This week I’m hosting Janet Tronstad with Wife Wanted in Dry Creek, Jim Rubart with Rooms and Angela Breidenbach with Creative Cooking with Colitis. If you want to enter the drawings, 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 (May 9th) evening.
Interview with Angela Breidenbach:
1. What made you start writing?
I had so much going on in my head that it had to spill out onto the page.
2. How long have you been writing?
I wrote off and on first dabbling in free lance, but seriously for publication for about 5-6 years.
When did you sell your first book?
This year 🙂
3. How do you handle rejections?
This is hard for anyone, but I really feel it’s a numbers game. So when a rejection comes I literally scan it quickly and set it aside for a few days. I say, “Next?” Then send out another proposal before I’ll look at the rejection again. This way I have something out there and don’t lose courage. It also helps me to be more objective when I do read the rejection for potential helpful details. Not every rejection is bad. Some have been THE most helpful thing toward my journey in this industry.
4. Why do you write?
LOL, because I have so much to say. I believe God just built it into my DNA and then He gave me all sorts of experiences that help tell certain messages for others. If I try NOT to write, I find myself writing in a journal or a letter to someone. It’s that innate.
5. What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
Reading. Baking/cooking. But my next project for a hobby is to train my miniature horse. He’s just now old enough and he’s so, so loving. I want to share him with everyone.
6. What are you working on right now?
I just started a fiction story for teen girls. But I also am going to have this cookbook published to Kindle and e-readers. It’s going to take a bit of tweaking from the current format. Additionally, I’m going to make another version called, Creative Cooking: Simply Elegant. I love that everyone can make elegant and tasty dishes and want to encourage creativity in all its forms whether cooking, singing, writing, it’s all creativity given by God to us for joy.
7. Do you put yourself into your books/characters?
Yes, both in fiction and non-fiction. I think that’s how we get our unique voices. In reading the recipes and commentary, I’ve had several people comment that they “hear” me or know it is me. But I put characteristics of people I know into new characters too. The expression someone uses verbally might be unique. One I remember from an exchange student makes me smile every time I think of him. I want to immortalize that memory so it’s going into one of my stories one day.
8. Tell us about the book you have out right now.
Creative Cooking for Colitis is actually creative recipes anyone can make and enjoy. But the tips brought me back from a sense of hopelessness. They are what I learned to help me overcome malnutrition after my diagnosis of microscopic colitis. There’s full color photos for every recipe because I absolutely hate it when I can’t see a picture of something I want to make. It was very important to me to offer that element to my readers.
9. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Recognize that you cannot do this alone. Writing is creative and that creativity is a gift from God. But he put people in our lives in order that we might fellowship. Use that fellowship for encouragement and both giving/receiving mentoring. There is no such thing as a self-made man. Join the writing groups that will help you grow in your craft. For fiction, I recommend ACFW.
10. How important is faith in your books?
I believe I cannot write anything that doesn’t honor God. It’s so tied into what I write that even my cookbook shows the evidence in the Creative Cook’s Prayer on the back.
11. What themes do you like to write about?
Wisdom. I just recently realized that everything I write had an underlying theme of wisdom. It may show in personal growth, a character’s reaction, or the tips in Creative Cooking. The more wisdom we gain, the more powerful our ability to affect the world in a positive way.
12. What is your favorite book you’ve written and why?
I really love Gems of Wisdom. This book is in with a publisher, but the release date is as yet to be determined. I love it because I see it as a tool to connect hearts to God’s wisdom. It helps people see their experiences as gems that fill their treasure chest rather than bad things that happened. But I love this cookbook because it was so much fun to make! I had to make each dish, photograph it, and then I had a little kitchen helper now and then too with my grandson. It was pure joy in the creation.
13. What is your writing schedule like? Ah, this one is mercurial. I tend to write better late evening. So I do a lot of email, promotion, business in the morning and early afternoon. Then as the house quiets down, my creative bug starts to jump like a Mexican Jumping Bean. Every now and then I escape to a coffee house and hide from interruptions.
