A TRIBUTE TO THE "JENNY BLAKES" -- WRITERS' HELPERS

A few years ago, I heard online about a lady called Jenny. I can’t even remember now just when and where I started to hear of her.  At first she was often just mentioned as “ausjenny” and it was some considerable time before I discovered more about her.

Many authors overseas as well as in Australia now know her through her blog,  Come Meet Aus Jenny where she has featured many on interviews, told about their books. This kind of exposure is invaluable to published authors. I noticed that Lisa Harris mentioned in her post on ICFW last Tuesday that it is essential for a writer to "get the word out" about her book, and "ausjenny" may not even realise how much help she has been to us.

In the last few years, things have changed a great deal with many more blogs now available to try and follow. However, at that time I personally had a very heavy schedule and found it difficult to keep up with the internet writing scene, especially blogs, but this “ausjenny” was one of the first I heard about as being an Australian in this Christian fiction blog arena. Okay, so I know now I was  rather slow to catch on as she has had her blog for the last five years.  

For some time I did not even know her real name, did not know until this wonderful woman who was supporting authors overseas began to help and focus more on the increasing number of Australian authors published in Christian fiction. Then I discovered this prolific “Writers’ Helper” was not a writer herself, has no ambition to be a published author. Eventually the news filtered through that “ausjenny” was a Jenny Blake who loves books, especially Christian fiction and was a volunteer at an Australian Christian bookshop. That was only the beginning of my discovering her many and varied talents.

I know that the last few years have been a very tough time for dear Jenny with health and family, including the passing of her mother. But has that stopped her doing what she can where and when she can to help authors? No way!

This is just one personal example. My husband’s publisher told him he really needed to do more promotion for his 31 Day Devotional series. While I’ve had a website  for a while now and finally ventured into having a blog, Ray and I are both technically challenged in this whole modern era of the internet. A writer friend told me how good Jenny was at setting up blogs,  so who did we turn to for help? Jenny Blake of course and she was wonderful.

Since then Jenny has been very involved in helping start online ventures for Australian writers. Currently, with Narelle Atkins, she is one of the administrators of our Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance , and the last few weeks the new Australasian Christian Writers Yahoo group and the new Australasian Christian Writers  blog.  What would we do now without you, Jenny?

I believe there are other Writers Helpers that so often we never really know about. These days, published authors simply have to be involved on the World Wide Web and promotion in all kinds of areas so readers know our books are available.  There are others like Ray and I who need heaps of technical help. I know I still have to spend far more time on social media and promotion than I want to. It takes up valuable time I’d much rather spend writing my books. How much harder it would be without our Jenny Blake.

So, here’s a very big “Thank you” to all those folk who love books, who have no ambitions to be writers themselves but seek to support us in practical ways  - as well as praying for us. May we never be tempted to take your help for granted or forget to thank God for you.

And, dear Jenny, this is my personal thank you for all your support and prayers for Ray and I as well as the heart you so obviously have for Christian writers.

Would love to hear comments from other writers around the world about their own invaluable  “Jenny Blakes”.  Perhaps there are other readers who would love to help writers "get the word out" about Christian novels. There may be some authors reading this who personally have been also helped by our Aus Jenny Blake over the years.

Mary Hawkins lives in Tasmania, Australia, with her retired minister husband. They have three adult children and six grandchildren. She is the author of 19 titles and is delighted her Heartsong Presents contemporary Search series and historical Great Southland series are now  available for readers again as e-books through Truly Yours Digital Editions 

INTRODUCING GRAHAM CARTER

I wonder how many writers like myself spend time browsing in bookshops – sometimes perhaps too much time for my bank account. I always check out first of all the Christian Fiction titles, especially new women’s fiction releases from fellow Australian authors and my husband’s publisher, Even Before Publishing.

A few weeks ago I was intrigued by the cover and title of “Against the Unknown” on a book display. It was not the kind of book I would normally pick up but the back blurb made it sound like a fascinating read. I couldn’t put it down! Besides simply being a page turning story, it is a book that has very thought provoking and challenging concepts about the Christian walk and being reminded that “...our struggle is not against flesh and blood... 

I wanted you to know about this writer, Graham Carter who is an Australian author of inspirational fiction. For over a decade his novels have surprised and delighted readers with their stories of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. 
Graham lives in Brisbane, Australia, with Sue, his wife of 37 years. As well as writing, he enjoys travel, camping, sport, and spending time with his 8 grandchildren. Graham and Sue travel regularly to Uganda where they support a number of aid programs amongst the poor. 

His writing journey is very interesting and I wonder how many other writers like myself can identify with some, if not all of it.

