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| April McGowan |
~ Dawn
The
Best Email Ever
by
April McGowan
I know some people feel they were always called to a writing
life, and I guess I can see where my life has been channeled that way, but
originally, I went to college for fine arts. Now, the whole time I was studying
art, I was writing short stories—but I never put it together until much later.
I don’t regret my art degree because I pay much more attention to detail than I
would have without it. Thankfully, if we belong to Christ, nothing in our lives
is wasted. Nothing.
I took my first step into the professional realm of writing
when I joined Oregon Christian Writers in 2006 and attended their summer
four-day conference. At that time, I’d lugged my first novel with me, sure that
someone there would be overwhelmed by its amazingness
and ask for it on the spot. Yeah. That didn’t happen. What did happen was
better.
I took a short story class from a feisty writing coach named
Regina Williams. We were asked to put everything she’d taught us into practice
via crafting a short story and read it aloud on day three. I stood on shaky
legs in the front of the class and read my piece. I choked on a couple words
and made an embarrassing swallowing noise just before finishing. I hoped I
could slink back to my chair unnoticed. When I looked up, though, several of
the people in my class had tears in their eyes, and they were all smiling. My
coach said, “Excellent.” After class, she suggested I get a mentor. When I
expressed my frustration at finding one (I had tried), she said, “Well, you’ve
got me.” Wow.
That year, Regina mentored me through my first novel,
sending chapters through the mail. The amount of red ink felt overwhelming at
first, but as the chapters went back and forth and I applied what she taught me,
there was less red. By the end of that time, I’d learned so much I felt capable
of writing a second novel. I’d joined ACFW in 2010 and took part in the Scribes
critique group online. I loved getting feedback!
Over the following two years, I carried a proposal of my
novel to the OCW summer conference and pitched my little heart out—I’d done
this so often, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I received some interest and sent it
to a few houses, but didn’t find a place for it. The following summer I pitched
to Roseanna White with WhiteFire publishing. Sadly, at the last, it was turned
down. She gave me permission to send her my next work for consideration—which I
did. Six months later I received the best email ever. Jasmine would be published in ebook June of 2013, and released to
paperback on September 15th.
My best advice for newer writers: keep learning, attend
conferences, and practice pitching. If you desire to grow you will; and one day
you, too, might get the best email ever.
Tweetables:
If we belong to Christ, nothing in our
lives is wasted. Nothing. Click to
tweet.
When author April McGowan needed a
mentor, God provided. Click to tweet.
Debut author April McGowan offers advice
to newer writers at Seriously Write. Click
to tweet.
She
survived her past…but how can she face it? Jasmine is a survivor. She’s lived
through the abuse of her father, running away at age fourteen, and living on
the streets. Now she counsels at-risk young women—giving them a second chance
at life. But when her mother dies, can Jasmine go home again and face all she’s
forced herself to forget for the last twenty years? Or will the past she has
long forgotten take over her present once again?
April McGowan loves
to read and write inspirational fiction. She made her début into publication
with Jasmine. She and her husband,
two children, and her mews, Spookers, live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
April is a member of Oregon Christian Writers and American Christian Fiction Writers.
When she’s not writing, homeschooling her two children, or playing board games,
you might find her at her drum kit, imagining she’s on a world tour. Hey, it
could happen.
Visit April’s website http://aprilmcgowan.com
Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/AprilKMcGowan
Join her on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/963wue
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Watch the Jasmine book trailer at http://youtu.be/D4wG6hbhNWQ
