Francine Rivers's Blog, page 35
August 19, 2011
How Redeeming Love was Redeemed
The original (general market) manuscript of Redeeming Love was offered to the editor with whom I had been working for a number of years. She turned it down because it was a recognizable allegory about Jesus. So the manuscript made the rounds and ended up in the hands of a Christian who was an editor with Bantam. She wanted to bring faith-based stories into women's fiction. The original edition of Redeeming Love was a paperback, released in 1991; the cover had Easter lilies against a blue background. It sold about 120,000 copies and died a quic
August 12, 2011
Back story of Redeeming Love
Some of you may know that I started writing in the general market in the early days of the historical romance boom (mid 70-80s). My first book was a combination of the genres I enjoyed reading: western-gothic-historical romance. I became hooked on writing. It seemed to be the one area of my life where I had "control," an illusion, of course, though I had a successful career with strong sales and lead position (for promotion).
August 6, 2011
Starting Out
While working on the setting for my current writing project, I've been thinking about how Rick and I started out. Rick was an ex-Marine Vietnam vet and I was a college grad high on women's lib with lots of ideas on how to change the world. Those first years were rocky, but we had lots of good times because we been good friends before we fell in love.
July 29, 2011
Brain-storming Retreat
I have just returned from an annual retreat with a small group of girlfriends – all strong Christians, all writers. We "pray, play and plot". It's an opportunity for all of us to "talk shop" without boring everyone else around us. Since we're all writers, we like to talk about writing, the writing life, struggles of writing, what's happening in publishing, technology (some like to have the latest gadgets) and writing, writing, writing. We sing.
July 22, 2011
Debt-free Living
I'm hearing a change from young people lately, and by young, I mean anyone under 45. Some are hanging onto homes by their fingernails and prayer. Others are clawing their way up out of the dark pit of credit card debt. And all are disturbed and downright furious to see how our government spends wantonly and keeps asking for the debt ceiling to rise.
July 17, 2011
Creating a Town
For the last two weeks, I've been creating a fictitious northern California town setting for my current story. I've driven all over Sonoma County, taking pictures of buildings and streets, farms and wineries, bridges and old train stations. I've spread all these pictures across a table and drawn out the streets, businesses, town square, and roads into town, blocked out areas for farms, ranches with happy cows and "free range" chickens, hop fields, vineyards, redwoods, the hills and the coast line.
July 8, 2011
Exploring Views
Recently, I was asked to name my favorite authors. This is something I cannot do because my favorite author happens to be whomever I am reading at the moment. This includes writers who are presenting views diametrically opposed to mine. And this happened this week when I read a book that included a collection of essays on faith by a gifted general market writer who is a Christian. She has the rare ability to be both heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time. She is transparent, sharing the best and worst of herself and her observations on humanity.
June 29, 2011
Summer Bedlam
Every year, for one week, Rick and I are blessed to have two of our five grandchildren stay with us and attend Vacation Bible Study. This year, we borrowed another grandchild to stay as well. We would have borrowed two, but the other was already scheduled to go to Mt. Gilead (camp) for the week. So we only had her for the first day and the last night and day.
June 17, 2011
A Tribute to My Dad
I learned a great deal by watching my dad over the years. He always sought to be an example for me and my brother. Here are the things that mattered most to him:
June 11, 2011
Spain, Portugal, and Morocco
Rick and I are back from a wonderful vacation (bus tour) of Spain, Portugal (Lisbon) and Morocco (Tanger). We arrived in Madrid two days before the tour group gathered and toured the Palacio Real.
