Hey guys,
Its been quite a while I posted something and that is because I needed time to think things over. I stumbled upon an interview by my favourite role model in the writing world. one thing that strikes me about this wonderful woman is that she never forgets God as her source of inspiration. You have to try reading her novels and get inspired. Here is her interview I stumbled on here: http://www.karenkingsbury.com/faqs
Q. How did you become a published author?
A. I was writing for the Los Angeles Daily News when I sold a story to People Magazine. The subject dealt with the sad murder story of a teenage girl. During this time, my husband and I were praying for a way for me to be home with our newborn daughter. The article ran in People Magazine the month she was born, and afterward, I was contacted by an agent in New York City. He asked me to write a proposal for a book on the sad murder story. I did, and he told me he thought I had a good chance of getting a contract. A few days before my maternity leave was up - when we were praying for a miracle so I could stay home with Kelsey - the agent called. He told me that he'd gotten my proposal into a bidding war, and that the winning publisher was willing to pay me three times my annual salary. So . . . I went into work the next day and resigned. I've been home writing books ever since.
Q. Where do you get your story ideas?
A. I get my ideas from life happening around me, mostly. The news, the radio, a conversation, a trend, a contemporary struggle of some sort. Obviously the war is very contemporary, and the issues are those facing all Americans . . . that sort of thing. But most of all, my ideas come from the Lord. He puts the picture in my head, the whole story. It’s very visual. I’m just responsible for getting it onto paper.
Q. When you first were published, what was the biggest roadblock to becoming a successful author?
A. The biggest roadblock – definitely – was getting the books out there. Multnomah published me in the early days – my first six novels. They wouldn’t print more than 15,000 copies of each title at the start, and then they’d run out and the book would fizzle. It was so frustrating. I thought about giving it up, but then I signed the deal with Tyndale for the Redemption Series, and things changed. That was very rewarding, seeing someone believe in my writing. Again, only God could’ve put those pieces together.
Q. What course of study do you recommend for students interested in pursuing a career as a published author?
A. Journalism. Many students believe they need a degree in English, but I've found that an English degree doesn't help a student learn how to write. A degree in journalism prepares a student for life as a reporter - a great back-up job should the student not become immediately successful as a published author. It also helps the student get used to deadlines and tight writing. I once was on a book tour with six other best-selling authors - all of us had degrees in journalism.
Q. What was your first professional writing job?
A. During my senior year in college, I earned an internship at the Los Angeles Times as a sports writer. I continued that position until after I earned my degree. Then I was hired by the Los Angeles Daily News where I worked in their sports department. I enjoyed sports writing, and had the chance to meet and interview many famous athletes and coaches of that period, Magic Johnson, Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, Tony Dorsett, Danny White, Howie Long, etc. Two years later I was promoted to the front page, where I was in charge of writing emotional feature stories for the front page Sunday paper.
Q. What's your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?
A. Favorite part – the writing. Least favorite part – the writing. Isn’t it funny how that can be possible, but it is. I love writing – so much. But sometimes it feels like swimming. I love to swim, but swimming across the ocean is another thing. Right around the 50,000-word mark I feel like I’m in the middle of the ocean, paddling through water toward a shore I can’t even see.
Q. Was there ever a difficult setback that you've went through in your writing career?
A. The most difficult book I’ve ever written was Divine, without a doubt. Tyndale asked me to write it, and they had an idea in mind. I wrote an outline – very specific to that idea – and they approved it. I wrote the novel to the outline, and they actually turned it down. They said they wanted something more “Karen Kingsbury-ish." It was a huge setback, since I write so quickly and have so many deadlines each year. I had to completely redo the book. My brother died suddenly in his sleep about one week after I got word on their rejection. So . . . that was a very difficult time. I’m grateful I chose to rewrite it, though. It’s now the book I would’ve preferred to write in the first place. So God wins in the end.
Q. What are your dreams for your writing? What dreams have you already reached in writing?
A. I want to be a better writer with every book. That’s my goal. I love when my editors push me, and I’m always striving to sharpen my craft. I don’t ever want to reach a place where I say, “Wow, look at that . . . I’ve arrived.” Not ever! I have, though, reached the dream of seeing my books change lives for Christ. There can be nothing more validating and assuring than that – because the gift of words is His, and so it is only right that our words go on to glorify Him.
Q. Have you ever felt the Lord speak to you through your writing?
A. Definitely. I might be writing a scene, and the characters are in a difficult situation, and often I’ll feel the Lord’s compassion and grace, His mercy and strength, His peace . . . and I’ll know that God is wanting me to demonstrate that, to carefully craft that picture for the readers so that they can feel God’s grace, as well.
Q. What is the one story you'd like to pass on to other writers and fans about being a Christian author?
A. I always understood the power of story. But never in a million years did I think I would become a Christian fiction author.
I didn't find a personal relationship with the Lord until I was in my mid-twenties. At that time, I thought Christian fiction was a plastic version of secular fiction. I wanted to write about real-life issues, real-life characters, and real stories of redemption. In fact, my first four books were true-crime stories that came out of my time as a Los Angeles Daily News reporter. Those books were an answer to prayer - that I might work at home with our newborn daughter. But after writing four crime books, I'd had enough. I wanted to write fiction, deep, emotional stories that would touch the hearts of my readers. Stories that would change lives. When I wrote my first novel, Where Yesterday Lives, I passed it on to a friend who worked at a Christian bookstore. After she read the manuscript, this friend smiled. "Obviously God is calling you to write Christian fiction," she told me.
