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Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Guest Blogger Jennifer Fromke and A Familiar Shore

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JENNIFER FROMKE was born and raised in Michigan, and now writes from North Carolina where she lives with her family and their needy Prozac dog. When separated from her laptop, you can find her curled up in a corner with a latte in one hand and her e-reader in the other, awaiting her annual escape to a lake in northern Michigan. Jennifer’s debut novel won the 2010 ACFW Genesis Award for Women’s Fiction. Her website: www.jenniferfromke.com.

A FAMILIAR SHORE
by Jennifer Fromke
Published by Write Integrity Press

ABOUT THE BOOK

Meg Marks is a young lawyer raised off the coast of the Carolinas. An anonymous client hires her to arrange his will, and sends her to meet his estranged family at their lake home in northern Michigan. After a shocking discovery, she finds herself caught between his suspicious family and a deathbed promise her conscience demands that she keep. Will she sacrifice her own dreams for revenge, or will she choose something more?

Readers, buy your copy of A Familiar Shore today!

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR FEATURE AUTHOR

I’m a lover, not a fighter.
I’m a reader, not a writer.

Wait a minute, I am a writer. Some days it’s like I have a split personality. I’ll sit in my chair, laptop in my lap, and stare across the room at my e-reader. My mind will travel to that place I left the night before sometime after midnight, where my new best friend was in the middle of a war, bombs crashing around her, and she learned that her one true love had just succumbed while rescuing their only child from . . . well, you get the point. I want to leave the world I’m in and get back to that story.

To read or to write, that is the question. But reading IS writing some days. I read things for research, non-fiction books, blogs, websites, letters, etc . . . I also read novels that carry with them a “feel” similar to the “feel” I’m hoping to convey in my book. Mostly I read novels for “story.” When I say “story,” I am looking at the plot, characters, and the experience of the reader in that story. At least that’s my goal.

But when I read a book I truly love, sometimes I forget to analyze it. I find myself finishing the last page and thinking to myself, Uh oh, that research just turned into a delightful distraction from work. So then I force myself to go back and think about what I just read.

Since I began life as a reader, my natural tendency is to read first, write second. As a writer with deadlines, this becomes a challenge. I write in the cracks of my normal life, which looks like this: mornings while kids are at school, in the carpool line, at the barn, at the tennis courts, during the piano lessons and late at night. Incidentally, those times coincide exactly with my free-time previously filled with personal reading.

When I’m reading, I could be writing. When I’m writing, I could be reading. Both activities are my favorite thing to do, so I fight this battle within. Both are good, but at any given time, both things are not necessarily beneficial. For instance, after 11pm, the writing will suffer. Also, snippets of time shorter than 20 minutes are better for reading. There’s nothing worse than being on a roll, having a thought you MUST get out of your head before you forget it, and having to pull forward in the carpool line and suffering dirty looks from the traffic controllers. (I exaggerate)

So I’m learning to enjoy the book before me, whether it’s the one I’m writing or the one I’m reading. Forget looking across the room at the lonely laptop. I am blessed to be steeped in story, mine and others’. But ultimately, it’s the story I live that must come first and that Author knows what He’s doing better than anyone.

* * * * *

Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing with us today.

Guest Question: So, are you a reader, or a writer? Even if you've never written a novel or article, and your writing has only been in a journal, which do you prefer more? To read or to write? Why?

ENTRY RULES Readers, leave your email address (name at domainname dot com/net) along with your answer to the question for your chance to win a FREE copy of the book above. If you do not answer the question, and your email address isn't provided, you will not be entered.

This week, the contest is open to anyone worldwide (international winner will receive an eBook version of the book; domestic winner will have his/her choice of format).

8 comments:

Denise said...

Like you, reading and writing are both sides of the same coin. I read and write constantly.

Bethany said...

I'm definitely more of a reader. I have randomly kept journals but read constantly :)

This book sounds great-- cbus.blogger at gmail dot com

Jennifer Fromke said...

I've tried journaling over the years . . . can't seem to stay consistent. Too many other things to write.

Glenda Parker Fiction Writer said...

I try to do both. I need to read. I learn so much that way. I am in the process of doing a rewrite. A good book is a blessing. Thank you for sharing.

Glenda Parker

Sylvia said...

I prefer to read. Plots are something I could come up with, but I don't think I could put the story together in a manner that others would enjoy reading. I have heard that authors hear voices and whole conversations in their head. The characters argue with them and insist on doing things. That is something that doesn't happen to me. I'll just read what everyone else is writing and enjoy it.

This book sounds good. It's nice to have some contemporary fiction amidst all the historical out there. I like a good balance of both.

nina4sm/at/gmail/dot/com

Jennifer Fromke said...

Sylvia,
You're right - there's a lot of historical fiction out there! I do love a long historical saga, but I tend to write contemporary stories because I see stories all around me - today. It may be more difficult to write contemporary fiction because it MUST ring true to the experience of everyone who reads it. But you said it well, a balance is necessary. I go back and forth between historical and comtemp. reads.

squiresj said...

I am a reader who likes to write reviews on every book she reads. Then I share them with someone else. Some even go to County Library.
jrs362 at hotmail dot com

Anonymous said...

I am definitely a reader. Tho, I'd love to be able to write wonderful books. Please enter me for this contest. Maxie ( mac262@me.com )