This week I’m hosting Naomi Rawlings with Sanctuary for a Lady, Susan Page Davis with Lady Anne’s Quest (either print or ebook), Rebecca Ondov with Heavenly Horse Sense, and Cynthia Simmons with Struggles and Triumphs: Women in History Who Overcame (no giveaway). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, 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 (April 8th) evening.
Interview with Rebecca Ondov:
What made you start writing? In 1992 I was at a time in my life when I was living my dream of working from the saddle and was happy with my life. Then God impressed on my spirit that He wanted me to submit a story to a contest with Guideposts Magazine. Have you even noticed that when you think you’ve got your life where you want it, God steps in and changes everything?
I’d love to say I was excited and obedient to what God wanted. But I wasn’t. Immediately I told God who I was—a horse gal—not a writer. Every paper I’d written in college had been typed in black ink and was returned to me glowing with red corrections. But over the next couple months God persisted. Finally He put His spiritual megaphone next to my spiritual ears. All I heard day and night was His booming spiritual voice saying, “Write a manuscript!”
The night before it was due, I sat at the keyboard and plunked out a story. I posted it the next day with the words, “There God. I did it. Don’t ask me to write again.”
Two weeks later the phone rang and a voice with a New York accent exclaimed, “Rebecca, you are one of the 15 winners to the all-expenses paid week-long trip to New York.” She went on to explain that the winners would stay in a mansion on Long Island Sound and would have the opportunity to meet Norman Vincent Peale and his wife Ruth. Guideposts would also fly in some of the top Christian authors from around the world to personally tutor us.
I was breathless, not from excitement, but from fear. To make things more complex, after I arrived one of the editors told me that of the 5400 manuscripts submitted, mine had tied for top and that my writing had a wonderful voice. I was so inexperienced that I looked up at him and asked, “What’s a voice?”
That week changed my life. I learned that God won’t ask me to do what I can do. He’ll only ask me to do the impossible, so that He shines through me.
How long have you been writing? Since 1992 when I wrote my first piece for Guideposts Magazine. When did you sell your first book? In 2000 I sold a children’s picture book, which is still very dear to my heart, The Once in a Blue Moon Boot Bus.
How do you handle rejections? I like to look at rejections as no more than “bumps in the road”. They are fabulous opportunities which challenge me to improve my writing.
Why do you write? To take the reader on an emotionally turbulent journey in which they discover that God has empowered them to succeed.
What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing? In the pasture with my horses and mules or horseback riding
What are you working on right now? Devotions for Daily Guideposts
Do you put yourself into your books/characters? Yes, they’re all about my hair-raising adventures with God.
Tell us about the book you have out right now. In Heavenly Horse Sense I corralled a collection of devotions of my true-life adventures from the 15 years I worked from the saddle in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. During those years I led groups of people on horseback and packed their gear on mules over narrow trails through the rugged Rocky Mountains and encountered everything from grizzly bears to forest fires.
Venture in the wilderness with me where God reveals nuggets of wisdom, like how to have the courage to face the challenges and dangers of everyday life—nuggets of wisdom you can apply in your own life. You might want to hang onto your saddle horn in a couple “tight spots” where God performed outright miracles and rescued me from the death’s doorstep.
I invite you to saddle up and ride with me, through the pages of my books, for an adventure of a lifetime.
Do you have any advice for other writers? I used to make writing so complex that it resembled inventing an atomic bomb. But I discovered that it’s not hard when I invest time in prayer and God’s Word then write what God wants me to write.
How important is faith in your books? It’s the core of each story.
What themes do you like to write about? Ones that reveal how incredible God is.
What is your favorite book you’ve written and why? That’s tough to answer because each one is my heart…so I’ll have to say all of them.
What is your writing schedule like? My favorite schedule is to get up about 3:00 a.m. and write until I go to my day-job, write at the public library over my lunch-hour, and write after work until I go to bed.
I really enjoy meeting my readers and also fellow writers on Facebook and join me around my campfire on my Website at: http://www.rebeccaondov.com or peek at my book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNaZIIIID0
