Sandra Robbins: Following a Dream to Write

On Tuesday, Sandra Robbins dropped by to talk about making choices. Today, she shares how she's living her dream.

When I was a child, I had many ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up. It was almost like I was planning the path my life would travel. First and foremost I wanted to be a wife and mother. Next I wanted to be a teacher. Then I wanted to write a book.  All were worthy goals.

            

The first two happened right on schedule. I married a wonderful man, we were blessed with four healthy children, and I taught in an elementary school. As my children got older, I thought now is the time to write that book I’ve always dreamed about, but another detour blocked my path. By this time I had risen through the teaching ranks and had become principal at a school. Between work and family responsibilities I had little time for pursuing anything else.

            

Time passed, but my dream didn’t die. One night in 2004 some unknown force guided me to my computer, and I began to write. I knew nothing about the craft of writing, but the words filled the pages night after night. That’s when the reality of what was happening to me set in—I had become a writer. I had never spoken to another writer. In fact I didn’t even know one. The only experience I’d had with writing was a course in writing fiction I’d taken in college. That had hardly prepared me for jumping into the publishing world.

            

By 2005 I realized if I was to write a book somebody might actually read some day, I needed help. I turned to the internet and stumbled on an organization called American Christian Romance Writers. It didn’t cost much to join, and so I did. I soaked up every post on the loop and began to get an idea of what I needed. One was to join a critique group which I did. Through ACRW (soon to become ACFW) I was randomly placed with a group of beginning writers, and we worked together over the internet. I was thrilled with my entrance into the writing world, but every morning I still went to my day job.

            

By the summer of 2006 I had gained a lot of confidence. I had attended several conferences and workshops, and my critique partners were helping me grow as a writer. Since two of them lived in Texas, we decided to meet at my daughter’s house in San Antonio for our first face to face meeting. The night before their arrival I had a heart attack while visiting the River Walk and was rushed to a hospital where an amazing cardiologist saved my life. The next day for the first time I met Janelle Mowery and Lisa Ludwig, my critique partners, when they arrived at the hospital to visit me. In the fall we attended the ACFW conference in Nashville, and I met the woman who would become my first editor.

            

I knew God had given me one more chance to follow my dream to write, and I resigned my job at the end of that year to pursue writing full time. God has blessed me greatly as I’ve followed His guiding on this wonderful journey. My books have been honored as finalists in the Daphe du Maurier Contest for excellence in writing mystery, the

Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for writing romance, the ACFW Carol Awards, and as a merit recipient in the Holt Medallion. Recently Angel of the Cove, the first book in my Smoky Mountain Dreams series won the Single Title Inspirational Category in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. This is given by the Birmingham Southern Magic Chapter of RWA in honor of multi-published author Gayle Wilson.

          

At times I still shake my head in disbelief at how everything has worked out. When I complete the three book contract I'm working on now, I will have published eighteen books. I never dreamed what was about to happen when I sat down at that computer one night and began to write some thoughts down about a story rolling around in my head. Now those ideas come all the time.

            
So when someone asks me how long I’ve wanted to be a writer, I can honestly say, “As long as I can remember.” It took a while for me to step out on faith and begin the work required to add author to my accomplishments, but I’m so glad I did. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. 

Sandra Robbins lives with her husband in Tennessee. In April 2013 Summerside released A Lady’s Choice, which chronicles the plight of suffragists who picketed the White House to gain the vote for women.

Stop by tomorrow for a chance to win a free copy!

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Choices by Author Sandra Robbins

Sometimes I wonder if I was born with a book in my hand. I’m sure my mother would have told me if that had been the case because she was also an avid reader and fostered her love for the written word in me. By the time I was in college, I was reading across a broad spectrum and finding out I loved many different genres. My favorites were mystery/suspense and historical romance. So when I decided to follow my dream and enter the world of writing, I found I couldn’t choose which genre to write. I decided to pursue both, and I’ve discovered it was the right choice for me. 

In the last two months I’ve had two historical romances to release. One is Mountain Homecoming, the second in my Smoky Mountain Dreams Series, and A Lady’s Choice, a release in Summerside’s new American Tapestries line.  

In my latest book, A Lady’s Choice, the heroine Sarah Whittaker has to decide which path she should travel. Should she marry the man she loves or follow her dream of helping win women the right to vote? Her journey takes her from a small, rural Tennessee community to Washington, DC where she joins suffragists at the White House gates. The Silent Sentinels as they are called because they refuse to answer the insults hurled at them by the crowds are arrested for blocking sidewalk traffic and sentenced to Occaquan Workhouse. Behind prison walls, they suffer all kinds of abuse as they refuse to waver in their commitment. 

Although Sarah Whittaker is a fictional character, the events described in the book are historically accurate and depict what many women suffered to give their daughters, granddaughters, and generations to come the right to vote. Those women made a choice to stand against injustice, and women today have the privilege of casting their votes. 

Because of what they endured, the suffrage movement became one of the hottest political issues of the day, and by the summer of 1920 thirty-five states of the needed thirty-six had ratified the 19^th amendment which would give women the right to vote. Of those states yet to vote, Tennessee seemed the only one where victory might be achieved. However, the Tennessee House of Representatives was evenly divided on the issue. 

When the roll call began, supporters in attendance realized something unexpected had happened. Harry Burn, who had staunchly supported the defeat of the amendment, had voted aye, and the motion passed by one vote. When reporters asked Harry why he changed his vote, he said his mother had written him and told him to vote for ratification. He ended by saying a boy should always do what his mother said. He made the right choice. 

Writing A Lady’s Choice, the fictional story of one young woman’s journey in the suffrage movement, has made me more thankful for my right to vote. It’s also made me proud to be a Tennessean where the last battle was fought and very thankful for a mother who urged her son to do what was right. 

It is my prayer that we will never take that right for granted and that we will impress upon our daughters to make their choices known by voting on election day. 

Sandra Robbins, former teacher and principal, is an award winning multi-published author of Christian fiction who lives with her husband in Tennessee. Angel of the Cove, her first book in the Harvest House Publishers historical romance series Smoky Mountain Dreams, released in August, 2012, and was recently named the 2013 winner in the Single Title Inspirational Category of the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. In April 2013 Summerside released A Lady’s Choice which chronicles the plight of suffragists who picketed the White House to gain the vote for women. 

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