Face to Face with Author Amy Clipston

I always wrote as a child, but I don’t want to be a writer until I found a link to a local Romance Writer’s of America chapter. I went to a meeting and met writers in all stages of their careers. I joined the chapter and then learned how to polish my skills. I signed with my first agent in 2005 and sold my first book in 2007. My first book, A Gift of Grace, which is the first in my Kauffman Amish Bakery series, was published in April 2009.

I love receiving my first box of books, holding the book in my hand, and smelling it. There’s nothing like the smell of a new book. I dread the editing process. Rewriting the book and reworking the story is always a challenge, but it’s worth it to hold that new book!

I write alongside a full-time job. It’s not easy to juggle two demanding occupations, but I make it work. I handle Human Resources for my department with the City of Charlotte. I work four 10-hour days and enjoy my Fridays off. On Fridays, I usually work on my latest book and run errands, and I also try to have lunch with my younger son at his school at least once a month. During the summers, I enjoy sleeping in and then taking my kids to the pool at the aquatic center. At the pool, I’ll find a table in the picnic area and work on my latest book or read.

I’m definitely a Type A plotter!  I start off with a detailed synopsis. After my editor approves it, I write a very detailed outline, going chapter by chapter, and scene by scene. I use that outline as a roadmap for the book. The outline changes and grows, but it keeps me on track to help prevent the dreaded writer’s block. My outline usually prevents writer’s block because I know where I’m headed with the story. If I get stuck, then I’ll toss ideas around with my agent or my editor. Talking through it with another person helps.

If I’m on deadline, I try to write every day. I’ll write late into the night during the week, since I work a full-time job. I’ll also write all weekend long, only taking breaks to eat and sleep. I have to push myself to get through that first draft, and then I polish before I hand it off to my friends and agent to read. I used to need complete quiet while I worked, but now I use headphones and music to block out the noise of my family.

I always pray at night while I’m writing and ask God to make the story pleasing to Him. When I’m writing on weekends, I go into a room with a cup of tea and my headphones. A few of my cats are normally my only company. I have to leave the door cracked so the cats can go in and out as they please. I get up periodically and walk around, and when I get sick of the hot tea, I drive Diet Coke and flavored water.

I try not to sit all day long. My goal is to get exercise at least five days per week. I love Leslie Sansone’s Walk Away the Pounds. At work, I reserve a conference room at lunch time and do the video every day. I also do the video on weekends with my mom. We love Leslie!

I am definitely a cat person. Four cats own my family and me – Jet, Molly, Rico, and Lily. They have four different personalities. Lily is the smallest and the loudest, and she’s the bully. She picks on the other cats. Jet follows me around like my shadow. He’s a big, fluffy tuxedo cat. Molly is a sweetheart, who tries to mind her own business. She sleeps with my younger son. Rico likes to follow my husband around and sit on his lap.

Some folks may not know that I donated a kidney through a swap for my husband in 2011. My husband, Joe, had received a kidney from his brother in 2004, and it only lasted 4 years.  Joe went back on dialysis in 2008, and he was very ill. No one matched him, so I signed up to give a kidney through the paired donation program. Through that program, I donated a kidney to a woman, and the same day, her husband gave a kidney to Joe. We’ll celebrate our three-year kidney-versary on June 14. I wrote a memoir called A Gift of Love about our story. I’m an advocate for organ and blood donation.  Donate life! Donate blood!

Amy Clipston is the award-winning and best-selling author of the Kauffman Amish Bakery series. Her novels have hit multiple best-seller lists including CBD, CBA, and ECPA. Amy holds a degree in communication from Virginia Wesleyan College and works full-time for the City of Charlotte, NC. She is a member of the Authors Guild, American Christian Fiction Writers, and Romance Writers of America. Amy lives in North Carolina with her husband, two sons, and four spoiled rotten cats. Visit her online at www.amyclipston.com 

Facebook: AmyClipstonBooks 

Twitter: @AmyClipston

Make sure to stop by tomorrow, when you'll have a chance to win Amy's newest title, A Mother's Secret!

Read More

A Story Worth Fighting For

I first saw this video on the AuthorCulture blog. It's disturbingly and hilariously accurate, and if you're a writer I strongly recommend you watch it, if only for a well-deserved laugh:



The Horrors of Stage Five

Currently I'm in Stage Five for my first completed manuscript. It's quite a leap from Stage Four to Stage Five, as many of you writers out there know!

Thankfully many of our critique partners and those kind enough to actually read through our first drafts are not nearly as cruel as the ones who left big red X's all over the pages of this poor fellow's manuscript. ;) But it can still be a scary, horrifying, and depressing thing to see just how much work our stories need in order to be presentable.

Our stories seem such lovely things, shining in the sunlight of our triumph upon completion of the first draft. And so they are! (Well, at least I like to think so, after all the work put into them!) But they can still be polished and even re-molded a little to refine them into stories that will be even more beautiful. So I'm learning that Stage Five doesn't have to be all darkness and hopelessness...

Leave the Forest For A While

When you find yourself taking that step from Stage Four to Stage Five, it's easy to get lost in the sudden shadows of the forest of edits. You can run from page to page, struck by the shortcomings you, with your limited perspective, had never noticed before. And you can feel like an utter failure.

I was recently given some great advice on how to handle that initial shock: Step away from the story. Leave the marked pages in the forest for a while. Go play in the sunshine. Those pages will still be there when you get back.

Now, I'll be completely honest with you--I haven't yet gone back to the forest. It's been several weeks since I got the very kind and helpful comments and edits from a dear friend. (Believe me--if all critique partners were like her, the editing forest would be a lot less terrifying! My "shock" was buffered by encouragement and understanding, so thank you so, so much to the person who helped me, because you know who you are!)

Yet, someday (hopefully soon!), if it's God's will, I want to go back. I want to brave that forest.

Why?

A Story Worth Fighting For

Generally when any of my writing gets critiqued, I want to either:

1. Reject the criticism.

2. Give up.

Or...

3. Make the smallest amount of change necessary.

But this time it's different. This is a story I've had on my heart for a long time. It's a manuscript I've worked on off and on for years. To me, it's a story worth fighting for, and unless God lets me know otherwise, I want to fight for it.

Yes, I want to fight!

I want to my story to be the best that it should be. I won't settle for mediocrity! (Should this be the BB's new team cheer?)

Seriously, I'm kind of scared to post this. I don't want to be a hypocrite by writing all this down and then never getting around to fixing up my manuscript. If that does happen, please forgive me.

But by writing this post today, I hope that even one person might be encouraged to battle through Stage Five and find a grand, uncharted, thrilling Stage Six someday. Even if that one person turns out to be just me. ;)

Read More