Today on Writer’s Wednesday we welcome Cindy Woodsmall, author of As the Tide Comes In.
Enter below for a chance to win a copy of As the Tide Comes In! Congratulations to Elaine Rieder who won Donna L. H. Smith’s Meghan’s Choice! Please e-mail my assistant (hello{at}triciagoyer{dot}com) to claim your prize! Note: This post contains affiliate links.
About this same time last year, I shared on this blog about my home office. This time I’d like to share a bit about my other writing space, the one not in my house.
I’ve been published with an imprint of Penguin Random House for thirteen years, and a lot of life takes place each year—blessings and hardships. For creativity to stay strong, I feel strongly that authors need to change up how we tap into our creative side.
One of the ways I’ve changed how I stir creativity in the last few years has been to alter how I brainstorm and write. My daughter-in-law Erin has been a big part of that.
She married my son Adam in 2006, the year my debut novel was released, When the Heart Cries. Looking back I can see that we immediately began easing into writing together. On family vacations, I’d ask her opinion about which of the two sentences, two paragraphs, or two scenes that I’d written were the strongest. During that same time, she volunteered to organize my auxiliary notes—timelines, chapter-by-chapter outlines, research info—that my editors need each time a work is turned in. Soon she went with me to visit Amish friends, and after that, she began brainstorming with me on stories I was writing.
She was going through a rough time in 2016, so as a possible distraction for her, I asked her to write a few chapters for me. I expected I would need to hone them into nearly a full rewrite, but she was good at writing, really good. We then decided to write a book together, an Indie published novella called The Gift of Christmas Past, and it was so refreshing to me that I wanted us to work together on more projects.
While working on brainstorming our first work together, we tried talking via phone while taking notes, but that didn’t work for me. We decided to try meeting at a coffee shop on the days her husband was off to stay home with the children.
We often arrived harried and hungry, but Mocha Moe’s had good food, delicious coffee, and comfy couches. When we walked inside, we set aside everything else and creativity filled our minds and hearts.
We don’t write on the story while there. We only work on brainstorming, starting with an overview synopsis and then writing specifics for a chapter-by-chapter outline, usually covering only four to five chapters per visit…because even with all the research under our belts and time spent staring at our setting, it takes four to six hours of steady work to map out that much of a story.
What have you been doing lately to find refreshment for work or your day-to-day life?
More about As the Tide Comes In
New York Times best-selling author releases her first southern novel, a Steel Magnolias-meets-Sweet Home Alabama standalone novel, set on St. Simons Island.
When an unthinkable loss sends Tara Abbott’s life spiraling out of control, she journeys from North Carolina to Georgia’s St. Simons Island. Although confused and scared, she hopes to find answers about her past – her life before the years of foster care and raising her two half-brothers as a young adult. Will she find steady ground on the island, surrounded by an eccentric-but-kindhearted group of older women called the Glynn Girls and a determined firefighter? Or will the truth splinter what’s left of her identity into pieces?
Read an excerpt of As the Tide Comes In HERE
Purchase a copy of As the Tide Comes In
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | CBD | CindyWoodsmall.com
Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times and CBA best-selling author who has written nineteen (and counting!) works of fiction and one of nonfiction. She and her dearest Old Order Amish friend, Miriam Flaud, coauthored the nonfiction, Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women. Cindy’s been featured on ABC Nightline and the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and has worked with National Geographic on a documentary concerning Amish life. In June of 2013, the Wall Street Journal listed Cindy as one of the top three Amish fiction writers.
She is also a veteran homeschool mom who no longer holds that position. As her children progressed in age, her desire to write grew stronger. After working through reservations whether this desire was something she should pursue, she began her writing journey. Her husband was her staunchest supporter as she aimed for what seemed impossible.
She’s won Fiction Book of the Year, Reviewer’s Choice Awards, Inspirational Reader’s Choice Contest, as well as one of Crossings’ Best Books of the Year. She’s been a finalist for the prestigious Christy, Rita, and Carol Awards, Christian Book of the Year, and Christian Retailers Choice Awards.
Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, seeds were sown years ago that began preparing Cindy to write these books. At the age of ten, while living in the dairy country of Maryland, she became best friends with Luann, a Plain Mennonite girl. Luann, like all the females in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and cape dresses. Her parents didn’t allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were frowned upon. During the numerous times Luann came to Cindy’s house to spend the night, her rules came with her and the two were careful to obey them—afraid that if they didn’t, the adults would end their friendship. Although the rules were much easier to keep when they spent the night at Luann’s because her family didn’t own any of the forbidden items, both sets of parents were uncomfortable with the relationship and a small infraction of any kind would have been enough reason for the parents to end the relationship. While navigating around the adults’ disapproval and the obstacles in each other’s lifestyle, the two girls bonded in true friendship that lasted into their teen years, until Cindy’s family moved to another region of the US.
As an adult, Cindy became friends with a wonderful Old Order Amish family who opened their home to her. Although the two women, Miriam and Cindy, live seven hundred miles apart geographically, and a century apart by customs, when they come together they never lack for commonality, laughter, and dreams of what only God can accomplish through His children. Over the years Cindy has continued to make wonderful friendships with those inside the Amish and Mennonite communities—from the most conservative ones to the most liberal.
Cindy and her husband reside near the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains in their now empty nest.
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