Interview with Christina Berry

Today we are interviewing author Christina Berry. Her debut novel, The Familiar Stranger, is available through Moody Publishers.


Single mother and foster parent, Christina Berry carves time to write from her busy schedule because she must tell the stories that haunt her every waking moment. (Such is the overly dramatic description of an author's life!) She holds a BA in Literature, yet loves a good Calculus problem, as well. Her debut novel, The Familiar Stranger, releases from Moody in September and deals with lies, secrets, and themes of forgiveness in a troubled marriage. A moving speaker and dynamic teacher, Christina strives to Live Transparently--Forgive Extravagantly!

Her work has also appeared in The Secret Place, The Oregonian, and Daily Devotions for Writers. Find her at http://www.blogger.com/www.christinaberry.net%20 and http://www.authorchristinaberry.blogspot.com/




The Familiar Stranger—formerly known as Undiscovered—is about a couple going through a really rough patch in their marriage. When an accident incapacitates the husband, their relationship must be redefined. Which would be a lot easier to do if BIG secrets from his past didn’t raise their ugly heads. Despite the upheaval, the choices they make involving forgiveness and trust might allow a new beginning. Or … they might not.

Christina took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer's perspective with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: What are some ways you prepared to market your book before you were published?
Christina Berry: In November 2006, my mother (who is my co-writer on other projects) and I launched our website http://www.ashberrylane.net/ and asked our friends and family to subscribe to the infrequent, humorous Ashberry Lane Newsletter. Technically, this marketing effort began before I wrote a single word of The Familiar Stranger, but it laid the foundation for my current marketing.

We set a goal of getting 1,000 subscribers before one of our books made it to print. While we’re still a couple hundred short, setting such a goal pushed us to recruit from real world, shoutlife, facebook, and conference contacts. Having access to 750+ interested readers and the building of momentum over the years has been priceless. I can’t imagine starting at ground zero in the midst of all the release date hoopla!

As soon as Moody designed the cover and secured the ISBN, Amazon and cbd.com put the book up for pre-order. Though I haven’t seen much of a push from other authors, I decided to really promote pre-ordering. We’ll see if it worked!

I’m also focusing on making one reader at a time, whether it be the woman who waited with me as our snow tires were removed at the tire shop, or the checker in the grocery store. Pretty much just looking at me sideways will earn you a business card.


WCC: Tell us about your book.
CB: Craig Littleton has decided to end his marriage with his wife, Denise, but an accident lands him in the ICU with fuzzy memories. As Denise helps him remember who he is, she uncovers dark secrets. Will this trauma create a fresh start? Or has his deceit destroyed the life they built together?

The Familiar Stranger (Moody Publishers, Sept 2009)


WCC: How do you plan and write your book?
CB: My previous writing has been heavily plotted and I’ve known almost everything about the characters before diving into the story. Writing with a co-author, Mom and I both need to know exactly how a character looked and his or her history. We wrote out each scene’s main plot point and point of view character on index cards and posted them on a large corkboard. We also found catalogue models that looked like our characters, made collages of the pictures, and slipped our character interview in the back of the plastic sleeves.

With The Familiar Stranger, the first scene came to me like a movie. Once the first chapter was written, I took a few hours to write down how I saw the story progressing. Then I numbered each main point and called it a chapter. All told, I had just over one page of plotting. To keep everything straight, I made notes about the characters as I went along. A very different experience to write by the seat of my pants, but I’m working through my current book in the same way.


WCC: What is it like working with editors? Do you have tips for getting along and building a great relationship with them?




CB: Cookies and chocolate! No, really, I have no trouble working with them because I believe their desire is to make the best book, which in turn makes me look better than I would on my own! I’ve had the pleasure of working with a freelance editor and two editors with Moody. Each person shaped and buffed the manuscript and the end result shines.

One tip? Treat the editor/author relationship like you should any other. Be respectful and honest, ask questions to clarify, and be thankful of his or her time and talent.

Over the years I’ve become real friends with several editors who rejected my work because I care about them as people, not as stepping stones on a career path. Two are even listed in my acknowledgements!

Read the rest of Christina's interview here at Examiner.com and learn about her upcoming projects.




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.

Preparing your fall calendar

When I was in sales we had something called planning your calendar. That meant figuring out what you needed in sales and then looking at your ratio of calls to bookings and finally looking at your average income per booking. The way this usually worked out was about 4 or 5 calls before you got a “yes”. Once you had a yes the average income was about $75-$100 for the booking.

With that information you were to look at what you needed to earn and time available and get your calendar booked. You always booked it 4-6 weeks out starting with the first two weeks.

Writers need to do the same thing. Our industry is slower than making a cold call [most places require a month or more to give a response on a proposal, even an article] but that isn’t an excuse to delay building your calendar. In fact, that makes it even more crucial.

