Glory Be ~ by Rachel Allord

by +AneMulligan  @AneMulligan

Rachel Allord writes from central Wisconsin. A pastor’s wife and adoption advocate, Rachel speaks for women’s conferences and adoption groups and teaches writing classes via her town’s university. You can find Rachel on her website, Twitter, and Facebook. 

Glory Be

If we’re not careful, we writers can be an egocentric bunch. We love our work, love to coddle and relish and fuss over our words, and if someone fails to appreciate our literary flair we tend to get the tiniest bit defensive.

Published or pre-published, rejections, unfavorable book reviews, and criticism are hard pills for a writer to swallow. Yet for as unwelcome as they these ego jabs are, they produce humility and help us become better writers and, hopefully, better people. Because it’s that twentieth rejection letter or caustic review that prompts us to wrestle with a crucial question: why am I doing this? why am I writing?

Naturally, writing starts with us. (I have to get this story out of me!) But in time, hopefully, our motivation becomes others—to please, entertain, enlighten, or serve others. Our audience. Yet ultimately, for those who are striving to follow Christ, all of our reasons for writing—feeding our inner artist and impacting an audience—should hinge on our desire to write for God’s glory. To show Him off. To put Him in the spotlight.

Writing for God’s glory. It sounds a bit lofty, doesn’t it? But often we complicate matters and conveniently shut our ears to any possibility that doesn’t neatly align with our agenda—like the fact that seeing our name on the cover of a book isn’t a promise from God but “I will not share my glory with another” is.

Here’s the truth, if we can handle it: writing for God’s glory may not match the visions in our ever-imaginative mind. It may mean that our readership is small—much smaller than we’d hoped. Writing for God’s glory might mean that we’ll “only” be writing for church. Or for our local newspaper. Or writing letters to kids in third world countries. Or inmates behind bars.

Writing for God’s glory means we are open to whatever he has for us. It means working hard, no doubt, honing our craft, heeding the advice of those we’ve come to respect in the industry, but holding all of that loosely—so loosely that if God so chooses to pluck that passion from our heart and replace it with another one, we’d be okay with that.

Easy words to type out; harder words to live out.

I know. I’ve been there.

After over a decade of writing and rewriting and rejections and praying and conference-going, the day I sent my full novel proposal of Mother of My Son to my now publisher was one of the darkest days ever in my personal life. As my finger hovered over my keyboard, poised to launch my baby, a daunting and startling truth hit me: getting my story published, the story I loved so much, hardly mattered. Not in the moment.

My once burning desire to be a published novelist was now a mere flicker. You’ve been there at some point I’m sure; you know how quickly unexpected troubles shift everything into proper perspective, how sorrow can cultivate humility.

And humility is a glorious thing. Or to be more precise, humility, ironically, is the forerunner to glory. We are after all, no matter how many words we can churn out in a day, no matter how many accolades we’ve received or haven’t received, no matter how many books we’ve published or dreamed of publishing, ordinary jars of clay. Ordinary, crude even, vessels made to showcase a fragment of God’s glory.

Right now we’re smack dab in the middle of crazy Christmas season, that fleeting time of year when we repeatedly sing out and prolong the word gloria.  As we sing, as we live, as we click away on our keyboards—dare we ask?

Who’s getting the glory?

Mother of My Son

College student Amber Swansen gives birth alone. In desperation, she abandons the newborn, buries her secret, and attempts to get on with her life. No matter how far she runs, she can't escape the guilt. Years later and still haunted by her past, Amber meets Beth Dilinger. Friendship blossoms between the two women, but Beth's son is a constant, painful reminder to Amber of the child she abandoned.

When heartache hits, causing Amber to grapple with the answers to life's deeper questions, Beth stands by her side. Yet just when peace seems to be within Amber's grasp, the truth of her past and the parentage of Beth's son comes to light and threatens to shatter not only their worlds, but the life of the teenager they both love.

