Glynna Kaye’s interview

This week I’m hosting Glynna Kaye with Dreaming of Home, Allie Pleiter with Bluegrass Christmas and Jill Williamson with By Darkness Hid. If you want to enter the drawing for the book, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (Oct. 11th) evening.

Glynna Kaye’s Interview:

1) What made you start writing? My parents are readers, so books and libraries have always been a part of my life. The love of books gradually grew into an interest in writing book-length fiction.

2) How long have you been writing? I wrote poems and short stories in grade school and on into my teen, college, and post-college years. Wrote historical romance. Contemporary romantic mystery/suspense. A fantasy for elementary-aged kids. But I really didn’t have a clue, despite college writing and literature courses, on how to put story together. Knew nothing about story structure, stages of drama, goals, motivation, conflict, pacing, premise, or POV no-no’s. It wasn’t until I came across a “Romantic Times” magazine that I learned about Romance Writers of America (RWA) and began the journey to a better understanding of the art and craft of story-telling.

3) When did you sell your first book? In January 2009! After years of finaling in RWA contests and taking a 7-8 year “sabbatical” for health reasons, I again began writing and entering contests—winning the 2006 RWA Faith Hope & Love “Touched by Love” and ACFW’s “Genesis” with one of my first person POV romantic suspense/mysteries. In the spring/summer of 2008 I prayerfully set aside the pursuit of the single title books and wrote an inspirational romance targeted for Steeple Hill Love Inspired. I sent it off to The Golden Pen contest for feedback. Lo and behold it won first place (!) and the finals judge, Steeple Hill Senior Editor Melissa Endlich, asked to see all of it. I sent it off in January 2009 and a week after it arrived on her New York doorstep, I got “The Call” that my book would be an October 2009 release!

4) How do you handle rejections? I always wonder how I could ever have fooled myself into thinking I could write a book! But in Seekerville (www.seekerville.blogspot.com) we have a 24-hour rule. For 24 hours we allow each other to cry, rant and rave, wail and wallow in a pity party. For 24 hours we receive extra prayers, comforting cyber hugs, and commiseration. 24 hours– then the time is up. No more whining. We let God dust off our sackcloth and ashes and, as Seeker Ruth Logan Herne puts it, we “pull up our big girl panties” and move on. Not always the easiest thing in the world to do, but with God’s help we manage to do it.

5) Why do you write? It’s such a part of who I am. Like breathing. Just the way God made me, I guess. I love to write, and it’s my hope and dream that God will use my stories to be a blessing to my readers.

6) What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing? Reading, of course! Photography. Gardening. Spending more time in God’s great big beautiful outdoors. Oh, and keeping myself better organized!

7) What are you working on right now? I’m well into my second Steeple Hill Love Inspired set in the same fictional Arizona mountain town as “Dreaming of Home.” Kara and Trey have some major issues to overcome before they can find a happily ever after in Canyon Springs!

8) Do you put yourself into your books/characters? Yes and No. I think every writer leaves an impression to some degree on all created characters, sort of like a fingerprint. There are times when it’s more overt, more deliberate, and other times subtle, even subconscious. But I don’t write stories “about” me.

9) Tell us about the book you have out right now. “Dreaming of Home” is the story of school teacher Megan McGuire and ex-Navy corpsman/single dad Joe Diaz who both have reasons for arriving in the small community of Canyon Springs in pursuit of a new life—and the same rare high school teaching opening. Both have a dream–and a need to trust God in order to attain it.

10) Do you have any advice for other writers? The classic DON’T GIVE UP! Yes, there are a few rare souls who sit down and write a first book and within a few short months have three major publishers duking it out in a bidding war. But that’s not the norm. Unlike most professions, there’s no set curriculum, no class syllabus, no exams, diploma or certification that announce to the world “I’m qualified.” It’s easy to get discouraged, wonder if your dreams are fantasy. But hang in there, stick close to God and, if at all possible, find a few like-minded friends who can support you during those uncertain times. I truly believe my family and my Seekerville Sisters who have been there for me made all the difference.

11) How important is faith in your books? It’s very important, just as it is in my own life. We’re all spiritual beings God created and loves even if we don’t always choose to acknowledge him. I enjoy the freedom in Steeple Hill Love Inspireds to weave my characters’ spiritual dimension into my stories. I believe it significantly enriches and deepens the storyline.

12) What themes do you like to write about? I’m a newbie, so I haven’t truly established a “pattern” yet, but I imagine my books will always touch on learning to listen to God, placing trust in him, and overcoming fears in order to step out in faith and follow his leading.

13) What is your favorite book you’ve written and why? I’m certain my first published one, “Dreaming of Home,” will always hold a special place in my heart! I had so much fun with it and from the very beginning it just felt “right.”

14) What is your writing schedule like? I’m a morning person, so I write from 4:30-6:30 a.m. on weekdays–and on Saturdays whenever I can. In the evening I print out my morning’s efforts and re-read and red-line it. Then the following day I take a few minutes to incorporate the changes before launching into new territory. I know a lot of writers don’t care for the revision stage as much as they do the initial drafting, the getting words on the page for the first time. But I’m just the opposite. The draft stage is excruciatingly painful for me. ☺ It’s the revision stage that I love—that’s when the story comes alive for me, starts to sparkle as I layer it, polish it, move things around, and solidify the heart of my characters and scenes.