Giveaway! Bees in the Butterfly Garden by Maureen Lang!

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

That word, interesting, always captures me. What makes something interesting other than trauma, angst, intrigue or drama? I come from a long line of interesting lives. My grandmother was raised in a school for girls because her mother and sister died suddenly, leaving only her father and older brother in the house with her—which was considered improper in those days, so off she went so the nuns could raise her. She eventually married—then divorced—but outlived three of her four children and one grandchild, so she knew her share of heartache. My father was a POW in the Second World War, for nearly three and a half years. He weighed around 100 lbs when he was liberated by the Russian army. Interesting? And my life . . . I didn’t know I was a carrier for a genetic disorder which I passed on to my middle child. He’s nearly 17 but functions like a two-year-old (but a very sweet two-year-old). So I have two full time jobs: writing and caregiver. Perhaps that’s an unnecessarily dark look at what makes something interesting. I suppose instead I might have said I once rescued a salamander in the hope of making up for the one I’d unknowingly slain several years before . . .

Do you have a favorite genre to read/write?

For fiction, I absolutely love historical romance, which is why I write it. If the characters are compelling, the era almost doesn’t matter, just so long as the setting is part of the escape. I’ve written some contemporary stories and they can be a great escape, too, but I prefer the total immersion into another story world that historical fiction allows.

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

Use what you have. What I mean is, when you’re building your story, strive to use the elements you’ve already introduced in or toward the beginning rather than continually dropping in new or unnecessary characters or subplots. Go back to drop in foreshadowing if you must introduce something new, but use the pieces of your foundation first rather than adding a lot of extraneous bricks along the way. The layers are better deeper than broader.

5 things you love?

God

My family

Writing

Learning

Music that inspires me

What do you enjoy most about being a published author?

I love those times when I’m writing a story and the characters do things I wasn’t expecting them to do. I truly cannot explain it, because until that point I almost feel as if I’m in control. Then I find I’m not, but I love it anyway. My husband always tells me to never presume I could teach anyone else to write, since I clearly don’t know how this sort of thing happens.

Places for readers to learn more about you?

I’m in the process of having my website and blog combined, so I’m hoping by the time this interview goes up that people will be able to read my blog on my website. My blog really is the place to get to know me, so it makes sense to direct people there; I update it once a week, and it’s a snippet not only of my writing life, but of the way I think. I have a lot of fun with it!

Find my blog on my website at:

www.maureenlang.com

Thank you for being with us today!

Thanks very much for having me!

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Thanks for coming by to enter! Contest ends on July 27th.

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