Whose Plans Are Better?

by Sarah Sundin

Sarah Sundin and daughter, Anna

I had excellent plans for my children. I read to them from birth. We watched educational TV and videos. Their computer time was spent on clever learning games rather than shooting aliens. Our vacation time often included museums and historical sites. I volunteered in their classrooms and was actively involved in their schooling while refusing to be a “helicopter mom.”

Perfect recipe to send our children to excellent universities! We did everything right!

Except our daughter didn’t follow the path we laid out. She didn’t earn the grades she was capable of. We argued far too often, and one day she snapped at me: “At least I’m not pregnant, on drugs, or in jail!” True, and we were thankful. But why couldn’t she see we knew what was best for her?

She ended up at our local community college, determined to transfer. I was nervous. I’d heard too many stories about students unable to get their required courses, languishing, and dropping out. I wanted so much more for my girl!

But then God slapped me. And aren’t you glad so you don’t have to slap me yourself?

God always slaps in love. This time He slapped me twice within an hour, once from each side.

First, I was talking daughter problems with a friend. Her daughter had earned the grades and degrees…but wasn’t walking with the Lord. My friend’s anguish was palpable and put my concern in stunning perspective. My daughter was walking with the Lord, and isn’t that what matters most for eternity?

Yes, it is.

Chagrined, I began conversing with another lady about the same issue. With the most serene smile, she asked, “Sarah, whose plans are better? Yours, or the Lord’s?”

Oh.

I knew the answer to that question. God’s plans are always best. I’d already learned that lesson in my own life. But in my children’s lives? That’s different.

Oh no, it isn’t.

The Lord began a serious work in my heart that day. A work of trusting in His goodness and His care and His love, even when things don’t happen as we want them to. A work of humility, sloughing off my nasty pride and the bitter fruit it had produced. A work of relinquishing control I never had in the first place. A work of loving my daughter as God does and trusting her to make wise decisions. A work of resting in His sovereignty.

He showed me the truth He spoke in Isaiah 55:9-10: “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” In His sweet mercy, the Lord quickly showed me how much better His plans were than mine.

First, my daughter began working for a friend of mine and discovered a love for business, a perfect melding of her numerical sense and her people skills. Now she’s on track to transfer into an excellent business program. If she’d gone away to college, she never would have taken that job, and she would have wasted time—very expensive time—choosing her major. Score one for God!

Second, the extra time at home allowed my daughter and I to repair our relationship. As I relaxed and trusted her, and she gained maturity, we became close. I wouldn’t trade our deep talks for anything in the world. Score two for God!

Third, she found the love of her life. Her first semester she took a class with her big brother’s close friend—a young man who’d adored her since fourth grade, a young man she’d rejected countless times. Working together closely, she saw the depth of his character and found a match for her wit. She tumbled into love, and this July they were married. Game, set, match—to the Lord!

Whose plans were better for my daughter’s life? God’s! Absolutely God’s! And I’m left in awe of His sovereign goodness, His patience, and His mercy.

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Sarah Sundin is the author of seven historical novels, including Through Waters Deep (Revell, August 2015). Her novella “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” in Where Treetops Glisten is a 2015 Carol Award finalist. A mother of three, Sarah lives in California, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school. Connect with Sarah here:

Website:  http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sarahsundin

Revell, 2015

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Get to know a little more about author Sarah Sundin and how she works!

Sarah Sundin

Are you a morning person? A night owl? How do you arrange your schedule to allow the most efficient, productive time for writing?

I am definitely a night owl. Many writing teachers say you must write first thing every morning. No internet. Pure writing. That would be a disaster for me. My brain barely functions before nine o’clock, and creativity doesn’t kick in until noon. So I work with how God made me. In the morning, I take care of internet and social media first. For one thing, I live in California, and my publisher is three hours ahead of me. If they need something from me by the end of the day, I need to work on it immediately. Also, busywork allows my brain to wake up. After lunch, my creativity and energy burst in, and I can write nonstop until dinner—if life allows me. When I get an evening to myself (rare), I can really write! God made each of us unique, and the only “must” is we “must” find what works best for us.

When working on a manuscript, what do you do when you get stuck?

Because I outline my novels, I rarely get stuck in the rough draft. If I do, I review my notes for the chapter, read the previous chapter, and dive in. Most importantly, I give myself permission to write garbage, knowing I can delete it later. Just put something on the page. Ironically, those “garbage” beginnings often end up as my favorites.

Do you ever read your dialog aloud to see how it sounds? Have you ever performed an action you want one of your characters to carry out in order to help you visualize or describe it? Have you ever embarrassed yourself doing this?

Oh, yes! I read each novel out loud while editing. This is a great way to catch unnatural dialogue, awkward sentences, poor flow, boring parts, and repetitions. And I often act out bits, from body language to action. Recently I needed to know if my heroine could get up to standing on one leg with her hands tied behind her back, hop through a door, close it behind herself, and lock it—and fast. So I acted it out. Yes, I could do it! Yes, my family thinks I’m weird.

