A Visit With Author Jennifer Hallmark

Welcome to The Borrowed Book, Jennifer. We're delighted to have you with us. Have you always wanted to be an author? If not, what made you decide to write, and how long have you been at it? 

When I was nine, I received an “A” on a book of poetry I had written and illustrated as an English assignment. The first poem started, “My cat is fat.”  In the eighth grade, I won $5 in a poetry contest and realized I could possibly make money doing what I loved. I took my writing from hobby to career in 2006.

What do you love about being a writer, and what do you like the least? 

I love being able to express my deepest joys and sorrows through the written word. It’s therapy to me. I enjoy working with other writers and all the people I’ve met since I began. I dislike trying to explain to people face-to-face that I’m a writer.

Are you a plotter, a pantser, or a combination? 

Pantser. I tend to write scenes, in no particular order, then put it all together later. I have learned to do a little plotting. It became a necessity when I participated in NaNoWrMo, writing the rough draft for my latest book in a month.

What do your kids think about your being a writer? 

They know? Oh, I guess they do. I think deep down they’re proud of me, though its like pulling teeth to get them to read my stories. Maybe they are afraid of what they’ll find…

How do you get your best ideas? 

Writing Prompts. Our local writing group and online blog use writing prompts to spark ideas. My latest W.I.P. came from these prompts: Faded coveralls, baseball cap, and wedding dress designer. 

Writing is a sedentary occupation. What do you do for exercise? 

Does shopping count? Seriously, when I first started writing, I did nothing different. I soon realized I needed a way to combat the long hours in the chair. I now do thirty minutes of low impact aerobics five days a week, and also ride an exercise bike.

Do you have any pets? Do you own them, or they you? 

We have a Basset Hound named Max. My husband, Danny, and I both spoil him, especially since we’re now empty nesters. We have to keep him outside because of my dog hair allergy, however.

What fun fact would you like your readers to know about you? 

I love football and actually played intramural flag football in college. I never miss an Alabama game (Roll Tide!) and follow the Atlanta Falcons and Peyton Manning. I’ve considered joining a fantasy football league, but don’t really have enough time to dedicate to it.

Thanks for having me on the Borrowed Book!

Our pleasure, Jennifer!

Jennifer Hallmark: writer by nature, artist at heart, and daughter of God by His grace. She loves to read

detective fiction from the Golden Age, watch movies like LOTR, and play with her two precious granddaughters. At times, she writes. Jennifer and her husband, Danny, have spent their married life in Alabama and have a basset hound, Max.

Check out her website, connect with her by Email, on Facebook (here's her Facebook author’s page), Twitter or Pinterest.

And don't forget to stop by tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of Jennifer's latest release, a collaboration with eleven other authors entitled A Dozen Apologies!

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Finding Time to Write by Author Jennifer Hallmark

In this interesting, busy world we live in, time has fewer hours than a cat has lives. We scurry and flurry from event to function to work, shouldering guilt over unaccomplished tasks. Writers are no exception. I read their blogs, facebook pages, and websites. My own life is the same.

Since I decided against moving to a mountain and becoming a hermit, I had to find time to write and still enjoy my life. But how? Now, before you get depressed, there are avenues we can explore in this search for time. I’ll share mine with you today. Hopefully, others will have discovered writing “pockets” and will share them with us at the end of this blog.

Planned time. The easiest to discuss is planned time. This is different than writing a certain amount each day or week. Planned time, to me, is days or hours when I can write and work for long stretches. When my husband is working a twelve-hour shift and I have no baby-sitting or doctor’s appointments, I mark off this stretch and go to it. No excuses.

“Pockets” of time. In my everyday life, I often have more “pockets” of time than planned time. I actually wrote this article during the thirty minutes I have to wait after I receive my allergy shot. I forgot to bring a pad of paper in my purse, so I found a scrap page crammed in the bottom of my bag and scribbled it out. I cleaned it up when I added it to my launch folder during a planned day.

During the night. These don’t occur often, but occasionally I awake during the night having a dream or an idea for a story. I keep a pad by the bed and if I can get awake enough, I write enough down to remember. I’ve gathered material for several short stories this way and once I captured it on paper, I can go back to sleep. A word of warning: Sometimes I don’t want to go to the trouble to get up and assume I’ll remember it in the morning. I seldom do, so don’t chance it. Get it on paper.

First thing in the morning. This is similar to in the night writing except its ideas or thoughts I have the minute I awake. I write them on the pad also. My devotion time occurs before I crawl out of bed in the morning, and often while reading the Word or listening to music, more ideas come and I jot them down.

I believe as we continually seek God first and give Him our lives, He’ll show us new and wonderful ways to write our story or article. What ways have you found to increase your writing time? Please take a moment to share with others.

Writing this article has taken on new meaning as I work on promoting a book project I’m involved in, a romantic novella e-book called “A Dozen Apologies.” This romantic comedy portrays a young lady who needs more time to apologize to twelve men she’s offended through a sorority prank while in college. Mara needs more time and so do I. No, I need to take my own advice…

Blurb for A Dozen Apologies

In college, Mara and her sorority sisters played an ugly game, and Mara was usually the winner. She’d date men she considered geeks, win their confidence, and then she’d dump them publicly. When Mara begins work for a prestigious clothing designer in New York, she gets her comeuppance. Her boyfriend steals her designs and wins a coveted position. He fires her, and she returns in shame to her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where life for others has changed for the better.

Mara’s parents, always seemingly one step from a divorce, have rediscovered their love for each other, but more importantly they have placed Christ in the center of that love. The changes Mara sees in their lives cause her to seek Christ. Mara’s heart is pierced by her actions toward the twelve men she’d wronged in college, and she sets out to apologize to each of them. A girl with that many amends to make, though, needs money for travel, and Mara finds more ways to lose a job that she ever thought possible.

Mara stumbles, bumbles, and humbles her way toward employment and toward possible reconciliation with the twelve men she humiliated to find that God truly does look upon the heart, and that He has chosen the heart of one of the men for her to have and to hold.

http://www.writeintergrity.com 

Bio

Jennifer Hallmark: writer by nature, artist at heart, and daughter of God by His grace. She loves to read detective fiction from the Golden Age, watch movies like LOTR, and play with her two precious granddaughters. At times, she writes. Jennifer and her husband, Danny, have spent their married life in Alabama and have a basset hound, Max.

Links

http://www.jenniferhallmark.com 

http://jenniferhallmark.wordpress.com 

http://writingpromptsthoughtsideas.wordpress.com 

https://www.facebook.com/jenniferhallmark  

https://www.facebook.com/authorjenniferhallmark 

https://twitter.com/JenHwrites 

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