This week I am hosting DiAnn Mills with Breach of Trust and Kathi Macias with How Can I Run a Tight Ship When I’m Surrounded By Loose Cannons?. If you want to be entered in the drawings for these books or one of them, please leave a comment during the week on a post. To be entered you must include your email address or you need to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com and tell me you want to be in the drawings. The drawings end next Sunday evening, April 5th.
Kathi Macias’ interview:
1. What made you start writing?
I’ve wanted to write for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been an avid reader and lover of books. When I was a teenager I told my boyfriend (now husband) that I would be a writer some day. And here I am! Isn’t God amazing?
2. How long have you been writing? When did you sell your first book?
I sold my first book in 1988, and it was a bestseller for Regal Books—a women’s devotional called A Moment A Day. But I was writing long before that. I won a lot of writing contests and worked on the school newspaper in junior/senior high school, then sold pieces to magazines, wrote for church newsletters, and even wrote a newspaper column and did some string reporting before launching my first book. Plus I’ve written/edited approximately 100 books for other people.
3. How do you handle rejections?
I’m a firm believer in always having a “plan B.” When that rejections rolls in (and it/they will!), I send it right back out again (or have my agent do so now). Remember, there’s an old saying that you’re not an official writer until you’ve had at least 100 rejections. I am official many times over!
4. Why do you write?
Because I love words and books and stories…and everything connected with them. Even more so because I believe God wants me to do so. I am always amazed at His hand in all my work!
5. What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
Reading someone else’s books. Honest! There’s nothing I enjoy more, although my husband and I also like to break away for a ride on his Harley—hence, my road name of “Easy Writer.”
6. What are you working on right now?
In addition to marketing my one 2008 release and three 2009 releases, I’m under contract to turn in five novels by the end of this year, all for 2010 release. Four of them will be the “Extreme Devotion” series, the first-ever venture into fiction for New Hope Publishers. The other is a historical novel, co-authored with Susan Wales, scheduled for Fall 2010 release from Abingdon Press.
7. Do you put yourself into your books/characters?
Oh, absolutely! Much of that comes from my drama background. I love climbing into my character’s skin and bringing him/her/them to life for my readers. My stories are always character-driven, as opposed to plot-driven.
8. Tell us about the book you have out right now.
My most recent release is How Can I Run a Tight Ship when I’m Surrounded by Loose Cannons? from New Hope Publishers. It released February 1, and the subtitle is Proverbs 31 Discoveries for Yielding to the Master of the Seas. It’s my “discipleship with a grin” book that tells you more about me and my friends/family (mostly our foibles and failures!) than you’ll ever want to know. In fact, my family is threatening to go into the Witness Protection Program since the book released!
9. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Yes. Be sure you REALLY want to do this because it’s TOUGH. One of my author friends (someone much more famous than I!) told me recently he’d be happy if he could just make enough money off his book sales to pay for the ones he gives away. Oh, how I can relate! If you’re going into this for the money, forget it. If you’re doing it because you love it and would be miserable if you didn’t, then jump in! You won’t regret it.
10. How important is faith in your books?
My faith is at the heart of everything I write, preach, teach, or do. It’s who I am. The only book I’ve ever written that’s even close to secular is my writers’ workbook. Though I enjoy reaching out to unbelievers, my heart is to teach and train disciples—whether through fiction or nonfiction, humor or how-to books. And God has so blessed me with the opportunity to do just that!
11. What themes do you like to write about?
I don’t know that I have any specific theme, other than serious, deep-down, sold-out, extreme devotion/commitment. This theme, of course, is epitomized in the upcoming “Extreme Devotion” fiction series, with each story set in a different country and LOOSELY based on the true life of a modern-day martyr of the faith—and believe me, there are many of them! (And it could be coming to a neighborhood near you!)
12. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
My favorite nonfiction book is my 2008 release, Beyond Me: Living a You-First Life in a Me-First World. It’s my favorite because I am so passionate about taking Christians to that next level of living beyond themselves so that they can begin to achieve all that God has purposed for them. My favorite fiction book is the first of the “Extreme Devotion” series, titled No Greater Love. It will release in January 2010, and it is about a forbidden romance between the son of an Afrikaner farmer and the daughter of a martyred ANC rebel, set at the time just before the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and the overthrow of Apartheid. It is my favorite because it speaks to all of us of the love that surpasses color or creed or heritage, the love that gives everything, regardless of the price.
13. What is your writing schedule like?
Ridiculous! I’m up long before light and work until it’s time for dinner/supper. If my poor 88-year-old mother (who lives with us) or husband didn’t remind me that they were starving, I’d probably work right through until I fell asleep on my keyboard.
