I'm thrilled to introduce my friend, Michele Huey. She has an amazing list of accomplishments, but since I want to include her great story, I'll just tell you that she's an award-winning newspaper columnist, has her own daily radio program, and is the author of two books, Minute Meditations: Meeting God in Everyday Experiences, and I Lift Up My Eyes: Minute Meditations Vol. 2. Both are compilations of her columns and have been sold nationwide.
Michele's radio program, God, Me, and a Cup of Tea is currently broadcast on WMUG 105.1 LF/FM in Indiana, PA, and she has produced three CDs of meditations from the radio program: God, Me & a Cup of Tea: Favorite Meditations (2004), The Ten Commandments and Beatitudes for Today (2005), and Treasures in Jars of Clay: Thoughts on Aging with Grace (2006). You can find her books and CDs here.
As an inspirational speaker, Michele brings the same humor and poignancy to dinners, women's retreats and seminars, and community events. She also teaches at writers' and speakers' conferences, and is listed with several Christian speakers' bureaus.
Michele's work has appeared in numerous national publications, including Guideposts, Home Life, and Teachers in Focus, as well as several anthologies, including Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul and One Year Life Verse Devotional. She contributes a regular meditation column to The Upper Case, the St. Davids Christian Writers Association newsletter and writes devotionals on assignment.
Michele is member of St. Davids Christian Writers' Association Board of Directors and Advanced Speakers and Writers Association. A former English teacher, she has a passion for teaching, and currently mentors developing writers for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers' Guild, ChristianFictionMentors.com, and The Writing Academy.
Michele and her husband, Dean, live in western Pennsylvania and have three grown children and five grandchildren.
Be sure to leave a comment for Michele and you'll be in the drawing for her book, Minute Meditations: Meeting God in Everyday Experiences. So, let's get started!
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? When I was in about seventh grade, I woke up before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. So I wrote a poem about the "dawn" and a "fawn." I found expressing myself in writing a kind of release. As early as kindergarten, my love of books, stories, and poems was evident, as my teacher wrote my parents that "Michele loves to retell stories and rhymes."
I understand you were a teacher in your former life. Tell us about your journey into writing. In college I majored in English and took every writing course the university had to offer. But I fell in love with teaching and taught school for the next 21 years. Then, in 1993 I was subbing long-term for a reading teacher and the librarian asked if I could use some newspapers in my reading class. Of course, I said yes, but then I found there weren't any unit studies on newspapers, so I wrote one! I had it printed and offered it to homeschooling parents. A local newspaper bought it to use in their Newspaper in Education program. But that's as far as it went.
But while I was still writing the newspaper curriculum, ideas for stories were bombarding me, so I'd write them on slips of paper and stuff them in a file folder. It was then that I got serious about writing again. I live in the country in western Pennsylvania and didn't know any other writers, so I prayed for God to send me other Christian writers and for courses to help me improve my writing.
I was vacuuming one day and thinking about writing when into my head popped a vision of a meditation column in a newspaper. I was so excited, I turned off the vacuum and called both local papers with my idea, but was politely turned down. Ah, the first of many rejections . . .
In 1994, I entered a story for the Guideposts writers workshop. I wasn't selected, but an editor called me and told me he loved the story and they were going to publish it. "Wisdom from an Old Refrigerator" was published in September 1995. I think you can still find it online on the Guideposts site. I was published in The Upper Room around the same time.
But the vision for the meditation column never left me. I had a lot to learn, though. I found a correspondence course for Christian writers, and in 1996, I started a local writers group. It was there that I met Susan Swan, who'd just moved to town. Not only was she a Christian writer who understood the workings of the publishing world, but she was also the director for St. Davids Christian Writers Conference. She recommended me for a full scholarship to the 1997 conference. So, God answered my prayer for both courses and a Christian writers group.
