Rose McCauley, Christian Author

Monday Spotlight on Gina Holmes and her new novel, Dry as Rain

Thanks for taking the time to visit, Gina. Tell us about your favorite book as a child and your favorite book as an adult. Can you see a connection between those books?
My favorite book as a child was a Wrinkle in Time. It's been so long since I've read it. I really need to reread it. One of my friends who recently has says she got so much more out of it as an adult that she missed as a child. I can't wait to have the time. What I remember about that book is the realization that books didn't have to be just stories that entertained but could change people and their views.
My favorite book now? Oh, that's a tough one. I have a few. I guess I'll go with Jane Eyre. While it was just the best love story I've ever read, it also was more than just entertainment. The author introduced an idea that I'd never considered-that one person can be the life's ministry of another person. I've always been a save the world type and it really touched me and stretched me to consider that for some, one person is their mission field.
What is your favorite Scripture? Do you also have a Scripture that encourages you in your writing?
The scripture I've had to cling to in trials is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." In recent years, I've gone through the darkest periods of my life. Year after year, I thought the light would never shine again and I clung to that verse like I would an anchor in a storm. I knew it was true and when I couldn't trust anything else around me, I could trust that. It touches me every time I read it. God got me through those dark times and the sun is shining again.
If you could go to any place in the world to research/write a book, what setting would you choose?
 Oh wow, what a great and thought provoking question. Man. The first place I hope to travel when I can, is Israel but I don't know that it would be research at this point. I think maybe Greece. I did a layover there years and years ago and it was just the most beautiful sight with its whitewashed buildings and turquoise water.
I often wonder if I would write if I had to do it the old-fashioned way without computers and spell-checks and email. Is there anything about technology that you don't like? Or anything about it that you feel enhances your writing?
Without technology, I don't know that I'd be a writer. Back in the day, going to the library to check every fact was so very time consuming and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I would have to check every fact. How would I find the time? Also, I learned to type on a typewriter and the thought of corrective tape sends shivers up my spine. I'm somewhat dyslexic, so I make so many typing errors that are so easy to fix on a computer, but on the typewriter, not so much. Instead of editing 10 pages a day, I'd be lucky to get one done. What I don't like about it is how the internet sucks up my day. A facebook post here, a tweet there, a few blog posts and emails and suddenly the day's over and the house still needs swept, dinner made and no real writing was done. That's a struggle.
I hear you, Gina. As a writer how have you had to grow and stretch out of your comfort zone?
Man, how haven't I? I'm an introvert by nature and I'm now teaching at conferences. I've been asked to keynote an upcoming event, and everything inside me cringes, but I say yes, because safety gets you little in this world. If I'm going to touch people, I need to be with them. I'm very content to sit in my little office alone with words but that's not what God would have for me, I'm fairly certain. I've also been stretched in realizing how subjective reading tastes are. I'll get a rave review that calls my latest novel, unique, unpredictable, beautifully written right beside one that calls it predictable, not very well written and familar. C'est la vie. There are a lot of other ways as well.
What advice would you give to a beginning writer that you wish someone had given you?
Relax. It's not going to happen the way you think it will or anywhere near in the time you think it will. You can't make it happen. So concentrate on the writing, stop frothing at the mouth and stalking editors. Concentrate on being the best writer you can be and when you are ripe, you will be picked. No sooner.
Excellent advice. Yes, it will all happen in God's timing. Do you want to add anything about your book such as where to order it?
Sure, thanks for asking. Dry as Rain is my sophomore novel. A very different book from my debut, Crossing Oceans. Dry as Rain tells the story of a couple that drifts slowly apart until infidelity shatters any chance for reconciliation. An unexpected car accident gives our anti-hero a second chance when his wife forgets his affair and begins to look at him again with eyes of love. It is a love story and I'm told it stretches the reader to consider this sin in a new light. It's found on Books a Million, Lifeway, B&N, CBD, Amazon and in brick and mortar stores.

Bio: Gina Holmes is the President and founder of Inspire a Fire and Novel Rocket and award-winning author of Crossing Oceans and Dry as Rain. In 1998, Gina began her career penning articles and short stories, ten years, and a stack of rejection letters later, she held her first published novel. She holds degrees in science and nursing and currently resides with her husband and children in southern Virginia. She works too hard, laughs too loud, and longs to see others heal from their past and discover their God-given purpose. To learn more about her, visit http://www.ginaholmes.com/.