If you’re a plotter, have you ever tried pantsing it? If you’re a pantser, have you ever given plotting a try? Can you swing both ways, or are you a confirmed devotee of one of these methods?

I am a plotter. I wrote my first novel by the seat of the pants, and it was an overblown mess that required extensive editing and is still unpublishable. When I started attending writers’ conferences, I learned various methods of outlining—and the angels sang! Outlining fits my analytical, methodical personality, and I write faster, cleaner, and better with an outline. So I’m a confirmed plotter. But that’s what works for me. Some pantsers find outlines stifle their creativity, and they need to avoid them. For me, the structure of an outline actually unleashes my creativity.

Do you prefer writing the initial draft, or do you enjoy the revision process more? Do you revise as you write, or do you first produce a big mess that you later have to fix? If your first draft is rough, do you usually have to cut out a lot of dead wood, or add flesh to the bare bones?

While I enjoy most of the pre-writing and outlining phase, I adore the rough draft. Since the story is outlined in advance, my rough drafts are pretty clean, and the editing process is fast and smooth. The changes aren’t usually huge content issues, but smaller details—“add this historical fact,” “add in that bit about her sister,” “weave in the sailing theme,” “decrease internal monologue.” I don’t make the revisions during the rough draft phase—I just take notes. Then all the changes get made after the rough draft is complete.

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Revell, 2015

Sarah Sundin is the author of seven historical novels, including Through Waters Deep (Revell, August 2015). Her novella “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” in Where Treetops Glisten is a 2015 Carol Award finalist. A mother of three, Sarah lives in California, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school.

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sarahsundin

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Review of Sarah Sundin's "In Perfect Time" by S. A. Black

Sarah Sundin’s World War II historical romance, In Perfect Time, is the final novel in the Wings of the Nightingale series.  Sarah expertly uses her talents to draw the reader into the World War II era with her penchant for detail. She manages to provide (in her words) “drama, daring and romance” into her books. Sarah skillfully weaves her story of the flight nurses efforts as well as the pilots who risked their lives to transport between Italy and southern France evacuating wounded and delivering supplies to hospitals.  She centers her story around the lives of two main characters: Army Air Force flight nurse Kay Johnson and C-47 pilot Roger Cooper.

Beautiful flirtatious Lt. Kay Johnson, driven by her memories of her father’s condescending words that she was unworthy of any love even from God, “he called her irredeemable”, collects men’s hearts across the European airfields. Kay is a good flight nurse and wants to pursue her career by attending the chief nursing school before the war ends, but her loose reputation as well as her inability to unify her group of six flight nurses could hinder her chances at being selected as a candidate.

Handsome daring pilot Lt. Roger Cooper, a musician at heart, dreams of making it big as a drummer in a Big Band after the war, but until that time he continues to fly C-47 planes flying the wounded, paratroopers, and supplies across Europe. Having given up his past life of being bad boy when he got saved, he is known as “preacher man” as he carries his Bible with him even on his flights. But his reputation for being “late all the time, writing sloppy reports, and pulling pranks on other pilots” doesn’t sit well with his squadron commander Major Bill Veerman, brother to Big Band Leader Hank Veerman. Roger determines to prove himself reliable, to gain the respect from his squadron commander and to receive a possible recommendation for a rehearsal with Veerman’s band in the states.

As Kay and Roger find themselves working side by side in their efforts to evacuate the wounded to safety, their relationship slowly develops. When Kay comes on strong to Roger, although captivated by Nurse Johnson, he avoids her advances, knowing her reputation of loving and leaving; although he can’t deny the respect he has for her skills and capabilities as an excellent flight nurse. 

I would very much recommend this book. It was very entertaining and informative of the WWII era. The plot was very well developed and kept me reading to the end. Future readings will most likely include her other novels prior to In Perfect Time.

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An Interview with Author Sarah Sundin

Have you ever had a funny experience connected with being an author? For instance, has someone ever overheard you discussing the merits of one murder weapon over another or caught you shooting at a can of gasoline to see if you could make it explode?

Once while driving my daughter and her best friend to the high school, her friend was moaning about how her father embarrassed her so much by talking to their pet bunny. (Please read this with 15-year-old teen girl angst). My daughter said, “You think that’s bad? My mom talks to the people on her computer screen! And they aren’t even real!” Best friend said, “All right. You win.”

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

I love almost all of it—the research, the planning, the rough draft, and even the editing. I’ve come to enjoy a lot of the publicity parts of it—especially speaking events and social media. I’m not so fond of writing nonfiction articles for publicity, but what job doesn’t have parts to it that you don’t like?

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

Serious plotter. Verging on obsessive-compulsive. I fill out character charts, plot charts, and scene outlines. Without that road map I won’t start the journey. However, my characters have been known to lead me off my carefully laid trail, and I let them. They know best.

Do you write full time, or do you work it in alongside a full-time job?

I do write full time, but I also work one day a week as a hospital pharmacist—which pays way better than writing! And we have college-age kids.

What do your kids think about your being a writer?

