Fabulous Friday Feature-Mary Moore

Today I welcome authoress and my new friend,
one whom I have such respect for: Mary Moore 

Enter to win an autographed copy of
Mary Moore's book. There will be 2 winners chosen 

I never know when God is going to bless me by bringing a new friend along the way. After our first chats, Mary Moore and I found we had many things in common. As a result a friendship has been born.

During the conversation I asked her how God led her on her writing journey. This is her awesome answer:

AN UNUSUAL JOURNEY

All blogs and interviews are different, but the one question that almost always pops up is – “When did you know you wanted to be a writer.” I read the responses from other authors, how they’ve wanted to write since they wrote their first story. Or, maybe it was after a college course in literature, or maybe they had just always known. Not me, nope…I never wanted to be a writer!

Me too, Mary!

I am a reader. That is what I’ve always loved to do. And when I was about fifteen, I had to read Pride and Prejudice for school. Everything about it interested me, the time period in Regency England, Jane Austen’s wit and storytelling ability, the language; all of it, I really loved just about everything. But I very quickly devoured her six books!

So, in my search for more stories in the Regency genre, I discovered Georgette Heyer and Victoria Holt. Ms. Heyer’s novels quickly rose higher in my estimation than Jane Austen. And if I wanted a little mystery along with it, I went to Ms. Holt. Both ladies were awesome writers and the stories were squeaky clean. But all good things come to an end and I read the last one of each author.

You read Victoria Holt, too?  I read all her books, every one.

OK, Ok, I know this is supposed to be how I started writing, not reading, but I have just one more background item! At that time, in the early 90’s, I wanted to find Regency genre stories centered on Christian messages. There were a few established Christian fiction writers, Eugenia Price and Janette Oke to name two, but there were none in the Regency era.

In 1995, my husband’s job changed his hours to the midnight shift, and that meant he was asleep most evenings. But he is a very light sleeper, and even the TV, in an entirely different part of the house, was enough to keep him awake. Here it comes…that is when I started to write. You are saying, “Didn’t she say she never wanted to be a writer?” and you’d be right. I just needed something quiet to do and I decided that I was going to write Regencies just for me.

Oh, I can tell where this is going, can't you, Reader?

I wrote six books over those two years and started a few more. My sister-in-law, Carol, hounded me to read them. I don’t know why I let her, I didn’t let anyone else, but from then on she was on a mission…she wanted them published. I won second place in a contest and I made very half-hearted attempts to present my work directly to publishers, but I knew nothing about that world and was not surprised that I received no responses. So, those books were boxed up and put in the attic not to see the light of day until ten years later.

In 2004, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the midst of that eight months of chemo treatments, my husband found the box of manuscripts. He thought I might like to read them again. What it made me realize is how little about life I knew when I wrote them. I saw ways to make them so much better with real experiences I now had under my belt…but I didn’t, not then. I read them and put them back.

Hark back to my sister-in-law on a mission (don’t get me wrong, I love her dearly and she always believed in me). There isn’t enough time to tell you all of the crazy things she did on her own. But once, she walked into Alive Communications, the literary agents for Billy Graham, Tim LaHaye, etc. and handed them a copy of one of my manuscripts and told them they NEEDED to publish it. I praised God for a week that she lives in Colorado and I live on the east coast!

Awww

But in 2008, we went to a women’s retreat together. She found out that there was a published author in attendance. She made it her goal to find that woman and meet her. The next morning at breakfast she came and told me to bring my plate to a different table where she wanted to sit. Yep, you guessed it, the author was sitting at that table and Carol introduced me as an aspiring author. Unfortunately, there were no longer 30 states in between us! God bless the lovely lady who took the time to give me some web sites to visit and some agencies that might be looking for new authors.

When I returned home and looked those sites up, I thought, OK, I’ll give it one more college try and then I can lay it to rest once and for all. It seems like God had been waiting for me to catch up with Him and I found an awesome agent pretty quickly. She really liked the story I sent, we signed a contract, and then we went to work on revising that book. 

When I added my life experiences to my work, I found just the message to go with the story, I thought maybe I could have a ministry through my stories.

And that’s when I knew I wanted to be a writer!

Mary Moore has been writing historical fiction for more than 15 years. After battling and beating breast cancer, Mary is even more excited about her career, as she incorporates some of her struggles throughout her books, dedicated to encouraging others in the Lord and using her writing for God’s glory.

Her debut novel, The Aristocrat’s Lady, won several acclaimed awards, including the 2011 Reviewers Choice Award by RT Magazine for Best Love Inspired Historical, and the 2011 Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers for Best Book by a Virginia Author. She also received an Award of Merit for Best First Book and Best Long Inspirational by the VRW.

Mary is a native of the Washington, DC area, but she and her husband, Craig, now live in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern Virginia. When not writing, she loves to read, minister in her church, and spend time with her husband and black lab, Darcy.

Mary Moore would love to hear from you! She can be reached by visiting her website at www.marymooreauthor.com.

     and

          Email: mmooreauthor@swva.net

          Facebook: facebook.com/mmooreauthor

          Twitter: twitter.com/sugarbean1020

To enter the contest for an autographed copy of Mary Moore's book, leave a comment and become a follower of this site if you aren't already. Include email address in your comment. U.S. residents only. Winner announced on my facebook page.

Two winners will be chosen!

Thank you, Mary Moore for Joining us This Weekend!

Reader, Mary's sister-in-law and husband became a great help and encouragement to her. Who is your encouragement?