Beverly  Rogers

ABOUT ME

 

Nothing to it.  Write a book. A publisher loves it. It's edited, typesetted and printed with a gorgeous cover.  You're a writer.  Yaaaaaa.

 

I'm laughing.  Hard.  Writing professionally has been a rewarding part of my life for 46 years.  Copy writing, feature stories, essays, plays, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, flyers, billboards -- whatever needed writing. But it was fiction that had my heart, and fiction that was the least successful.  If faith, determination and stubbornness was all it took to make it in a writing career, it was a slam dunk. But with all that, and the gift of writing God gave me, it wasn't.   

 

At a 1991 writer's conf in Chautauqua, Patti Gauch said "You're close. You're so close."  James Scott Bell critiqued some work and said he wasn't sure why I wasn't selling because the talent was there. When we lived in Houston in the 90's, my RWA writing partner, the fabulous Christie Craig, probably gave me the best assessment I've ever received. "Your writing is really good, but your marketing sucks."

 

Well.  There ya go.

 

Obviously, I jumped on that advice, became a marketing guru and the rest is history. 

​

Not exactly. Life. I had choices to make and hope deferred became the path right for me at that time. I still wrote every chance I got, but it took a backseat to the family I adore and the security of the corporate world.  Through the years I went to conferences, wrote, finished a few books, met like-minded people.  In 2013, I took a class by the amazing writer/teacher Eva Shaw. I'd marketed Broken Wings, Soaring Hearts off and on for at least three years, and within two weeks, she'd pointed me in the right direction and the book sold.  If Christie Craig and I had still been in contact at that point, that's when she would have rightfully said "I told you so."

 

Now, it's time. While I'll never retire from anything family related, thanks to all that faith, determination and stubbornness, writing finally has the place in my life that I've longed for.  

 

Do you have a passion you really, really believe God put inside you?  Don't give up. Don't. No matter what, keep working. Stop dreaming and start doing. Even when reality has other temporary plans, patience will pay off. 

 

There are people who will tell you that to be a successful writer you must eat, breathe and live writing. I disagree. As important as writing is to me, it’s not my number one priority. God is. Then my family. Then others. Then writing. I hope all the books I’ve written, and are yet to write, are loved by a publisher, edited, typesetted and printed with a gorgeous cover. But even more, I hope they touch the hearts and lives of readers in ways only God could orchestrate.

 

God bless,

Bev