Author Spotlight: Jan Drexler

Hi friends! Today, our author spotlight is on Jan Drexler! Everyone, say hello to Jan! Without further ado, let's get to know Jan and her book Softly Blows the Bugle. 

 

Author Bio:
Jan Drexler brings a unique understanding of Amish traditions and beliefs to her writing. Her ancestors were among the first Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren immigrants to Pennsylvania in the 1700s, and their experiences are the inspiration for her stories. Jan lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband, where she enjoys hiking and spending time with her expanding family. She is the author of The Sound of Distant Thunder, The Roll of the Drums, Hannah’s Choice, Mattie’s Pledge (a 2017 Holt Medallion finalist), and Naomi’s Hope, as well as several Love Inspired historical novels.

Here's Jan!

What do you do when you don’t feel like doing what you need to do?

Writing isn’t all buttercups and roses, no matter what it looks like in the movies. Like any other job, no matter how rewarding or fulfilling, sometimes it’s just plain work!

When I hit that wall, I have a few tricks I use to keep me writing:

1) Mini Rewards. These are great because they’re small. I divide my writing up into small increments – usually one hundred words. At the end of the hundred words, I have a chocolate chip, or a mini marshmallow. At the beginning of my writing session, I lay out the number of chocolate chips that will meet that day’s goal – if my goal is one thousand words, then I lay out ten chocolate chips. When the chips are gone, I’ve met my daily goal!

2) How fast can I write? Sometimes I shoot for a time goal rather than a word count goal. An hour is a good time for me, and then it’s a race: how many words can I write in this limited time? At the end of the hour, no matter how many words I’ve written, I take a break. Sometimes I do two or three of these sprints a day to see if I can beat my previous word count. (Yes, I do have a competitive streak!)

3) Where’s the money? When I really have no incentive to write, I think of the cold, hard cash. I take the amount I think I might receive on a pending contract, divide it by the number of words in the proposed book, and that gives me the amount of money I’ll potentially be paid for my work per word. The amount is usually pretty small – say it’s two cents per word (by the way, I pulled that number out of thin air!) But when I multiply that by one thousand (the number of words I can write in an hour on a good day,) I can estimate that I’m earning twenty dollars for that hour. If I write two thousand words that day, I’ve potentially earned forty dollars. I know this is all just pie-in-the-sky money, but it’s a great incentive for me. (Don’t try to extrapolate this out, though, and add in the hours spent pre-writing, revising, editing, marketing… That’s too discouraging!)

I learned these tricks back when I had young children at home and many tasks were always waiting for my attention. But I broke them down, gave myself incentives, and got them done.

How could you use these ideas in your life?

Softly Blows the Bugle Blurb
Welcome back to the Amish community at Weaver’s Creek, where the bonds of family and faith bind up the brokenhearted.

When Elizabeth Kaufman received the news of her husband’s death at the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863, she felt only relief. She determined that she would never be at the mercy of any man again, even if it meant she would never have a family of her own. Then along came Aaron Zook . . .

Despite the severity of his injuries, Aaron resolves to move west and leave the pain of the past behind him. He never imagined that the Amish way of life his grandfather had rejected long ago would be so enticing. That, and a certain widow he can’t get out of his mind.

Yet, even in a simple community, life has a way of getting complicated. Aaron soon finds that while he may have left the battlefield behind, there is another fight he must win—the one for the heart of the woman he loves.

Purchase Links for Softly Blows the Bugle:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Softly-Blows-Bugle-Amish-Weavers/dp/0800729331/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=softly+blows+the+bugle&qid=1584390564&sr=8-1
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/softly-blows-the-bugle-jan-drexler/1136472121;jsessionid=8E292E536497EF95C6645551A629FA32.prodny_store02-atgap02?ean=9780800729332

Contact Jan:

Website: https://www.jandrexler.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanDrexlerAuthor
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jan-drexler

Friends, I sure hope you enjoyed getting to know Jan Drexler and Softly Blows the Bugle.


Thank you so much for joining us, Jan!


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