Today we are interviewing author Jennifer AlLee. Her most recent book, The Pastor’s Wife, is available through Abingdon Press.

As a child, Jennifer AlLee lived above a mortuary in the heart of Hollywood, California, which may explain her unique outlook on life. Her publishing credits include The Love of His Brother, a contemporary romance from Five Star Publishing (November 2007) as well as skits, activity pages, and over one hundred contributions to Concordia Publishing House’s popular My Devotions series. Her latest novel, The Pastor’s Wife, releases February 1, 2010 from Abingdon Press. She’s an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and serves as the Nevada Area Coordinator. Jennifer resides in the grace-filled city of Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and teenage son. Visit her website at http://www.jenniferallee.com/

The Pastor’s Wife: Maura Sullivan thought she knew what she was getting into when she married soon-to-be pastor Nick Shepherd. But when “the other woman” in her marriage turned out to be her husband’s congregation, she ran. Three years later, she’s back in the small community of Granger, Ohio, for the reading of a will that names both her and Nick as beneficiaries. Now Maura must face the husband – and the congregation – she left behind.

View the book trailer on YouTube.

Jennifer took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer’s perspective with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: Tell us about your book, The Pastor’s Wife.
Jennifer AlLee: Simply put, it’s a story of love lost, found, and rebuilt again. It opens with Maura Sullivan returning to Granger, Ohio, six years after she left it. Though she vowed never to return, now she must face all the disappointments she tried to leave behind; a husband who ignored her, a congregation she couldn’t please, and a God who took away everything she loved.

Nick Shepherd thought he’d put the past behind him until the day his estranged wife walks back into town. Intending only to help Maura with her crisis of faith, Nick finds his feelings for her never died. Now, he must face the mistakes he made and find a way to give and receive forgiveness.

As God works in both their lives, Nick and Maura believe they can repair their broken relationship and reunite as man and wife. But Maura has something to tell Nick before they can move forward. It’s what drove her to leave years earlier, and the one thing that can destroy the fragile trust they’ve managed to rebuild.

WCC: How do you plan and write your books?
JA: When I began my writing journey, I was a seat-of-the-pants writer all the way. This means I’d sit down at my keyboard with little more than an idea and let the story unfold from there. But over the last few years, I’ve become a bit more strategic. I’m still not a detailed outliner. And don’t even get me started on character sketches… they drive me crazy! But I’ve learned that it helps me to write a very loose outline. It’s more like a synopsis, which every writer needs to know how to write anyway. That little bit of pre-planning helps me avoid hours of staring at a blank screen.

WCC: What is it like working with editors? Do you have tips for getting along and building a great relationship with them?
JA: I love my editor at Abingdon Press. Barbara Scott is an amazing woman. But sometimes the editing process in painful. It’s hard to hear that you need to rewrite the entire first chapter of your book! The most important thing to remember is that you and the editor have the same main goal: to make your book the best it can be. One huge advantage the editor has is objective perspective. I may think that every word of my manuscript is golden, but the editor can stand back and see the thin, tarnished spots. A good editor is your best friend and a smart writer will take advantage of her knowledge.

Read more of Jennifer’s interview at Examiner and find out how she maintains balance.

YOU COULD WIN!
Leave a comment on this posting and you could win a copy of The Pastor’s Wife. The drawing will take place on Feb. 9, 2010. This give away is for US residents only. There is no fee to enter.

Other books by Jennifer AlLee:
The Love of His Brother

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Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

     Okay, maybe I’m behind the times. Maybe all of you have known about the more than 100 free books available on Kindle for a long time and I’m just now catching up.

     For those of you who didn’t already know this, let me enlighten you. There are more than 100 books available for free to Kindle owners from Amazon.com. When I got mine on Christmas day I was a bit tapped out financially so I was geeked when I saw the free books I could get. These included classics like The Scarlet Letter and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I was having a blast filling my library with books like Frankenstein [a book I’ve always wanted to read but never did] and Dracula.

