Author Interview ~ Vonda Skinner Skelton

Vonda Skinner Skelton is the author of the Bitsy Mysteries for children 8-14 years old. As an RN and freelance writer, her work frequently appears in magazines such as HomeLife, Christian Single, and Focus on the Family publications. An award-winning playwright, her scripts have been performed in churches around the country.
She has been married to Gary for 37 years and they have two daughters and four grandchildren. As one who tries—and often fails—to be like Christ, Vonda is thankful God continues to take her messes and use them for His glory.
She can be reached at www.vondaskelton.com



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

I’d love to tell you about Bitsy and the Mystery at Amelia Island, the second book in my series for 8 to 14-year-olds. In this book, released last year, 12-year-old Bitsy has vowed to turn over a new leaf, cause no more calamities, and live at peace with everyone. But while spending a week with her friends, Garrett and Ellie, on Amelia Island, Florida, the neighborhood bully pushes her too far, and Bitsy’s promise of peace quickly comes to an end. After overhearing a sinister plan, the kids team up with the bully, Ernie, and his twin sister, Bernie, to investigate dark secrets involving the creepy house next door. A talking cockatoo and a retired police dog help them along the way as they search for a “ghost,” run from a “witch,” and attempt to find out what’s so important about a mysterious family portrait. This book is especially close to my heart because Garrett and Ellie are my two oldest grandchildren and they live on Amelia Island!

My first book, Bitsy and the Mystery at Tybee Island, has been out since 2003. In it, readers are introduced to Bitsy and her family as they travel to Tybee Island, Georgia, to test her father’s latest invention—TanTone Suntan Lotion. But soon after arriving, Bitsy and her cousin, Matt, realize someone wants them to stay out of the dark, abandoned fort next door. Buried treasure, a skeleton, and a mysterious stranger are a few of the surprises they encounter as they follow a secret code in search of valuable jewels. This one is special to me because the family is based on my own family growing up and the personalities, especially of Bitsy and her parents, are almost mirrors of my own family members. (Yes, my dad really did invent a suntan lotion!)

But I’m most excited about my current project, a women’s non-fiction humor book about the disappointments Christian women face in life. I’m trying to finish the proposal within the next few weeks so my agent can get it out this summer. It’s been a surprise to see how much more difficult it is to write funny than it is to speak funny!

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.

Well, I wrote the first book in 1993 and was confident I had written the great American novel for kids. And, as the writer of such a great piece of literature, I was sure that taking the time to study the market would be a disservice to my future readers. After all, why should I withhold this great piece of literature from the reading public any longer than necessary? I remember the day I put 10 copies of my manuscript in the mail with visions of a six-figure advance dancing in my head. “Oh my, what am I going to do when five publishers want my book at the same time? Oh my!” Needless to say, the yellow manila envelopes were back in my mailbox before the stamps were dry. (Yes, this was back in the old days when we actually had to lick stamps!)
Over the next few years, I repeated the routine over and over. I’d send out the book, collect my rejections, and throw the manuscript in the closet. I’d wait a year, pull out the great piece of literature, make a few changes, and send it back out. Within weeks, my mailbox would be filled with yellow manila envelopes.

So I changed tactics and decided maybe I had misunderstood God’s call. Perhaps I was supposed to be a freelance magazine writer. The only problem was, I still hadn’t learned that there are no shortcuts on the path to publication. I still didn’t study the market; still didn’t sit under experienced writers and learn from their wisdom; and still didn’t invest in writer’s conferences. And because I didn’t have time to do the right things, I dashed to publication in a mere seven years! Yes, after seven years and 63 rejections, I finally saw my name in print! By that time, I had collected rejections for my book, for scripts, and for magazine articles on everything from PMS to professional window cleaning. (Don’t ask.) My first published piece was an unpaid health article on a pediatric website.

Bitsy and the Mystery at Tybee Island came out almost exactly 10 years after I initially wrote it. The call came in 2001 as I was cleaning house. It was a couple of days before Christmas—one of the best Christmas presents I ever received! I was trying so hard to sound calm, as if I received calls like that every day; but in reality, I was alternating between pacing and jumping up and down. I wish I could say things moved quickly then, but I still had to wait another year and a half before the manuscript was actually a book I could hold in my hand.

By the way, I want you to know I have received a few six-figure checks. The only problem is, there’s a decimal between the fourth and fifth numbers!

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

You mean today? I know everyone’s heard it so much that it sounds cliché, but writers are notorious for thinking their current work-in-progress will be the one that will expose the charade. That they’re just pretending to be writers, and any success they’ve experienced so far is just a fluke. We have to know and understand that is a weapon of the Father of Lies.

