SO WHY WRITE BOOKS OF PRAYER?

Mary says:

I was privileged many years ago to read and be blessed by the devotional books of my guest writer here today, Marion Stroud. I first met her face to face at a great Christian Writers conference in London when Ray and I were ministering in England from 2001-2003. Later during that time, my husband and I also enjoyed Marion and her husband’s hospitality and fellowship at their home. We soon discovered we all had a good deal in common, especially our love for Christ and desire to serve Him. It has been great in recent years to “meet” again online.

Marion tells me she really loves reading Christian novels and for some time now has had a hankering to also write them. I personally would love to read fiction books by her where she would actually show God at work in people’s lives through their stories. These could even more vividly portray for readers the out-working of her wonderful, thought provoking, devotional meditations and prayers.

Marion asks: 

So why in the world would you write books of Prayers?

The honest answer is ‘Because I was asked to.’ I’ve written 26 books all told and in every case, except for the three children’s stories and these books of prayers, I was looking for  a book to meet a need, couldn’t find what I wanted, and researched and wrote it myself. You know the old adage about ‘Fools rushing in...’

“Dear God It’s me and It’s Urgent “was different. A publisher was launching a new imprint and wanted a book of prayers as part of his list. I almost said ‘no’ because I’m not from a liturgical tradition and don’t often use written prayers myself. Then I remembered Marjorie Holmes, whose ‘Apron Pocket Prayers’ had been hugely successful in America during the 70’s and 80’s. More a conversation with God than formal prayers, they had helped me a lot at the time, and so I decided to try writing in that style. The book sold very well in the United States [120,000 copies and still selling] and the American publisher asked if I would like to write another title in the same format. This is how ‘It’s Just You and Me Lord’ came into being.

These books aren’t intended to be read straight through, but dipped into, savoured and either provide inspiration for the reader’s own prayers, or give them words when they can’t express all they want to say. I didn’t focus too heavily on prayers for marriage and mother hood,  because although these life areas are vitally important to many, not every woman experiences those roles. With that in mind, I have also included  life areas common to us all - prayers for work, for church life and life’s later years; the dark days as well as life’s joyful celebrations.

Most of the prayers are based on real life experiences – my own or other people’s. ‘Burning still’ [ Dear God It’s Me and It’s Urgent ] reflects the pain of seeing my beloved mother-in-law losing sight, mobility and mental clarity in her last few years, but also rejoicing in the way that her faith shone through, despite her difficulties .’Lost and Found’ is based on the terrible moment when I discovered I’d left my infant son outside the house and driven off without him [!] [ It’s Just You and Me Lord’] and The Suitcase  ponders on why it is that we pray for missions and missionaries but so rarely invite overseas students into our homes. [It’s Just you and me Lord]

I have had letters from readers saying “ I didn’t know that you could talk to God like that” or “ It’s great to know that other parents struggle with how much ‘screen’ time to give their children.” So I count it a privilege to share my life experiences in this way.
And one day ... just maybe ... I’ll turn my mind firmly back to fiction.
Watch this space! http://www.marionstroud.com

 

Mary Hawkins is a best-selling inspirational romance author who for many years has enjoyed being a minister's wife in Australia, two years in England and on three short term mission trips to Africa. Her first novel was released in 1993 by Barbour Publishing in their Heartsong Presents imprint. She is delighted that her contemporary Search and historical Great Southland series are now available again from Barbour's Truly Yours Digital Editions as e-books. Her fourth single title manuscript since her Heartsong novels is currently being assessed by a publisher and she hopes to have good news to share very soon about it becoming her twentieth published book. She also enjoys trying to share with other writers some hints about writing she has acquired over the last thirty years.
http://www.mary-hawkins.com

INTRODUCING MARION STROUD

Over many years, I have been very blessed when reading books by a writer from England called Marion Stroud. Some of them are Gift books and became favourites to give to family and friends. Then when my husband and I were privileged to live in England ourselves for a couple of years, we went to an annual meeting in London of the Association Christian Writers and there she was, Marion Stroud in the flesh!

It wasn’t until we were actually back in Australia I discovered we had only lived a relatively short distance from each other. A few years later we found ourselves back again in England for a fairly brief visit. This time we did make contact and spent a lovely few hours at the home of this very welcoming, beautiful, generous and Godly woman.

Since then we have had contact via the internet a few times over the years and I am delighted she is now blessing us with posts on our ICFW Friday Devotions. Marion has now had twenty-one non-fiction books published, and three fiction books for children but in recent years has been attempting to write her first adult novel.

I’ve asked Marion to share a little about her current writing projects with us.

I was an avid reader as a child and always assumed that I would write children’s fiction. And indeed that is how I began, winning a competition  for a novel for 8-11 year olds, written by someone who hadn’t  had a full length novel for children published before. At the time I had a two year old and a baby, and when baby no. 3 arrived I wrote a second children’s novel – it seemed to work like that … perhaps because I didn’t want to get swamped by domesticity!

I got diverted from fiction when I discovered a need for a book for women who came to faith after marriage. Unable to find one, I obeyed God’s prompting and wrote ‘I love God and You’ even though both my husband and I were Christians before we got married. You can read the story of how that came about on my What If blog. That swept me into non-fiction and I started to get commissioned to write more non-fiction books as I identified needs that no one else seemed to have written about.


Every now and then I thought about returning to fiction, but there was always the next book waiting to be written. About 6 years ago I went to a conference which encouraged women to open their homes and their lives to others, focusing on friendship evangelism. On the Sunday morning, God and I had a conversation.

