Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Archives for September 4, 2013

The one thing you don't need to do to call yourself a writer {and 3 things you do!}

I’m honored to be a guest at Ritty’s Adventures in Writing today.

“When do you put ‘writer’ on your business card?”

I was about to teach a workshop at a writers conference when a woman in the front row asked me this question. I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly, so I asked her to repeat it.

It seemed an easy question to answer, and I gave her an easy response. But the question is more complicated than I made it. My own writing journey testifies to this. I’ve had business cards that say “writer, editor and speaker” on them for years, but that doesn’t mean I always believe I’m any of those things.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

In college, I was a mass communication major. We liked to joke that we were getting a B.S. in B.S. (For the record, I have a B.A.) I didn’t put a lot of thought into my major. I just knew that I liked to write. I took my first creative writing classes in college (and received my first soul-crushing critiques). But college is also where I began to see myself as a writer. And try as I might, I couldn’t deny it.

College is also where I heard a statement about writing that has stuck with me for more than a decade. Jane Friedman, a colleague at my college newspaper who has gone on to be an influential voice in the publishing and writing world offering countless words of wisdom to writers, spoke to a group about her self-discovery as a writer.

She said, “I don’t want to be a writer. I am a writer.”

Powerful stuff.

Read the rest here.

The long-awaited conclusion: Review of My Hope is Found by Joanne Bischof

This summer, my husband and I drove through the mountains in Virginia on our way to Tennessee and I couldn’t get Lonnie and Gideon out of my mind. I’d read the first two books in this series earlier in the year and I was left in limbo as to how things were going to end for them.

My-Hope-is-Found-665x1024When I finally received an advance reading copy of My Hope is Found, the third book in the Cadence of Grace series, I hesitated to start reading it because I wasn’t sure I wanted to hurt again. The first two books wrecked me in a good way and I ignored my real life to get through them. I was an emotional mess, and part of me didn’t want to go there. (Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book from the author in exchange for my review.)

But I went there, and in a span of 8 hours, off and on, I finished the story of Lonnie and Gideon. And oh. my. word. I can’t–and won’t–give too much away, but here’s what I can say: this story is full of emotion. The ache of longing. The fear of losing. The pain of letting go. I felt it all, and even though I didn’t cry as much as I did with book 2, I was still moved.

I have appreciated Bischof’s willingness to travel the hard road with her characters. As in life, there are no guarantees that things will work out as they have planned (or as we as readers might want!) but there is hope that things work out for good.

If I had an official list of all-time favorite books, this series would be on it, and it would be near the top. Cadence-of-Grace-1-1024x691

Joanne Bischof has created a romance to rival the best classic love stories. I highly recommend this series, but a warning: if you start with the first book, have the next two on hand because you’re not going to want to wait to finish it. Also, stock up on tissue and whatever comfort food or drink you need to soothe the pain. You’ll need it.

You can find out more about Joanne Bischof here.