By 1996, the door had slammed shut for teaching, so I applied for a position at the local newspaper as a feature writer. The publisher told me he wanted me to write people stories. I was hired and I absolutely LOVED interviewing people and writing their stories. The AP picked up two of my stories, and I began a weekly series, People Who Make a Difference.
Of course, now that I had my foot in the door, I asked to write a weekly meditation column. The publisher said no. But one day, six months later, that editor was complaining about wasted space in his paper. I saw my chance.
"You want to see wasted space?" I said. "I'll show you wasted space!" I opened to the religion page and tapped the canned meditation they downloaded each week from the Internet. "Let me write something fresh."
That day, Minute Meditations was born and the vision fulfilled (even though the editor wouldn't pay me for it). I wrote the column for three years, then went to another local, larger paper-which paid me for the column! I could take it with me because the first newspaper never paid for it. See how God protects His work?
I write my column, renamed God, Me, and a Cup of Tea, as a f
reelance writer now. Last year it placed second in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's Keystone Press Awards. A religious column placing second for a secular newspaper award. God IS awesome.
What is the biggest challenge you face as a writer? Waiting. Persevering. Rejection. You have to believe in what you write in order to persevere and persist. People often tell me I've done a lot with my writing. But I haven't even scratched the surface of what I'd really like to do.
Why do you write? To express myself. To tell others about God and the wonderful life He has planned for all of us. To show people how to apply the Bible to everyday living. And to give life to the stories swirling around in my head.
What for you is the most satisfying aspect of freelance writing? Working from home and the flexible schedule-both of which allow me to be here for my family. My kids are grown and gone now, but I can write when I travel to my daughter's in South Carolina. I can write while I'm babysitting grandchildren (like right now). I can stop for a few moments when the grandkids pop in. And also the wonderful friendships I've made–the camaraderie with other writers.
What writer do you most admire and why? Cec Murphey. For his candid, transparent, vulnerable, honest, down-to-earth writing. For his generous heart that seeks God. For his faith in spite of trying circumstances.
What advice do you have for struggling or beginning writers? Don't give up. Persevere. Persist. Keep writing. Learn all you can about the craft, and keep learning, no matter how published you are. Always strive to improve. Network with other writers-online and at conferences and writers group meetings. Go to as many conferences as you can afford-to learn and to network with editors and publishers and agents. Join a critique group and listen to what others have to say about your writing. Never explain and never defend what you wrote. If someone didn't get it, rewrite it so they do.
(Vonda here) Thank you for your sharing your story, Michele! What an encouragement to keep working! And if you'd like to be in the drawing for a free book, just leave a comment for Michele. Be sure to check back next week to see if you're the winner!
You can read more about Michele and her writing at her website and blog.
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Registration is Now Open for The Christian Writer's Den Yearly Retreat October 21-24, 2010!
Do you feel called to write, but can't find the time to stop and hear His voice? Then this weekend is designed just for you! Come join us for four days of group instruction and hours of writing in peaceful solitude in the mountains of NC.
The $200 registration fee includes four days and three nights' lodging, nine home-cooked meals, help with transportation from Simpsonville, SC (if applicable), snacks, writing instruction, and free give-aways-and you don't have to cook or clean up!
But registration is limited to the first twelve ladies, so don't delay (sorry guys, but this retreat is just for the girls)! Once the spots are filled, we'll start a waiting list. And don't worry, there won't be snow there in October. 🙂
Be sure to take a look at our video from the 2008 retreat (Thanks, Kimberli Buffaloe!). Click here to download the information and registration form. Edie and I can't wait to hear from you!
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I Need Your Kudos Now!
Next week we celebrate what God is doing in our midst, so I need to hear from you! Had an article or book published? Signed a contract? Gotten an agent or a new website? Started a ministry? Let me know this week, so we can celebrate with you!
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As we seek His perfect will for our writing lives, let's acknowledge the word David received from the Lord and claim it for ourselves today:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8
I pray God's blessing on the work of your hands and your hearts,
Vonda
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Show, don't tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've heard it a thousand times. But it IS the writer's mantra. And it should be.