If you want a chance to win her book (an ebook download), The Glock and the Bible, please leave a comment with your email (for purposes of contacting you if you win) or email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawing ends Sunday evening.
Interview:
1. What made you start writing?
Ever since I was a child, I would tell people I was going to be an author when I grew up. But that was somehow lost when I went to college and decided to major first in Elementary Education and later in accounting.
After I was married and had children, I lost my job due to a company buyout, and I decided to take up writing, a calling that God still beckoned me to do.
2. How long have you been writing? When did you sell your first book?
I have been writing for years under another name. About 4 years ago an idea popped into my mind and refused to go away. It was a Christian novel. My whole journey into Christian writing has been a walk with God, and He has guided me every step of the way.
3. How do you handle rejections?
Unfortunately, rejections never go away. I have discovered that there is no such thing as stability in this business. Prayer has helped me to get past rejections, and the knowledge that God knows better than I do what path my books need to take to impact readers the most.
4. Why do you write?
It’s a calling, as necessary as it is for me to breathe. If I quit writing something inside of me would die.
5. What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
Spending time with family, bicycling, teaching, playing the guitar, networking with friends, interacting with neighbors.
6. What are you working on right now?
I should be working on my sequel to The Glock & The Bible, but that one is still percolating. Right now I’m working on a Regency that I’m loving!
7. Do you put yourself into your books/characters?
Oh, yes! As well as my relatives and friends. For instance, the hero in The Glock & The Bible reminds me a lot of my grandfather. He was a tease, yet intense, humble yet confident in his abilities. Full of contradictions, like all of us. Some of the scenes resemble incidences that have happened to me, but exaggerated. 😉
8. Tell us about the book you have out right now.
It’s called THE GLOCK & THE BIBLE. Dayle’s desire to help a church member makes her terrorists’ target. God sends a heart-bruised Government agent as protection. With Kel’s tarnished honor, she sees the good in him. But when everything is at stake, can he accept God as his savior? For that is the only way he’ll find peace and a place for Dayle in his heart. I sold the book to Sapphire Blue Publishing. Publication date: November 24, 2008
9. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Realize that once you’ve committed, you are in for the long haul. Writing can be the most exhausting, most exhilarating experience anyone can embark on. Be committed to learning, and practicing what you learn, and that you can never learn it all. Don’t over edit. Keep writing. You can be your own worst enemy. Be willing to revise. Listen to God and whatever He tells you in your heart. This will get you through the rough patches and onto the path of doing His will.
10. How important is faith in your books?
Faith is the centrifugal force in all of my books. It’s the major conflict in my characters’ story arc.
11. What themes do you like to write about?
Good versus evil. Redemption. Forgiveness. These are the themes I’ve used so far!
12. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
The Glock & The Bible is my favorite. This was the book that called to me, that led me into writing inspirational romance. It’s a romantic suspense with characters on the run, yet humorous and emotional, with a real message about forgiveness and God’s love. I’m hoping it will touch readers’ hearts and lead them closer to Him while entertaining them at the same time.
13. What is your writing schedule like?
Ah, a writing schedule! Since I’m an empty nester, I have more time to write. I write sporadically off and on throughout the day, as long as my husband is at work. He works swing shifts, so I can’t say that I write from 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. ☺
14. Tell us about your experience publishing with an epublisher.
So far I’m loving it! ePublishing is new to me, and I have experienced spurts of concern that people won’t buy my book because it is an ebook. I mean, people work all day at their computers; would anybody want to read a book for leisure at one? But through an experience with my niece God has told me not to worry.
This darling girl has never read a book in her life. When we went to California for a visit, she pulled out an Amazon Kindle and I about fell out of my chair. Full of exuberance, she told me how she got her Kindle for Christmas and so did all of her girlfriends. They have now formed a book club and read voraciously!
Lots of young adults (and older ones, too) now enjoy reading via electronic readers. Too, I was thrilled when my friends came home from ACFW and told me how publishers were saying that Kindles were all the rage, and that all authors better get on the bandwagon!
Now I definitely know getting a contract through Sapphire Blue Publishing–an electronic publisher–was God’s plan, and that I’m on the cutting edge of a technology that is already taking off in a big way and per God’s plan, I’m on the wave!
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