     Then I started poking around in the Kindle Top Sellers and I was finding relatively new books available for free. I soared passed geeked and moved right on to spazzed [those of you reading now realize I graduated from High School in the 90s by my out dated slang].

     The week after Christmas a writing group I’m a part of [ACFW.com] did some chattering about the free books. I was also reading “The Long Tail” on CD. All three things came together in a Perfect Storm [ha-ha, another book title] and I realized how brilliant these free books were.

     See, this is what authors are doing. They are offering their books for free download which is sending their books to the most downloaded list. We live in a society of lists. When a book makes the Kindle top 100 list there is a perceived value.

“Wow, this must be a great book to be 25 on the Kindle list.” And when we see it is free it DOESN’T diminish the value of the book. That is the crazy thing. If you saw a book in the dollar store you’d think “Reject”, but since it is still pretty on the Amazon site [or your Kindle reader] you think “BONUS!!”

     So you download it, read it, like it….

And go buy other books from the authors.

     This all comes back to the thing I harp on the most. As writers we must have incredible content continually to offer our readers. I spend hours every week researching to present new information here. That is because when you come you expect to learn something or be presented something you already knew in a way that it makes sense to you.

     I present this day after day, week after week because I want to help aspiring writers grow. I want to help people just like I was helped. I want you to remember me when the time comes for you to have your project edited. I want you to buy the books I write and the magazines I contribute to.  I want to develop a relationship with my readers.

     That is what makes this Kindle Freebie thing so brilliant. Just think about it, these authors are offering thousands of people who just got a new toy for Christmas the opportunity to play with it. This is the single best time there is to allow someone to find out about who you are and what you write. What better way to do it than by giving out a novel.

     So, while you may not have a book on Kindle you can do the same thing by giving your best to your current readers. Give them something that will make them want to come back. Give real content, not “free” stuff that is little more than a thinly veiled infomercial.

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Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Today we are interviewing author Miralee Ferrell. Her most recent book, Love Finds You in Bridal Veil, Oregon, is available through Summerside Press.

Miralee Ferrell lives with her husband of 36 years on eleven acres in rural Washington State. They have two dogs, two cats, one horse, and a huge garden that they both enjoy working in, in the spring and summer. Reading, horseback riding with her daughter, sailing with her husband, and puttering in her flower beds are some of Miralee’s favorite pastimes. She serves on staff as a licensed minister (not a pastor) in their small church, ministering to women and leading prayer groups.  She has 3 books out now and another releasing in April, and started writing in the spring of 2005.

Miralee took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer’s perspective with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: Tell us about your book Love Finds You in Bridal Veil, Oregon.
Miralee Ferrell: Sixteen-year-old Margaret Garvey promised her heart to Nathaniel Cooper the night he disappeared from town. Four years later, just as she’s giving love a second chance with Andrew, a handsome logger, Nathaniel suddenly returns to town with a devastating secret. Margaret risks her reputation and position by harboring two troubled runaways who might be involved in the murder of a local man. As disaster strikes the town and threatens the welfare of its citizens, Margaret will be faced with the most important choice of her life.

WCC: What are some ways you prepared to market your book before you were published?
MF: I put together a web site prior to publication and started talking about The Other Daughter (working title was Yesterday’s Child) even before it was contracted. I built a mailing list of people who signed my guest book and kept in touch with them as the process moved along. Blogs weren’t popular and there was no Facebook, etc., at that time, so most of my marketing was done via email.

WCC: How do you plan and write your book?
MF: I typically start by typing out a brief story summary…maybe three or four paragraphs with a sprinkling of major plot points, including fleshing out the main characters. Sometimes I’ll have a full page with a bit more detail, but I don’t outline or do story boards. My debut novel was totally seat of the pants, but I found I had way too much revising to do and moved to a general overview for the next one. I’d say I’m still about 75% SOTP and 25% plotter….just enough plotting to give me an idea where I’m going, but I allow latitude for the characters to show me what they’d like, as well. I develop most of my secondary plot points and characters as I write.

