Christina’s passion for stories comes from a rich past of reading and digging through odd historical tidbits. She loves photography, art, woodworking, ancestry research and kitty cats. Christina resides in Kansas with her partner and their two cats, Mama Kitty and Deertrack.

About the Workshop

Christina is presenting “Write From Where? from June 3 to June 28. The workshop is asynchronous and via groups.io.There is still time to join!

What’s your workshop about?
“Write from Where?” explores the different places of where we can successfully start our stories.
Who’s your workshop for?
This workshop is geared toward just about anyone, beginning writers, writers who feel frustrated with their current process, the curious, and kitty cats. 😉 Can you imagine the stories kitties would write if humans listened well enough?

What do you hope attendees will gain from your workshop?
It’s my hope any being taking this workshop will walk away with the confidence to place words on the page, no matter where they begin, and like lions and lionesses born to rule their kingdom, rule our fictional worlds and leave an impact on our readers.

About You

Please tell our readers a bit about yourself within two to three sentences.
Oh gosh, it’s so hard to talk about ourselves. Can I talk about my cats? Honestly, I’m not a crazy cat lady, but I look forward to coming home from work and being greeted with meows from my girls and a welcome home, how was your day from my super supportive partner. 😉 How was that?

Do you have a trunk novel(s)?
Now that I’ve recovered from laughing, I think I can answer that question with an absolute YES. I have one set in jolly England when the annihilation of Scottish clans and witch hunts were a thing. Not very romantic, is it? And I don’t think there is a single cat in the story, which I may have to dig it out of the trunk to remedy that. But, I’ll tell you the opening scene revolves around a piss pot, all because two agents said it couldn’t be done.

What genres do you write?
I started in Inspirational Historical Romance. My eras range from 668 B.C. Judah to 1870s Kansas. I have a contemporary Amish story coming out in November. I’ve also written a short steampunk novella, which, one day, I hope to explore and expand the series. I have a five book contemporary Amish series, two Regencies, and one United States WWII Rosie the Riveter women’s fiction out on proposal.

Are you traditional, hybrid, or indie published? Why did you go this route?
Currently, I am traditionally published, but I am working on some indie pieces. My traditionally published journey began by entering a multitude of contests and receiving requests. Indie was just beginning and there wasn’t much known about it. Indie was also frowned upon. I’ve recently concluded my ADHD-self is much happier if I have more control over my career. Traditional publishing has time frames, and I’m much too impatient.

What does success mean for you?
Success to me is a daily task of making my world a better place through kindness, and knowing I made at least one person feel good. I also believe success is knowing that no matter how bad my day is, life is good, and I need to have an attitude of gratitude for each moment, but I’m guessing you meant success in writing. Well, I learned long ago that my stories aren’t for everyone and the market may not be suitable for what I’m writing at the moment. So, success isn’t always getting that acceptance. Success is setting daily, weekly or monthly goals and being okay if I make choices that interrupt those goals. For instance, I set a 500 word a day goal for the month, and I have a really rough workday, I need to be okay with taking the night off. And yes, in April, I took almost two weeks off, but I needed them. I had just come off two months of intense edits at the end of March, and jumping into a new project right away probably wasn’t the best move, so after two weeks of meeting and exceeding my goals, I hit a block, I needed the rest. My ADHD nearly forced a shutdown to give me a rest, but it did me some good, and it did my new project good, too.

Do you have any odd/strange/fascinating rejection stories to share?
You’re asking someone who has been around the publishing world for a few years. 🙂 You’ll be sorry you asked.

My first real full submission was a romance set in Ancient Judah, and everyone I pitched to told me historicals were dead, and to top it off, my story fell in a tight niche. Everyone, and I mean everyone, told me it would NEVER sell. I entered a lot of contests. I received a revise resubmit and cried in despair, but on the advice of fellow authors, I revised, resubmitted, and got that coveted call. I accepted the offer, and two days later, I received a full request from another dream publisher. So, publishing was fairly easy for me in the beginning, but then six years later my publisher closed the historical line I wrote for, and I struggled to break back in. In my attempt to break into contemporary, I entered a contest with a “single woman trying to adopt an autistic child out of foster care marriage of convenience story with a kitty cat.” Can you tell I’m a recovering contest junkie? I received an email from the head editor asking for permission to take it to acquisitions. Now, I don’t get excited with things like this for me. I guess it’s an ADHD trait where you don’t celebrate yourself. Anyway, I opened that email while we were house hunting, and I started bawling. Right out bawling. This was/is a story of my heart, and this was Hallmark, yes, Hallmark (publishing) making the request. I made the suggested rewrites and sent it back. The acquisition day came and went. A few weeks went by. My agent reached out, and we found out Hallmark Publishing closed their doors. A few months prior, my agent had a request via an editor for me to write a proposal for a Regency. Imagine this, it’s in the middle of the pandemic, I’m working full-time in the office (I was an essential), I was going to school full-time, and I was on deadline for a book. I wrote that proposal (synopsis and three chapters), and then they requested another chapter, then three more, all during mid-term deadlines and finals. I ended up writing several more chapters, nearly twelve, only for it to be passed on the same week I graduated from college summa cum laude. That pass wrecked me a little, because remember that dream publisher who requested a full two days after I accepted my first contract, yes, this was them and I jumped through a lot of hoops for them. I wanted that contract so bad I could taste it. Of course, they did not know what my personal life was like, and it didn’t matter. I wanted to do what it took to land that contract. I didn’t get it, but that editor and my agent both know I’ll do my best to be a willing author, and I know I can say no, but I also know I have it in me to work my butt off.

