Author Interview ~ Shelly Beach

Shelly Beach is a full-time author of seven books, as well as a national speaker. Her contemporary Christian novel, Hallie’s Heart, won a 2008 a Christy Award, and the sequel, Morningsong, released with Kregel Publishers in March of 2009. Shelly’s two caregiving books draw on the eight years that she and her family cared for parents in their home. Precious Lord, Take My Hand: Meditations for Caregivers was a finalist for the 2008 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Award in the Gift and Inspiration category. Ambushed by Grace: Help and Hope on the Caregiving Journey was released by Discovery House Publishers in November of last year. Her most recent publication is The Silent Seduction of Self-Talk (Moody Publications).

Shelly also is a “faith expert,” writing for Caring.com (an affiliate of msn.com). Caring.com is the Internet’s most-highly sought source of information for those caring for aging loved ones and receives approximately three-quarters of a million hits per month.

Shelly and her husband Dan have two adult children and live near Grand Rapids, where they enjoy riding their Harley motorcycle together.

When did you decide to be a writer?

I wanted to be a writer from the time I was a child. I wrote my first story in 6th grade—A Visit from Jupiter. But I made the decision to be a writer when my children were small and I decided to figure out how to actually go about learning the business of querying and researching markets and figuring how the world of publishing worked. I was a teacher at the time, so I took it on like a research project. I’d seen some pretty mediocre writing in print, and I figured I could do better. So I decided to put some research and effort behind it and go to some writers’ conferences and try to learn how.

At what point did you stop juggling suggestions and critiques and trust yourself (as a writer)?

I’m not sure I still fully trust myself to be the best expert on every aspect of my writing. I guess that’s because after writing seven books, I still consider myself a learner. I know there are things other writers and editors can teach me, and I’m eager to figure out what they are. But if the question is, “When did I stop getting tied up in self-doubt?” That’s another question. I guess I’d say a few years ago.

Are you a disciplined writer or do you just write when you feel like it?

This is a tough question. Am I allowed to lie? No, I certainly do not just write when I “feel” like it. Some days I’m in this chair for sixteen hours, and I have the numb legs to prove it. So I’d say I’m a highly disciplined writer. I’ve never missed a deadline, and I got up every morning over a Christmas holiday break with my daughter, whom I only see twice a year so I could deliver a manuscript on time.

But do I write every single day? No. I’m often slamming down on deadlines that push me to the max. When I’m done, I come up for air, take off on the Harley with my husband, and clear my head. Just two weeks ago I went to a writers’ retreat with my closest writing friends, and I didn’t write a word. I’d just finished a book the day before, and I needed to stare at the lake and sit by the fire.

What kind of activities to you like to do that help you relax and step away from your deadlines for a bit?

Ride our Harley with my husband. Travel. Be by the water or the ocean. Visit my kids. Did I mention ride our Harley with my husband?

What is your favorite novel and what made it special?

A Tale of Two Cities. Redemptive themes. Great characters. Amazing plot. Love it, love it.

How do you think reading the work of others helps you as a writer?

Reading the work of others feeds my creative energy while giving my mind the opportunity to evaluate plot, setting, characterization, voice. Reading gives me the opportunity to just wallow in the art and beauty of good writing. A good wallow is a very refreshing thing.

Tell us a little about your latest release:

My latest release is The Silent Seduction of Self-Talk: Conforming Deadly Thought Patterns to the Word of God. This book was a lot like stripping down to my spiritual undies and parading myself in front of the world. It was a book I was afraid to write because it would mean so much self-exposure. But I knew God had called me to write it, and so I had to do it.

The book is about where we go when we step away from the character of God like Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden. We stumble straight into a lust for power, then selfish forms of self-protection, then positioning ourselves so others only see the best side of us, then self-promotion, and finally plundering (ripping off) from others and sometimes from ourselves as well. The book helps readers understand the nature of self-talk, engage in the self-talk cycle, and lean into the exciting expectancy of change that Paul talks about in the book of Philippians.

Where did you get your inspiration for The Silent Seduction of Self-Talk?

My inspiration came from my own struggle with manipulation and control. I’d been a Christian working in Christian settings for years, and I was married to a wonderful Christian man. But I was doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons. One day God planted me in an MRI tube while doctors scrabbled around trying to diagnose a golfball-sized lesion in my brain. Suddenly I was nose-to-nose with God, and my self-talk was dialed up full volume. For the first time I could see the raging inconsistencies in my thought patterns.

This book is aimed toward reconciling people’s thought patterns to the Word of God. What would you say are the biggest lies people tell themselves?

One of the biggest lies we believe is that we’re alone in our self-talk. One we recognize that God is present there with us, we can “lean into” that presence and turn out self-talk into God-talk.