WCC: What is it like working with editors? Do you have tips for getting along and building a great relationship with them?
MF: I’ve loved every one of my editors, even the tough ones. Sometime ago I had what I thought (at first) was a harsh substantive edit and I wasn’t sure how to take some of the remarks. I set it aside for a couple of days then came back and reread. I discovered that most of the comments were accurate and necessary, and when implemented, made the book stronger. I’ve been blessed with a lot of positive comments and constructive suggestions. I try to always let an editor know how much he/she’s helped me in the rebuilding process. I only question a change if I feel it’s important to the overall story line, or if the editor doesn’t understand my intent. It’s been my experience, that if you treat your editor with respect and keep communication lines open, the editing portion of your publication process goes smoothly. I have three editors now that I count as friends, and have been blessed to meet one of them in person.

WCC: Do you have a tip for finding-and working with-an agent?
MF: I think there are two keys….research and conferences. If you can afford to attend a conference attended by reputable agents, do so. It’s your best place to meet and pitch your project. If you can’t, then get a copy of the Christian Writer’s Market Guide and study the agent listings. Narrow it down to the top 20 you feel might be a good fit for your work, then visit each of their web sites. Study the authors they’ve already signed, the type of work they like to represent, and read their guidelines carefully. Also, pray for a good fit. An agent might represent your genre but not click with you. Ask the Lord to help you find the right one, and send out query letters to several. Above all, follow the guidelines and send only what they request, and be sure it’s polished and ready before sending.

Read more of Miralee’s interview here at Examiner.com and find out how she maintains balance.

Other books by Miralee Ferrell:
The Other Daughter (The Homecoming Series, Book 1)
Love Finds You in Last Chance, California (Love Finds You, Book 5)

 YOU COULD WIN!
Leave a comment on this posting and you could win a copy of Love Finds You in Bridal Veil, Oregon. The drawing will take place on Jan. 15, 2010.  This give away is for US residents only. There is no fee to enter.

Don’t miss a single posting!  Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

I just completed the book The Pleasure of My Company a book about a highly neurotic man on a quest to normalcy. I picked up this book because it was not only written but read by Steve Martin [yes, THAT Steve Martin], so if the writing was bad the reading would be amusing.

                I was captured by the humor and the incredible characterization in this story. As with every book I searched for ways to improve my own writing during the process of reading.

                This book had one of the best endings of any book I’ve read in a very long time. I would put it among the top 5 endings of ANY book. It was the type that cannot be shared because it would spoil the entire the book. It ended when the story ended rather than jamming in needless [and useless] words just to hit an artificial word count. The ending was incredibly satisfying and logical. There were no cheap theatrics, it simply was.

                The ending always sells your next book and this story absolutely sold the next book to me.

                Here at Writing Career Coach I spend a good bit of time telling you ways to market your writing. I interview authors to introduce you to different ways of marketing your writing and looking at your career. None of that matters if you don’t deliver.

                So here is today’s assignment, what is your ending? Where are you going? How is your main character going to grow and develop over the course of your story? Why is someone going to invest hours of their time to live the life of your characters?

                How are you going to end? Tell us some of your ideas in the comments.

Don’t miss a single posting!  Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

   In our previous blog we talked about writing within a specific genre. In this blog I might seem to contradict myself a bit, but stick with me.

     While it is very important to spend a good deal of time reading in our own genre, after a while we will gravitate to a certain author and then we will begin to sound more like that particular author than we will a genre. That is why you must also spend time reading outside your genre. There are a couple of reasons reading outside your genre is useful to building your writing craft and your professional writing career.

1. As I’ve shared in previous blogs, reading in different genres can add depth to your writing in ways you won’t get by only reading your genre.
2. One other benefit is we have less of a tendency to analyze writing that is outside our genre. That means we are able to read for the simple joy of the story rather than trying to extract wisdom from every sentence.

     One final thing, be sure you’re reading industry magazines as well as books to help you develop as a writer. I read The Writer and Writer’s Digest. Both are tremendously helpful in developing your craft and keeping you on track in your writing.

