What a joy to introduce Robin Bryce to you! Robin and I met back in 2005 (I think) and she has been a blessing to me ever since…just as I know she’ll be a blessing to you today.
Be sure to leave a comment for Robin and you’ll be in the drawing for a free book!
Robin founded iGETitLIFE as an extension of her speaking and writing ministry and developed a conference for women called Capture Me! She is a pastor’s wife and homeschooling mother of three with only one left to graduate. Robin speaks and writes while caring for her family and other critters on their Possum Walk “Ranch” in Texas. She blogs about life and ministry at www.RobinBryce.com and you can connect with her here.
Welcome, Robin. Okay, I do want to talk about your book, but first I want to hear about this “ranch” you live on. I have a feeling there’s more to this story.
(Smiles) Funny that you’d ask. It’s nothing like the huge King Ranch of Texas. With our family experience, it’s more like a really bad farm. I’ve got a very brown thumb except for the volunteer plants that have burrs. And many of the animals we’ve had don’t make it due to geriatrics, coons or coyotes. What remains are a few dogs, a cat and some chickens. The rooster had to go after he spurred me. He was good after a spa day in the crock-pot. There’s always some comical story happening on our “Ranch.”
Haha! I love to write funny stories of life, don’t you? Now to your book. What is Come Awake about? Why did you write it?
Yes, I tell the funnies when I speak and sometimes on my blog. Come Awake is the written version of my passion. Contrary to many spiritual expectations placed upon preacher’s wives, I, like many others, struggled in my prayer life. When I reached a low point, I stumbled upon a method, or style of talking with God that brought me close to him and gave me such a freedom. I became fully awake in spite of my circumstances. Sharing what I learned became a passion and I’ve been teaching about it ever since. Part of my mentoring includes a step-by-step process and I wanted to have this process available for my audience at my speaking engagements.
Sounds like you started out by developing a handout for your events. How did it become a book?
It’s really still a booklet at just under a hundred pages. The handout wasn’t explanation enough for the audience to pass along to their family or friends. And I wanted them to be able to mentor others with the information from my speech. Therefore, to sell it at my events, I expounded the presentation and had it copied at an office print store. After evaluation, I rewrote the prayer exercises to include a twenty-one day devotional through the Gospel of John and learned a trick from teachers: use a binder. The much cheaper comb-binding production provided a lay-flat binding for writing.
And now you sell the book, I mean booklet, online as well?
Yes. As my audience grew to more than just those at my speaking events, I made it available on my website. It isn’t available on Amazon or in e-book format yet. That may come in the near future depending upon reader interest.
That’s an interesting way to take your experience and use it to encourage others. Tell us more about your writing journey in general.
My writing journey began after a lifetime of ministry, or so it seems. I first wrote e-mail devotions for our church as an extension of my weekly teaching. Then I attended a conference to take my speaking ministry to a new level. There, I learned my writing could fill my audience’s need for additional material to take home, review, and share. CLASS (Christian Leaders Authors and Speakers Services) taught that if I had something to say, then I had something to write. That’s where I, a desperate-to-learn writing newbie, met you, Vonda, a southern gentile woman that changed my life forever.
You’re funny, but yes, I remember discussing your newfound focus on writing over a bowl of grits.
How are you improving your writing craft?
I began learning that minute as I picked your brain till the last sip of coffee. I am still learning. In the years since, I’ve attended many writers’ conferences, learned to pitch to editors, started a critique group, had some publishing success, and also ended up President of a local chapter of Word Weavers. My writing has appeared in anthologies including All My Good Habits I Learned from Grandma (2007) and in LIVE. I was privileged to write the cover story of SUSIE Mag in 2010. (That was way cool!) I also regularly write a column, “Making the Grade,” for a homeschooling publication. With my emphasis and ministry to minister’s wives, I was asked by the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Wives 2012 Leadership to write a devotion for their publication in June 2012.
The rest of my writing efforts are put towards the iGETitLIFE newsletter, online articles and posts for others as well as my blog.
In my ministry, writing is now as important as speaking. Many years ago as that last sip of coffee disappeared, I never would’ve considered that as an option.
You sound busy. Do you have any other writing projects in the works?
Well, I’m always dreaming of other projects I need to work up. At this time, I am considering a rework of the Come Awake project to include more study and possibly pitching it for the first time to a publishing house. Also, I have outlined a new book project that corresponds to the Capture Me! Conference, the conference package for women. With the changes in the publishing industry, I will probably indie publish this one by hiring an editor, a book designer and graphics artist. Other than that, I would like to obtain more stories for my minister-wives project. I will probably self-contract it as well due to the small audience.
(Did you ministry wives hear that? Robin’s looking for submissions for a book. Be sure to check it out.) You seem pretty confident in indie publishing. What is the reason you would choose that path for your writing?
I’m open to traditional publishing, but some of my projects will be primarily marketed by me at my speaking engagements. I’ve studied the indie method of contracting the professionals needed to make a professional product and found that prospect a little more appealing to support my ministry than traditional publishing. I’m not planning to get rich. I simply seek to “make tents” like Paul (see Acts 18:3) while building God’s kingdom. My plan is to encourage the saints and spread the Gospel, whether speaking or writing. And, by the way, thank you for this interview and your helping me in this endeavor.
You’re very welcome! Thanks for joining us and giving us another way we can write and publish, and share His Great Name.
And readers, don’t forget to leave a comment and you’ll be in the drawing for a copy of Come Awake! (Don’t forget to check back next week to see if you’re the winner.) And if you’d like to get your own copy, be sure to check out Robin Bryce’s resources here.
See you Thursday!
Vonda