Now that the chaos of summer is over the excuse from many will be “Well, we have back to school, the holidays, etc.” I think you’ve figured out by now it is always SOMETHING. There will always be SOMETHING that makes writing a challenge, but there is nothing in life worth doing that comes simply.

Take some time to determine what is necessary to get your goals met. Here is an example of what I am doing:

One editing project per week

Ten new coaching clients per month

Three blogs per week on each of my two blogs

Three examiner articles per week

Monthly marketing columns for the three different magazines I write for

Complete rough draft of one book every 6 weeks

Read one book per week on business and read one novel per week

In order to do each of these things I know what I need to do daily. I need to bid about 8 jobs because I know ½ of people who contact me for a quote end up booking a job that month. I need to read the book/novel every week and maintain the blogs because that leads to the new material that leads to more coaching clients. Everything builds on something else.

With that I go through and determine what must be done each day.

So what are you working towards in September? Do you even know? Do you have a plan of any kind? That will be the first thing.

Once you’ve done that, go plan your calendar.

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.

Interview with Erin Rainwater

Today we are interviewing author Erin Rainwater. Her two most recent books are True Colors 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

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.

Special opportunities

This summer was the largest summer in the history of Writing Career Coach. I want to thank each and every one of you who took advantage of all the free resources as well as the coaching and editing services I provide.

I am excited to say that among my clients there are finalists in national contests, individuals who have acquired agents and some who are being looked at for publication. I’ve had clients sell articles to publications [for pay] and also have things published locally & nationally in exchange for bylines.

In addition to all of this I have received many emails about how you are growing as writers, advancing your careers and getting new focus and drive. We have expanded to include two assistants for administrative tasks, so I can begin to focus on only coaching and tutoring.

From its humble beginnings, Writing Career Coach is growing strong! Since we are going so strong I am financially in a position to offer some discounts and special offers to the people who got me here-you!

For those of you who read my blog and my newsletter I have a special offer! My September calendar is already booking up and I’m giving you first priority along with some substantial discounts and bonuses. All of these are on a first come, first serve basis. You may contact me through my website to book your spot. First, a bit for those of you going to conference, then something for everyone else.

Conference Dry Run

One of the greatest parts of a writer’s conference is the opportunity to meet with editors and agents. It is your shot to pitch your project. You want to do your best. The Conference Dry Run is what you need. For $25 we will have a 25 minute phone call. The first 15 minutes I will play the part of an editor/agent. For the last 10 minutes we will look at the strengths and weaknesses of your pitch and brainstorm ways for you to put your best foot forward at this all important meeting.

Proposal/Conference preparation plan

[Whether or not you’re going to conference]

I will edit your one sheet, give you a query template to use when you send in your requested manuscripts after conference, evaluate your synopsis [up to 3 pgs] and 30 pgs of your manuscript [up to 8,000 words]. You’ve worked hard to get this far. Make sure you’ve put your most professional face forward. $80 [I will only do 5 of these in September, contact me for scheduling.]

Complete Conference Prep Kit

Get the Conference Dry Run and the preparation plan for $100.

Coaching

I will now offer two kinds of coaching. Select the plan that best meets your needs.

Straight email coaching This has been the Writing Career Coach standard for years. For $30/month [with a minimum 3 month commitment] you will get the two writing career coach workbooks and 3 months of email coaching. This coaching includes customized feedback for each Writing Career Coach exercise.

Coaching with the phone option Or, for $50/month you can have the email coaching with a monthly 45 minute phone call where we can discuss marketing, brainstorming, answer questions, etc. This option is available to all of my clients [even those in other countries, however you will call in to a US phone number so you will incur long distance charges.] This is a great option for writers who want a little more.

I will accept 10 coaching clients in September. Anyone who signs up in August will get to begin immediately and get August as BONUS days! [however there is no additional phone call]

Edits
I will do content edits [see this blog for an example]. I have many happy clients from the US, Canada, Europe and the UK. I edit both Fiction and Non-Fiction. I will do 4 edits TOTAL at the price below, [one per week in September] so contact me for scheduling. A 10% deposit is required to hold your spot.

As a bonus ALL edits on full manuscripts of 50,000 words+ will get the full 3 month coaching plan with their edits FREE!! [A $90 value] They may upgrade to the phone option for only $50 TOTAL [not per month. This is an additional $10 savings.]

50,000-60,000 words $500 to do a complete edit.

60,001-70,000 words $550 to do a complete edit.

70,001-80,000 words $600 to do a complete edit.

Larger or smaller projects, contact me for a quote.

*Complete edit means I will go through the project one time. Some authors want a second edit after they complete revisions. If you’d like re-edits of your work, ask me for a quote.

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.