“What am I DOING here Lord?” I asked. “I’ve been to this conference before. I’ve spoken at it. I’ve even written a book about how to do it. Why have you brought me here this weekend?”

“I want you to write about it again” God seemed to whisper “but this time I want you to make it fiction and make it fun!”

“FICTION and FUN? “ I couldn’t be hearing correctly! No British Christian publisher was handling adult fiction as far as I knew – they’d tried it and it hadn’t been a success. Christian women here just didn’t seem to read it. We were accustomed to borrowing fiction from our local library, and they didn’t stock CBA fiction. A few Christian bookshops did, but there seemed to be little desire to buy novels that weren’t culturally relevant.

And if I’m honest I was still suffering from the remark ‘Do you think all this writing and speaking you, do does any good?’ delivered by an aggrieved pastor’s wife who wanted me to do something in the church, and I had said ‘no’. Non-fiction books were slightly acceptable – they HELPED people – but novels? Very suspect in many British Christians minds [NB I don’t share that view but you get influenced by your Christian culture!]

I just couldn’t see how it could happen, and I was very busy nursing my very elderly Mum, so I pushed the thought onto the back burner. But every now and then I took a sneak peek at the US Inspirational market and played with some ideas in my mind. I even wrote the 1st four chapters of what I hoped might be my answer to God’s challenge, and entered the 1st chapter for the ACFW’s Genesis competition.

The judges hated it! My grammar was slated, my punctuation was declared a disaster area [did you realise that British and US punctuation differ?] and although one of the judges loved the characters, it was obvious that a book based in England was going to be a hard sell. Discouraged I decided that the only way to really study this market was to go to the ACFW conference. My agent appointment was with Etta Wilson from Books & Such, and she asked me to send her a proper proposal – and then retired! But she encouraged me to apply to the Agency for representation and as I had a non-fiction contract in the offing for a book of Prayers for women which had been commissioned by Discovery House, Mary Keeley took me on. 'It’s Just You and Me Lord' is due for publication in September.

So where am I now? ‘Rumours of Angels’ is still in my head and in my heart. And Satan is still whispering that age-old temptation into my ear ‘Hath God said …? Why waste your time writing something that will never be published when you could go on with the non-fiction?’

My answer to that is ‘God has spoken, and I have to try. Even if it doesn’t find a publisher I shall have been obedient. “And I love weaving stories once I get under way. So this summer I’m setting out to write ‘Rumours of Angels’ once more, spurred on by the fact that I’m meeting my agent, Mary Keely, at the Books & Such Authors Retreat in Monterey in October. And if any of you know of an effective way of knocking that pesky and paralysing ‘inner editor’ on the head, please let me know!

Thank you so much for sharing, Marion. We look forward to reading more of your devotional thoughts with us here on Friday Devotion posts from time to time.

Mary Hawkins is a best-selling inspirational romance author.

A Queensland farmer’s daughter, she became a registered nurse before going to Bible College. She and her minister husband have three adult children and six grandchildren. They have enjoyed over 47 years of ministry including church planting in Australia, two years in England, three short term mission trips to Africa and now live in Tasmania, Australia's island state. Her 19th title, Justice at Baragula was released May, 2011 and was a CALEB fiction finalist in 2011.
  (And yes, this is Mary - just an older photo!)

DEVOTION: Travel Light by Marion Stroud

Women’s magazines make it sound so easy don’t they?  You just toss  a few skimpy outfits into a tiny bag, and with the flick of a scarf, or a dress that can be worn three ways, you can be the belle of the beach.


How are you with packing? I hate it. I put everything onto the spare bed and I dither. How hot will it be -- or cold? It can rain, even in hot climates, so do I pack a waterproof?

My heart is always in my mouth as I head for the check-in. Even though I’ve weighed my case before we’ve left home, I can’t be sure that the scales will agree and the rules are rigid: one case to go in the hold and one to ‘carry on’. If you have the wrong weight or the wrong-sized bag, there is a special area for unpacking and discarding things. How embarrassing … and where do the unwanted items go?

I had a nightmare before my last trip! I dreamed that I was at a familiar Conference Centre and it was time to go home, but my belongings had mysteriously multiplied during the week and it was obvious that there was no way I could jam it all into the suitcase and carry–on that I had brought with me.

‘I need another case’ I muttered frantically, but I realised, even as I said it that I couldn’t carry another case, and the lift to the ground floor was small, so I’d never get my new bag downstairs.

‘You don’t need another case’ God whispered. You just need a rucksack. Travel light!”

Jesus definitely belonged to the ‘travel light’ school of thought. When he sent the 12 apostles out on their first Mission trip he gave them very precise instructions.
‘Go to this group but not that one. Spend time with this kind of person but don’t fight to be popular. Don’t weigh yourself down with a lot of ‘stuff’. Don’t worry about money. Allow others to support and help you, and to supply your needs where it is necessary.’ Matt. 10.

How would you interpret travelling light as a writer? Why not consider some of these:

Know your audience – they call them tribes these days – and write for them: don’t flit from blog to blog or topic to topic.

Know where God has put you and fulfil his calling to you there.

Support others but allow them to minister to you in their turn.

Don’t let money be your prime motivation. You don’t need every electronic gadget known to man!

And be sure that you are carrying one underlying message – which can be expressed in a thousand different ways. ‘The Kingdom of God is near.’

Marion Stroud lives in Bedford, England. She is an established and popular author and sought-after speaker whose books have been translated into 14 languages. Visit her website or search for her name on Amazon.com for further information.