By Trisha Bleau Smith
T4J: I have read and reviewed Open His Gift and have found it to be a wonderful book full of insight and information. Where did the idea for the book come from? Where do you generally draw your ideas for writing from?
DT: When I was led to Christ as a freshman at the University of Texas, it was like the Holy Spirit burned within me the scriptures used to reach me and I was immediately able to share them with others. I actually knew very little, but as I was faithful to share with others the little I knew, the Lord was faithful to reveal more and more truth to me. My book is truth gleaned over a large period of time.
Open His Gift is material I have presented to groups of teens, college students and adults for years. Often I had requests for it in written form. I also wanted to share it with friends and others with whom I knew I would never have time to share these critical issues of life. I was convicted to write it long before I actually did, but the book evolved from a real need to have it in written form.
T4J: How much editing was involved? Did you do it all alone or did you send it to people to edit? How many times did you have to re-edit your works?
DT: Ohhh…editing is the name of the game. The book went together relatively easily. I had always been in accelerated English classes but had never approached writing as an art. There is a difference! I spent years editing it – changing words – adding a sentence here and there – editing out every single unnecessary word so people would be able to read it quickly – editing it to make it as simple as possible even though I was dealing with profound issues. I also spent much time editing out all the “Christianese” so that a person who had never darkened the door of a church could read it and not stumble over “church lingo.” It was then professionally edited twice. By then I had so refined it that only a few grammatical errors were picked up and several suggested word changes.
T4J: How has this book been received by the general public? Has there been positive feedback? Any negative feedback?
DT: The testimonies of lives that have been forever changed from reading it has been the most gratifying. I would have to say overall feedback has been amazing. I originally had it printed for my own personal use and gave the book away. But when people read it they came back to me wanting one for those they loved. It was not unusual to have people buy 10 to 20 copies at a time. One lady bought 100 and came back for 100 more. she mailed them out across the U.S. Several lay businessmen and a retired doctor take them with them and hand them out to people they feel led to give them to and then I hear from those people. One grandfather said he was going to pay his grandchildren to read it. I know one person who is sending them out as their Christmas card this year. Most of the people I hear from now I do not know. It has been an overwhelmingly fun and positive experience.
Negative feedback? One person shared with me that they had a book returned by someone who said, “I just cannot read this book.” The person telling me said she thought it was because that person did not believe in Satan.
T4J: What are your next plans for writing? Do you plan to do any more books along the same lines as this book? Will you move on to new writing?
DT: My life work is possibly just to get this book out because the message is critical to life. I am an evangelist at heart and the message of Open His Gift is my passion. For any book to be a real success, I feel the author must have a passion for that subject. Books are a dime a dozen these days. Everyone is writing a book or wants to! What people do not realize is that marketing a book effectively and getting it out to the world takes much work and effort even if you are with a large publishing house.
For over 15 years I have led a weekly nondenominational Bible study. I do have all those lectures and I have considered editing and publishing them as Bible studies with commentaries for those who teach.
T4J: How do you find time to write? Life is busy and time management is hard to do sometimes. When do you do your best writing and where?
DT: You are right. Life is BUSY! I personally grab moments anywhere I am, whatever I am doing. I have study materials and pad and paper with me at all times. I try to make every moment count. I spend very little time on television except for news. I do keep up with world events and Israel. But even with discipline, there never are enough hours in a day to do all I want to do.
T4J: Are you ONLY a writer – meaning, is writing your full time job or do you have a job that you do full time and write on the side?
DT: I have been blessed to have been able to be a stay-at-home mom for three children. God used those years and my free time to grow me up in His Word through excellent Bible Studies and books. Since my husband has always allowed me the freedom to be involved for activities for the kingdom I have had time to write, speak at retreats and Christian events, teach the Bible and do other things that I know I would never have been able to do with a full time job outside of my home. I do feel like I work as hard as others who have a full time job; I just do not get paid most of the time.
T4J: What training do you have in writing? Did you take any writing courses in college to obtain the skills you have currently?
DT: I only had accelerated English classes in high school and basic English and literature classes in college. Excellent writing can be an acquired art. True creativity in writing is a gift from God.
T4J: What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career in writing?
DT: I would urge them to get involved in any journalism endeavors they could, to read and study best selling and classic works, and to try even at a young age to begin to focus in on one particular area of writing that they might want to pursue because of personal interest. If there is a particular subject, I would urge them to read every excellent book and magazine article that has been written on that subject. As I said before, one must be passionate about what they write about for it to come across to an audience. If they would like to get into reporting, I would urge them to try to get a summer intern job as a “gopher” at a local newspaper and try to meet, befriend, and get to know reporters in their area.
T4J: What advice would you give to someone interested in publishing their works?
DT: There are excellent books available at larger bookstores on publishing. Some are resources to determine the correct publishing house or magazine that specializes in the type of work you would submit- what they are looking for and the correct way to go about contacting them. There are books on self-publishing and POD (print-on-demand) which has really come into its own in the past few years. I think it would be wise to read all one can on the subject of publishing and proceed as led. Above all, pray and commit your work and what you do with it to the Lord.
Be the first to comment