WELCOME AUTHOR TERESA POLLARD

WELCOME AUTHOR TERESA POLLARD
Thursday, July 16, 2015 by Patti Shene

Featured Book: Not Ashamed

Author: Teresa Pollard and Candi Pullen

Publisher: HopeSprings Books

Genre: cozy mystery

Stand alone or series: Book 2 in the Windspree series

Target Age: 20’s+

I’M EXCITED TO WELCOME AUTHOR TERESA POLLARD. TERESA GAVE UP ON WRITIG AT AN EARLY AGE, BUT GOD HAD OTHER IDEAS. SHE SHARES HER STORY

TERESA IS OFFERING A GIVEAWAY OF NOT ASHAMED. CHECK BELOW TO SEE HOW TO ENTER TO WIN.

Hi Everyone. Patti asked me to tell you a little bit about how I came to be a published author after thirty+ years. I wrote my first novel in 1979 on a dare from my friend Linda Anderson after she had given me a grocery bag full of romance novels and I complained that they all had exactly the same plot—rich man meets poor girl and they fall instantly in love, but misunderstanding piles upon misunderstanding until they fall into each other’s arms on page 235. I claimed I could write a better novel than that. So, she dared me to try. I did.

A few months later I sent my only copy of Karen’s Special Gifts off to Moody Press. And I waited. And waited. And waited some more. I was so young and stupid I didn’t know anything about how you’re actually supposed to submit to a publisher. But finally, about eight months later, I did get my manuscript back along with a nice letter (not a form letter) saying that my manuscript had come up before their review board, and that it was a split decision, but because I was an unknown author, they felt they couldn’t take a chance. I was devastated! Like I said, I was young and stupid, and I didn’t know that the review board was the final step to publication. I should have been thrilled to come so close on my first try with a major publisher.

But I wasn’t. I didn’t write another word for over three years. Then one Sunday night I was sitting in church listening to a sermon on an entirely different subject when the plot to Not Guilty came into my mind whole cloth. It was about a minister’s daughter who was raped and became pregnant, and the gossip and rumors that grew up in her church. I went home and wrote furiously for three days. At the end of that time, I had about eighty handwritten pages. I knew that it wasn’t a completed novel, but I gave it to my friend Candi to read. A couple of days later, she gave me back twenty pages of critique.

Miraculously, I didn’t get the least bit mad. I just said, “Well, if you’ve got that much to say, girl, you’re going to have to help me write it right!” So, for almost a year, in between running after the six kids we had between us, and using an old Olivetti typewriter, we wrote.

This time I made twelve Xerox copies. Candi had changed churches by this time, so we handed them around to our two churches, at our jobs, and any other friends who wanted to read it. In a short time, we had found four rapes and two children born of rape. One of those children belonged to a woman who always sat a couple of rows behind me on Sunday nights. I am convinced that the Holy Spirit had let me feel her pain that night, and that was what inspired the story. Still, the manuscript sat on my shelf. I wasn’t about to send it off again, and no one was interested in our inquiry letters.

Fast forward to 2012. Again I was sitting in church on a Sunday morning with the manuscript to Not Guilty sitting on my lap to give to a friend. Another friend, Betty Lumpkin came up and asked me if I’d ever heard of the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference. I told her no, but I couldn’t afford a conference anyway. Before the words were out of my mouth, a girl came onstage and sang a new contemporary song called, Not Guilty. It was as if the Lord was speaking directly to me, saying “It’s time.” I went to the conference. The first person I exchanged business cards with was Lynellen Perry, the pro-life publisher of HopeSprings Books. Not Guilty became the second novel in her new fiction imprint Since then, HopeSprings has also published Tokens of Promise, an imagining of the story of Tamar and Judah, and Not Ashamed, also written with Candi Pullen has just released this week. It’s the story of the baby born at the end of Not Guilty as she finds out the circumstances of her birth and comes home determined to confront her biological father. Another Biblical novel, Woman of Light, will release in October.

God has been so good to me. He gives us the desires of our heart, and He comes through even when we have long since given up on our dreams!

Back cover blurb for Not Ashamed

Charity Wright is ashamed of who she is. She just found out she was born of a brutal rape. Now, everyone tells her that her biological father has changed. They say he’s a good man who only helps people. They say she must forgive him. But do people really change? Especially when they’ve done something so heinous? Is forgiveness even possible?

Before she can confront her father with his crime, she almost literally stumbles onto another crime. In the same place. Has the rapist also become a murderer? Can Charity discover the truth before the killer strikes again? Or will her fury destroy her?

Not Ashamed can be purchased at www.Amazon.com.

LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE PLACED IN THE DRAWING TO WIN A COPY OF NOT ASHAMED BETWEEN NOW AND WEDNESDAY, JULY 29TH AT MIDNIGHT MDT.

Teresa Pollard is from Richmond, Virginia, and was saved at a young age. She has a Master of Arts degree in English and Creative Writing from Hollins College, and has served as a Sunday School teacher and children’s worker for most of the last forty years.She is the co-author of Not Guilty and Not Ashamed , and the author ofTokens of Promise and Woman of Light, due out from HopeSprings Books in October). Married for forty years, she was devastated by divorce and the death of her youngest daughter, but God has blessed her with a new home and another grandson, and she now resides in Dacula, Georgia. She blogs every Tuesday at http://teresatalkstaboo.wordpress.com. Follow her on Facebook.

Comments

Teresa Pollard From Dacula, GA At 7/19/2015 8:19:58 PM

Hi LaWonne! Sure miss you and Charles and all my Summerfield friends! Pray all is well in your neck of the woods! Hi, Janet. Thanks for the kind words. God bless you both. I hope all of you will enjoy Not Ashamed.

Patti Shene From SE Colorado At 7/19/2015 4:27:01 PM

Thank you for stopping by, Janet. I always enjoy your visits!

Janet K. Brown From Wichita Falls, TX At 7/19/2015 4:21:17 PM

I'm glad you persevered, Teresa. What an inspiration to keep going. I would love to win the book.

Patti Shene From SE Colorado At 7/18/2015 6:42:31 PM

Thank you for sharing your story, Teresa. Over 50 success stories are always an inspiration to me since I am way past that! HA!

Teresa Pollard From Dacula, GA At 7/18/2015 5:30:02 PM

Hi Elaine and Deanna. I just want to say thank you to Patti for having me here today. And thank you both for your comments. God bless you. Good luck to both of you. Teresa

Patti Shene From SE Colorado At 7/18/2015 5:28:03 PM

Hi LaWonne. Thank you so much for stopping by. I love your name! I have never heard it before.

Patti Shene From SE Colorado At 7/18/2015 5:26:59 PM

HI Elaine. Thanks so much for stopping by. I always enjoy your visits!

LaWonne McCoy From Oak Ridge, NC At 7/18/2015 5:23:40 PM

I can't wait to read it.

Elaine Stock From NY At 7/17/2015 3:15:40 PM

Teresa and Patti, I enjoyed this interview. Although the cover is grisly , I am quite intrigued by the premise of the story and would appreciate the chance to win it. Here's hoping!