Author Name: JoHannah Reardon Book Title: Cherry Cobbler - A Novel
Book Price: $2.99 as an e-book
Where is your book avaliable? Anywhere e-books are sold: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Borders, Diesel, Sony, i-Tunes
How would you describe your book? A lighthearted romance and a Chrisitanized version of Bridget Jones Diary. This novel was pure fun to write and is pure fun to read.
Do you have a favorite character? Love Cherry! She reacts to life rather than thinking it out. She is so different than me that it was fun to live in her skin while I was writing it. I'd like to write more like this one. But I also love a lot of my characters in this novel: Mrs. Vanderweide is a rich widow who keeps things hoping. Cherry's sister-in-law, Crystal, is a way on the crazy side. I grew quite fond of her.
What gave you a passion for writing Christian Romance novels? I wanted to write the kind of novels I'd like to read. I love wholesome romances, and they are so hard to find. So I had to write one to get what I was looking for.
Where do you get your ideas from? I wrote Cherry Cobbler after I'd been reading a bunch of P. G. Wodehouse novels, which are crazy romances that rarely turn out well. But it gave me the idea of having fun with it and I had a blast.
How has your experience been with self-publishing? It has been great! I sent my novels out from time to time and they would get a lot of interest, but would never make it through the final stage of approval. I always felt one editor liked them and one didn't, and the one who didn't had more seniority. I'd asked people in my writers group and friends to read my novels, and they liked them a lot, so I knew they had merit. I was sure there was an audience for my books. I just needed to find them. And with e-publishing, the initial cost is quite low, which is what I needed.
Do you have any advice for up and coming authors? Join a writers group and take their comments and critiques seriously. Develop a tough skin and keep trying to improve your writing. If you can't get the attention of a publisher, consider self-publishing an e-book. It's much lower cost than hard copies and easier to market.
What criticism has helped you to grow as a writer? With Cherry Cobbler, a friend told me that things were moving too fast at one point in the novel. That helped me slow down and look at it differently and make improvements.
How do you feel events in your life have impacted your writing style? The things I read affect my writing style, but also the things I'm going through at the time I am writing. I wrote Cherry Cobbler at a very stressful time of my life, so her lighthearted approach to life was like the vacation I needed to deal with the difficult things that were happening. I’d escape into lighthearted Cherry’s world and start breathing easier again. She made me laugh!
Author Bio: JoHannah is the managing editor of ChristianBibleStudies.com, an online Christianity Today Bible study site where more than 100,000 leaders, students, and teachers come to learn and apply God’s Word. Besides co-writing and editing nearly 1,000 Bible studies, JoHannah has written seven novels, a children’s devotional, ghostwritten two books, written content for the Couples’ Devotional Bible, and contributed to two separate Bible study series published by Standard and Thomas Nelson. She has been published in several magazines and on numerous websites. She is also a contributing editor for Kyria.com, an online site for women who want to go deeper in the Lord. JoHannah is a pastor’s wife, the mother of three, and a grandmother—all three her favorite roles in life, even though she’s crazy about her work.
How do you feel events in your life have impacted your writing style? The things I read affect my writing style, but also the things I'm going through at the time I am writing. I wrote Cherry Cobbler at a very stressful time of my life, so her lighthearted approach to life was like the vacation I needed to deal with the difficult things that were happening. I’d escape into lighthearted Cherry’s world and start breathing easier again. She made me laugh!
Author Bio: JoHannah is the managing editor of ChristianBibleStudies.com, an online Christianity Today Bible study site where more than 100,000 leaders, students, and teachers come to learn and apply God’s Word. Besides co-writing and editing nearly 1,000 Bible studies, JoHannah has written seven novels, a children’s devotional, ghostwritten two books, written content for the Couples’ Devotional Bible, and contributed to two separate Bible study series published by Standard and Thomas Nelson. She has been published in several magazines and on numerous websites. She is also a contributing editor for Kyria.com, an online site for women who want to go deeper in the Lord. JoHannah is a pastor’s wife, the mother of three, and a grandmother—all three her favorite roles in life, even though she’s crazy about her work.
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