Today, we're very lucky to have a guest blogger! Robin Lee Hatcher, one of my favorite authors, talks about writing her 50th book!! (Trust me, she doesn't look old enough to have a 5th book!) Robin Lee possesses a gift that few authors have -- she can manipulate a reader with her sheer talent, by touching on so many emotional places & issues. I highly recommend her latest, a Christmas Novella put out by Zondervan called "A Carol for Christmas". Here's Robin Lee:

Some authors know they were born to write from a very early age. A few wrote their first books when they were eight or nine years old. I'm not one of those authors. However, I am a born storyteller. As a child, I loved spinning stories for the entertainment of others, and I still do.
In 1981, the combination of a passion for storytelling and a love of books that began when I was six finally caused me to sit down and begin work on my first novel. Writing longhand on a legal pad in the evenings and typing those pages the next day on the office typewriter, I worked on that novel for ten months. It was contracted by a mass market publisher in 1982. The publisher went bankrupt that same year, just after I finished writing the sequel. I floundered for a few months (this was pre-Internet, pre-email writing groups), but in early 1983, I sold both of those manuscripts to Leisure Books. They were published in February and March of 1984, basically unedited and with all their many flaws in view. Ouch!
Twenty-two and a half years, ten publishers in two different markets, twenty-one editors, and at least seven laptops and eleven desktop computers later, my 50th release has arrived on bookstore shelves.
A Carol for Christmas tells the story of newlyweds Jonathan and Carol Burke who are about to celebrate their first Christmas as husband and wife. However, their lives aren't going quite as planned. Theirs is a story of disappointments and dreams unfulfilled. Ultimately, it's about the desires of the heart and how God wants to change and use them for His glory.
A lot has happened to me in my professional writing career. I've had some terrific highs and some bottomless-pit lows, and I've learned that, in this business, persistence is far more important than talent. Even more important is doing what God has called me to do, no matter the outcome, which is why I now write Christian fiction. Recently, I came across some verses in the Book of Acts that spoke to me about my writing:
Acts 18:23 says, "... Paul went back to Galatia and Phrygia, visiting all the believers, encouraging them and helping them to grow in the Lord." In Acts 20:28, Paul says, "And now beware! Be sure that you feed and shepherd God's flock -- his church, purchased with his blood -- over whom the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders [and others as writers of Christian fiction]."
Paul encouraged the believers and helped them to grow in the Lord. Then he told others to feed and shepherd God's flock. I'm a writer who is called to create fiction about and for the body of Christ, and my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus.
I'm so grateful that God has allowed me to write my stories and am humbled by the way He sometimes uses them. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to write another 50 before He calls me home.
I hope readers will enjoy A Carol for Christmas and have their hearts attuned to the Reason for the Season throughout the holidays.
In the grip of His grace,
Robin Lee Hatcher
http://www.robinleehatcher.com/
Write Thinking bog @ http://robinlee.typepad.com/