Some good news coming out of publishing

http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press_releases/2009_aug_20_second_qtr_earnings.html


Good news in publishing. Barnes and Noble are showing some growth. What does that mean to all of us? It could mean more books are selling. It could mean consumer confidence in this small segment is going up.

Or it could mean none of it.

For us as writers, what does it mean? It means we need to keep writing. When things started going down last fall how many of you stopped writing? How many of you decided to keep writing to be ready when the market turned around? How many of you didn’t change anything in response? In publishing there is a huge delay between when they acquire your manuscript and when it goes to press.

That means you can’t chase the market. You can’t write based on what is hot, because when you are done that market is done.

You can’t allow yourself to be concerned with industry experts and what they’re saying.
Your focus must remain on consistent work.

What I have found in publishing is the people who are “lucky” are actually people who were prepared to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves.

What are you doing to make some of your own luck.

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.

An interview with Kimberly Woodhouse

Kimberly Woodhouse's new book Welcome Home: Our Family's Journey to Extreme Joy is an incredible story of overcoming odds. I have the pleasure of knowing Kimberly [she had an extreme makeover house done in Colorado] and her story truly touches the heart...

1. What is something you've learned about the writing process through this book? [what I mean by that is what is something you learned about writing, publishing, marketing your book that you didn't know before.]

Well, I learned I could write really fast. I cranked this one out in two and half weeks. I also learned that good marketing takes a lot of work and a lot of time. And I am still learning the proper use of an em-dash. (And I love those little buggers.)

2. You have a very unique story. How have you been able to maintain some kind of normalcy while spending so much time in the limelight?

I guess I’d have to say that my normal has never been well… normal. So, I re-defined it. And it works great for us :)
Here it is: Normal defined by Kimberley Woodhouse
“The unusual standard—it is irregularly patterned, nonaverage, occurring chaotically, and full of mental liveliness and creative flow.”(Compare it to Webster’s and I think you’ll get a laugh out of it.)

Read the rest of Kim's interview here at Examiner.com and find out how Kim grew as a person by writing this book.

Overwhelming trials . . . met with overcoming joy.

Kayla Woodhouse is not your typical twelve-year-old. Due to a rare medical disorder, she feels no pain, doesn’t sweat, and needs protective cooling gear just to go outside. With her restrictive lifestyle; countless hospitalizations, including brain surgery; and the resulting mountain of hospital bills, what’s a family to do?

How the Woodhouse family has faced seemingly impossible challenges is a story that has captured the hearts of America. Millions of people have experienced glimpses of their lives on Discovery’s Mystery ER, The Montel Williams Show, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (recently voted one of the show’s all-time best episodes!).

Now Kayla’s mom, Kimberley, takes readers behind the cameras to reveal their family’s journey as never before told. From medical sleuthing to cross-country moves, from freak fires to battles with insurance companies, Welcome Home proves that truth really is stranger than fiction. This candid life story reveals both success and failure and demonstrates how, even during tough circumstances, to shift your life from heartbreak to extreme joy.
Peak inside the Woodhouse family’s life (and their famous house) with a 16-page photo insert.

Kimberley Woodhouse is a wife, mother, author, and musician with a quick wit and positive outlook despite difficult circumstances. A popular speaker, she’s shared at more than 600 venues across the country. Kimberley and her family's story have garnered national media attention for many years, but most recently her family was chosen for ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Montel Williams Show, and Discovery Health channel’s Mystery ER. Welcome Home: Our Family’s Journey to Extreme Joy, releases from Tyndale House Publishers September first. In addition to her non-fiction, she also writes romantic suspense and children’s books. Kimberley lives, writes, and homeschools in Colorado with her husband and two children in their truly “extreme” home. http://www.kimberleywoodhouse.com/

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.

Your writing dream

I’m finishing up the book “Put your Dream to the Test” by John Maxwell. I have learned a great deal not only from the book, but also from the questions in the book.

When I picked up the book to read as part of the mentorship program in PVN I figured this book would focus on how to accomplish your dream. The title seemed to be a call for individuals to pursue with full gusto their dreams…

That wasn’t the case at all. Rather, what Maxwell challenges the reader to do is to check their commitment level vis-à-vis their dream. Are they really committed to seeing the dream to completion or are their dreams little more than wishes?

This is an important question for us to ask ourselves regularly. Once we have decided if we are committed or not we need to determine if your actions are on par with what we say our commitment level is.

Many times it can be difficult as a writer. You need to balance time between developing your writing, writing, and working to pay your bills. That is where I find myself at the moment. However, rather than running from that challenge, future writers see it as an interesting challenge. They don’t take their eyes off of the publication goal. Not only that, many of them try to find ways to make streams of income so work is no longer necessary.

What are you working on right now and is it part of your writing dream, or a distraction from it? Reply here and, if you’d like, continue the conversation of facebook. I would love to get to know more of you over that way.

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.