Another one of the big lies we believe is that we’re loving God and loving other people when our motives are often self-centered and twisted. As James 1:16-25 says, we need to be “Quick to listen, slow to speak; do not merely listen and deceive yourselves . . . the man who looks intently . . . and continues to do this—he will be blessed in what he does.” We seldom take the time to look intently at our self-talk and see what’s really there.

We live in a world that pushes a “me-first” philosophy. How do you think Christians go about defending themselves against this kind of self-idolatry?

Too many of us are so busy checking things off our Spiritual To-Do Lists that we don’t take the time to look at what we’re really thinking and saying to ourselves. We believe we’re loving God and loving people, but we’re also defending the fact that we’re screaming and coaches and refs, taking potshots at our grumpy neighbor, grousing about the church music, sniping about our boss behind his back, and disrespecting our spouses and children—and we don’t seem to see the inconsistencies in our thinking.

What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this book?

God’s greatest gift to us is change. The most powerful moment in our lives is the moment we realize how messed up we are and we throw ourselves into the arms of Jesus. That’s the moment change can begin.

What kinds of things have you done to market this book? Have you found anything that works particularly well?

I’ve done a number of radio interviews, and I love to speak on the topic. I’ve enjoyed doing women’s seminars and retreats where I get to talk about how crazy and messed up I was and how God’s changed me and made me new. He’s changed my marriage and my relationships with my adult kids, and my thinking processes have been turned inside-out with just a few simple principles.

Tell us what new projects you’re working on.

I just finished co-authoring a beautiful and fascinating book with Dr. Don Brake titled A Visual History of the King James Version that will come out in celebration of the 400th birthday of the King James Bible in 2011. And I’m currently writing for Caring.com as their faith expert on caregiving issues, as well as writing a new book on motives.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

For authors—write your passion and communicate it with everything you’ve been given. For readers, find the passion God’s placed in your and steward it with everything you’ve been given.

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Shelly is giving away a copy of her book, The Silent Seduction of Self-Talk. Be sure to visit The Borrowed Book on Friday, February 19, 2010, for your chance to win!

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Author Interview ~ Christa Allan

Christa Allan is the mother of five adult-children between the chronological ages of 23 and 31. She’s the grandmother of Emma, almost four, Hannah, eighteen months, and Bailey, who went to heaven after one month. She teaches high school English to ninth and tenth graders in the largest public high school in Louisiana. Christa and her husband Ken live in Abita Springs with their three neurotic cats. Her debut women’s fiction, Walking on Broken Glass, will be published in Spring 2010 by Abingdon Press. She’s also published essays in Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Divorced and Recovering soul.

When did you decide to be a writer?

I started writing in high school, but I did so primarily to write stories in which all the truly adorable and skinny girls grew unsightly zits on prom night. It wasn’t until five years ago that truly wrapped my brain around the notion that I could “be” a writer. And, honestly, I probably would’ve delayed the serious putting of hands to keyboard except that my husband bought me a laptop. So the guilt of not using it outweighed the fear of whatever much might appear on the screen.

How long did you write before you sold your first book?

I signed with Rachelle Gardner, WordServe Literary at the beginning of 2008, and she started shopping my novel a few months later. I signed my contract with Abingdon Press the first week of December. I happened to meet Barbara Scott, their Senior Acquisitions Editor, at the ACFW conference in Dallas of that same year. I’m thrilled to be with them because Barbara “got” my novel in the same way Rachelle did, and I feel confident in working with her.

Are you a disciplined writer or do you just write when you feel like it?

Hmm…structure and writing day seem to be mutually exclusive terms for me I teach high school English, and during the school year, the lesson planning, grading, emotional investment in students and sometimes their parents suck the creative energy right out of me [maybe “write” out of me too!]. Now, I know there are a plethora of teacher-writers out there who manage both. Me? Not so much. In fact, I’m starting with a Personal Coach next week in an effort to get a grip on this.

Debut authors often talk about the “surprises” that come with publishing—deadlines among the most common. How have your writing habits changed, now that you are under deadlines?

In those puttering first months of writing, I’d set goals and times of day to write. Not too successful for me. Word-count goals, because they’re concrete, work best for me. You’ve either written the number of words or not.

Part of my struggle now is carving out time…I already wake up at 4:30 to get ready for school, so I don’t think I can get up earlier to have writing time. Lately, the husband and I car pool, so some days I’m not arriving home until 5 or 6 pm. And even though we’re empty-nesters, there’s still a nest. Cooking, laundry, cleaning…Then, added to that, I grade, whine about grading. . . So, before I know it, it’s 10 pm, and I still haven’t devoted time to writing. . .Guess that means my approach is no approach? Is recognizing the problem the first step to recovery? If so, I’m on my way! Seriously, this is why I’ve contracted with a personal coach. I’m too strangled by my own problems to get my hands off my own neck. . .

