Today we welcome Staci Stallings to Write This Way.
Staci is a stay-at-home mom with three kids, a husband, and a writing addiction. She has been featured in God’s Way for Mothers; Soul Matters for Teens; From the Heart: Stories of Love and Friendship; and Chicken Soup for the Body and Soul. With her six novels, eight full-length eBooks, and two collections of short stories, Staci’s writing addiction has reached epic proportions. She lives in Amarillo, Texas and owns her own publishing company, Spirit Light Books.
I love the way you call your writing an addiction. That's so true for most authors. What made you start writing?
I taught high school English for 3 years, and then I quit to have my family. After my daughter was born, I realized I had gone from grading papers and tests and dealing with 100 problems a day. To me. With a baby. In a house. By myself. I had to do something or I would go crazy. Sooo… I turned to my first love. Reading. I boughtAnthony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within One of the things that he talked about was doing what you love. So I did. I started writing one book, then got another idea in a dream. Thirty novels later, here I am.
What would you be doing with your free time if you weren’t writing?
Free time? What’s that? I don’t so much write in my free time as I carve out slivers of time that must be mine. I’d like to say I’d clean my house, but I’d be lying. I’d probably spend a mint on new books (which I already do, so what would be new there?). Writing is nice because I can do that on the edges of homework and school plays and sports and everything else that goes along with kids.
What is your writing schedule like?
I have to say, “What schedule?” I don’t honestly know when I write. I don’t. One book I wrote in the ten minutes that my girls were getting ready for school every morning. I would go back to my room, boot up the laptop and write whatever came to me until they came in saying, “Mom, come on. It’s time to go!” And all of my books are like that to some extent. I write when I have time and when I don’t. I let God direct my schedule, and let me tell you, He’s the BEST secretary EVER. He will make the right call come in at the right time or the right promotion or the right idea…. I can’t explain that, but I can tell you it’s true.
All writers have to deal with rejection. How do you handle them?
I’ve learned to keep my arms open and not judge an experience by the outcome. I will say, however, that the HARDEST thing to do when you have been shot down is to keep your arms open. Our instinct is to close up, to close off our heart and ourselves. God did not mean for us to live closed, and only through Him do I have the courage to keep my arms open for the next experience no matter what the outcome of this experience happens to be.
Could you share your best advice for other writers?
Yes. Get really good at listening to God. It is very easy to write about God and religion. It is much more difficult to cultivate an everyday, all the time, personal relationship with Him—not because that’s hard, but because the world goes so fast that it’s easy to forget.
For writers, I say forget all that impressing people stuff. Write the stories God gives you, the best way you know how. Let Him guide your writing journey. Let Him bring in the people you need and those who need you, and never EVER let completed books or sales take greater precedence than the relationships you are cultivating with God and with others. You do that, and wherever you get, you will be a success. Guaranteed.
Staci's novel, Price of Silence, is currently on sale at Amazon Kindle for $0.99!
Get your copy here: AMAZON
If readers wanted to get a little more taste of your work, how might they do that?
Follow me on Twitter @StaciStallings
Or find me on FaceBook as Staci Stallings
Thank you so much for joining us today, Staci and sharing about your writing journey.
Suzanne Hartmann - 2011
http://suzanne-hartmann2.blogspot.com/
PERIL: A Fast Track Thriller (available Nov. 18 from OakTara)
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing Staci with us, Suzanne.
Love the new look on your blog!
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