Please join me in welcoming Carrie
Fancett Pagels to my blog today. I meet Carrie in Williamsburg in May and we had a fun afternoon. There is also a giveaway thanks to Carrie.
1.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I was a
psychologist for 25 years. Married 25
years with a 24 year old daughter and and 11 year old son. I love God, history,
and romance!
2.
When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?
Anne
of Green Gables, Little Women, Tales of the Arabian Nights were a few.
3.
Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and right write?
Yes,
I prefer to read and write Christian historical romance.
4.
Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you?
Lucy
Maude Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, and Daphne DuMaurier.
5.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
When
I was a child but I decided to become a psychologist.
6.
How did you go about becoming an author?
Well,
this is a tricky question because I wrote some nonfiction psychology stuff
before I began learning the craft of Christian fiction. So I’ll address the
Christian fiction author part. I joined a group called American Christian
Fiction Writers after I’d gotten a few rejections from submitting my story
ideas. I can’t even tell you the amount of classes I have taken, etc., but I
felt that I needed to know more about the craft of writing. But I’ll tell you there are some published
authors out there who have never taken a writing class. There is so much to it, I couldn’t possibly
cover it all here, Jenny, but the big thing is doing the work—and writing manuscript
after manuscript.
7.
If you were not a writer what would you like to be?
I
was a psychologist and I am a mom. Being a mom is a job and a very rewarding
one.
8.
Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?
Snuggle
with my son and tell stories, visit historical sites and do research, travel,
go out to eat with my family, do bead work. I like baking, too! Visiting with
friends—like Jenny who recently came to Williamsburg and I got to meet with her
there and enjoy a lovely day together!
9.
Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?
I
love Mackinac Island in Michigan, where I worked as a teenager and which is
only about 70 miles from my hometown but feels like a world away. There are no cars allowed there. It is a
beautiful and magical place. The sky and water are SO blue and clean!
10.
If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and
why?
I
am not one of those people who longs to meet famous individuals. I’m much more interested in getting together
with people I believe God wants to put me together with. One person I probably
shouldn’t say but she is an editor at a CBA publishing house who has been
looking at my proposals but hasn’t offered me a contract (yet!), another person
would be another editor who I’d like to encourage and again I won’t name her,
and the third person would be Jon Woodhams, our editor for the Guidepost Books
“A Cup of Christmas Cheer” that will release in October. I’ve never met any of
those three. I should get the opportunity to speak with all these folks at the
ACFW conference but I’d love a private supper with all three of them and I’d
love her hear what they had to say.
Finally can you tell
us about your current books and/or any that will
be coming out soon. As mentioned, I’ll have a story, “Snowed In:
A Northwoods Christmas” that will be published in the Guidepost Books release
“A Cup of Christmas Cheer.” I am very
excited about that one because it wouldn’t have been published had it now been
for my agent, Joyce Hart, who called me while I was sick to see if I still
wanted to submit my story. I thought the
deadline was the day before and I’d decided not to send it in. This story is
dear to my heart because it is inspired by a real story about my parents and
includes my great-grandmother and great-uncle (okay, not them but a
fictionalized account of my imaginings…) But I had such a wonderful time
writing this short story!
I
am also SO excited that my debut fiction novella “Return to Shirley Plantation”
has continued to stay in the top ten highest rated Amazon Civil War books! This story is about OBEDIENCE—radical
obedience and I am so glad people are enjoying this story!
I
also contributed a true story to God’s Provision in Tough Times, A nonfiction
book by Cynthia Howerter and LaTan Murphy that just released. I believe this book, with 25 true stories of
God’s provision, will really encourage people.
Also
where we can find you on the web.
Bio – Carrie Fancett
Pagels, Ph.D.
Carrie
Fancett Pagels’ (www.carriefancettpagels.com)
Return to Shirley Plantation: A Civil War
Romance, is an Amazon Civil War best seller. A contributor to God’s Provision in Tough Times, (July,
2013). Her short story, Snowed In: A
Northwoods Christmas, will appear in Guidepost Books “A Christmas Cup of
Cheer” (October, 2013).
Contact info
Carrie Fancett Pagels
Facebook Author Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carrie-Fancett-Pagels/317053071710640?fref=ts
Facebook Personal
Page
http://www.facebook.com/carriefancettpagels
Twitter https://twitter.com/cfpagels
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/carriefpagels/
Links
to purchase Return to Shirley Plantation:
A Civil War Romance
Barnes
and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murray-puras-cry-of-freedom-volume-1-return-to-shirley-plantation-murray-pura/1114941171?ean=2940016542836
God’s Provision in
Tough Times, releasing in July 2013
11 comments:
I have a copy of the book so don't enter me in the drawing! I just wanted to stop by and read the interview. I know Carrie, but it is always fascinating to learn more about someone. I had no idea there were no cars allowed on Mackinac...I want to go there :) Sounds like a lovely place to grow up near.
Thanks, Jenny, for hosting Carrie today. Have a blessed weekend!
Thanks so much for having me on, Jenny!
ANNE, thanks for coming by! You have to go to Mackinac Island. How about fall 2014 for a women's Christian conf up there, with me?
Great interview. Always interesting to see how people come to begin writing. I would love to have this book!
Thanks, Sonya! Jenny asks good questions!!! I hope you get to read Angelina's and Matthew's romance! Blessings!
Hi Carrie,
It's lovely to meet you. I just finished reading 'God's Provision in Tough Times' and remember your touching story. In fact, I was impressed that so many of the contributors were Christian fiction readers, which was just the boost I needed. (I'm an Australian author.)
I'd love to read your other books too. And your favourite authors were also mine.
Not sure I should enter since I recently won a book from Jenny's blog, but just in case, I think contemporary and historical fictions may be equal for my favourite era, and my contact details are paulavince at internode dot on dot net.
Thanks, Paula! Yes, I was a contributor. I believe every contributor was a Christian writer/author. Some are published in fiction and others in nonfiction. And of course if you are a Christian fiction author you are also a Christian fiction reader because you have to keep up with books that compare to your own. I have a story coming out at Christmas in a short story collection through Guidepost Books. Thanks for coming by!
Thanks for a great interview. I enjoy reading about the settlement of the west.
Thanks for a great interview. I enjoy reading about the settlement of the west.
Hi CentralEast2! Thanks for coming by! I don't think of myself as the west but I guess we are! Blessings!
I LOVE late 1800's western romances. There's just something about cowboys that I can resist! Thank you for the interview/giveaway. Your book sound great and I'd love to read it. :)
Wanda Barefoot
flghtlss1(at)yahoo(dot)com
Wanda, I've never written a cowboy story but my first generation British American grandfather became a cowboy after his first wife died. I've always wondered how that went for him! He came back to Michigan and met my grandmother. Blessings!
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