We were blessed to be chosen to get a sneak peek a new book called Asia: Its People and History, written by Bonnie Rose Hudson of WriteBonnieRose.com. This is a sixteen week introductory unit study that covers 6 different Asian countries including Laos, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Iran, and Vietnam. The book includes stories, activities, and discussion questions. We are learning so much with the book already! I just know that you and your children will enjoy it as much as we are.
If this is something that you are interested in you are in luck! It come out next week! You can save money now by preordering it here.
Bonnie just did a great interview that you can read bwlow and get to know her heart and how she goes about the writing process.
When writing a new book, how do you go about planning for it? Do you have a method you use, or is each one different?
I’m a planner by nature. I love to lay out all the details and know where I’m going before I take the first step. But, I’ve noticed that God often likes to remind me that I’m not the one who is in charge of my life, He is! So I usually start a project with a hook and an outline. I need to know the heart of the project before I start. That’s what gets me excited about writing it. What will its purpose be? What will it illustrate? I write an outline, or have one in my mind, but the story or project always takes lots of unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes the research doesn’t pan out and I have to choose a different direction. Sometimes the outline doesn’t go far enough. I remember working on the first book-length project I tried to write. I had a beautiful outline for the entire book. I had covered the entire outline in four chapters! I had some major re-planning to do on that one!
Do you have a certain writing space, somewhere you go *just* to write your books? An office, a lake cabin, a hotel? What do you love about that space? How does it inspire you?
I don’t have a writing space. I do have an office/library that I enjoy sometimes when I write because I can close the door and enjoy being surrounded by books! But I will write anywhere, anytime I get the chance, including on grocery lists at the store, in the car (provided I’m not driving, of course), on a notepad by my bed, it really doesn’t matter. I can get lost in an idea almost anywhere!
What would you say to a young person who aspires to be a writer? What advice would you give?
Don’t give up. Write everything down that you feel God has put on your heart to write about. Twenty years from now, you might look back on a story you wrote and think it was really silly. I did. I started writing my first book when I was around 11 or 12. When I read now what I wrote, I see a lot of mistakes I didn’t see back then. But that’s not what matters. I wrote down the story that was on my heart.
As you learn more about writing, you will probably find yourself feeling frustrated and discouraged at times by all the rules and all the details. You might wonder why something you thought sounded just fine didn’t get published. The most important thing to remember is that being published isn’t what makes you a writer. If you are a writer, it’s because that’s what God has called you to do. You may get published; you may not. You may not make a living by being a professional author. But that doesn’t change God’s call. Listen to Him, grow closer to Him, and obey Him. That’s what matters.
How did you get your start in writing/getting published?
One key to remember is that writing and getting published are never the same thing. A writer is a writer because that is how God fashioned them to be. Publication is exciting and can feel like a confirmation of that calling, but it’s not what makes you a writer. Alton Gansky recently wrote an incredible blog post about that topic. (HYPERLINK to his blog post:http://altongansky.typepad.com/writersconferences/2014/01/in-praise-of-amateur-writers.html)
The first thing I ever had published was a short story in 2005 called Nick of Time Heroes, which followed a string of rejected short stories and a novel. (HYPERLINK Nick of Time Heroes to http://www.christianwomanspage.org/ArticlesAll.aspx) I continued writing and continued receiving rejections. My next piece was not published until 2011. Shortly after that piece, I began writing for SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
What do you recommend for others who are getting started?
Praying and listening to God are the most important. He is the only One who knows the big picture. Work to learn the skills you need to learn, get used to letting other people read and edit your work, and be patient. You will never ever know everything there is to know! And even if you write a perfect piece (if there is such a thing) someone will have suggestions on how to make it better. It comes with the territory. Writing is an art, and just like any other art, there is a certain amount of subjectivity involved in judging whether a piece is the right fit for a publication or assignment.
Another thing that I have found incredibly encouraging is reading the stories of other Christian authors. I have a book that I bought years ago called Behind the Stories by Diane Eble. It shares the stories of dozens of well-known Christian authors. What touched me the most about the stories in the book was that no two stories were the same. God called men and women in all stages of their lives from countless professions and backgrounds. There is no cookie-cutter shape you must fit into as a writer. As I read and reread it, I think, “If God has a place for each of them in His plan, maybe He has a plan for me, too.”
What is the 10/40 window, and how did you become interested in it?
The 10/40 Window is a geographical area of the world roughly between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. The significance of this area is that it is home to over 4.5 billion people, over 8,000 different people groups, and some of the largest groups of unreached people in the entire world. More than 80% of the world’s poorest people live in the 10/40 window. It is an area that many people are taking intentional steps to pray for and reach out to the people who live there. You can read an excellent description of the significance of the 10/40 Window on JoshuaProject.net (HYPERLINK to this page, please:http://www.joshuaproject.net/10-40-window.php)
Several years ago, God began to turn my heart’s attention to the stories of the persecuted Church. I had always had a heart for the persecuted in China, but I never grasped how widespread the persecution of Christians was until much later. I started reading about men and women who lived in Laos and Burma, India and Pakistan, and many other places. They were suffering terribly for their faith in Christ. This wasn’t the stories of the heroes of the faith of yesterday that I had grown up hearing about, or what I had thought were isolated stories from one nation. These were stories of families–including children–who were suffering right at that very moment for their faith.
Reading their stories gave me a burden and broke my heart. I had to do something, but I didn’t know what. Writing and sharing about their stories gave me a way to process what I was reading and feeling and a way to hopefully encourage others to become involved and share their stories as well.
Is there anything else that you would like readers to know?
Nothing is impossible with God!