Half of my book, I wrote over a period of two years, then Katrina came along and turned our lives inside out for two years. Our home was fine, but my husband lost his job, so we moved to a city three hours away. We lived there for two years, then we had an opportunity to return home In fact, to our same house since it hadn’t yet sold. But I didn’t accomplish much writing during the years we were away. I did, though, piddle with a few chapters of a YA, but not much else,

The second half of my book, I wrote in less than two weeks. I’m not proud of that, but I felt compelled to finish it. And sitting my butt in the chair from the wee hours of the morning until the wee hours of the next morning, unfortunately, seemed to work for me. My generous husband took over everything else while I disappeared into the black hole of my novel. I have vague recollections of showering, brushing my teeth, and eating…but I’m mostly relying on outside accounts for that! I do know that I rarely spoke on the phone or used the internet during those times.

Since finishing my book, I’ve mulched about a dozen others. I write two-three chapters, then think of other ideas, then write two-three chapters, then mulch a little more…it’s clearly creative procrastination.

What kind of activities to you like to do that help you relax and step away from your deadlines for a bit?

My best stress therapy is weeding the garden; it’s an effective post-school day tension relief as well. Sometimes I want to wander over to the neighbor’s house and start yanking their weeds because I’ve had “one of those days.”

Unpublished authors often struggle with self-doubt—a sense of “will I ever be good enough.” Have you struggled with this, or do you still?

I struggle with writing every time I open my laptop. The taunting voices of defeat, insecurity, doubt tune-up, and I have to make a conscious decision to drown out their noises. Often, I feel like a ten-year-old who’s being bullied, and I have to close my eyes, stomp my feet, and yell. Well, not literally, but perhaps I should!

While writing my first novel, the one that’s being published, I wondered-always-if it was “good.” Meaning, would someone really want to read this or is it just like that pink, amorphous stuff on the Shoney’s salad bar, you know, it looks pretty—but when you stick your spoon in it, there’s nothing there? I struggled with the notion that I was spending days, weeks, months of my life not knowing if there’d ever be a ‘pay off” in terms of being signed by an agent or landing a contract. I struggled with discriminating between my writing being my gift from God or my writing being my gift to my ego. I struggled with the fear of success. If I really succeed, as in publication and attention, am I going to be able to live up to expectations? What if I’m a “one-time wonder”?

Now that I have one book contract, I’m already wondering if there will be a second. And what book should I write? When the “what if” monster follows me around too long, I email/call Rachelle. In fact, not long after signing with Rachelle, I was struggling with something in a proposal I was writing. After days of angst, I had a “duh” moment. You, Christa, have an agent; you don’t have to struggle alone! I probably should pay Rachelle for therapy because she does have to do quite a few brain adjustments. She, my husband, and my daughters are my cheerleaders and reality-checkers. When I can’t get out of my own way, they clear a path. When I’m having a pity party, they refuse to send out the invitations. When I’m apt to jump off the ledge, they find a net.

I do recognize that, in many areas of my life, I work better with a deadline or at least clearly defined boundaries. For example, at school I know what “box” I’m supposed to operate in. I know when I’m choosing to step outside of it, so I’m prepared for the consequences. If I have a deadline, I know if I’m ahead of it or not. To be truly effective, though, the deadlines have to be other than self-imposed.

Distractions can be big…especially in the life of a writer. What kinds of things distract you from writing, and what do you do to avoid them?

Lately, social networking and blogs are my primary addictions and procrastinations. I have a blog, FICTIONARY [www.cballan.wordpress.com] that’s primarily a book review, author interview, blog tour, and product review blog. It used to be my only blog until I started hosting so many blog tours that I didn’t have space for my personal blogging. I also have a website, Christa Allan [www.christaallan.com], which is for my personal tales of writing, teaching, mothering, and other “ings.” Keeping current with those is becoming increasingly more challenging. Not so much FICTIONARY because the content is already delineated. My personal blog, though, is becoming as scattered in content and in posting as I. It suffers from that teacher end-of-the-day-my-creativity-died syndrome. If only I could figure out how to transfer the blogs I write in my head to the computer. . .

Another time-consumer is jumping around to read the blogs of other writers, teachers, publishers, agents, etc. I’m always thinking that I might miss the next great “thing” if I miss reading their blogs. [This is probably some leftover psychological trauma from high school where I felt like my nose was always smushed against the glass gazing at the “A” crowd!]

Twitter and Facebook are becoming increasingly problematic; they feed right into my ADD-ness. On one hand, they provide me the ability to check in with all the strands of my life—writing, education, publishing—in one place. On the other hand, they delude me into thinking I’m actually accomplishing something.

Perfectionism, perhaps sadly, has not been a behavior with which I struggle. One look at my house could attest to that, Time management—absolutely an issue. Again…it’s why I’ve decided to invest in a personal coach.

