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9 August 2013

Getting to know you Thursdays with Carrie Fancett Pagels with giveaway


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


Links to purchase Return to Shirley Plantation: A Civil War Romance 

God’s Provision in Tough Times, releasing in July 2013


GIVEAWAY
Carrie is giving one commenter a free ebook of Return to Shirley Plantation: A Civil War Romance. To enter you need to leave a comment with a way to contact you and answer the question Do you have a favourite era you like to read? Please note comments just saying enter me will not be accepted. You have til 15 August 6 pm Australian time to enter. 

11 comments:

Anne Payne said...

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!

Carrie Fancett Pagels said...

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?

Sonja said...

Great interview. Always interesting to see how people come to begin writing. I would love to have this book!

Carrie Fancett Pagels said...

Thanks, Sonya! Jenny asks good questions!!! I hope you get to read Angelina's and Matthew's romance! Blessings!

Paula Vince said...

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.

Carrie Fancett Pagels said...

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!

CentralEast2 said...

Thanks for a great interview. I enjoy reading about the settlement of the west.

CentralEast2 said...

Thanks for a great interview. I enjoy reading about the settlement of the west.

Carrie Fancett Pagels said...

Hi CentralEast2! Thanks for coming by! I don't think of myself as the west but I guess we are! Blessings!

Wanda (A Book Lover's Retreat) said...

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

Carrie Fancett Pagels said...

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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