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

I actually have two pieces of good advice: Just start and don’t quit. My very first exposure to anything related to writing was a conference I attended in the late 80s. I hadn’t written a thing since college, but was feeling this desire to write. I went to a secular conference and found myself sitting by the conference director, the late Gary Provost. When he asked me what I wrote, I admitted I hadn’t written anything yet. He asked me why not. I hesitated. I knew I had to be the dumbest person at the entire conference. After all, writers are brilliant people, right? I felt as if I were at this conference under false pretenses. My mind raced through the list of pithy answers that would confirm my admittance to this prestigious, discriminating group. I came up with the perfect philosophical answer: “I guess as long as I haven’t written, I haven’t failed.” I was so proud of myself. But Gary Provost looked me straight in the eye and, without a second’s hesitation, said, “No, Vonda, as long as you haven’t written, you’ve failed already.” I was speechless. There was nothing I could say, so I went home from that weekend and started writing my book. Of course, now I realize how terrible it was, but at least it was a start; at least it was getting down on paper.

The second piece of advice is: Don’t quit. What if I had quit after 63 rejections? What if I had never sent that 64th query? What if I had said, “Well, I’ve given it the good ol’ college try; it’s clear that I’m not a writer.”

Just start. And don’t quit.

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

I know some people are going to scream at me when I say this, but hear me out. One of the worst pieces of writing advice I’ve heard is, “Write what you know.” I know, I know. All worthwhile instructors use that phrase, including me. But you need to understand that “Write what you know” doesn’t mean you can’t write what you DON’T know. And it doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with writing what you know forever, doomed to live within that cubbyhole the rest of your writing life.

The reason to “write what you know,” at least in the beginning, is twofold. First of all, you’re familiar with the topic, and that in itself decreases stress and gives you a place to start. Secondly, writing what you know is a comfortable place to hang out, and most likely, it’s something you enjoy doing or talking about.

My argument comes when people insinuate that you have to stay in that place forever. Use “write what you know” to get started, to learn the ropes, to gain experience, to find a place of credibility. But then feel free to move on, if you want. I would hate to think that because I’m a nurse, I have to write health articles forever. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing about medical and health issues. I love taking complicated information and putting it into everyday language. But there’s a big ol’ writing world out there and I’d hate to have never experienced more of it. I started out in health articles, but have since branched out into other areas that I love equally well: speaking, Bible teaching, scripts, non-fiction women’s humor, interviews, music, songs, and of course, children’s mysteries.

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

As I said earlier, there are no shortcuts on the way to publication. After seven years I finally grew up and realized I wasn’t special, and in order to be published I was going to have to follow the rules. The bottom line is, rebellion doesn’t work in the writing world.

I also wish I had realized that I needed help. I was a lonely writer. I didn’t know—or didn’t take seriously—the benefit of writer’s groups and critique groups and conferences and internet loops. We need each other. And once you find any measure of success, you should be reaching back to help someone who is coming along behind you.

Do you have a scripture or quote that has been speaking to you lately?

These past few weeks, I have been more focused on waiting expectantly on the Lord. Author Susie Larson, one of God’s many blessings in my life, has encouraged me to spend more time sitting and listening and waiting. For some reason, I think I’ve been afraid of the quiet; afraid of the silence; as if to be silent meant I was not in the conversation. But I’m finally grasping the fact that it is in the quiet that the Lord speaks. In reality, He has been speaking all along, but now I can hear Him above the noise—my noise. Isaiah 30:15 tells me that it is in repentance and rest that I find His salvation, and in quietness and trust I find His strength. I pray that I will be faithful to confess my failings, rest in His peace, take comfort in the quiet, and trust in His hand.

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

I think the biggest hurdle was just learning that rejections don’t necessarily mean I’m being rejected or that my writing isn’t acceptable. When I speak to writers, I often use the analogy that submitting is like shopping at the mall. Imagine that I’m going shopping for a blue cotton dress in size 6. Right away I find the cutest green cotton dress you’ve even seen. It fits me perfectly, but I don’t buy it—because I need a blue dress. Then I find a pair of blue shorts. They fit perfectly and they’re the right color, but I don’t buy them because I need a dress, not shorts. Then I find a beautiful blue cotton dress. But I don’t buy it—because it’s a size 10. Finally, I find the perfect blue cotton dress in size 6—and I buy it! Now, nothing was wrong with any of the other pieces. They were all wonderful; they just weren’t what I needed.

In each case, there was something that made it less than a perfect match. It’s often the same with our submissions. Perhaps the editor had just contracted a similar article, or the publisher just signed an author to write a similar book, or the voice wasn’t a good match to their particular magazine, or the subject matter was too broad. Yes, you may get rejected because the writing isn’t ready yet, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a writer. It just means you need to learn more and practice more. You don’t become an acclaimed artist without practice, and you won’t be a published author without practice, either.

