Have Passion for What You Write: Author T.K. Chapin

My interview today is with a prolific author who writes Christian Romance stories designed to inspire and tug on your heart strings. He believes that telling stories of faith, love and family help build the faith of Christians and help non-believers see how God can work in the life of believers. Read on to learn how his writing career began and prospers.

Most guys gravitate to writing action adventure or fantasy writing. What drew you to writing romance?

When I started writing fiction, I tried a little bit of a few different genres -- fantasy, science fiction and then ultimately Christian romance.  Out of the three genres I tried, I saw the most success in romance and so I went for it. Initially the draw was romance sold books. Ultimately though I realized it was the infusion of faith and God into the stories that drives the sales and is the real draw to why I write what I write today.

 

What made you decide to write that first novel?

I am an entrepreneur at heart, and I saw an opportunity to cut the ties from my 9-5 if I were able to write and sell stories for a living. What started as just a way to make money and not had a job eventually led me to writing stories that put Jesus Christ at the center and showing how people can overcome anything when they’re in relationship with their Creator.

 

Are you active with any writing critique groups?

No. What I did for critiques was use beta readers and read the bad reviews on early titles to get ideas on how to improve. I also have a developmental editor that helps critique my stories.

 

What made you decide to indie-publish?

I was seeking a way to replace my income from a job more than anything else. As the years go on, I do think from time to time about possibly seeking a traditional publisher for a story, but I haven’t decided to launch into that.

 

Did you first seek out a traditional publisher?

Nope. I do have one title that is technically traditionally published. It’s entitled, “If Only” and it’s published by an Amazon imprint.

 

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

The hardest part of writing is probably just sitting down to write. I have two boys who are 7 and 8 and a 12-year-old girl. They take a lot of time to parent efficiently and to invest in. I also have an amazing wife who I love to spend time with. All four draw on that time to write.

 

As for difficulties when it comes to the actual mechanics of writing I would say it varies from book to book. If the story isn’t what God wants me to write, I struggle with everything and inevitably have to ditch it entirely. I just did that this past July. I had rewritten it multiple times and it just was not working. Ultimately, it wasn’t going to be a good story and wasn’t going to be one that honored God.

 

What does your editor remind you to do most often?

I have two editors. A developmental and a line editor. My developmental editor reminds me that I’m writing romance. Working in more romance is something that comes up more frequently than anything else. As for my line editor, she doesn’t tell me much of anything. She just does the line edit.

What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing?

The emails from readers. They seem to hit the inbox at just the right time. Writing is a lonely job at times and when someone drops a line from across the globe just to share with me the fact a story touched their life it means a lot. God’s using these stories and that’s the best feeling in the world to know.

 

We have all experienced rejection. How you learned to write past it?

Early on, and even still today, I’ll get those fun one-star reviews that can sting a little. These rejections are minor, but they are the only rejections I have dealt with for the most part. I think it’s because I don’t get out much! Haha.

 

Anyways, some of the one-star reviews are constructive criticism that helps me as a writer. Others, like a recent one I got, are just a reminder I’m doing things right. The recent one-star I read mentioned how forgiveness in the real world doesn’t happen immediately. While this is true in the real world, in a Biblical sense, it’s exactly how it happens. Forgiveness isn’t about being okay with what the person did, it’s not even about trusting or allowing that person in your life. It’s about releasing that individual from payment of that debt. Not because they deserve it, but because God has forgiven us of so much. I won’t go on about forgiveness, but the point is, keeping things in perspective is important in my ability to keep writing.

 

The reality is it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t like a book I wrote. They could have a heart problem, or they could not like the style of my writing, or something else! Whatever it is, it doesn’t really matter. I write for God and I desire to please Him with the work I do while spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. One-star reviews happen, and I keep writing.

 

What has surprised you the most in writing/publishing?

What surprised me the most was with enough practice, it gets easier. When I was first starting out writing novels it was a complicated mess! I felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster that both excited me and terrified me at the same time. Trying to remember all of these writing rules about tension, pace, beats, early in and early exit, and the list goes on! Now that I’ve written over 50 titles, I don’t feel as overwhelmed in the writing.

