The first time she opens her eyes, Eve gazes on One whose beauty nearly blinds her, whose breath is in her lungs. Her Creator takes her hand and gives her to one like her and yet different. Together, she and Adam experience pure joy as they explore Eden. But her favorite moments are when the Creator comes to walk with them, day after day.
Until everything changes. With one act of disobedience, Eve finds that her world is no longer a friendly place. With remorse in her heart, she must face the unknown future--the births, the deaths, the sacrifices, the loss of the one home she has ever known. Perhaps worst of all is the loss of trust, not only with her Creator but with the man who shares her life. How will they ever survive out of Eden?
Bestselling biblical fiction author Jill Eileen Smith imagines the life of the first woman to ever live, unspooling a story of love, loss, and the promise of redemption.
Until everything changes. With one act of disobedience, Eve finds that her world is no longer a friendly place. With remorse in her heart, she must face the unknown future--the births, the deaths, the sacrifices, the loss of the one home she has ever known. Perhaps worst of all is the loss of trust, not only with her Creator but with the man who shares her life. How will they ever survive out of Eden?
Bestselling biblical fiction author Jill Eileen Smith imagines the life of the first woman to ever live, unspooling a story of love, loss, and the promise of redemption.
ISBN-13: 978-0800737641
5 Things I Never Expected About Becoming An Author
Jill Eileen Smith
I’m honestly not sure what I expected to follow my first book contract. Aspiring writers probably have all sorts of things that they hope will happen, and I’m sure I had some of those, but I can’t recall expecting much. I was too close to quitting when it happened to think about what came next.
That said, I began writing because I wanted to read the book I was attempting to write. Somewhere along the way, the desire to see it published surfaced, and over time I pursued that new dream. I studied the craft, took classes, attended conferences, wrote, wrote, wrote, and rewrote for over twenty years. I had three agents and had completed eight novels and still…nothing.
That’s when I nearly quit. I have a file of rejections. I counted them once, but I’ve forgotten how many. Too many for too long. I decided that I must have read God’s leading wrong. So, I prayed and determined to wait one more year. Then I would move on to whatever else God had for me. Six months before that year would have ended, I had my first contract for The Wives of King David.
Friends and family were super supportive and positive about it all. I think they made that series a bestseller because they’d waited so long with me! I must have talked about writing way too much, but either way, when it finally happened, they rejoiced with me.
I used to write whenever I had the chance. I wrote in a little corner of our family room when I wasn’t homeschooling our boys. Because I write biblical fiction, my plot came straight from Scripture. That wasn’t hard to do when I was writing that first series. David’s life was colorful and covered a lot of pages. I had a lot of source material.
As my career has continued with more books and women in Scripture, I’ve come up against a lot less to work with, and at times I wondered if there was even a story to tell. I used to make “Idea Boards” out of poster board and pictures cut from magazines. Now I do everything on the computer. I work in Scrivener and Pages. I still search for pictures, but I look for actors or models whose heritage reflects my characters. I take more time now to come up with character traits and figure out at least a little bit of the main characters’ stories before I begin writing. But I still write a very long paragraph by paragraph summary of the story and then get to know the people as I write. I’m a combination writer – part plotter, part seat-of-the-pants.
The hardest part of publishing for me is when I’m writing my first draft of a new book and before I can finish, I have to edit the book I’ve turned in so that my publisher can keep to their schedule. This past year, I did both at the same time, because if I stop writing to edit, I’ll have to start the writing over, and that makes me lose time. It actually worked very well.
The easiest part and perhaps the most fun is right now - when I’m casually researching a new book, releasing a new book, and completing a current work-in-progress that is soon due. The reason this is easier is because editing at this point isn’t a lot of work. It’s more fine-tuning. New releases come with a lot of extra work, but most of it is fun. And when those two things are past, I get to dive into a new story, and I really enjoy the research.
I suppose it is that love of research that has grown over time and changed my reading habits. I used to read mostly fiction because I was trying to figure out how to write fiction. But I read nonfiction more often now, not only to give me fodder for my stories, but to help me in my personal life and faith. I still love a good story, and I hope my work produces them as well, but I don’t read fiction like I used to.
