Welcome Bell Bridge Books Debut Author, Lindi Peterson

Missy, here. And I'm thrilled to have with us today my good friend, frequent writers conference roomie and critique partner, Lindi Peterson. Lindi, welcome! And congrats on the release of your debut novel, Her Best Catch! I'm hoping that by the time this post goes live, there will be a link to click on to purchase Lindi's book. If not, please try again later! It's supposed to be out any day now. It's fun, humorous and touching. You don't want to miss it!

Lindi will be giving away a copy of her book today, so please be sure to let her know you want to be entered. Now...here's Lindi...

First and Third: Voice...and a Little Bit of Baseball

By Lindi Peterson

I’m in Seekerville! Yay!!!

What a great place to be. So many friendly, talented people here. I know Helen has the coffee on, so it’s time to start, my friends.

Some facts about me.

Name: Lindi Peterson

Age: ? (Ha. Did you really think I would tell?)

Writing genre: Inspirational contemporary romance.

Debut Novel: Her Best Catch

Okay, now we have the basics covered. Needless to say I’m thrilled to be here as a guest blogger today. I know most of these ladies personally and I love them!

But even though I’m thrilled to be here I am a little nervous. I mean, this is SEEKERVILLE. So many readers and writers visit this blog regularly. So, there’s only one thing to do. Take a deep breath and dive right in.

Splash!

I’ve been doing this writing thing for a few years. A lot of years. They say perseverance pays off, and I guess it does. Maybe I’m also a slow learner in some ways. But I will say that for all the years I’ve been writing, I keep learning. (I know I have A LOT to learn.)

There are so many aspects of writing to cultivate. But today I’m going to talk about the one thing that drastically changed my writing life.

Voice.

Yes, that ever elusive voice thing. I remember sitting in workshops and meetings and listening to the speaker talk about voice. What they were saying made sense if you could figure out exactly what voice was.

So I kept writing. Then I read Judy Baer-The Whitney Chronicles. I loved it. Immediately I read Kristin Billerbeck’s What A Girl Wants. Loved it as well. But, I thought, I could never write a book like that. First person, one POV. Long.

Hmmm. Something kept nagging me. I sat down at my computer one day with the nagging in the back of my mind. This is how it went.

What if there was a girl and her best friend and they had a guy best friend. Yeah, then the heroine will see her best friend and the guy friend falling in love. Then she’ll realize she’s loved the guy friend all along. Yeah. That’s it. That’ll work.

I started typing First person, present tense. I kept typing for about five pages. Then these thoughts came to mind.

Okay, this is clichéd. This is what always happens. So how can I make this story different? I know, I’ll keep the best friend and guy friend of the heroine falling in love, but I’ll have another guy for the heroine. Hmmm. Who? And where’s the conflict? This won’t work.

But I decided to go with the above story line and see where/how/if any conflict developed. Can you say pantser?

I soon found my heroine, Allison Doll, felt left out of everything. Her world was being turned upside down, not just with her best friends dating, but with other obstacles as well. Then, wouldn’t you know, a really cute baseball player comes to Sunday school. He is drawn to Allison, but she’s got too much going on to truly think about him. Until he takes her to a really nice place for lunch then uses the oldest excuse ever to stand her up for Sunday school. (My grandmother was sick.) When Allison realizes his grandmother is truly sick and he wasn’t lying, Ashton becomes vulnerable and hurting and, well, Allison can’t stay away.

Back to voice.

So I kept typing. 74 days later I had a 360 page, first person, present tense novel completed. I sent the manuscript off to my critique partners, Meg, Maureen and Missy. All three of them came back with one comment...

“You’ve found your voice.”

Really? The elusive voice? I found it?

I wish I could say everything was easier from that point on. But it wasn’t. I had people telling me first person is nearly impossible to sell for an unpublished author. I tried my hand at 2 more hero/heroine third person novels. (One of which is now a first person novel.) I was finaling and winning contests, but there was no interest in publication.

I struggled with voice even after I’d been told I found my voice. I wrote against my voice. I tried to maneuver my voice this way and that in hopes of attracting an editor. I approached agents with the question, “Do you like to read first person?” I had a contest judge tell me she dreaded reading my entry when she saw it was first person, but I pulled her in and she really enjoyed the story.

I’m only giving the above example because I think there are people who seem to shy away from reading first person. Personally I love reading first person and third person. I look for the story. I think if a writer has found their voice a great story can be told either way.

I know I wouldn’t be here posting this post if it wasn’t for God. Above voice and everything else I had to keep faith at the forefront of this writing venture. 

So I did. Then I had an opportunity to submit to BelleBooks.

And they said yes!

What I wanted to share here today is this:

Pray.

Learn like crazy.

Pray.

Follow your gut.

Pray.

Network.

Pray.

Learn like crazy.

Pray—well, you get my point.

We often learn the same thing over and over in this crazy world of writing. But depending on where we are along the journey each opportunity to learn will affect us differently.

My moment came when I found my “voice.” What about you? What aspect of writing did you learn that absolutely made a difference in your novels?

Leave a comment with your email address to be entered in a drawing for a copy of Her Best Catch.

Thank you for having me here in Seekerville.

Oh, and here’s the little bit of baseball I promised in my post title:

Allison Doll’s mother is rebelliously turning fifty, her two best friends have started dating and gorgeous injured relief pitcher, Ashton Boyd, has joined her Sunday school class rocking her world into confusion, heartache and temptation, places she hasn’t visited in a long time, much less all at once.
But with the help of family, old friends she really hasn’t lost, a new friend she really can count on, and God, she finds herself no longer a girl waiting for life to happen, but a woman who’s ready to commit to her best catch!


Visit Lindi at www.lindipeterson.com.
Late Breaking News! Her Best Catch is now available on Amazon as well! Click here to check it out.