GRAHAM TELLS US:
     I was inspired by the story of how a young Sydney Law Student self-published a novel and trudged around city bookstores with a suitcase full of copies hoping to sell them. Some of you probably know the story of how one of his books was picked off the shelf by an agent for Harper Collins, and the story of Matthew Riley, best-selling author began.
     I thought, “If he can do it, so can I.” The next morning, I sat at my old 386 computer and began tapping away with one finger on a keyboard. For years I had been intrigued with the idea of what Heaven might be like, so that became my task. To write a novel about Heaven that was not only true to Biblical references, but that portrayed it as a place that was exciting, fun, adventurous, uplifting, somewhere we couldn’t wait to get to. Not knowing anything about how to write a book, I wrote 13 consecutive chapters about heaven. Then I decided it needed a bit more intrigue, suspense - something we won’t necessarily find in heaven, so I planted my imagination firmly back on the ground and wrote the rest of the story, which takes place on earth, around those 13 chapters.
     9 months later the manuscript for ‘No Eye Has Seen’ was complete. I went looking for an Aussie publisher of Christian fiction. I found one had just closed its doors and another that wasn’t accepting manuscripts. “Okay their loss,” I thought. This book was going to be so big, publishers would be falling over one other to sign me up. I began sending submissions to US publishers. Then I sat back, waiting for a phone call from one of them, telling me they had booked me a first class ticket to come over to the States to help promote this wonderful book. I guess I don’t need to tell you what happened.
     So I self-published. I found a printer, organised a cover and ordered 500 copies. I sold them in about 6 months through various small Christian bookstores, then printed another 300. Two of our largest distributers, Koorong and Word, had agreed to take them so I concentrated on those outlets.
     While all this was going on I got an email from a small publisher in North Carolina who had read the manuscript and wanted to publish. “Woo, hoo, here we go.” They were going to publish next Fall, they said. Fall came and went. ‘We are including it in our Spring releases’, they told me. You guessed it – Spring came and went with no publication. This went on for 2 years with continual excuses and procrastination from the publisher. Eventually I gave up.
     I kept writing through this time. I completed the sequel , then a third stand-alone novel, and I even started on a fourth. But still, I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere in the publishing world. Then a break – a new publisher started up in Australia and they were accepting manuscripts. I sent off my submission and the ‘new submissions’ editor loved it. I flew from Queensland to Sydney and met with her over coffee. We discussed editing, publication timetables etc. … then she left the company! But the new editor loved it too and yes, “we are going to publish, just not sure when.”
     Hmm – this was beginning to sound familiar.
     Around this time (2006) my wife and I moved to Africa to do some work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We lived in Uganda for a year. I continued to correspond with Ark House Press and after more delays “No Eye Has Seen” finally hit the stores a few years later. There was still much to learn about promotion and unfortunately it didn’t leap off the shelves as rapidly as I had hoped. A couple of years later Ark House agreed to publish another one of my novels, Guardians of Eden, but again without adequate promotion it too came to nothing.
     Well, I pretty well gave up. I had written 4 novels, had 2 published, but I was really questioning whether any of it had been worthwhile. And lo and behold I heard about another new publisher that had recently come on the scene. “Right – I’ll give it one last go.”
     

I sent the manuscript to Wombat Books and heard back within a week – yep, Rochelle wanted to publish it – not this year, list is already full, but possibly next. But Rochelle wanted to do something that my previous publisher hadn’t bothered with. She wanted to edit my work. Well, that was new, but it couldn’t be that hard could it? If I thought composing a novel was tough, I was in for a sharp learning curve. Rewriting a novel several times over is much harder. It seems that writing styles had changed quite a bit in the 10 years I had been at it, but no one had told me – until I met Annie Hamilton, the President of Omega Writers.
      

       Anyway, before I completely run out of space here, let me tell you about this current book. ‘Against the Unknown’ is the culmination of several years of writing experience, many months of editing, and a fair bit of research into the American political scene. It’s a story set in the US, but with a strong Australian flavour in the guise of an Aussie surfer searching for the meaning of life. It’s a story that explores the influence of the spiritual world on our own. We get to glimpse the sometimes complex and sometimes insidious ways our lawmakers are influenced, and through it all we see the sovereign grace of God at work in the lives of ordinary people. Most of all we get to see the power of prayer as a spiritual weapon that God has given us to defeat the enemy.

THANK YOU SO MUCH GRAHAM FOR THIS INSIGHT INTO YOUR WRITING JOURNEY

Set on the US east coast, 'Against the Unknown' traces the journeys of four separate characters: a state senator, a runaway teenager, a middle-aged hippie, and an Aussie surfer, all of whom are facing challenges in their lives. It is a story with lots of intrigue, a number of twists and turns and an ending that surprised me. There’s some romance, a dose of adventure, and plenty of action.

Above all the enjoyment of a great storyline, as it has for me I pray it vividly reminds you of the truth of Ephesians 6:12 , and drives you too to more faith, obedience and fervent prayer when we see the efforts of the enemy of our Lord in our world today.

This book is available in print where good Christian books are sold, including Even Before Publishing (a division of Wombat Books) or e-book at Koorong, Word iTUNES and Amazon (CLICK ON THE COLOURED NAMES TO TAKE YOU TO THE WESITES)

More information on Graham's website click HERE

and on his Facebook and Goodreads.

COMING SOON!

Mary has three more of her Great Southland series scheduled to be released in June and July as e-books by Truly Yours Digital Editions. Watch out for her Hope in the Great Southland, Love in the Great Southland and Great Southland Gold.