ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rebeca Seitz is Founder and President of Glass Road Public Relations. An author for several years, PRINTS CHARMING was her first novel.Rebeca cut her publicity teeth as the first dedicated publicist for the fiction division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. In 2005, Rebeca resigned from WestBow and opened the doors of GRPR, the only publicity firm of its kind in the country dedicated solely to representing novelists writing from a Christian worldview.
Rebeca makes her home in Kentucky with her husband, Charles, and their son, Anderson.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Sisters, Ink marks the first in a series of novels written by, for, and about scrapbookers. At the center of the creativity and humor are four unlikely young adult sisters, each separately adopted during early childhood into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair.Ten years after their mother Marilyn has died, the multi-racial Sinclair sisters (Meg, Kendra, Tandy, and Joy) still return to her converted attic scrapping studio in the small town of Stars Hill, Tennessee, to encourage each other through life’s highs and lows.
Book one spotlights headstrong Tandy, a successful yet haunted attorney now living back in Orlando where she spent the first eight years of her life on the streets as a junkie’s kid. When a suddenly enforced leave of absence at work leads her to an extended visit with her sisters in Stars Hill, a business opportunity, rekindled romance, and fresh understanding of God’s will soon follow.
Endorsements:
"What more can any woman want? Sisters, Ink weaves the love of sisters, the fun of scrapbooking, and a romance as sugary and tingling as Sweet Home Alabama. A must read for those who love southern fiction."--DiAnn Mills, author of Leather and Lace and When the Nile Runs Red
"Fun . . . funny . . . fantastic! Rebeca Seitz has brought together scrapbooking and sisterhood in a lively romp, with a love for going home again."--Eva Marie Everson, coauthor of The Potluck Club series.
Margie's Comments: I finished reading Sisters, Ink late last night. (It was well worth the loss of sleep. *grin*) It is a fun book with a serious message. The relationship between the sisters, their father, and especially Tandy's high school boyfriend, Clay, are very fun. I'm not a scrapbooker, though I have done some when my own sister group (my sister and sister-in-law) put together a scrapbook for our mom's 70th birthday. But I do enjoy the enthusiasm and fun that is shared with those who do scrapbook. And that's one of the things I enjoyed about this book—hard lessons learned and life questions dealt with around the scrapping table.
Interview with Rebeca:
How did you get started writing, and where has that journey taken you that you may not have expected starting out?
I’ve written stories since I was 8 years old. My first novel was with Thomas Nelson Publishers, where I’d worked as the publicist for the fiction division for a year. After leaving TN and opening Glass Road Public Relations, the editor called me up with the idea to write a story for scrapbookers. She asked if I thought I could do that and, by the time I got home from our meeting, I had two characters already in my head!
As for where the journey has taken me—um, to insanity? Ha ha! Seriously, this journey is so much fun and something I don’t deserve. I’ve gotten to meet extraordinary people along the way—other authors, editors (Karen Ball! David Webb!), bloggers, newspaper reporters—tons of folks that have enriched and blessed my life.
How do you balance family life with writing?
I married an amazing man. *smile* Charlie is the secret to the madness around here. For example, I’ve been up since a little after 6 this morning. While I actually took the time to do a load of laundry, put on his coffee, dress our toddler, and make breakfast before landing in front of the laptop, the rest of the day I’ll be chained to my desk. He knows that, which is why he came up here fifteen minutes ago with a plate bearing Mexican food and brownie and a glass full of Diet Mt Dew. He sat it down and walked away while I yammered on the phone with a client. Before that, he took our kiddo to preschool, did the grocery shopping, got the dog's and cat's food at the tractor supply place, ran by the post office, and picked up a CD at church that our music minister wants me to listen to. Charlie’s good at keeping the ball rolling forward so I don’t have to stop and pick it up. *smile*
How does your walk with the Lord affect your writing? And how do you balance time with the Lord with your writing schedule?