 

What frustrates you the most?

Consistency when it comes to income is a little frustrating.

What do you know now about writing you wished you had known sooner?

I would’ve appreciated knowing early about how important it is to just write the first draft. I spent way too much time rewriting entire chapters without finishing stories. It was a dumb cycle that could’ve been avoided.

 

What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give?

Exact same answer as previous.

Are there any other points about writing you would like to add?

I would recommend to anyone wanting to write to be sure you’re writing what you’re passionate about and nothing less. If you care about what you’re doing, you’ll go far. Your passion is what gets you through the back-to-back 14-hour edit days and keeps you pushing through on weekends and holidays.

 

What is the next book coming out? Can you give me a short synopsis?

The next book set to come out is One Trusting Heart. It’s a story that starts out with Ashley, a divorcee, who is relocating from Los Angeles to Lincoln City, Oregon. She’s tired of the fast-paced city life and wants to take it easy for a while. A storm moves into the area and the beach house she is staying in is damaged. This sets Ashley on a path to rediscovering her faith in God and ultimately falling in love unexpectedly.

 

That’s all for today’s interview. Hope this interview encourages you to reach out and try a new author. And to make it easier for you, he’s offering you a free book. rthe link to get it. https://offer.tkchapin.com/

 

Website: www.tkchapin.com

Writing Love Inspired Suspense: Author Interview with Sanda Orchard

In your bio, it says that you decided to write a novel at your husband’s suggestion. However, it took six years and several revisions before you received your first contract. What kept you motivated to keep trying?
Right from the beginning, I’d read enough books on writing craft and breaking into publishing to know that it would likely take many years and several manuscripts before I got the call. By the time I did get the call, I’d written 6 manuscripts and rewritten many of them many times over. Some garnered requests for the full manuscript from editors, some won contests, one even went as far as a pub board.

Ironically, the first novel Love Inspired Suspense (LIS) picked up was one that I could have sent to them two years earlier, except I’d received several requests from trade book publishers to see it. Since LIS doesn’t accept simultaneous submissions, I had to hold off sending it to them. In the interim, a different story won the Daphne DuMaurier, a story LIS had previously rejected and the new editor agreed to read it. That turned out to be fabulous, because although she still rejected that story she explained all the reasons why, so I was able to fix those things in Deep Cover and it ended up being accepted as submitted with only a request to start with an obvious sense of danger from the first page.

All in all, there is no short answer to you question, that particular book went through multiple major rewrites over the course of several years due to critiquers feedback. However, once contracted, it went to print a year later with very little change

One of the biggest problems for new authors is trying to understand the contracts and what their royalties are really based on. Are you currently represented by an agent?
Yes, I have an agent who fights very hard to retain author’s rights and to win the author the best possible contract. The right agent is also invaluable in many other ways from advising on future proposals, to acting as the go between when marketing or editing departments are giving an author fits. 

What have you learned from your contracts that others should be wary of in the verbiage of a contract if they are not represented by an agent?
With the rush to self-publish or hybrid publish, authors need to pay attention to first rights of refusal clauses and permission to publish clauses. Some publishers will try to prohibit you from publishing anything else until you’ve fulfilled your contract. It’s reasonable, since they don’t want you to ignore what you’ve committed to delivering in favor of another project, however, if you’re planning to self-pub on the side or write for a second publisher, as I do, the wording needs to be adjusted.

One of your publishers is the “Love Inspired Suspense” line for Harlequin. Can you explain for my readers, what that genre actually entails? Do they have to be pure as a virgin with no sexual thoughts, alcohol consumption or swearing. Or can they be of this world and then be redeemed?
Absolutely, the hero or heroine may have a horrible past, or start out in the book in deep trouble, but by the end of the book, both need to be believers and in a healthy relationship. That said, readers of this line don’t want explicit details, or graphic details when it comes to violence, and while you might say so and so cursed, you wouldn’t include the actual words. A believer should not be cursing, although my detectives often bite them back.