Our daughter (18) thinks it’s kind of weird. She won’t read my books because it’s icky to think of your mom writing kissing scenes. I do understand. I would have thought the same thing when I was her age. However, our sons (16 and 21) think it’s cool and love reading my books. Our youngest son served as my assistant last month when I was researching my next series in Boston. My husband couldn’t take much time off work, but he sweetly offered to let me stay several extra days to research—and Matthew volunteered to stay with me and help. During the trip the truth came out. Matthew said, “I was afraid you’d get caught up in your research and get lost.” So he stayed to protect me! Isn’t that sweet?

What do you do to get past writer’s block?

I usually get a running start. First I review my outline for the chapter. Then I read the chapter or two beforehand to get in the right frame of mind. And then I write. I give myself complete permission to write nonsense, knowing I can always delete or edit it later. When I find myself truly procrastinating, it often stems from a niggling sense that something is wrong with the story. Then I take some time (I’m not writing anyway) to evaluate that section of the novel. Why is it not working? Too much chit-chat and not enough action? Too much research and not enough emotion? Is my heroine acting out of character, and I need to back off from my outline and let her take over? Usually something pops up, I rework my outline, and back to work I go.

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

We have a sweet but skittish cat named Janie, and a yellow lab named Daisy. Daisy is six years old but still acts like a puppy, and she still does not understand why on earth I want to type on that box thingie all day when I could be playing with her! So she eats random household objects and steals my slippers. She owns us.

Bio:

Sarah Sundin is the author of six historical novels, including In Perfect Time (Revell, August 2014). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. Sarah lives in northern California with her husband and three children, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies.

Social media links

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sarahsundin

Make sure to stop by tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of In Perfect Time!

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Keeping Secrets: The Power of Secrets in Your Characters’ Lives by Author Sarah Sundin

“Want to hear a secret?” Those words make ears perk up from elementary school playgrounds to high school cafeterias to corporate offices. Secrets fascinate us.

Secrets can be powerful tools in fiction. When readers sense a secret is in play, their ears perk up, and they’re drawn into the story to ferret out that secret—and to watch the consequences.

Almost all characters keep a secret. Your job as a novelist is to know why she keeps that secret, to decide when and how to reveal it, how to conceal it beforehand, and what the consequences of revelation will be.

Why a Secret?

Why does your character keep her secret concealed? Perhaps she fears physical consequences, such as being arrested for a crime she committed. Perhaps she is ashamed of something she’s done and doesn’t want people to think less of her. Perhaps she’s hurt or betrayed someone and doesn’t want that person to know. Perhaps she thinks she’s moved past it and would rather forget about it, thank you very much. In In Perfect Time, World War II flight nurse Lt. Kay Jobson comes across as bold and confident. If her secret were revealed, she’d be seen as weak and vulnerable, everything she’s worked hard to overcome. So she doesn’t reveal her past to even her closest friends—and she rarely broods on it.

When to Reveal?

When do you want the secret revealed to the reader or to other characters? These may or may not be the same moments. The most powerful times to reveal secrets are at the turning point between Acts I and II, the crisis moment in the exact middle of the novel, the turning point between Acts II and III, and at the climax. The revelation of the secret can drive one of those crucial moments or the secret can be revealed by those events. You may also choose to reveal a secret at other times, particularly when the revelation serves to build relationships. In In Perfect Time, Kay reveals her secret at the end of Act I. However, the hero, C-47 pilot Lt. Roger Cooper, reveals his secret to Kay in a quieter friendship-building scene early in Act II—but Kay’s knowledge of that secret drives the novel’s midpoint crisis.

A Slow Revelation

Sometimes the reader knows the secret from the beginning. But when the character conceals her secret from the reader, clues need to be dropped to build the mystery. When the secret comes out, you don’t want the reader to feel cheated and say, “What? How could that be?” But you also don’t want them to say, “Duh. Saw that a mile away.” Instead, you want them to say, “Ah ha. Now I understand.” Carefully spaced, carefully worded clues intrigue the reader. Sometimes I list or highlight all those clues in the manuscript and examine them. Do they tell enough? Too much? Should I pare them back? Or do I need more? The best time to drop clues is when the character is unguarded, due to stress, grief, anger, or intimacy.

How to Reveal?

Sometimes secrets are wrested out into the open against the character’s will. Sometimes they are revealed by trauma, when the character’s defenses fall and she spills her heart. Sometimes characters deliberately reveal their secrets to shock or repel people. And sometimes characters reveal their secrets in sweet moments of trust and friendship. What works best for your story?

The Consequences

Now her secret is out. Does this bring utter devastation as her world falls apart? Does it drive away her friends and loved ones? Does it bring closeness and deeper friendship? Remember, different people respond in different ways. The same secret may lead one person to reject her and another to embrace her. Ultimately, if you are writing a story about hope and honesty and faith, the long-term consequences of the revelation should bring healing for the character.

Do you like to use secrets in your novels? Do you have any tips to share?

Bio:

Sarah Sundin is the author of six historical novels, including In Perfect Time (Revell, August 2014). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. Sarah lives in northern California with her husband and three children, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies.

Social media links

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin 

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sarahsundin 

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