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Desperately Seeking Story

Rachel Allord grew up as a pastor’s kid, vowed never to marry a pastor, and has been contentedly married to her husband, a worship pastor, for seventeen years. She holds a B.A. in English education and is privileged to be both a biological and adoptive mother. Mother of My Son, her debut novel, released in May 2013 through Pelican Book Group (Harbourlight). She resides in Wisconsin where she avidly consumes coffee, sushi, and novels– preferably at the same time.

Visit Rachel at www.rachelallord.com!

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   When I began writing my novel Mother of My Son, I didn’t know first hand what it was like to adopt. A few years later, after holding my daughter for the first time in a sun-lit governmental building in China, I did. From then on, when I fleshed out scenes from the viewpoint of my adoptive mom character, experience grounded me. I’d been there. I knew.  And we all know—altogether now—write what you know. Write what you understand, what you’ve experienced, what you get. 

    Seek the story in what you know.

    But here’s the truth: If we only crafted stories centered on our experiences the world would be full sleepy books because, let’s face it, life is a whole lot of humdrum. Sure we all have a handful of those firecracker moments—death and betrayal and crisis and danger, utmost joy and searing loss—but mostly our days consist of moments not worth writing about: losing keys. Staying up all night with a throwing up kid. Muttering at the pick-up behind you riding your tail. Yawn, yawn and pass the coffee. Not the ingredients for a best seller. 

    And yet…

    Could these moments be helpful, even essential, to a writer? Does that frustration you feel when you punch a series of numbers into your phone, desperate to talk to a real live not automated person, bolster your ability to flesh out a character desperate for a job? When you slam your finger in a drawer—can that pain help you create a better car crash scene?  Can the daily blah be transformed into fodder for the craft?

Oh yes. The lackluster everyday provides lovely, rich soil in which honesty and resonance flourish in our manuscripts. 

    The thing is, we have to pay attention. As storytellers our job is to take what we know, what we feel, begin there… and run like the wind. Take it a step further.  Take, “When I was seven and my cat died I was so sad I could hardly swallow” to “What if my father had died when I was seven?” True, in terms of loss, the experiences can’t be compared; in terms of emotion, they can. 

    Here’s what I love about writing: We are forced to wake up to the world around us. Why? It’s all potential fodder. All of it. That mom hollering at her kids in aisle six? She has a story. And it might be worth telling. So drink her in.  What do you see in her eyes? I mean past the anger? What do you see in the eyes of her children? In the eyes of those passing by? It’s like my high school art teacher used to say: draw what you see, not what you think you see. Write what you see. 

    Seek the story in the mundane. 

    People are wonderfully, infuriatingly complex. And we love complex characters, as layered as tiramisu. But doggone it, they can be so tricky to pin down with words. 

When I was knee deep in writing Mother of my Son I was hit with a frightening realization: I didn’t understand my protagonist, Amber. Not only that, I didn’t even like her. And if I didn’t like her, why would my readers? She does this awful thing, right off the bat in the first chapter—she leaves her newborn beside a dumpster. I felt compelled to tell her story, I couldn’t shake it, but I didn’t get her. 

So I got really quiet. I stopped clicking the keys and prayed. And then I listened. Shhhh. What does she say? Who can I listen to in my real world that’s tread a similar path?  What news stories and radio shows can lend me understanding? What memories and emotions can I dredge up to evoke empathy? How can I move past the stereotype of her, the image that surfaces when I think “girl leaves baby in dumpster” to her, so I can write not what I think I see, but what I see. 

    Seek the story in what you hope to understand. 

    Because story is all around us, when we are watchful and hushed to see and hear.

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Queen of the Slush Pile: Rachel Allord

Rachel Allord’s debut novel, Mother of My Son, won Novel Journey’s Out of the Slush Pile contest in the contemporary women’s category in 2010 and is now available for pre-order through Pelican Book Group (release date May 24). Rachel grew up as a pastor’s kid, vowed never to marry a pastor, and has been contentedly married to her husband, a worship pastor, for seventeen years. Privileged to be both a biological and adoptive mother, Rachel resides in Wisconsin where she avidly consumes coffee, sushi, and novels– preferably at the same time.

