Today we are interviewing author Erin Rainwater. Her two most recent books are True Colors
and The Arrow That Flieth By Day. 
and The Arrow That Flieth By Day. Erin Rainwater is a Pennsylvania native now living in Colorado. As an Army nurse during the Vietnam War, she cared for the bodies and spirits of soldiers and veterans, including repatriated prisoners of war. Her 
military experience has helped in writing parts of her novels. In addition to writing, she serves as a nurse in the National Disaster Medical System, and has deployed to disaster areas around the country. One of her favorite pastimes is volunteering at the USO in Denver. Erin has been married to her sweetheart Keith for 35 years, has four children and the four most adorable grandchildren on the planet.
True Colors--Her war is not with enemy soldiers but with battles of the heart and of the will. Only truth can conquer this type of foe. And truth is in short supply
military experience has helped in writing parts of her novels. In addition to writing, she serves as a nurse in the National Disaster Medical System, and has deployed to disaster areas around the country. One of her favorite pastimes is volunteering at the USO in Denver. Erin has been married to her sweetheart Keith for 35 years, has four children and the four most adorable grandchildren on the planet.True Colors--Her war is not with enemy soldiers but with battles of the heart and of the will. Only truth can conquer this type of foe. And truth is in short supply
The Arrow That Flieth By Day--The course of her life diverted by a mistaken accusation, Mandy’s journey now leads her into a faith tested by fire, and a love tested by sacrifice.
Erin took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer's perspective with Writing Career Coach.
Writing Career Coach: Tell us about your book.
Erin Rainwater: Both my novels are historicals, set in the 1860s. Both heroines are strong women without being alpha females who can ride, shoot and chaw tobacco better than any man. True Colors is set during the Civil War, and Cassie Golden leaves her safe but lonely Pennsylvania farm to work as a government nurse in a Federal hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. It is there that love, passion and conspiratorial intrigue enter her life, all in the form of one man, intelligence officer Major Michael Byron. When Michael is offered a mission so secretive he will not even be able to contact Cassie, he is torn between his calling and his desire to stay and begin a family with the woman he loves. Cassie, too, must decide if she can subject her heart to his destiny. Kidnapping, imprisonment and a murder challenge Cassie's ability to survive her inner battles during this terrible war. Cassie's cousin, Mandy Berringer, is the courageous heroine in my second novel, The Arrow That Flieth By Day. Mandy is on the last leg of a homebound journey to Denver when a mistaken accusation by Indian warriors diverts the course of her life. Believed dead by her family, Mandy will do anything to get home. But a disabling accident, an epidemic, and unexpected love and a tragic loss prolong her separaton from her family until she is finally reunited with them--only to be devasted by what she finds. Dakota, the half-breed man she loves, undergoes crushing trials of his own, leaving him handicapped and alone. Their search for each other leads them on separate journeys into new tests of faith and enduring love.
WCC: How do you plan and write your book?
ER: I get broad stroke ideas about stories and the characters that inhabit them. I usually have a pretty good vision of a beginning, parts of the middle, and the end, but none of these are set in stone. The hard part is fusing it all together. Sometimes I have some solidly formed scenes in my mind but no clue how I'll get from one to the next when there's a time lag between them. But I just write anyway, knowing from experience that it'll take shape. It's been said a gazillion times before, but it is absolutely true that sometimes stories write themselves. If only that were true in the sense that it was easy to write them. It's NOT. If it were, my Recycle Bin wouldn't be so full of discarded scenes. But it is true in the sense that the stories, and characters, work themselves somehow into our brains and eventually we figure them out. I don't have a good explanation of how that works. My guess is that it has something to do with how the Lord wired us in the womb, but that's as far as I can take that phenomenon.
WCC: Upcoming projects?
ER: I currently have a novella (a romance between a disfigured veteran and a ruined nurse set in the 1950s) in the hands of two publishers. It started out as a short story, but I am apparently incapable of such a thing. To me, "short" and "story" are oxymorons.
Read the rest of Erin's interview here at Examiner.com and find out who has influenced her.
Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.
Erin took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer's perspective with Writing Career Coach.
Writing Career Coach: Tell us about your book.
Erin Rainwater: Both my novels are historicals, set in the 1860s. Both heroines are strong women without being alpha females who can ride, shoot and chaw tobacco better than any man. True Colors is set during the Civil War, and Cassie Golden leaves her safe but lonely Pennsylvania farm to work as a government nurse in a Federal hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. It is there that love, passion and conspiratorial intrigue enter her life, all in the form of one man, intelligence officer Major Michael Byron. When Michael is offered a mission so secretive he will not even be able to contact Cassie, he is torn between his calling and his desire to stay and begin a family with the woman he loves. Cassie, too, must decide if she can subject her heart to his destiny. Kidnapping, imprisonment and a murder challenge Cassie's ability to survive her inner battles during this terrible war. Cassie's cousin, Mandy Berringer, is the courageous heroine in my second novel, The Arrow That Flieth By Day. Mandy is on the last leg of a homebound journey to Denver when a mistaken accusation by Indian warriors diverts the course of her life. Believed dead by her family, Mandy will do anything to get home. But a disabling accident, an epidemic, and unexpected love and a tragic loss prolong her separaton from her family until she is finally reunited with them--only to be devasted by what she finds. Dakota, the half-breed man she loves, undergoes crushing trials of his own, leaving him handicapped and alone. Their search for each other leads them on separate journeys into new tests of faith and enduring love.
WCC: How do you plan and write your book?
ER: I get broad stroke ideas about stories and the characters that inhabit them. I usually have a pretty good vision of a beginning, parts of the middle, and the end, but none of these are set in stone. The hard part is fusing it all together. Sometimes I have some solidly formed scenes in my mind but no clue how I'll get from one to the next when there's a time lag between them. But I just write anyway, knowing from experience that it'll take shape. It's been said a gazillion times before, but it is absolutely true that sometimes stories write themselves. If only that were true in the sense that it was easy to write them. It's NOT. If it were, my Recycle Bin wouldn't be so full of discarded scenes. But it is true in the sense that the stories, and characters, work themselves somehow into our brains and eventually we figure them out. I don't have a good explanation of how that works. My guess is that it has something to do with how the Lord wired us in the womb, but that's as far as I can take that phenomenon.
WCC: Upcoming projects?
ER: I currently have a novella (a romance between a disfigured veteran and a ruined nurse set in the 1950s) in the hands of two publishers. It started out as a short story, but I am apparently incapable of such a thing. To me, "short" and "story" are oxymorons.
Read the rest of Erin's interview here at Examiner.com and find out who has influenced her.
Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.
2 comments:
Thanks, Tiffany, for this fantastic opportunity. I just realized I forgot to add my web site for those who'd like to know more. It's www.erinrainwater.com. Join me at my virtual fireside!
Erin
Great interview, Tiffany and Erin! These books are going on my Wish List. :)
Blessings,
Susan
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