A well-intentioned behavior, but certainly self-defeating, is my tendency to say, “yes” to a multitude of responsibilities in my teaching, writing, and personal life. If I ran an airline, my flights would always be overbooked!

What is your favorite novel (not written by you) and what made it special?

Nancy Drew books and Little Women. I know that’s more than one, but they just seem linked in my memories! When I think back to those books, what I most remember is losing myself in them. That sense of being a part of a place entirely outside of where I sat to read was, and still is, magical.

How do you think reading the work of others helps you as a writer?

As an English teacher and a writer, I don’t think we can ever underestimate the importance of the link between reading and writing. My best writers in my high school classes are my most avid readers. We absorb so much in the way of vocabulary, diction, syntax from the works of other writers. It’s crucial for me, even though I do read books about writing, to continue to read well-written books.

Tell us a little about your latest release:

Walking on Broken Glass, my debut novel, tells the story of Leah Thornton, a woman whose life looks pretty from the outside; she seems to “have it all.” But appearances can be deceiving because she’s a mess. She drinks to numb her pain and, until her friend confronts her with the truth, she thinks no one else has noticed. Leah admits herself to rehab, and the novel-told from Leah’s point of view-follows her through her recovery as she attempts to discover who she really is and what she’s willing to sacrifice to find out.

What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?

So many events, even people, including ourselves don’t follow the “script” we’d written. Often when that happens, we feel as if God’s abandoned us. Sometimes God won’t follow the script we’ve written for Him! Instead of disappointment, despair or defeat, I hope readers come away with the hope that God’s grace can find us wherever we are. And sometimes we’re following exactly the script God had for us all along. My prayer is that readers find the courage to confront addiction-either in themselves or someone else-and feel reassured that they’re not alone. We may never know to whose prayers our lives are the answer.
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What kinds of things have you done to market this book? Have you found anything that works particularly well?
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Compared to writing, marketing is a beast! I’m not sure what works well because this is my first novel, so everything is a test run. I’ve sent out press releases to newspapers, local radio and television stations, scheduled book signings, sent out postcards, asked for influencers and endorsers, participated in blog tours and interviews…It’s really an all-consuming task. My dream is to one day have a publicist. Not because I believe having one relieves me, as author, of the responsibility of promoting my novel. I’m thrilled to promote it. It’s the learning curve of figuring out the who, what, when, where, how of it all and staying organized.

Tell us what new projects you’re working on.

Rachelle Gardner, my agent, is shopping two proposals now. So…I’m not sure yet what’s going to be the new project.

How does your faith play into your writing?

Of course, my constant prayer is for God to remind me that He’s in control. I’ve cherished this: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10) because I know that God’s desire is for me to achieve the dreams that He gave me.

I also believe, and I’m trying to be better at practicing this in my life, that it’s important to reach out to others and share my struggles. I’ve even prayed about being part of an “accountability group” where we could lovingly challenge one another to make progress and hold fast to our dreams and goals.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

Don’t run with scissors. And, thank you, Lisa and The Borrowed Book for being so gracious.

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Christa is giving away a copy of her debut novel, Walking on Broken Glass. Be sure to visit The Borrowed Book on Friday, 02/19/10 for your chance to win!

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Jane Austen once said, "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

How funny, and how true! From my earliest days, books have been my companion, my solace, the outpouring of my deepest hopes and dreams. Books have taken me to worlds real and imagined. Hours have I spent, burrowed 'twixt the pages of a well-worn novel, fearing the dawn. Even as a child, I knew the rising of the sun would dispel all shadows of the fuzzy world created by an author's skilled pen.

I'm so glad you're here, dear reader. It must mean that you, like me, have a deep and yearning love for fine books. If that is the case, then there is much in store for you here. On Mondays, I will introduce you to some of the finest debut authors Christian fiction has to offer. Wednesdays and Thursdays, I'll post interviews with some of your favorite authors or let you browse excerpts from many of the latest books. Not into fiction? Then stop by on Tuesdays and Sundays when writers of non-fiction and devotionals will be the featured guests.

And Fridays...well...those are the best days of all. Every Friday, I'll post giveaways from the authors who have been featured that week. Entering the weekly drawing is easy:

1. Leave a comment on Fridays or...

2. Sign up to follow The Borrowed Book. Followers will automatically be entered for a chance to win that week's drawing!

Well, that's all for now. I hope we'll spend many hours together, reading about up-and-coming authors, or learning something new about old favorites. Stop by again soon...and until then...feel free to lose yourself in a good book!

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Welcome!

If you love a good book and great authors, you're in the right place. From here, you can expect awesome interviews, contests, industry news, and much more. Sit back, grab some tea, and enjoy...

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