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Questions, Questions, Questions

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

Before we get to my onslaught of questions, let’s start with a little publishing verbiage.

There are two major markets in the world of publishing. The CBA and the ABA. CBA stands for Christian Book Association and is the Christian market. ABA stands for the American Book Association and is the secular market. Almost every major ABA publishing house has a CBA division.

For example. I get my paycheck from Random House. My contract went through Random House. Waterbrook Multnomah is the Christian division of Random House. And since I write for the CBA, I work with the people at Waterbrook Multnomah.

The debate over what makes a book Christian is a hot topic these days. But that’s not what I’m interested in right now. For the sake of establishing a common ground, when I refer to “Christian fiction” I am simply referring to any book published by the CBA.

Today, I have lots of questions. Today, I’d love for you to join in the discussion. Even if you’re a lurker who doesn’t normally comment.

Do you read Christian fiction? If so, why? If not, why not?

What’s your favorite genre within the CBA? Why?

What expectations do you have when you pick up a book published by the CBA?

What do you wish Christian books had more of? What do you wish Christian books had less of?

Every time I browse Amazon and find a CBA book that went free on Kindle, I notice this pattern. They get an onslaught of bad reviews from readers who wouldn’t typically buy a CBA book, but did because it was free. And often, these readers point to their dissatisfaction with the Christian themes.

Do you think it’s Christianity in general that bothers these readers, or the way the Christian themes are handled?

Pick a question. Any question. Or perhaps, pick all of them!

I can’t wait to read what you have to say.removetweetmeme

Two Tips to Make Life Easier

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

I’ve discovered that editing a contracted book is trickier than editing one that’s not yet contracted.

Notice, I didn’t say harder. Just trickier.

Allow me to explain.

Here’s how the writing process typically works:
– The writer engages in some level of brainstorming
– The writer writes the rough draft
– The writer engages in some level of revising

Usually, these happen successively, which results in a very intimate knowledge of the story. The further we move along in the process, the more deeply we know our characters and our plot. Until we reach this point where the manuscript is complete and ready to shop.

So what do we do?

We send it off. We say goodbye. And we start all over again.

Which is why editing a contracted book gets tricky.

I finished Beneath a Velvet Sky in the summer of 2009. It was my third novel. The one that caught the attention of my agent, Rachelle Gardner. Since then, I have finished two more novels and written the rough draft of a third.

Not only has a lot of time passed since I knew Beneath a Velvet Sky intimately, but three other story lines, three other casts of characters, have come and gone in my life.

Have you ever had a friend, who at one point, you knew incredibly well? But then you lost touch and time passed and you made new friends? And then you run into this old buddy at the grocery store or the gas station, only to discover you don’t really know each other anymore?

That’s what editing a contracted novel feels like. Especially for a debut novelist.

That’s one of the reasons I believe the editing process for a contracted novel is so intense.

My editor asked me some deep questions about my hero and heroine. Questions to which I no longer knew the answers. So not only did I need to dedicate a chunk of time toward implementing the requested changes, I had to spend a considerable amount of time reacquainting myself with the story. I had to regain the intimacy that was lost.

So what? What’s my point in all of this?

I have two, actually.

See that picture up top? Save your work. 
Character sheets. Back story information. Outlines. Deleted scenes. Information about the setting. Research on the characters’ jobs. Save all of it. Put it all into a file and do not delete.

If you don’t create these items beforehand, write them after. 
As in, after you finish the novel but before you say goodbye. I know it sounds weird, but consider writing a simple summary of the setting and each main character. Make sure to include important back story information, personality, quirks, fears, and the way the character arcs through the novel.

Seriously. You won’t regret it.

Let’s Talk: What lessons have you learned as you venture forward in this writing journey? Any simple tips you can share that might make all of our lives easier?removetweetmeme

Good Parenting Ain’t Easy

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

Parenting isn’t hard. Good parenting is hard.

Seriously, it is hard work to be a good parent. It’s much easier to let the kid rip apart the bookshelf while I go about my writing. It’s much easier to clean up the mess he made because it’s faster that way. It’s much easier to give him what he wants to stop that horrible, awful, ear-splitting whine.

How can such a horrendous noise come out of the same kid who has the most endearing, contagious belly-laugh?

I have no idea.

I just know that lately, I’ve felt like a not-so-great mom. My son, love him to death, is a tester. And he’s been testing every single boundary I lay down while I grow more and more short-tempered and impatient.

I don’t want to be this way.

I’d prefer to feel much less like this:

And much more like this:

Hubs recently read this great article in Reader’s Digest about how whether we mean to or not, we all create a culture in our home.


Yikes!

Ryan and I asked ourselves: What kind of culture are we creating?

We didn’t like our answer. We were unintentionally creating an impatient, way-too-many-chances culture that was teaching our son he didn’t have to listen the first time and he had the power to drive Mommy and Daddy whackadoo (in the wise words of Becky Houk).

We needed to fix this, and fix it fast. Hence, the plan. I like me a good plan.

Here are some tips on intentional parenting from a woman who’s struggling to be intentional:

Step away from the child. 
I had to remove myself from the moment and the frustration and ask myself how I was contributing to the problem. The answer wasn’t pretty. I soon discovered I was the problem.

Look to the future.
What do you want your children to be like when they are older? Ryan and I want our son to be respectful, responsible, obedient, and independent. We also wrote down a whole bunch of other traits, but got to feeling overwhelmed. Which leads me to my third point…

Less is more.
Eat the elephant one bite at a time, as they say. If Ryan and I tried to focus on every single quality we want to foster in our little guy, we’d become overwhelmed and give up altogether. So from our list, we circled four that were very important to us.

Come up with action points.
We knew what we wanted to encourage in our child. The next step was asking how we were going to do it. What rules and practices were we going to lay down in our house to help our son understand and develop these traits? We came up with four or five simple action points that we are going to focus on over the next couple months.

All of this calmed me down and helped me focus.

It also gave me some perspective. I’m not a hopeless parent and my son isn’t an evil spawn. He’s a pretty wonderful kid. Quick to smile and laugh. He’s just a typical toddler. And I’m a typical mommy who has her typical frustrating days.

Let’s Talk: What parenting books do you recommend? Ryan and I would like to read one together – preferably geared toward raising young children. How do you deal with your kids when they are being naughty and you are feeling increasingly frustrated?removetweetmeme