Author Interview ~ Kathryn Cushman

Kathryn Cushman is a graduate of Samford University with a degree in pharmacy. After practicing as a pharmacist in Tennessee, Georgia, and California, she left her career to stay home with her family. She has since pursued her dream of writing. A Promise to Remember is her first novel. Katie and her family currently live in Santa Barbara, California.













What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

A Promise to Remember, Oct 2007, Bethany House Publishers.

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head.

Writing a novel “someday” has been a dream for as long as I can remember. When my youngest daughter was getting ready to start kindergarten, several other factors fell into place, and I decided “someday” was now.


A couple of years and two completed novels later, I heard about the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. I signed up for the mentoring clinic, quite certain everyone in my group would marvel at my brilliance. They marveled all right! When it was my turn, I overheard one classmate whisper to another, “I remember this one. It’s the one I really marked up.”

James Scott Bell was great, though, and pointed out the strengths and some positives. Looking back, I think he must have spent hours trying to find those positives, because there weren’t many.

I bought a bunch of tapes from the conference, and listened to them over, and over, and over again. I joined a critique group, re-wrote, studied, re-wrote some more, and took the same story back to Mount Hermon the next year.

Once again, I signed up for the mentoring track, and once again I ended up in Jim Bell’s group. My prayer going in was “God, if I’m supposed to be writing, send me some encouragement that I’m on the right track.” A couple of editors and an agent requested my proposal this time, but my true encouraging moment came from Jim Bell. After my critique session (which was MUCH less intense this year), he said, “Is this the same story you had last year? I am so proud of you, it’s obvious you’ve been working really hard at your craft.”

I took A Promise to Remember to the Fall Mentoring Intensive at Mount Hermon. As usual, I didn’t request a specific mentor, believing that God knew best. Once again I landed in Jim Bell’s group. When I saw the list of people in the group, I began to doubt this. People like Austin Boyd and Brian Reaves--these guys write page turning suspense, I knew they would hate my women’s fiction. But guess what? Austin liked it enough that he called his agent from Mount Hermon and said, “You’ve got to sign this girl.”(and he did). Brian and I have become great writing buddies, too.

By the spring conference at Mount Hermon my proposal was making the rounds. I submitted to Dave Long via the conference two submissions policy. He requested the full manuscript. Meanwhile, through other meetings at the conference, I got some interest stirred up elsewhere. Less than two months later, I received two offers.

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

YES!!! Writing keeps me on my face before God every single day. After Promise was contracted, I used to have dreams that Dave Long called to tell me that Bethany had changed their minds.

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

In the beginning, I was very defensive about critique / criticism. I would get a contest entry back and think, “This judge just didn’t get it.” Now, I weigh every bit of advice I get. Sometimes I take it, sometimes I don’t, but I’m always open to suggestions for improvement (that’s not to say I don’t eat a lot of chocolate after).

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

Seek God and His will above all.

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

This is less “worst advice” and more “inaccurate information”: It seems all I hear at writer’s conferences is how publishers don’t do anything for their writers anymore (from careful editing to great PR). At this point, I have not found that to be the case at all. Bethany House has been great.

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

Two things: Go to writers conferences, and get in a critique group.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

Oddly enough, the time I most thought about quitting was not about a rejection of my novel, it was when I didn’t final in short story contest put on by Thomas Nelson. I worked on that story for weeks and sent it in with dreams of glory.

What are a few of your favorite books? (Not written by you.)

My Sister’s Keeper, Peace Like a River, Lord of the Rings, Presumed Guilty, Waking Lazarus

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

A Promise to Remember—while it’s not my “the reason I wanted to become a writer” story, it truly was a story from my heart.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

Not yet. It did take me several years to break in, but I believe that had to do with God’s timing, not necessarily the business.

Take us through your process of writing a novel briefly—from conception to revision.

I’m not a big plotter, but I do write out index cards of scenes I think I want to use. I’m constantly rearranging these, and of course adding and subtracting them. Before I wrote Promise I spent a whole month just writing about my characters in a notebook. I wouldn’t allow myself to type a single word of the manuscript until the end of that month. I will go back to that method when I start my next book, because in retrospect, it helped a lot.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

My dreams tend to go into the stratosphere, but I try not to make a list of “to be accomplished” things. Since all those things in God’s hands, not mine, my goal is to simply ask direction for today and do my very best. (Notice I did say that’s the goal).

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

Favorite- Creating a world from my imagination. Least favorite- first drafts.

How much marketing/publicity do you do? Any advice in this area?

I’m just getting started in this, but I am not by nature a marketer. I have a great friend and neighbor who is fabulous at PR, and she’s been incredible—getting me into local magazines, libraries, and book clubs. Also, BHP has done an amazing job of getting the word out there.

Have you received a particularly memorable reader response?

I received my first review recently from Crystal at armchairinterviews.com. She was very complimentary. I’m hoping that by starting there, the bad ones will be a little easier to take.

Parting words?

I’ll share my favorite verse for my writing. “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Proverbs 14:23. I keep this one beside my computer, because I find it’s more fun to talk about writing than to actually sit in my chair and write.

Thanks for having me, Gina!