Friday, February 8, 2013

My Circuitous Writing Journey by Mona Hodgson

Mona Hodgson

God has a unique plan for our lives. That includes the individual paths taken to publication and our encounters along the way—the people who mentor us, the experiences that help us grow as writers—even how we come up with story ideas. Today, author Mona Hodgson shares her personal journey to publication. Enjoy! 
~ Dawn


My Circuitous Writing Journey
by Mona Hodgson

 Me, a writer? Was that even possible? 

In 1983, my hubby, our two daughters, and I attended a retreat for Law Enforcement families. That’s where I had my first encounter with a real writer! Carol interviewed Bob and me for a magazine article. I remember sitting across the table from her and wondering. Hmmm! A writer?
 
Mid-summer 1987, I was still intrigued by the idea of becoming a writer, so I responded to an ad for a correspondence course offered by Christian Writers’ Fellowship International. The day before Thanksgiving in November 1987, my first acceptance letter and non-acceptance letter arrived in the same envelope from The Secret Place, a quarterly daily devotional.

In January of 1989, I walked a dirt road with my dad in Arizona's White Mountains and discovered a deserted and dilapidated cabin not much bigger than my dining room. I hadn’t been a writer for very long, but God had already braided the “what if?” gene into my DNA. What if a granddaughter had left that cabin after a family tragedy? What if she had to return years later when her grandmother’s health was failing? By the time, Dad and I returned to the house where our family was staying for the weekend, my imagination had planted a full garden of seeds from which the premise for a novel sprouted.

Over the past two decades, I’ve taken countless novel-writing courses, focused on learning the craft and the art of storytelling. Intrigued by the late 1890s and the stalwart women of that time, I began writing a historical novel set in Jerome, an Arizona copper mining camp.

In the meantime, I had several hundred articles and short stories for adults and children published in fifty-plus newspapers and magazines. In 1998, my first two children’s books were published, and twenty-six more since then.
 
I was working on the historical set in Jerome when an editor who had seen the opening pages of that novel gave me an opportunity to write the Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series, set in a Colorado Gold Mining Camp in the late 1890s. Like Kat Sinclair, the main character in Two Brides Too Many, I am one of four sisters and knew I’d have a lot of fun writing about the complex sister relationships. I love Colorado. And, of course, I had already done a lot of research on mining camps in the 1890s. I knew the opportunity was God’s answer to my prayers; His provision for my dream to become a published novelist.

Now, I'm celebrating the February 19th release of Dandelions on the Wind, the first of three eBook novellas in The Quilted Heart Series. Readers will join the women of the Saint Charles Quilting Circle as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the wake of the Civil War.

A broken soldier. A nearly-blind abandoned bride.
Will love bind their hearts together, or will stubborn pride 
unravel the family they both love?






MONA HODGSON is the author of nearly 40 books, both children's books and historical novels for adults, including her popular Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series. Mona's writing credits also include several hundred articles, poems and short stories, which have appeared in 50 different publications. Mona lives in Arizona and speaks at women's retreats, conferences, and schools. 

Connect with Mona at www.monahodgson.com,

Click to reach Amazon.
Dandelions on the Wind, Book 1 in The Quilted Heart Series
An eBook Novella
WaterBrook Press
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Now available for pre-order, only $1.99!