     Just as an architect works on designs and an athlete conditions their muscles, writers must continually train through reading and writing if we are ever going to be able to communicate with our readers.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Many new writers like to say something like this:

“My story is in a new kind of genre. There is some romance and little historical and some science fiction all mixed together in a coming of age novel.

How do you go about selecting a genre? Some say that you should write in the area you understand best, but that doesn’t always work for every author. While I have a degree in political science and history my stories are contemporary suspense novels. That means that I have more research to do in order to construct my plots, but it is the world I am best able to write in.

Consider what it is that most interests you and the kind of writing you get most excited about. Don’t limit yourself to the kind of writing that fits in with your background or learning. Look at the way the story starts to percolate in your mind. That is your first clue.

Once you’ve selected your genre you have the most important step: research that genre. There are certain conventions in writing that you must provide to your reader. Every genre is a promise. In a romance the promise is he and she will meet at the beginning of the book and be in a happy, committed relationship at the end. If you have her die on the final page you are breaking the promise you gave in writing a romance. In suspense you are promising the reader that there will be an emotional experience where life and limb are challenged. If the bad guy is caught 1/3 of the way through and you proceed to go in to the main characters childhood [without any further threat of the bad guy returning] you have broken the promise to the reader.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

            Why do you want to write?

                It may seem a silly question but it really deserves an answer. This business is full of rejection, low pay, and long shots.  During a soaring economy it was about 10% of Manuscripts [maybe slightly less] that actually saw the light of day and joined hundreds of other books sitting lonely on the bookstore shelves.

                Authors, once they get that publishing contract, also find that readers can be snide, cruel and difficult individuals sometimes. Now, I’m not talking about all readers [I happen to be an AWESOME reader. The kind every author longs to have. Ha-ha], but there are those few who want to copy edit your novel instead of reading it or debate a single minor comment on a single page in an obscure part of the subplot.

                Why do you want to subject yourself to that?

When I answered it I realized that it was because, to me, the characters in my books are alive. They have stories to tell and a need to be heard. They were born [created] to touch someone and I want to help them do that.

So why do YOU do it? I’d love to hear in the comments. And those of you who are editors, what role do you feel you play in all of this? I’d love to hear from you as well.

To read more on a similar topic follow these links:

Clearly defined goals

Clearly defined success

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Today we are interviewing author Diana Brandmeyer. Her most recent book, Hearts On The Road, is available through Heartsong Presents.

Diana Lesire Brandmeyer has a background in education and psychology. Her credits include My Devotions, The Metro East Family Gazette, Little Visits Family Devotions and The Lutheran Witness. She received her degree from Webster University. She is the author of Hearts on the Road, A Time to Dance, Mystery of the Smithton Necklace and The Trouble with Ralph. She lives in Southern Illinois where the corn grows at a rapid rate behind her home.

She’s married and has 3 grown sons all on their own now, each of them bringing someone special to join the family. Yay! Daughter-in-laws!

Diana loves having pets, right now there is only one in the house, a cat named Wendell and an occasional granddog named Rusty.

 Hearts on the Road:

Love cannot be trusted.

Abandoned by her father, betrayed by her fiancé, and forsaken by God, truck driver Randi Davis crisscrosses Wyoming with a broken heart, vowing never to love another man. Suddenly Matthew Carter, a pastor in search of a mobile ministry, is thrust into her life and into her cab. And there’s nothing she can do about it.

Soon Randi and Matthew find themselves at cross-purposes. His life on the road has just begun. Her eight-year-old niece needs a parent to come home to every day. Is this the end of the road for Randi and Matthew’s romance?

Which road leads to God’s ultimate plan?

Diana took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer’s perspective with Writing Career Coach.

 Writing Career Coach: What are some ways you prepared to market your book before you were published?
Diana Brandmeyer: Before my book was available for purchase I began posting to my blog at least twice a week. I also put out teasers on various social networking site. When my cover became available I posted it on my blog and tweeted and used my facebook status to alert people. I posted reviews of other books on my blog to entice readers to come back often so when my book became available they would know. In all my signature lines for email and when posting comments on blogs, I listed my book and the excepted date of its release.

