I’ve always admired Mary at a distance until one day a good friend of mine, T. Suzanne Eller, introduced us at the SheSpeaks conference in North Carolina in August. Up until that point I could never muster up the courage to contact her to invite her to be a guest on Books A Latte. However, I chickened out…again.

My daughter, T accompanied me on this trip to the conference. Sometime during the teen portion of the conference, T met Mary. She won an autographed copy of Mary’s book Daisy Chain (the sequel is entitled Slow Burn). Well, on the entire trip home the name Mary DeMuth seeped from her lips more times than I can remember. I made the mistake of thinking that the excitement would slip away as time distanced her from the memorable occasion…NOT! This child gave new meaning to the word “relentless.” She would not allow me to wallow in my fear that Mary was too important to take the time to talk with me.

We met Mary in August and I didn’t interview her until November. Is T persistent or what?

Check out our interview – you may want to take notes, Mary shares quiet a bite of valuable information (she also talks about her next book):

To learn more about Mary DeMuth visit: www.MaryDeMuth.com or www.WannaBePublished.blogspot.com or www.MyFamilySecrets.org.

Be randomly selected to WIN a FREE copy by posting a comment below!

As Virelle Kidder reflects on where God has taken her and her family, she looks ahead with excitement to see what He still has in store for them. Her journey takes her from a dysfunctional childhood where secrecy was the family code – to adulthood, where she leard to serve the God of truth.

Learning that following God requires a surrendered schedule and a willing heart, she tells in her humorous, poignant, inimitable way how He stretched her through experienceds like lost furniture, a husband who was histil to her newfound faith, mother issues, health challenges, house guests, and all manner of everyday life.

Join Verelle and I as we discuss her recently relsease book entitled, The Best Life Ain’t Easy, But It’s Worth It – indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen we have an awesome guest on the show today. She is the racial reconciliation “rectifier” a.k.a. Linda Leigh Hargrove. The Lord has given this woman a great ministry and the courage to reach out to an area that seems to be “taboo” – especially among the church.

Linda has written two novels that deal with her passion, which is racial reconciliation. When this began, she and her husband spoke on topics dealing with such issues. Linda began to pray for the Lord to raise someone up that would deal with this “hushed” subject and guess what? You got it, the Lord sent her! What an amazing story she has to share with the world!

When Linda began this ministry she realized that their were many who didn’t quite “get it.” They didn’t understand her ministry. This concerned her and she wanted the Lord to show her how she could demonstrate this issue to the world around her. Well, being the prayer answering God that He is, He birthed in her the book entitled, “The Making of Isaac Hunt” and the second book in this series is the recently released, “Loving Cee Cee Johnson,” and the third book is soon to come. WOW!

To learn more about Linda Leigh Hargrove please visit www.llhargrove.com and also visit 17 Seeds where more topics regarding her passion are posted.

Now, tune in as we discover more about Linda Leigh Hargrove.

When you are starting to write or get writer’s block, the smartest idea is to write about what you know about.  Otherwise, you are going to be doing a lot of research.  While research is something you may want to consider in the future, novices should begin with writing about what they already have experienced or know best.  It helps you to improve your writing skills, while not worrying so much about the subject as you begin to improve your craft.

Get to know your best writing self.  Do you write best alone or with others in the room?  Can you concentrate with music and television blaring in the background or do you need dead silence.  I write best when it’s quiet, but my husband writes more words an hour with his favorite inspirational music playing softly in the background.  Not me! If I hear a song while I’m writing, I am thinking about the words of the song, not the words on my computer.

A lot of people have asked me about my writing process. I always tell them, “writer’s write.” Most people talk about writing and don’t actually write; but to complete a book you need to write, write, write. As my daughter says,  “a book is a lot of words!”  Writing is not easy nor for the faint of heart.

I believe God gives the heart and vision for the story or article. It also takes talents and gifts, but you can’t pull off an article or book without determination and discipline. You write one word at a time just like you play the piano one note at a time. You can do it, if you put your mind to it and overlook other distractions.

Practical Ideas to become the next Pulitzer Prize Winner:

Treat writing as special as you do reading.  I act as though my writing time is very important. Give yourself big challenges in the writing area, perhaps you are asking too little of yourself. Do you only believe you can do what you have already done or do you truly believe you can do more?  You need to believe you can climb some higher mountains than what you did the last time up the slopes.

Give yourself a reward for each writing completion each week or each month.  Sometimes I let stay at the pool for an extra hour in the sauna or buy a coffee mug that looks like a Hemingway mug.

Make lots of great stories available to yourself in a variety of ways. Do everything from checking out from the library old Fibber McGee radio shows to buying tickets to that community playhouse you always drive by.  Tell stories to your children each night to keep expanding your creativity, vocabulary, and fun quotient.

Always edit your work the next day, never the same day. A fresh perspective always helps. Keep reading books about writing so you learn all the tools you need for writing, not just the mechanics of writing. For example, you also need to be an expert on other things, like your audience and how to understand the genre.

It is a writer’s joy to fan the flames of the written word within themselves and others.  Do you have a mentor in the writing field and are you mentoring new or young writers?  Both keep you honest and fresh.

Cheryl Moeller
Stand up comic, syndicated humor columnist, and author
Check out some writing samples or buy books at www.momlaughs.blogspot.com