What is your writing routine like?

Lol! It really depends on whether I’m on a deadline. On deadline, I write every moment I can get around my day job. Off deadline, I try to dedicate my lunch hours to writing. I know I can write 500-1000 words in thirty minutes and 1000-1500 words in an hour. I sacrifice my lunch hours so I can be as present as possible with my loved ones after the day job.

Who first introduced you to the love of writing?
So, funny. There was a librarian at the small-town library when I was around five. She had a pet raccoon and instilled in me the love of reading. Years later, my high school creative writing teacher believed in me. She published some of my horribly written short stories and poems in the high school publication, but it wasn’t until I started reading again in my mid-twenties that my love for writing renewed itself. And that is all thanks to Victoria Alexander and Catherine Coulter. While waiting for their next releases, I would write romances for their supporting characters.

What living or dead author would you have over for dinner and why
HANDS DOWN, Zora Neale Hurston. She defied conventions and did her own thing when it came to writing even when others, including her mentors, told her she couldn’t. She wrote from her heart and she painted with words with such masterful skill that you are honestly dropped into an era and culture that you can’t help but walk away feeling as if you walked in the character’s shoes. I know those shoes are molded a little more perfectly to some soles than others, but the emotion and realism is indescribable, and you can’t beat that, which is why I would love to sit at her feet and learn from one of the greatest female authors of all time.

What do you see ahead in your career?
Peace and ownership. What I mean by that is, this career can be, what my partner calls, a beat down, and he’s not wrong. I’ve currently been waiting on one proposal for almost a year. My agent has checked in a few times, and at this point I’m taking it as no news is good news, because the editor could have simply said, “no, the project isn’t a fit for us,” but she didn’t, and hasn’t. I’ve also been waiting to hear on my five-book proposal of where I’m an in-house author. No, not a year, even though waiting almost four months can seem that way. Waiting sucks! Big time. And the fear monger called self-doubt tries to creep in. However, I try to keep a positive mindset, and no matter what the conversation might be in the future, I try to bring to the table of each interaction with the mindset of being teachable, respectful and cautiously optimistic, even when I know the chances of a pass are great. Every proposal I send in is teaching me something. Every rejection or revise and resubmit I receive is teaching me something. Recall the story about me jumping through hoops during a chaotic season in the world? I could have gotten really mad. I could have said some not so nice things, I could have thrown my hands up in the air and quit, but I didn’t. Nobody forced me to jump through those hoops. I made that choice. And that lesson taught me I have to take ownership of my career. Nobody is looking out for Christina’s best interest except maybe my agent, but she has a lot of clients, too, and they’re all killing it out there in their genres. So, Christina is going to own her career by writing new projects during the waiting, which does include revising a trunk novel, and she’s going to make all kinds of good stuff happen, even if they tell her it can’t be done.

What encouraging words do you have with struggling or first-time authors?

Wow, now that’s a loaded question, and I don’t think there is enough word count so I’ll try to keep it short.

• Start your story. Open the journal, the notebook,  the blank file and start word doodling. Just start and write until a moment forms and morphs into a kick-butt scene, and works itself into a magnificent story.
• Finish your story.  That first book will teach you a lot about yourself and yourself as a writer. So finish it!
• Know you matter. Your story matters. You have something to say, and I’m betting that something was born out of experience.
• Don’t let anyone shut you up or shut you down.
• Know the moment you set ink to paper with your words, you are a writer. An author (and you better darn well start believing it).
• Write from experience. Bleed emotion on the pages. You can always dial it back.
• This business is hard, even for the seasoned. Keep writing. Keep putting yourself out there. You will want to quit, and that’s okay, just keep getting up. Keep at it. Be persistent. Take breaks if you need to, but don’t give up. Defy conventions and norms. Do you. Be you.
• Be teachable. Follow agents and editors on social media. Learn from them. Learn from your favorite authors.
• Be present!! This might sound a little odd and harsh, but nobody is going to chase your dream for you. You have to make the decision that you are going to do this thing, and then you have to be present. Show up everyday.
• Set your goals. Feasible goals! Set 50 words a day, a 100 words a day, 500, 1000k. It doesn’t matter, just as long as you set them, and do your best to meet them.
• Set boundaries. If you don’t set boundaries and fiercely protect your writing time,  you’ll grow an attitude that isn’t conducive to healthy relationships because you’ll blame them for stealing your writing time. However,  also learn to be present when you’re with people.  If you don’t, you’ll think about the should haves when you should be writing.
• Be positive,  keep positive. Be grateful,  keep grateful. An attitude of gratitude goes a long way, so does a positive mindset, even in the midst of rejection and turmoil.
• Be you!! Be true to you. I spent many years masking, trying to be who others thought I should be to be accepted. I betrayed my true identity.
• Be authentic.
• And lastly, when someone tells you you can’t,  don’t necessarily take their word as gold. If you believe in your story keep pushing. Just the other day I was told I needed to remove the heavy parts from my autistic story to make it work. I scratched my head, and asked, what heavy parts. The answer stunned me, the autism and foster care. That’s my story. That’s the plot. I’m going to complete my story and push hard like crazy to prove it’s a viable story.

Team Edward or team Jacob from Twilight and why?
Team Bella! Did you see that coming? I didn’t either but the more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted her to win, and the more I knew that I knew she had to know she’d be okay without either love interest, because she doesn’t need them to survive, physically or emotionally. She has the ability all within herself, and she needs to know that.

How can readers find you online?

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