If you get the chance to read Daughter of Eden, I hope you find it helpful and entertaining. Eve’s conflicts are unique because she and Adam were the only people who knew what perfection looked and felt like. They alone had walked freely, innocently with the Creator. Until they lost it all. What did that look like? How did that feel? That’s what I explored in her story.
That said, I began writing because I wanted to read the book I was attempting to write. Somewhere along the way, the desire to see it published surfaced, and over time I pursued that new dream. I studied the craft, took classes, attended conferences, wrote, wrote, wrote, and rewrote for over twenty years. I had three agents and had completed eight novels and still…nothing.
That’s when I nearly quit. I have a file of rejections. I counted them once, but I’ve forgotten how many. Too many for too long. I decided that I must have read God’s leading wrong. So, I prayed and determined to wait one more year. Then I would move on to whatever else God had for me. Six months before that year would have ended, I had my first contract for The Wives of King David.
Friends and family were super supportive and positive about it all. I think they made that series a bestseller because they’d waited so long with me! I must have talked about writing way too much, but either way, when it finally happened, they rejoiced with me.
I used to write whenever I had the chance. I wrote in a little corner of our family room when I wasn’t homeschooling our boys. Because I write biblical fiction, my plot came straight from Scripture. That wasn’t hard to do when I was writing that first series. David’s life was colorful and covered a lot of pages. I had a lot of source material.
As my career has continued with more books and women in Scripture, I’ve come up against a lot less to work with, and at times I wondered if there was even a story to tell. I used to make “Idea Boards” out of poster board and pictures cut from magazines. Now I do everything on the computer. I work in Scrivener and Pages. I still search for pictures, but I look for actors or models whose heritage reflects my characters. I take more time now to come up with character traits and figure out at least a little bit of the main characters’ stories before I begin writing. But I still write a very long paragraph by paragraph summary of the story and then get to know the people as I write. I’m a combination writer – part plotter, part seat-of-the-pants.
The hardest part of publishing for me is when I’m writing my first draft of a new book and before I can finish, I have to edit the book I’ve turned in so that my publisher can keep to their schedule. This past year, I did both at the same time, because if I stop writing to edit, I’ll have to start the writing over, and that makes me lose time. It actually worked very well.
The easiest part and perhaps the most fun is right now - when I’m casually researching a new book, releasing a new book, and completing a current work-in-progress that is soon due. The reason this is easier is because editing at this point isn’t a lot of work. It’s more fine-tuning. New releases come with a lot of extra work, but most of it is fun. And when those two things are past, I get to dive into a new story, and I really enjoy the research.
I suppose it is that love of research that has grown over time and changed my reading habits. I used to read mostly fiction because I was trying to figure out how to write fiction. But I read nonfiction more often now, not only to give me fodder for my stories, but to help me in my personal life and faith. I still love a good story, and I hope my work produces them as well, but I don’t read fiction like I used to.
If you get the chance to read Daughter of Eden, I hope you find it helpful and entertaining. Eve’s conflicts are unique because she and Adam were the only people who knew what perfection looked and felt like. They alone had walked freely, innocently with the Creator. Until they lost it all. What did that look like? How did that feel? That’s what I explored in her story.
Jill Eileen Smith
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Jill Eileen Smith is the bestselling, award-winning author of the Wives of King David series, Wives of the Patriarchs, Daughters of the Promised Land, The Heart of a King, Star of Persia, Miriam's Song, and the nonfiction When Life Doesn't Match Your Dreams, and She Walked Before Us. Her research has taken her from the Bible to Israel, and she particularly enjoys learning how women lived in Old Testament times.
When she isn’t writing, she loves to spend time with her family and friends, read stories that take her away, ride her bike to the park, snag date nights with her hubby, try out new restaurants, or play with her lovable, “helpful” cat Tiger. Jill lives with her family in southeast Michigan. |
Contact Jill through email (jill@jilleileensmith.com), her website (http://www.jilleileensmith.com),
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jilleileensmith), or Twitter (https://twitter.com/JillEileenSmith).
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jilleileensmith), or Twitter (https://twitter.com/JillEileenSmith).
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