Dreams, Strokes, and E-Books

I'd always dreamed of becoming a writer "someday," but until my mid-forties, my writing was limited to occasional articles in business magazines and professional journals. I was too busy with my interior landscape business, my husband and home life, and my volunteer activities to pursue my dream.

Then one fateful day, I visited a chiropractor for a routine treatment for a migraine headache and ended up with a debilitating stroke. After two years of therapy and recovery, I realized that I couldn't afford to put off my dream for an elusive "someday" that I might never have. I also thought about Christ's parable of the talents; if God gives us a dream, surely He gives us the talent to go along with the dream. He didn't give me the talent to bury, but to use.

So I started writing, and the result was the contemporary romance novel Stroke of Luck.

I wrote, re-wrote, edited, revised, polished, and tweaked. Then I sent the manuscript to publishers so one would buy it and distribute it to the readers who eagerly awaited this special story. I visualized a paperback on the shelves of the local bookstore.

a. I even had one editor tell me in person, as I sat in my motorized wheelchair in front of her, "No one wants to read a romance about a disabled character."

Shortly after that I heard about electronic publishing and discovered e-publishers are more open to different characters and plot lines than the New York print publishers. My book is now available from GASLight Publishing.

Several years have passed since I first discovered e-publishing. I'm focusing more on nonfiction (both writing and editing) as Editor-in-Chief of Our Mail Network - Your Information Center.

I read e-books more often than print books for several reasons, including the following: E-books from small presses are less expensive, so I can afford to indulge my reading habit more often than with print books. My eyesight is very poor, and I can adjust the font on my e-book reader or my computer screen to make reading comfortable; the font in many print books is too small for me to read. I like knowing that no trees were destroyed for me to enjoy reading a book; something like 30% of all books that are printed are actually destroyed unsold and unread - what a waste! But, most importantly, I've discovered some wonderful inspirational books as well as secular books that I can read without offending my Christian faith. Check out the books written by Christian E-Authors and those reviewed on the Book Reviews by Christian E-Authors - I'm sure you'll find some you'll enjoy!

A New Journey

Hi and thanks for visiting our little corner of the blogosphere! I've been a member of Christian-e-authors for several years and consider the members to be friends and colleagues.

I discovered electronic publishing before I discovered that I was called to write for the Christian market, so my first electronic release was a Civil-War time-travel romance novel. It was released first as a download and diskette, and a year later as a mass-market sized paperback. The publisher, New Concepts asked me to add 20,000 words to this book before publication, illustrating that electronic publishers have much greater freedom to publish longer stories. In fact, e-pubs, as they're called, have greater freedom in many ways, including the mixing of genres which major publishers don't know how to market.

After this book, I wrote a contemporary inspirational romance for my current publisher, MountainView Publishing, and this book was a finalist for the prestigious EPPIE Award. The EPPIE is awarded by EPIC, the Electronic Publishing Internet Connection.

What I've learned over the past 8 years is that any and every type of medium works when we write for Him. Blogging is just the latest form of publication, and we have to take advantage of every opportunity to reach readers.

Hope you will continue along on our journey.

Christian E-Authors Enter the Blogosphere!

Christian E-Authors is composed of approximately 150 diverse writers who share our Christian faith, our love of writing, and our interest in electronic publishing. Visit Christian E-Authors to learn more.

Members of our group will be posting about writing, e-books, and electronic publishing several times a week. Leave your comments and questions and come back often to learn more about the exciting world of e-publishing.