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

Wow. That’s a hard question. I have so many favorite authors. In CBA fiction, Mindy Starns Clark (especially the Tulip series), Deb Raney, Terri Blackstock, Karen Kingsbury, and Patti Sprinkle (her Thoroughly Southern Mysteries are a hoot!) are some of my favorites. And I loved Flabbergasted by Ray Blackston. But I also love Mary Higgins Clark for her clean secular mysteries. Some of my favorite oldies are To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind. (Can you tell I’m from the south?)

If your authorial self was a character from The Wizard of Oz, which one would you be and why?

I’d love to say I’m like Dorothy, who learns her lesson simply through experiencing a dream. But the truth is, I’m often like the Wizard—running around, trying to make things happen, trying to look like I have things under control, when in truth, I’m simply hiding my failures behind a curtain, and I don’t have control of anything!

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

I think that would have to be the musical drama, Grandmother’s Song. I was rocking my grandson one day and singing praise songs when it hit me—Jesus would have had a grandmother! Then I imagined this fictional story of the relationship between Jesus and his maternal grandmother. And even though she loved Him more than life itself, she doesn’t believe He’s the Messiah. The logline is: She believed in His love; she believed in His goodness; but she couldn’t believe in His grace. It’s especially close to my heart because the Lord also gave me the lyrics to original songs and another friend wrote the lyrics to one song. Then our worship leader wrote all the music. It was the first time we’d done a totally original production.

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

I don’t know that I would call it a peeve, but it’s been a shock to see how much of a writer’s life is spent doing things other than writing. And I don’t mean the laundry and cleaning toilets. It’s the bookkeeping and the promotion and the taxes and the email and the shipping of books. Non-writing friends ask why I don’t hire a secretary. Ha! All it would take is one look at my checkbook and they’d know why not!

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

The only typical thing for me is the inconsistency. I still work occasionally as a nurse and babysit grandchildren two days a week, so I can’t really follow a consistent writing schedule. I do get up early—usually about 4:30. I spend time with the Lord (as I said, I’m trying to listen more and talk less) and then try to get a little work done before my day begins. I can hear the treadmill calling my name, but I’m usually able to resist the urge to answer it. On the days I’m home, I’m usually at the computer all day, but it’s not always writing time. I’ve found when I really want to crank out words in a hurry, I have to get away. I’ve found three great places to go—a monastery, a bed & breakfast, and a retreat center. All supply that solitude that I need to really get some serious writing done.

Also, I’ve found that to make any headway in this writing life, I had to give up TV. I realized I could either sit on the couch for hours and have nothing to show for that time, or I could sit at the computer and hopefully create something of worth. That’s not to say all TV is bad, but for me, it was something I could give up in order to have time to write.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

I love the skill with which Ray Blackston wrote Flabbergasted in the first person without using “I” all the time.

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

Even though much of my speaking at women’s events involves a lot of humor, I’d never really considered writing non-fiction humor for women. My current dream is that I’ll be able to transfer those spoken words to paper and that they’ll encourage women in their walk with the Lord. I’ve just signed with an agent and we’re in the process of putting my first non-fiction women’s proposal together. It feels good to have a qualified ally to guide me in this new endeavor.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

About once a year or so, I compare my pitiful writing income to the income I could make as a fulltime nurse. Nursing wins the income contest, hands down. But nothing compares to the joy of creating something that touches the heart. I’m thankful to be at a season of my life that I don’t have to depend on my writing to put food on the table. Of course, there are many writers who are able to do that. I just can’t—but hey, it could happen, couldn’t it?

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

I love hearing from readers who enjoy my work. Right now that’s mainly kids, but I have received a few emails from people who’ve enjoyed my articles. The kids are so honest, though. One kid sent an email that said, “I don’t want to sound mean or anything…”—I knew right away this was going to be painful—“…but you don’t look like your picture on the back of the book. On the book you don’t look like you have any wrinkles, but when you came to my school, you had lots of wrinkles.” I love it!

My least favorite would be all those non-writing demands associated with a writing.

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

I spend a lot of time marketing. Since my books are published by a small press, I have very little help in that area. I’ve found that developing a platform of speaking at schools, women’s events, and writer’s conferences helps promote my books more than anything. And even though they are available through Ingram and all the normal distributors, I’ve personally hand-sold at least half of my books.

Parting words?

This is a crazy business. I don’t know of anything in this world I would do that required me to work so hard and make so little. But I know this is my calling and I’m thankful God has chosen to use me. What a joy, what an honor, what a privilege to write and speak for Him!