Today I am hosting a stop on the blog tour for author, Natalie Replogle. As friends and going to the same High School as Natalie, I'm so excited that her book, A Rescued Heart has now been released! In today's blog, she will be answering a few questions about her book.
Your personal faith is very important to you. How does this show up in your writing and/or characters?
A lot of Christian books I’ve read have one of the main characters that doesn’t know or want God and learns along the way who God is and begins a relationship with Him. I wanted to do things a little different. I wanted both main characters to share the faith and by doing this show the ups and downs of living a life as a follower of Christ. We are all sinners saved by Grace, no one is perfect, but we do serve a perfect God. I wanted people to see that even believers struggle along the way, make poor choices and don’t trust God the way we should. My prayer is that someone reading my book will identify with one of the characters and see changes they can make in their own life.
How long did it take to write the book?
The first draft took me a little over a year, but it took much longer until I was done with the final draft. From the day I started writing until I had the final draft took about three years. I had already sent out my manuscript to a few agents when I started working on the outline of the second book. I did a few chapters and sent them off to my editor but got a reply that what I had wasn’t going to work. We spoke on the phone and talked about some options and then came to the decision that I had to go back and change a portion of first book to make the second book flow better. I love the new changes and what it added to the storyline. I think it brought improved suspense and added more depth to the characters.
Do you have book #2 already written?
Did you use the Author’s Learning Center to help you with your writing?
No, I did not. I just did a lot of research on how to write a fiction book. I had an amazing editor offer to help me on my grammar and she was also such a great encourager and person to bounce ideas around with….and someone that spoke honestly with me when she thought things needed to change or didn’t work. I also read and reread all of my favorite author’s books and took notes on how they wrote, explained scenes, dialogue, introductions, etc. I did a few writing contests in hopes to get feedback. I did a Genesis contest through ACFW that was for unpublished authors. It was the first five pages and I had a published author (Lynette Eason), an agent and a publisher critique it. I also got connected (through a mutual friend) with fiction author Sharlene MacLaren who critiqued my first chapter and gave me great advice and so kindly answered a few of my questions.
A lot of Christian books I’ve read have one of the main characters that doesn’t know or want God and learns along the way who God is and begins a relationship with Him. I wanted to do things a little different. I wanted both main characters to share the faith and by doing this show the ups and downs of living a life as a follower of Christ. We are all sinners saved by Grace, no one is perfect, but we do serve a perfect God. I wanted people to see that even believers struggle along the way, make poor choices and don’t trust God the way we should. My prayer is that someone reading my book will identify with one of the characters and see changes they can make in their own life.
The first draft took me a little over a year, but it took much longer until I was done with the final draft. From the day I started writing until I had the final draft took about three years. I had already sent out my manuscript to a few agents when I started working on the outline of the second book. I did a few chapters and sent them off to my editor but got a reply that what I had wasn’t going to work. We spoke on the phone and talked about some options and then came to the decision that I had to go back and change a portion of first book to make the second book flow better. I love the new changes and what it added to the storyline. I think it brought improved suspense and added more depth to the characters.
I am halfway done! With our busy summer, I took a break on writing to focus on my family and give my mind a little rest. Now that school has started my free time has increased and I’m looking forward to getting back to my characters!
No, I did not. I just did a lot of research on how to write a fiction book. I had an amazing editor offer to help me on my grammar and she was also such a great encourager and person to bounce ideas around with….and someone that spoke honestly with me when she thought things needed to change or didn’t work. I also read and reread all of my favorite author’s books and took notes on how they wrote, explained scenes, dialogue, introductions, etc. I did a few writing contests in hopes to get feedback. I did a Genesis contest through ACFW that was for unpublished authors. It was the first five pages and I had a published author (Lynette Eason), an agent and a publisher critique it. I also got connected (through a mutual friend) with fiction author Sharlene MacLaren who critiqued my first chapter and gave me great advice and so kindly answered a few of my questions.Head over to Amazon where you can read a short preview from the book and you can either buy the paper or e-book version of A Rescued Heart.
Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=natalie%20replogle&sprefix=natal%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Anatalie%20replogle
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