipient of that gift. When I saw the movie Lincoln, I got that same feeling and marveled at how beautifully WRITTEN that movie was. Just because you love to read or want to “try your hand” at writing doesn’t mean you’re gifted to write. Why waste the fleeting moments of our lives chasing talents? We should be identifying our gifts and pursuing them with everything we have in us. Nothing will bring us greater success, favor, or anointing…and nothing will deeply fulfill us more than the very thing we were designed, fashioned, and gifted to deliver to the world. Before you write a single word, PRAY and ask, seek and be sure. Both you and the world you influence will benefit the most by your courage to ask that question and your willingness to lay down anything but what you were created and gifted for.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The very advice I just posted above–given to me by a pastor fifteen years ago when I was certain my ministry role was in music and on the worship team of my church. I was reasonably talented in music, but he helped me to see that my greater gifts were in teaching and writing. “God will allow you many talents,” he said to me. “But he has gifted you uniquely for specific works in this life. Sift your talents and find your gift.” I spent a lot of time exploring ministry gifting assessments and personality tests as well as walking through Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life. God confirmed what so many other people already saw–I was called to teach, and that core teaching gift would manifest itself in many ways, from platform teaching to mentoring to workshop training to blog writing and book writing. That advice steered me down a life-changing road that led me to where I am today.
What are you reading now?
I am reading two books on intercessory prayer and a Christian fiction book called Before We Were Yours.
What’s next for you as a writer?
More writing!!!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I love and hate this question!! Only 3 or 4??
The first one is easy. I would take my Bible. It is my daily manna and I couldn’t live without it. I would take my big anthology of Shakespeare’s complete works (I’m a lit major), Anne of Green Gables because it’s such a part of me, and either Narnia’s The Final Battle or HP’s Deathly Hallows. Both are a reminder that good ultimately triumphs over evil, God and his kingdom will win in the end, and humanity will return to the peace and prosperity God intended for us when the battle is over.
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