If you want to be entered in the drawing for Lynette Eason’s book, please email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com or leave a comment with your email in the comment so I have a way to get hold of you. The drawing ends Sunday evening.
1.What made you start writing?
I’ve always had stories running around in my head. As a child, I would crawl in the bed at night and let my imagination run wild, making up characters, plotting (even though I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing at the time) and creating whole new worlds as I fell to sleep. As an adult with a six month old, I realized that I still liked to make up stories, so one day, I had a glimmer of an idea. I sat down at my little old VERY SLOW laptop and started pounding out the story. And it was AWFUL, but I loved the whole process and so the journey to publication began.
2.How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing with the goal of publication for about 9 years now.
When did you sell your first book?
Krista Stroever of Harlequin’s Steeple Hill line called me in February of 2007 to say they wanted to buy LETHAL DECEPTION.
3.How do you handle rejections?
You may laugh, but I haven’t had that many rejections simply because I didn’t submit that much. I had one rejection from Multnomah (this was when you could submit without an agent) and one from Steeple Hill on the very first manuscript I wrote – the terrible one. The third time was the charm. I actually had more trouble getting an agent than I did getting published! Ha.
4.Why do you write?
Because I love it. And because I know without a doubt that I am doing exactly what God called me to do. I’m a wife, a mother and an author. In that order. So when I write and weave that faith element in, knowing that someone could pick up that book and read about the love of God and decide to get to know Him better, or come to know Him for the first time…well, there’s nothing more humbling or more satisfying. I want to stand before my Lord one day and have him look at me and say, “Well done, my child.” It gives me chills just thinking about it!
5.What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
I have absolutely no idea. Um…maybe scrapbooking. Or reading.
6.What are you working on right now?
I just turned in my fourth manuscript for Steeple Hill called A SILENT TERROR. It will be out in March of 2009. I’ve also sold a three book series to Revell. So while I wait on the revisions from Steeple Hill to arrive, I’m working like mad on the first Revell book to be released probably in January of 2010.
7.Do you put yourself into your books/characters?
You know, I answered this question in a different interview and I said, “No, I don’t.” But now that I think about it, I probably put more into the characters than I realize. I think I put more into this last one than any of the others. People who know me are going to think the heroine in the fourth book is based on me. But she’s really not anything like me except the fact that she wears hearing aids and teaches at a deaf school. Other than that, there’s nothing much about me in the story.
8.Tell us about the book you have out right now.
LETHAL DECEPTION released February of this year. RIVER OF SECRETS will be out in August. It’s the story about Amy, one of the characters from Lethal Deception and Micah McKnight, also mentioned in LD. In LD, he was missing, presumed dead, but when Amy travels to Brazil to atone for her mother’s nastiness, she finds her childhood friend who has amnesia and has to figure out what to do with him. ☺
9.Do you have any advice for other writers? Beginning writers?
Don’t give up. Stay the course, trust in God, write your stories. Network with other writers, find a mentor, attend writers conferences, hone your craft. And it helps to submit…☺
10.How important is faith in your books?
Very. If I didn’t have the faith element, I really wouldn’t see much of a reason to write the story. I want my books to reflect real life struggles. As humans, we’re created three dimensionally. And by that, I mean, we have a physical side, an emotional side, and a spiritual side. If I ignore one of those, then my characters come across as flat, two dimensional. Including the character’s spiritual growth or change, showing them praying, in church, acting with compassion, railing at God for something, begging God for understanding, or even denying His existence, etc., is more realistic than just ignoring the whole spiritual/faith concept.
11.What themes do you like to write about?
I like to write about unconditional love, trust, fear, struggling through the hard times, God’s joy in us, but most of all, I like to think my stories offer hope.
12.What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
I would have to say this latest one, A SILENT TERROR is my favorite. I can’t really say why specifically, but I just love the story, the way it all came together and flowed so easily. I probably wrote the entire book in about a month. It was EASY! That’s most likely why it’s my favorite!
13.What is your writing schedule like? What schedule?!
LOL. ☺ No, during the school year, I don’t homeschool anymore, so my children are in school and I have that time to focus on the writing. Of course, I have to set aside some time to work on networking, marketing, etc., but for the most part, the writing is what comes first. I have no idea how it’s going to go this summer once chasing my two and trying to write, but I’m sure God will provide the time I need. And I’m considering going back to homeschooling in the fall, so we’ll see how that all works out. Fortunately, I’m pretty good at writing in snatches. I’m never really out of the story even when I’m away from it, so if I can grab thirty minutes here and there, I can sit right down and pick up where I left off without any problem. Of course, when I get hours at a time to work, I’m sometimes at a loss!
Margaret, thank you so much for having me on your blog! It was an honor and so much fun. God Bless!