WCC: Tell us about your book.
DB: Abandoned, betrayed, and feeling forsaken by God, truck driver Randi Davis crisscrosses Wyoming with a broken heart, vowing never to love another man. Suddenly Matthew Carter, a pastor in search of a mobile ministry, is thrust into her life and into her cab. And there’s nothing she can do about it.

 WCC: How do you plan and write your book?
DB: I am a SOTP with some degree of planning. I like using two programs, liquid story binder and Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Pro to collect my thoughts and ideas. LSB is a great tool for keeping photos of my characters, settings and my loose ideas. I can write with the program too but I like using word. When I begin a story I usually start with a character, they seem to come to me with a problem they want solved and the story evolves from that problem. I spend a lot of time locating photos of what they might look like, what they wear, drive, where they live, and if they have a hobby I have photos of what they collect or make. Once I do that they are real to me and I begin thinking of the three worse things that could happen to them and start writing.

 WCC: What is it like working with editors? Do you have tips for getting along and building a great relationship with them?
DB: I have a great editor at Heartsong Presents and before that with Awe-Struck. My best tip is ‘listen’ they know what they are taking about. You can always disagree, but think about it carefully and pick your battles. What is the most disturbing change that you can’t live with? That’s the one to question. Always be respectful, the publishing community is small and you don’t want to be known as the one who was impossible to work with. 

 WCC: Do you have a tip for finding-and working with-an agent?
DB: Join a national organization like American Christian Fiction Writers-ACFW, attend conferences and network with other writers. It’s possible that someone you know will recommend you to their agent. I can’t stress the importance of networking enough. I didn’t realize how much it could help your writing career when I first began.

  Read more of Diana’s interview here at Examiner.com

 Other books by Diana Brandmeyer:
A Time To Dance
The Trouble With Ralph

YOU COULD WIN!
Leave a comment on this posting and you could win a copy of Hearts on the Road.   The drawing will take place on December 28, 2009.  This give away is for US residents only. There is no fee to enter. 

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

                How is it you are defining success? Your answer that will not only show a great deal about who you are but also about who you will be. If your goal is to maintain where you are-do you like where you are? Some people really do, and that is great! I like where I live. I like the size of our family and I love the relationship I have with my husband. Those things I want to maintain. I write a few columns in addition to my blogs each month. I am happy with that level, but would be willing to take on one more paid article per month [maybe two]. That means I may spend some time on submitting to a few places to try to develop my connections in paying markets.

                I want to contract 3 novels this year so my daily tasks will be deemed “successful” each day if they are leading to that ultimate goal.

                In Steve Martin’s Hilarious novel, The Pleasure of My Company, the main character has an odd view of success [such as touching the corners of every copier at Kinkos], but he takes very deliberate steps to reaching those goals. Some might call the man crazy, but how much crazier is it to daily say you have a goal but do nothing to cause forward momentum.

                At least he left the house to go to Kinkos.

To read more on a similar topic follow these links:

Clearly defined goals

The right opportunity in the right hands

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Over the next few blogs I’m going to really hone in on clarity. Lingering questions are the key to excellent craft but if you ever want your writing to be published there must be some clarity on a few things.

Today think about your goals. Are they clearly defined? You want to be published? When? Where? What form? What genre? What publication or Which project?

Do you even think about these questions? Do you say “I want to be published next year” or do you say, “I want to have my WIP “Awesome Book” completed and at least three queries out by August 2010”?

Does it seem I am really beating on this right now? It is because in the course of working with authors in my Writing Career Coach program I find that most people are extremely ambivalent. They are afraid of failure and are thus stuck in this persistent “One day” mentality.

So, write a clear goal for each day this week. What is ONE thing you will do each day? whatever your goal determine going in how doing this will help advance your writing career. That will give a real value to your goal and make you more likely to follow through.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.