Called to Write

My parents came from deep within the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains, and I was born on the eastern edge of them on a small farm. Appalachian culture has a tradition of storytelling, and my mother was the storyteller in our family. My dad told jokes and debated on issues, but Mother told folk tales, recited poetry she remembered by heart, and even made up her own stories on occasion.

 I started first grade when I was five, and I discovered more stories than I could ever read in books and libraries. I struggled to begin with. Looking back and having earned a master’s degree in the teaching of reading, I probably had mild dyslexia, but no one used the term then. My teacher told Mother that she recommended she get me books from the county library to read during the summer, so I wouldn’t regress. We would catch the Greyhound bus in front of our house and ride to the nearest town about ten miles away once a week to go to the library and check out all the books they’d allow. As an only child, books changed my world and became some of my best friends.

In third grade, I began voluntarily writing my own stories. By eighth grade, I was writing poetry with some of it published, but I’ve never considered myself a poet. I write poetry for me. I find it satisfying, and it helps firm up my prose, but I’ve always known I wanted to write a historical novel someday. My Appalachian culture had also given me a love of history.

Majoring in English and history in college, I had little time to write anything except the required essays and research papers. However, once I began teaching, I freelanced for over thirty magazines. I could get these shorter articles written without it being a long, drawn-out process, the bulk coming in the summers between school sessions.

I got my thirty years of teaching in early and retired at fifty to travel, another one of my loves. It wasn’t until I became my mother’s caregiver only a few years later, that I settled down to stay at home and considered writing that first novel that I’d always dreamed of. But the idea that came to me surprised me. The first books weren’t historical novels at all, but contemporary ones. Promise is about a black teen who gets in trouble for the first time and is sent from the inner city by the court to live with an older white couple on a farm for six months. This was so far from anything I would have envisioned that I knew it came from God. Peace and Pardoned followed, featuring Isaac’s two siblings. God called me to become an author through The Farmers trilogy.

However, these weren’t the first books I published. The next four books I wrote were historical novels set in the Appalachian Mountains, a culture that I knew well, and they were published by a traditional publisher. Because I had trouble getting that publisher to ever release my royalties on time as our contract stated, I began publishing with a small, print-on-demand publisher. They published nine of my books before I decided to independently publish. It gave me more flexibility and profits (all of which go to a scholarship fund for missionary children).

Writing and publishing is a joy. It’s my calling. Every day, I pray that I will glorify God and fulfill His purposes. It is my hope that readers will be motivated, inspired, and encouraged to draw closer to God and learn any lessons he might have for them while enjoying the book and being entertained. And in all of it – to God be the glory!

You can find all my books on Amazon in print, KU, Kindle, and Audible: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00SIFWZLG/allbooks

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 You might also want to read my blog on my website. I publish about books and writing on Mondays and a Christian message on Thursdays: https://janicecolehopkins.blogspot.com/