Today's guest is brand new to our blog and a new Pelican Book Group author so please give Linda Maran a great big WELCOME and let's hear what she has to say.
Take it away Linda....
Ironically, I’d never even heard of Amish
Inspirational Romance until the late literary agent, Mary Sue Seymour,
suggested I write one!
I’ve been writing since I was a
young teen, mostly poetry back then.
In my late twenties I became ill
and was unable to work at my current job as a secretary for a large firm, so I
turned idle time into writing time.
I love to cook and wrote many food
articles and even put together a regional cookbook back then. Unfortunately, two
such books had already been published, but I had a lot of fun doing it, and
learned quite a bit about discipline and organization.
In 2004, I wrote and
self-published: Confronting The Bully of OCD. There was a need for such a book
and so I put myself out there and outlined the techniques taught to me by a New
York City OCD specialist, who graciously allowed me to do that.
I’ve always loved to read good
stories with a twist and about ten years ago, tried my hand at fiction and
submitted it to literary agent, Mary Sue Seymour. It was she who encouraged me
to keep writing (despite the fact that my submission was not up to par.) God
rest her soul.
She suggested I join RWA and a
Christian critique group and finally, asked me to try to write an Amish
romance.
I’d never even heard of Amish
Inspirational Romance. But I remembered how I enjoyed and was fascinated by my
trip to Lancaster , PA
Since I don’t believe in
coincidences, it happens that there is an Amish community an hour and thirty
minutes from our vacation place in upstate, NY. I made several trips there as
part of my research on that particular sect of the Amish, gathering as much
information as I could. That, plus reading a lot more Amish novels and books,
and befriending some ex-Amish on Facebook, all contributed to the culmination
of this novel, The Stranger.
I am very grateful for my first
published novel and all the people who helped it become a reality, especially
my critique group, Scribes 202, who literally taught me the rules for writing
fiction and my wonderful agent, Linda S. Glaz.
Find out more by visiting my Facebook Page and get your copy of The Stranger directly from Pelican Book Group or Amazon.
How wonderful for you, Linda, Congratulations!!
Hope you enjoyed today's post friends and that you'll join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.
Until next time take care and God Bless.
PamT