This is where I’m supposed to write what a fantastic Christian I am—how I wake up at 5am and spend an hour reading Scripture before starting my day. You know, I wish I could say that with honesty. But I can’t. My walk with the Lord is such an integral part of me—it is me. It’s not a section that I take care of in the morning for an hour and then go about my day. (Though I know most morning Bible studiers don’t put it down in an hour and forget about it.) It’s a minute-by-minute reliance on His presence and direction. In some periods of my life, I’m involved in an in-depth Bible study like I’m about to start with Beth Moore’s Daniel (my second time through). While I’m in that study, I will spend an hour a day deep in Scripture and study. God uses those scripturally-rich periods of my life to ground me in His word. I hide those words in my heart and meditate on them throughout my days and nights.
When I’m not involved in a specific Bible study, I tend to spend more time in ongoing prayer than scripture reading. I’ll pray before calling a client (for patience, wisdom—depends on the client), before writing a scene (for insight, ability), during the shower (for a miraculous extra hour to my morning—ha!), driving down the road (that should be a comfort to those who see me talking on the phone while driving!), shoot, even right now (for a great answer to this question!). I hold His hand all day and all night and wake up the next morning with His hand still holding to mine. When I let go and act like an idiot, the void of His presence is painful enough to pull me back. *smile*
Since my blog is geared to writers who want to improve their self-editing, could you briefly take us through your process of writing a novel—from conception to revision?
Sure! Though I should warn your readers that my writing process requires gallons of caffeine. Ha ha! Because I also own two businesses, direct the women’s ministry at my church, mommy a two-year-old, love a 32-year-old husband, renovate a 100+year-old house, and the myriad other things that most women have some form of, I don’t get to write every day. Instead, I write in large chunks. On Friday or Saturday, I pack up the laptop and head to one of the libraries near my house – either the University of Tennessee at Martin (my alma mater) or the Union City Public Library (a new and gorgeous structure). I plug in the laptop, leave the wireless card turned off, put in my iPod earbuds, and start writing. By the end of the day, I’ll have 10,000-16,000 pretty good words. I do that for enough days and I have a whole novel. I edit a little along the way, but not much. Mostly I re-read the last few pages of what I wrote the session before, tweak it, and then keep writing.
When it’s finished, I go back and read it again, changing, tweaking, refining, etc. Then I send it to Karen Ball—editor extraordinaire!—to get hacked to death.
What kinds of things do you have to revise once the editor at a publishing house gets done with your manuscript?
I usually have to lengthen scenes so that the ending to a scene has more punch. I also have to go back and do rewrites that keep the reader in the character’s head. For example, rather than, “She hated how he looked at her,” I should write “Kendra shivered and rubbed the gooseflesh on her arms. That look of his is pure evil.”
Would you tell us a little about your future projects?
The second book in the Sisters, Ink series is Coming Unglued and will be in stores in August. Book three, Scrapping Plans will be in stores in early 2009 and book four will release six months after that.
Finally, would you discuss Sisters, Ink? The research, the idea, and the scope of the project?
The idea of Sisters, Ink the business is to network scrapbookers at the local level. That way, when a woman takes up scrapping as a hobby or is already a scrapper and moves into a new area, she can find other girls with whom she can scrap! Online friends are great—I’m blessed with several!—but in-person scrapping with girlfriends means a lot in my life. I wanted to equip other women to form friendships and enrich their lives over the scrapping table as well.
I also wanted to get back to the personalization of scrapbooking. The industry exploded in growth, and we lost a little bit of the individuality along the way. Suddenly, a gagillion companies were creating papers and embellishments and tools that all looked eerily similar. By getting back down to the person-by-person level, we take back the hobby as a way to express ourselves individually.
You can find out all about Sisters, Ink—the books and the network—at www.sistersink.net . *smile*
Thank you so much, Rebeca! We appreciate your time and the opportunity to spotlight your work.
Daily Bible reading:
Tuesday: Isaiah 37–38; Mark 9:30–50
Wednesday: Isaiah 39–40; Mark 10:1–31
Parallelism again tomorrow. I promise! Totally spaced yesterday's blogging. Sigh.
Have a blessed day!
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