Welcome Guest Blogger ~ Sharon Hinck

Last time I visited Novel Journey, I received appreciative response from many readers for being open about my writer neuroses. Who knew so many other writers also battle crows that flap around their heads when they sit down to write? Or that other authors are also waiting for the publishing house to call and say, “We made a mistake. That acceptance letter was meant for someone else.”?

I’ve been pondering the clues that led me to decide I had a calling to write. I found and compiled a few old adages, collected ideas from friends, and sprinkled in a few of my unique experiences (and won’t admit to most of them). Here is my helpful guide for discerning your calling.

You might be a writer if . . .

1. You stop random strangers to tell them about your plot ideas.

2. You believe that jail time is an appropriate punishment for misuse of the apostrophe.

3. You participate in four different online critique groups simultaneously.

4. You wake in the middle of the night with a brilliant line of dialogue and get up to write it down.

5. People change tables in a restaurant because they notice you were writing down their conversation word for word.

6. When you go grocery shopping you notice things one of your characters would like – and put it in your cart.

7. You write a post-it note to one of your characters and leave it on the kitchen table to remind her of something she needs to do in her next chapter. (Okay, I confess. I did this one. My husband says it’s okay for me to write notes to my characters, as long as they don’t start writing notes to me).

8. There is no such thing as a “quick trip” to a bookstore.

9. You wish Channel made a perfume with the scent of printer ink.

10. One minute you’re convinced that every word you write is dreck and the next minute you’re sure your manuscript has the makings of a best seller.

11. Your car is rear-ended and your first thought is what metaphor you would use to describe the sound.

12. You bring a notebook to your child’s piano recital and jot a scene while the other kids are playing.

13. You walk by the book aisle in Target and burst into tears because your heart has such a powerful yearning to see your stories on a book shelf one day

14. A police car with sirens blaring drives in to a scene you’re writing – and you didn’t see it coming.

15. You get paid for telling people what the voices in your head are saying.

RENOVATING BECKY MILLER
By Sharon Hinck
Published by Bethany House Publishing (2/2007)
# ISBN-10: 0764201301

Becky Miller believes in fixing things: children, friends, mother-in-law, sister, church . . . and her husband. So renovating a run-down farmhouse is right up her alley--the perfect antidote for the pressures of modern life.

But Becky's pursuit of the simple life is soon threatened. Her mother-in-law moves in, her son finds trouble at school, her sister arrives for a visit, her best friend is acting weird, all while work stresses mount. Worst of all, her marriage is in need of some major remodeling of its own.

Cinematic daydreams provide Becky with heroic drama. Maybe that¹s why she escapes into the scenes so often. In real life, everything is a muddled mess.

Who knew one old house could lead them to the brink of bankruptcy? Or that Becky¹s physical handicap could threaten to steal their dream?

Can Becky stop fixing everyone else and let God renovate her heart so she can find her own happy ending?