I shook my head. "No. That's not what I'm hearing." I proceeded to submit my manuscript to half a dozen publishers in NYC, publishers I'd worked with and knew about from my experience as a true-crime author. Always their answer was the same - we love it, but we're not interested. One editor wrote, "Your novel made me laugh and cry. I loved every page. But it has no sex and no language. I'm not sure what genre we'd place it in, so I have to tell you no."
I was baffled and discouraged. Finally, my friend from the bookstore told me to read Francine Rivers' book, Redeeming Love. I fell into that story, and when I finished I dropped to my knees and cried out to God. In that precious hour I repented for thinking His work would somehow be second-best or plastic. I knew from that moment on that I would seek to become a Christian novelist, to change lives with the power of story and to do so by telling fictional tales of real-life issues, real-life redemption.
Now, I'm receiving more than five hundred emails every week from readers telling me that God used one of my Life-Changing Fiction™ titles to make the difference in their lives.
Once, a reader wrote that she and her husband had contacted a lawyer about getting a divorce. They would take care of the details after her husband returned from a two-week business trip to Europe. After he'd left, this woman read A Time to Dance. God used the story to so move her and change her, that as she set down the book, she picked up the phone and purchased a next-day flight to Europe. She surprised her husband at his hotel room, and with tears in her eyes she told him, "I read this novel. I'm not ready to give up on us." She stayed the night and gave him the copy of my book. "Read it," she told him, "and call me when you reach the states." A week later the woman received a phone call from her husband. With tears in his voice he told her. "I read the book. I'm not ready to give up on us, either." The two are now making plans for counseling and have renewed a lifelong commitment to each other. The picture of God at work through the power of story.
In the course of life as a novelist, I've learned to watch for the quiet whispers, the words from a friend or a publisher or agent that just might set the course for the next leg of the journey. And I thank God for that long ago friend, the one from the Christian bookstore who took the time to pass on that novel to me, and for my readers who today are passing my books on to other people. The power of story must be shared in order to be realized. That's something God has made extremely clear along the way.
That newborn daughter of ours? She's now all grown up, with five younger brothers, and none of them have ever known a single day where I did anything but work from home. They have shared in the ministry of fiction, and they are reading the books themselves, allowing God to speak to them through fiction in a way that's stronger, somehow, than even our precious talks together.
And so I thank God daily for His guidance and direction, His gift of characters and plot. And for the way my life and the lives of the readers continue to be touched by the power of story.
I didn't find a personal relationship with the Lord until I was in my mid-twenties. At that time, I thought Christian fiction was a plastic version of secular fiction. I wanted to write about real-life issues, real-life characters, and real stories of redemption. In fact, my first four books were true-crime stories that came out of my time as a Los Angeles Daily News reporter. Those books were an answer to prayer - that I might work at home with our newborn daughter. But after writing four crime books, I'd had enough. I wanted to write fiction, deep, emotional stories that would touch the hearts of my readers. Stories that would change lives. When I wrote my first novel, Where Yesterday Lives, I passed it on to a friend who worked at a Christian bookstore. After she read the manuscript, this friend smiled. "Obviously God is calling you to write Christian fiction," she told me.
I shook my head. "No. That's not what I'm hearing." I proceeded to submit my manuscript to half a dozen publishers in NYC, publishers I'd worked with and knew about from my experience as a true-crime author. Always their answer was the same - we love it, but we're not interested. One editor wrote, "Your novel made me laugh and cry. I loved every page. But it has no sex and no language. I'm not sure what genre we'd place it in, so I have to tell you no."
I was baffled and discouraged. Finally, my friend from the bookstore told me to read Francine Rivers' book, Redeeming Love. I fell into that story, and when I finished I dropped to my knees and cried out to God. In that precious hour I repented for thinking His work would somehow be second-best or plastic. I knew from that moment on that I would seek to become a Christian novelist, to change lives with the power of story and to do so by telling fictional tales of real-life issues, real-life redemption.
Now, I'm receiving more than five hundred emails every week from readers telling me that God used one of my Life-Changing Fiction™ titles to make the difference in their lives.
Once, a reader wrote that she and her husband had contacted a lawyer about getting a divorce. They would take care of the details after her husband returned from a two-week business trip to Europe. After he'd left, this woman read A Time to Dance. God used the story to so move her and change her, that as she set down the book, she picked up the phone and purchased a next-day flight to Europe. She surprised her husband at his hotel room, and with tears in her eyes she told him, "I read this novel. I'm not ready to give up on us." She stayed the night and gave him the copy of my book. "Read it," she told him, "and call me when you reach the states." A week later the woman received a phone call from her husband. With tears in his voice he told her. "I read the book. I'm not ready to give up on us, either." The two are now making plans for counseling and have renewed a lifelong commitment to each other. The picture of God at work through the power of story.
In the course of life as a novelist, I've learned to watch for the quiet whispers, the words from a friend or a publisher or agent that just might set the course for the next leg of the journey. And I thank God for that long ago friend, the one from the Christian bookstore who took the time to pass on that novel to me, and for my readers who today are passing my books on to other people. The power of story must be shared in order to be realized. That's something God has made extremely clear along the way.
That newborn daughter of ours? She's now all grown up, with five younger brothers, and none of them have ever known a single day where I did anything but work from home. They have shared in the ministry of fiction, and they are reading the books themselves, allowing God to speak to them through fiction in a way that's stronger, somehow, than even our precious talks together.
And so I thank God daily for His guidance and direction, His gift of characters and plot. And for the way my life and the lives of the readers continue to be touched by the power of story.
Aww! so inspiring, now who says one cannot be a successful Christian fiction writer. Thumbs up to you Karen. you are my role model.
thanks for taking out time to read this . I hope you were blessed. I love you.
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