Sometimes it’s a long journey from idea to publication. What was your winding road like?

Writing a novel began on somewhat of a whim. As much as I loved being a stay at home mom, I felt like my creativity was drying up and I couldn’t shake this story brewing inside of me. So in a rather feverish way, I began to write. 

I soon realized, however, that even though I could write, (didn’t my English degree prove it?) I had no idea how to write a novel.  After attending a couple of conferences and establishing myself as a freelance writer (Chicken Soup for the Soul books, MomSense and other publications) I kept writing, kept improving the story. Then ironically, providentially, I began experiencing some of the themes compelling me to write—namely infertility and adoption. 

After adopting our precious baby girl from China, and after not looking at my manuscript for almost three years, I brushed it off and read it with fresh eyes. Did it need work? Oh yes. Was it redeemable? I thought so. So I rolled up my sleeves and dove back in, equipped with clarity that comes from shelving a project for so long, and experience. 

From first draft to publication the process took twelve years, with lots of starts and stops and rejections. But I guess that’s how much time I needed to find my voice and get the story right.

Tell about your new release Mother of My Son.

College student Amber Swansen gives birth alone. In desperation, she abandons the newborn, buries her secret, and attempts to get on with her life. No matter how far she runs, she can’t escape the guilt. Years later and still haunted by her past, Amber meets Beth Dilinger. Friendship blossoms between the two women, but Beth’s son is a constant, painful reminder to Amber of the child she abandoned. When heartache hits, causing Amber to grapple with the answers to life’s deeper questions, Beth stands by her side. Yet just when peace seems to be within Amber’s grasp, the truth of her past and the parentage of Beth’s son comes to light and threatens to shatter not only their worlds, but the life of the teenager they both love.

Where did you get the idea for the story?

One evening I caught a news story on TV about a high school girl who gave birth in the bathroom during prom, put the baby somewhere, (I don’t remember where) and went out to dance again. Being a new mom myself, the birth experience was still pretty fresh in my mind and I thought how in the world does someone do such a thing? What kind of home life does she come from? What was her mindset? What would become of her? I also began to grapple with questions like: Is God’s grace sufficient to cover all sins? How do we rid ourselves of the guilt from the past? This story haunted me and prompted a lot of questions—a great place to start for a writer.

Where do you find time to write? How do you juggle everything in your schedule?

 My son was a baby when I wrote the first draft so naptime equaled writing time. Now he’s thirteen and no longer naps, (nor does my eight-year-old daughter or my husband for that matter) but I still tend to write in bursts. This isn’t advice really, just my reality. My goal is 1000 words a day, a mediocre goal for many writers, but I can’t stop myself from editing along the way. Truthfully, some days I write for eight hours other days, ten minutes. The key is, I love to write, and we somehow manage to find time for what we love. 

What’s one word of advice you’d give to someone just starting out on the writing road?

 Listen. Listen to writers who’ve gone before you and listen to their stories. Listen to conference instructors and agents and editors. Listen to the news. Listen to conversations around you. Listen to what’s stirring in your heart. Listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Listen to the word of God. Should you listen and heed every voice? Of course not, but still, listen, listen, listen.

Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest…what’s your favorite social media and why?

Pinterest leaves me feeling like an ADD homemaking disaster, Facebook has definite perks but also plenty of drama, so I guess that leaves Twitter. Short, simple, direct, Twitter. Does face-to-face over a cup of coffee count? If so, I’ll take that.  

Where can readers keep up with your writerly exploits?

At my website: Rachel Allord

Facebook

Twitter

And be sure to check out the Mother of My Son book trailer HERE or purchase a copy at Amazon.

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