Fabulous Friday Feature-Sandra Byrd-When I do What God Says, I Feel His Pleasure

Today we welcome author:

Sandra Byrd

One commenter will win a copy of Sandra's new release: 

Mist of Midnight

Mary here. I have hung around a lot of the same places Sandra has. I just realized I haven't shared her bubbly spirit yet. An added plus she has a new release this month. Well, I just had to get the ball rolling and invite her to share what God has done in her life. You're gonna love her story. Here is what she said:

When I do What God Says, I Feel His Pleasure

When I was a kid, I wanted three careers: to be a hair stylist, to be a waitress, and to be an author. After I mohawked my Barbie I knew I wasn’t cut out for the hairstylist career.

Mary: I think many of us are secretly raising our hands to confess we did similar things!

I was a waitress in a Jewish deli when I was a teenager, and then I worked for a caterer. Writing, however, was the real passion.  I went to college on a writing scholarship but then I got nervous - I mean, who actually gets published? No one! How will I pay back my student loans?

The odds seemed stacked against success, so I changed my major to business and got a degree in real estate/construction management. 

Mary: Whoa, that's a drastic change--but guarantees a way to pay back those loans.

Later, after I became a Christian,  I felt like the Lord was showing me: Don't look at the odds, keep your eyes on me, God, like Peter did when he was upon the water. God is not subject to odds.

 

We will achieve all the good works he has prepared for us, in advance, to do. There is nothing you are called to do that you cannot do, but also no way to open a door he has shut. Once we get a hold of that, it's easier to step away from fear.

Mary: Good words, Sandra.

A friend, who is a talented writer but as of yet still unpublished, recently told me that it was difficult being at a writer's conference. All the unpubbed authors were envious of those who were published. 

The thing is - your publication status has nothing to do with wrestling with the green monster - envy.  Once you're published, you'll be tempted to compare your sales to someone else's, your reviews to someone else's, what your publisher does for you to what they do for someone else.  Best if you can just refuse to compare yourself with other writers, knowing that the books you have been called to write were set apart just for you, and you just have to be faithful to that calling.

Mary: And this is true for any career, right readers?.

On a very basic level, it's been fun, as an author, to understand just what a phrase like "author of our faith" means, all that goes into authoring books - and faith!  It's interesting to take the concepts of a good book: start on the day everything changes, introduce the conflict, see it develop, see difficulties arise, see them overcome, see evil be addressed, and goodness prevail then bring it all back full circle, and watch how scripture, completely true, follows those principles.   

Eric Liddell said, "When I run, I feel God's pleasure," and I think for me, when I write, I feel God's pleasure, the oneness of partnering with Him.  It's how I know I'm doing what He created me to do.  I hope I can be faithful to the vision He's given me.

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Sandra's first typewriter!

After earning her first rejection at the age of thirteen, bestselling author Sandra Byrd has now published more than forty books.

Sandra's new series, Daughters of Hampshire, historically sound Gothic romances, launched in 2015 with Book One: Mist of Midnight. Her book, The One Year Home and Garden Devotions, will publish October 1, 2015.

Check out her adult fiction debut, Let Them Eat Cake, which was a Christy Award finalist, as was her first historical novel, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn. To Die For was also named by Library Journal as a Best Books Pick for 2011 and The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr, was named a Library Journal Best Books Pick for 2012.

Sandra has published dozens of books for tweens and teens, including the best-selling, The One Year Be-Tween You and God, Devotions For Girls.

She is passionate about helping new writers develop their talent and their work toward traditional or self-publication. As such, she has mentored and coached hundreds of new writers and continues to coach dozens to success each year via novelcoaching.com.

Here is how you can connect with Sandra:

www.sandrabyrd.com  You can find all of my books, reviews, and some fun blog posts here

www.novelcoaching.com  My second career passion is coaching novelists at all career stages; I've mentored new writers for 15 years.

Sandra'sTwitter Sometimes I tweet (not as often as I should, as a Byrd)

Sandra'sFacebook I'd love for us to be friends!

Sandra'sPinterest I have fun pinning new pictures

Sandra'sInstagram And taking some, too!

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CLICK HERE To see or buy
MIST OF MIDNIGHT

Midst of Midnight

In the first of a brand-new series set in Victorian England, a young woman returns home from India after the death of her family to discover her identity and inheritance are challenged by the man who holds her future in his hands.

Rebecca Ravenshaw, daughter of missionaries, spent most of her life in India. Following the death of her family in the Indian Mutiny, Rebecca returns to claim her family estate in Hampshire, England. Upon her return, people are surprised to see her...and highly suspicious. Less than a year earlier, an imposter had arrived with an Indian servant and assumed not only Rebecca's name, but her home and incomes.

That pretender died within months of her arrival; the servant fled to London as the young woman was hastily buried at midnight. The locals believe that perhaps she, Rebecca, is the real imposter. Her home and her father's investments reverted to a distant relative, the darkly charming Captain Luke Whitfield, who quickly took over. Against her best intentions, Rebecca begins to fall in love with Luke, but she is forced to question his motives—does he love her or does he just want Headbourne House? If Luke is simply after the property, as everyone suspects, will she suffer a similar fate as the first “Rebecca”?

A captivating Gothic love story set against a backdrop of intrigue and danger, Mist of Midnight will leave you breathless.

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To enter the contest for a copy of 

Sandra's new release:

Mist of Midnight:

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The winner will be announced on my Facebook page

Thank you, Sandra, for joining us this weekend!

We love chatting with you and are looking forward to reading your comments and questions. Or at least your hi, hello, or hey.

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