Guest Post: The Giver of All Good Things by Dawn Crandall

 (DAWN CRANDALL’S GIVEAWAYS ARE NOW CLOSED.)

When I was sixteen, I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. And then I discovered the movie Gone With The Wind… and then the book by Margaret Mitchell. I didn’t know I liked to read until then, but even more than that—I didn’t realize what an amazing thing it could be to write a book. So I told myself I would do just that. I would write a book. Someday.

Well, then I became a Christian and was at the same time diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder. I started taking medication to help (drastically) with my grades, basically became a whole new person to anyone who knew me… and quit thinking so much about books and writing one. 

I attended Taylor University, graduated, worked at Barnes & Noble, met my husband at the church we attended, got married and moved to a new city. All the while I took the medication for my ADD because I felt that I associated better with people with it, and I pretty much needed it to work any job. 

Then I decided to stop taking the medication in case I was to get pregnant. By this time, my husband had already found out about my desire to write a book and encouraged me from that very day to write it. Could someone with ADD focus enough to write a book? I’m seriously one of those people who have a very difficult time finishing any kind of hobby project. Most things just don’t mean enough to me to keep my attention long enough to complete. But I found that this book writing thing was much different. I found that because writing was my absolute favorite thing to do, I could sit at my laptop all day long and write up the scenes which were so vividly racing through my mind. Having ADD basically boils down to having a stream of ideas and hypothetical situations running through my mind at all times. My imagination is often on hyper-drive. Music and photographs often help me as prompts, and sometimes all I need is a word, and a whole scene comes together in my mind. It doesn’t really make sense to me how I’m able to capture 90K words into a Word document and take a reader on a complex emotional journey through the eyes of my heroine. It’s fun! And it’s complicated…. and I love it.

I was sixteen, and not even a Christian yet, when the desire to write a book struck my heart. I was thirty-two when I actually began writing The Hesitant Heiress in 2010. I don’t know why it had to take me so long to get around to it; why I never realized how drastically my creative thinking was hindered by my taking the ADD medication. I don’t understand God’s will for my life sometimes, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Even while I couldn’t write because of the medication, and while I couldn’t get pregnant for some unknown reason… He was in control, and He was building everything up for a few big surprises.

In 2011, I joined ACFW and my husband sent me to the national conference. I had two agent appointments and a paid critique meeting. I was about to cancel my agent appointments when I went to my paid critique. I thought my book was dumb, that I was dumb for going to conference… I was completely out of my league… why was I there? I hadn’t even finished my manuscript. I was jumping the gun and had spent way too much money for no reason. But that wasn’t what author Andrea Boeshaar told me. She told me my first chapter was amazing, that the writing was better than a lot of books that were already published…. and she told me to go to my agent appointments.

God knew I needed that! Who wouldn’t love to hear such things? So I went to my appointments, I received two requests for partial proposals. I didn’t even know what a proposal was, but I found out and I made one, even explaining that I was still revising the end of my book. I did include a chapter outline though, and I think that helped… because within the week I had a contract for representation from both agents in my email box. I chose Joyce Hart as my agent and went about finishing my novel. All of 2012 went by with my only book on submission to a handful of publishers, and the second manuscript {The Bound Heart, November 2014} for my series became a semi-finalist in the 2012 Genesis Contest. And then half of 2013 went by as well…. and I wanted to quit. I had a really hard time writing book three {The Captive Imposter, February 2015} because my confidence was going down the drain. It must have been a fluke that two incredibly sought after agents had wanted to represent me upon first sight of my first three chapters. It must have been a fluke about the Genesis contest… and then again when book one became a semi-finalist and book three became a finalist in the 2013 Genesis Contest. How much more “half-way there” could I take?

Well…. about a month later, God taught me a great big lesson. And it didn’t have anything to do with a book, writing, or seeing my name in print. It had to do with another dream I’d always had but had given up on. I’d given up on getting pregnant and having a family, having traded it in for the dream of becoming a published author. I found out I was pregnant in August 2013, and suddenly I didn’t care so much about getting my long-sought-after book contract. I still wanted it, of course! It wasn’t the only thing I had to think about anymore. 

When I signed my book contract with Whitaker House in December 2013, I was six months pregnant. And when my debut novel released this August, my son was 4 months old. It’s crazy how God had it all work out… because I was convinced that having my book-baby published was what I wanted more than anything. And was I wrong. There really is nothing compared to holding my baby boy in my arms and seeing him laugh and smile. Even if this isn’t the timeframe I would have chosen for myself, I trust God knows what He’s doing. He’s blessed me this year… yes, with what seems like a little too much to do… but I’ll take it!

About The Hesitant Heiress:

After being unjustly expelled from the Boston Conservatory of Music, Amaryllis Brigham sees her dreams of founding a music academy disappearing before her very eyes. Now the only way to achieve her goal comes with high stakes for someone set on avoiding men as much as possible: marry within the year to inherit her grandmother’s fortune. Amaryllis reluctantly takes part in her aunt’s society, intent on getting to the west coast on her own… and without a husband. 

Despite her own misgivings, she soon finds herself falling in love with the most unlikely of men, Nathan Everstone, whose father not only had a part in her expulsion, but whose ominous presence has haunted her dreams for a decade since her mother’s tragic death. Nathan turns out to be much more than he seems and everything she never knew she wanted. But just as everything Amaryllis has recently hoped for comes to fruition, it all falls apart when she finds that the real culprit who has been managing her life isn’t who she thought at all.

READ THE ENTIRE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE HESITANT HEIRESS!!!

http://whpub.whitakerhouse.com/dawncrandall/heiress.html

A graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn Crandall didn’t begin writing until 2010 when her husband found out about her long-buried dream of writing a book. Without a doubt about someday becoming traditionally published, he encouraged her to quit working in order to focus on writing The Hesitant Heiress. It didn’t take her long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do. Dawn is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary.

Apart from writing books, Dawn is also a first-time mom to a precious little boy (born March 2014) and also serves with her husband in a pre-marriage mentor program at their local church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dawn is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, secretary for the Indiana ACFW Chapter (Hoosier Ink), and associate member of the Great Lakes ACFW Chapter.

THE HESITANT HEIRESS BLOG TOUR

As part of her book launch, Dawn is taking part in a blog tour featuring interviews, book reviews and giveaways. She’s giving away a prize pack every weekend for the six weeks of the blog tour and one larger prize pack at the end. Each of YOU who comments on any post will be entered into the drawing for that specific week, and then also for the end of the tour Grand Prize. Many of the blogger’s posting in the blog tour are also giving away a digital copy of The Hesitant Heiress.

THE FIVE WEEKLY PRIZE PACKS

A $10 Amazon Gift Card, an eBook of The Hesitant Heiress, a mug with all three book covers and a moleskin journal.

THE GRAND PRIZE

(At the end of week six): a Kindle Fire, a $10 Amazon Gift Card, an eBook of The Hesitant Heiress, a mug with all three book covers and a moleskin journal.

CONNECT WITH DAWN

Blog: www.dawncrandall.blogspot.com

Facebook: facebook.com/DawnCrandallWritesFirst

Book Review Blog: APassionforPages.blogspot.com

GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/dawn_crandall

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/dawnwritesfirst

Email: dawncrandallwritesfirst@gmail.com

Twitter: @dawnwritesfirst

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Dawn-Crandall

Disclaimer from Sandra: At this time, I don’t run contests on this blog and won’t be choosing or announcing winners here or giving away books. Any choices of winners are Dawn Crandall’s, and we both welcome your comments.