Getting to Know you Thursdays with Lynda Schab

Please Welcome  Lynda Schab to my blog this week. I put a request out for authors to be on my blog and have to say am loving meeting new authors and introducing them to my readers. 

I am still restricted with a sprained wrist which is why there is less posts. I still have about 4 or 5 reviews to add and hope to get to them this weekend depending on how the wrist is holding up. Typing one handed takes to much.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself? 

Oh, boy. That’s a loaded question. Okay, well, I’ve been married for 24 years and have two teenagers, who keep me young and give me gray hair at the same time. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and my first sale was a greeting card for Blue Mountain Arts. I currently freelance for a couple of websites with articles, newsletters, book reviews, and marketing assignments. I’m also the National Christian Writing Examiner and the Grand Rapids Christian Fiction Examiner for Examiner.com. Got lots of pots and pans on the stove, which is overwhelming sometimes, but I love it. God has opened many doors for me along the way and I’m so grateful. 

2. When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?

Every time we’d visit my grandparents, I’d pull the Dr. Seuss books off the shelf, two in particular - oversized copies of The Sneeches and Yertle the Turtle. Loved those. As I got older, I devoured books. The Bobsey Twins series, The Little House  on the Prairie series, Cherry Ames, Ramona the Pest… (Jenny Here I love the Little House series and loved Cherry Ames.)

3. Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and right write?

My favorite genre to read is mystery, but I also enjoy many others, like women’s fiction (I’d better, since I write it), chick lit, romance, suspense, and young adult.  I prefer contemporary, but can get drawn into historical if the characters grab me from the start. My favorite genre to write is probably mystery/suspense, and I do have one started that I hope to get back to sometime soon.

4. Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you?

I do remember a series I read as a teenager that I couldn’t get enough of. It was by author John Benton and all the titles had individual girl’s names. The main characters were prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics and they always found God, ending up at a Christian half-way house. I haven’t been able to find those books since. But they affected me deeply at that time. I wanted to write those types of books--messed up characters who needed hefty doses of God's mercy and grace. That totally explains the main character in my Madi series. Only I use humor instead of drama and suspense to bring it out.

5. When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I've always loved to read and write. The first fictional short story I remember writing was called The Summer I Went to Honolulu, with caricature drawings to go with it. My 6^th grade teacher loved the first few pages and encouraged me to submit it to a particular contest. I never finished it and never entered. I regret that, but I remember that as being the first time I considered writing as a possibility for me. 

6. How did you go about becoming an author?

It’s been a slow process, but looking back, I can see God’s hand in every step. It took me about four years to write my first novel, Mind over Madi. The manuscript passed through the in-boxes of many critique partners and went through scads of changes and rewrites. Once I typed “The end,” in December, 2008, it took about nine months to polish it and put together a proposal to submit to agents. I was offered representation by Terry Burns of Hartline Literary in January, 2010. After a year and a half of submitting to publishers, he called me to let me know that Oak Tara wanted to publish my book, and had offered me a three-book-series contract.

7. If you were not a writer what would you like to be?

I would probably be doing something in the field of mental health, whether as a counselor or in research or something. Why people do what they do fascinates me and I love learning about human behavior. I’m constantly analyzing people and my husband is always telling me I should have been a psychologist. He’s probably right. In writing, I think this helps me in character development. Or an ice cream tester. Now that would be a dream job.

8. Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?

Aside from reading and writing, I enjoy playing board games with my kids, playing Solitaire blitz on Facebook, and going to the movies with my large refillable popcorn bucket. None of those things are great for the waistline, but such good stress relievers.

9. Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?

Drop me off anywhere that's quiet, with a place to reflect and write (with internet access, of course), and I'm content. Either the beach or mountains will do.

10. If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and why?

I would say Joyce Meyer to challenge me and make me think, Mindy Starns Clark because I love her writing and would love to pick her brain, and Tim Hawkins to make me laugh.

Finally can you tell us about your current books and/or any that will be coming out soon. Also where we can find you on the web.

Mind over Madi and Madily in Love, the first two books in the Madi series, are now available in print and on Kindle. The third and final installment, Sylvie and Gold, will be coming out later this year. My publisher (www.Oaktara.com) tagged this series as “Delightful. Witty. Entertaining. Real. Poignant. Light-hearted Women’s Fiction at its best.” While I certainly hope my stories are delightful, witty, entertaining, and poignant, the word in that description which I feel is most fitting of this series is, “real.” Women can relate to Madi because she battles with the same things we all do. No, not just chocolate, although that’s one of them! Madi has insecurities that affect her relationships – with her husband, her kids, her mother, her best friend, and God. If there’s one thing I know is that we all have “stuff.” Maybe not exactly the same stuff as everyone else, but “stuff,” nonetheless. Madi helps us realize there are others out there who probably deal with their issues just as poorly as we do sometimes. But God’s grace is enough to cover our insecurities, our faults, and weaknesses, even when we mess up and our lives feel insanely out-of-control.

I have a website (www.LyndaSchab.com), but I love to connect with readers on my blogs. I have a blog exclusively for writers and readers (www.on-the-write-track.blogspot.com) and also a fun blog I just created called The Princess Mentality (www.theprincessmentality.blogspot.com), which came to me while writing Mind over Madi, because princesses are a main theme of the story. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.