How long did it take you to write your second novel that was published?
It’s difficult to say how long it takes to write something, because there is usually a month or more spent in playing around with the ideas and preparing a proposal, then a month or two or three or more spent writing the first draft and then sometimes months spent revising. Then the revision process starts again once the editors see it. I probably spent about four months on the second book before it went to my editor the first time.

How do you write? Do you do an outline first? Do you do individual character development before doing the full plot? How many drafts do you write?
I do an outline first and do a lot of character development before I start writing. However, part way through, I usually need to pull back and reevaluate, because a lot changes as I write and get to know my characters even better. The number of drafts varies wildly for different books. I often edit as I go along, which makes it seem as if there are only a couple of drafts. Although my current book is giving me tons of headaches. I’m not even halfway through yet, and I have six drastically different drafts with rewrites of individual chapters numbering much higher.

Do you use writing programs such as Scrivener? If so, what do you like or dislike about it?
I have tried Scrivener. I really love the concept, but I was losing edits by continually needing to export from it to a doc that I could send my critiquers or when I wanted to work on my laptop, which doesn’t have the program, so…I now stick to a straight word processing program and multiple files for drafts and research and outlines.

Your writing includes different genres. Do you prefer one genre to write in more than another? I love them both. With the bigger books, I can spend more time in character development and include more secondary characters and subplot. But I do love the focus and fast pace and economy of words required to pull all the threads together in the shorter Love Inspired Suspense novels.

Will each of the series continue?
Perilous Waters, which released in April from LIS, will be followed by Identity Withheld in November, the firefighter hero in this novel is the brother of Sam Steele in PW. A third book will follow in 2015, featuring their paramedic cousin, Sherri Steele, as the heroine. However, each book is a stand alone romantic suspense. They merely bring back characters introduced in previous books.

My Port Aster Secrets romantic mystery/suspense series from Revell Publishing is much different. There are 3 books in the series. Deadly Devotion, Blind Trust, which just released, and the yet-to-be-titled third book, which will release next year. Each book is a standalone mystery, featuring herbal researcher, Kate Adams as the sleuth and Tom Parker as the detective trying to keep her out of trouble and win her heart. However, there is an underlying suspense plot that arcs the three books, along with the romance that gives the series a heroine-in-jeopardy, fast-paced romantic suspense feel.

In your Undercover Cops series you had a male protagonist. How do you put yourself into a male mindset?
I actually find it much easier to write from a male POV than a female. I don’t do anything special, except to remind myself that they usually speak in fewer words. The best compliment I received after Deep Cover came out was from my son who admitted that the hero thinks like him.

In your Port Aster series you have an amateur sleuth as your lead who is a herbal medicine researcher.
What made you choose that line of work for her? It fit the story and provided lots of fodder for potential poisoning scenarios. I was also able to base it on a somewhat similar facility near where I live.

What suggestions do you have for enhancing a writer’s social media platform?
I am not the person to ask. Social media, blogging etc can quickly rob your writing time when the best thing you can do to generate sales is write a good book and another and another. I made a commitment from the beginning that I would respond to every reader’s email/letter and I have faithfully done that (although to my discouragement, I’ve learned that those emails don’t always get seen, thanks to spam filters or inadvertent deletes). I love corresponding with readers through emails, my newsletter, on FB and my blog. That is where I focus my available time, although I don’t really think of it as promotion, but as building relationships.

When I have a new book releasing, I send out a newsletter, do a blog tour and sometimes a book signing and press releases. I occasionally speak at events. I’ve been blessed with publishers with good distribution so really happy readers are my best promoters.

What is some of the best writing advice that you’ve received or could give?
Persevere and don’t be in a hurry to publish. Enjoy the journey. God has so much to teach you along the way and will use you and your writing in unexpected ways long before you’re published.

That's all for today's interview. If you'd like to learn more about Sandra's writing here's her
website: http://www.SandraOrchard.com It offers good info for both the reader and writer such as deleted scenes and editor’s cuts  to ideas on plotting and help in the editorial process.