Welcome to Readers Write to Know! I asked you, my readers, what questions they would ask their favorite authors if given the chance, and the authors visiting my blog answered them! I’m always excited when I have a friend as my guest, and this week I’m so excited to have Selah Award finalist Paula Peckham as my guest! Paula’s feelings about publishing really resonate with me and I love reading about how she pushes past them. I’m also a fan of her “first crushes”! Read on to see how you can enter to win a paperback copy of her book!
Tell us a little bit about yourself: I spent 19 years teaching math at Burleson High School. I retired in 2019, just before Covid wreaked its havoc with education everywhere. Now I write full time, writing for myself and editing for others.
Tell us about your book: Accepted is book three in my San Antonio series, a historical romance series set in Texas in the 1860s. The main characters are Jonathan and Quen. Jonathan is a farmer who struggles to make ends meet after his father dies, leaving him in charge. Quen is a young woman recently arrived in Texas from her family’s position as missionaries in Africa, searching for a purpose. She agrees to help Jonathan, but gets involved in a deadly secret that drags them both into danger.
Do you feel pressured to compromise your standards in order to reach a larger audience or be more successful? I’ve had more than one person encourage me to broaden my audience by writing for the secular market. However, I feel like it is more important for me to follow God’s prompting than to chase after “fame and fortune.” I believe God led me through this journey so far, and I don’t think leaving him now is the best thing for me to do. I’ll stay where I am and continue writing for the Christian market, and I’ll leave the results in his hands.
How do you push past the fear of your writing being average and be bold enough to sell it to a publisher(or agent or audience if you self publish)? I feel average every time I read someone else’s books. Resisting the temptation to compare is a daily struggle. But I know God has given me the words to write, and has set up my appointments and contacts before me, so I write anyway, believing he will put my books in front of the people who can benefit from reading them.
What is the first major news headline that you can remember and what do you remember? (ie. Moon Walk, Watergate, Pope being shot) I’m sure I saw some prior to this, but the Jim Jones mass suicide event in Guyana really struck me. It was the first time I’d seen a deceased person other than in the movies. I struggled to understand how so many people could be led to that decision.
Who was your first Screen/Musical Crush? Bobby Lamm of Chicago was my first musical crush. He is the keyboardist and a singer. And Robert Redford, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was my first screen crush.
How did you determine whether to self-publish or seek a traditional publisher? I left that in God’s hands. If he brought me an editor and a contract, I’d go with it. If he didn’t, I’d self-publish. For now, I have a standing contract at Elk Lake Publishing. But I’m currently writing a contemporary romance. I will seek agent representation with two people, using that manuscript. If those don’t pan out (and I realize limiting it to two is a rather small window), then I’ll probably self-publish. I know more about the industry after working for the past four years, and think I could do it myself. We’ll see how that all pans out.
Do you have your plot-line and character development already laid out before you begin writing a book, or do they develop as you write? I have the basic outline–how it will start, how it will end, but the middle bits come to me as I write. Often, things change along the way. But I have a general idea of where I want things to go.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers? Find a writing club (like ACFW), join a critique group, and start writing now.
Find Paula online:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulaPeckhamAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulaPeckham
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulajopeckham/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@paulapeckham
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B09FP2JPR6
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21803544.Paula_Peckham
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ppeckham/books/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/paula-peckham
Find Paula’s book online:
Paula is giving away a paperback of Accepted (or book 1 if you prefer)! Enter to win!
2 comments
Thank you for the giveaway!
Didn’t see how to enter giveaway but want to enter and hopefully I can win
I’m an aspiring writer and this post helped a lot
I’ve wanted to enter some writing contests but they ask for a fee and cap their word count and all the books I’ve written for fun are 40,000 – 50,000 words novel length.
Well I guess I will continue to write for fun
Please enter me in giveaway
Hopefully I zWin