Giveaway and Author Interview: Lost in Dreams

Welcome to Writing for Christ, Roger Bruner, it is great to have you here! Do you have an interesting fact about yourself the average reader probably doesn’t know?

Ah, Casey, I hope you’re not fishing for any deep, dark secrets. God has already forgiven and forgotten all of those. *big grin*

Serously though, one thing most people don’t know is I had acute viral encephalitis when I was in the eighth grade. I was in a coma for several days. There was no cure, and the doctors said I might end up a vegetable. If I survived at all.

I did survive—as you can probably tell—and I can assure you that vegetables don’t make good book authors. Or even poor ones.

I’ll never forget my parents telling me that many people had been praying for me—people who didn’t even know me. So I consider my survival and successful recovery to be the result of a personal miracle brought about by prayer.

Although I’d been a Christian for several years at the time, that event gave my faith a jolt that continues working to this very day. I don’t know how many more days, weeks, or years God plans to keep me around, but He wouldn’t have kept me alive this long without a purpose, part of which is writing Christian fiction that tells other people about His love.

Do you have a favorite genre to read/write?

My favorite reads are suspense with a little speculative thrown in. My current favorites are books by Jim Rubart and Al Gansky. I’ve just discovered Bill Myers, whom I met recently at a novelists’ retreat. I just finished reading debut author Jon Wakefield’s new suspense novel, Fatal Reality, which was a real page turner. Oh, and let me not forget Tim Downs’ Bug Man novels.

I also enjoy romantic comedy—like Ray Blackston’s books—and even a bit of contemporary women’s lit, like anything of Deb Raney’s. I highly recommend Southern Fried Sushi, written by my good friend, Jenny Rogers Spinola. Even though my two published books are Young Adult, I don’t generally read in that genre. Nonetheless, I’ve read and enjoyed several YA books by such authors as Jenny B. Jones.

I don’t think of myself as a Young Adult author. My manuscripts fall into YA, women’s lit,  romantic comedy, and even one speculative novel. As much as I enjoy reading suspense, you’d think I might try writing it, but I don’t feel led in that direction. That’s not to say I never will, though.

As long as I can use my sense of humor and feel that I’m communicating an important message to my audience—my aim is to both bless and entertain them—I really don’t care what genre I’m writing in.

Do you have a nugget of writing advice that has completely changed how you view about writing?

Uh, not exactly. But I can tell you something that made my first novel publishable and then express it as a nugget of advice I still follow.

Novelist and writing book author James Scott Bell looked at the first page of Found in Translation a few years ago. “Roger,” he said, “you didn’t even start with a scene.”

Gee, if that nifty opening describing the protagonist’s efforts to unfold a stiff, mothball-smelly blanket wasn’t a scene, what was?

But Jim was the expert—the published expert—not me. So I ended up cutting the first fifty pages—you need to understand that I work the hardest on the first fifty, so that was the biggest imaginable sacrifice—and writing a new beginning. Such a difference. Such an improvement. And so much more likely to hook an acquisitions editor—and subsequently book browsers who I hope will become my readers.

The nugget of advice? Don’t fall in love with any part of your writing so much that you refuse to give it up if you discover it ought to be cut. Remember that anything you have to cut was still excellent writing practice and should be set aside and saved for some other possible use.

The corollary to that nugget is cut anything and everything that doesn’t relate to and advance the story. That can be a toughie.

What do you enjoy most about being a published author?

I wish I could say that being published makes people recognize me when I walk down the street. Or that my seatmate on a plane is reading one of my books and then looks up and says, “Oh! That’s your book? Your writing is the greatest.” But I haven’t reached that point. And honestly, those things aren’t terribly important to me, no matter how fun they might sound.

What does matter—what thrills me, in fact—is the awareness that having published books allows me to touch thousands of lives in ways I would never be able to do in person. When it comes  to sharing my faith verbally, I feel like Moses. I express myself far better in writing. Being able to perfect the message instead of having to deliver it on the fly makes a whale of a difference.

Places for readers to learn more about you?

Your readers will be welcome at my website, www.RogerBruner.com,  where they can read sample chapters from my books—including my unpublished manuscripts, poetry, and short plays. They can see some of my favorite photographs—good thing I don’t print as many pictures as I take—and listen to some of my original songs. I’m on Facebook and Twitter, too, but I’m not as active keeping up with the social media as I used to be. I’m always open to friend requests, though, and I do respond to comments.

Thank you for being with us today!

Thank you, Casey. This has been a great pleasure, and you’ve been a most gracious hostess.

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Thanks for coming by to enter! Contest ends on December 16th.