10 Minute Writer

It has been my very great pleasure to make a new friend, Mary Lenaburg. She’s working on two books and has faced hardship that has only strengthened her faith. I am delighted that she agreed to answer a few questions. Please welcome, Mary Lenaburg!

1. What made you decide to write?

I can’t remember ever “deciding” to write. I have been writing all my life. When I was younger I had trouble reading and writing. In college I was diagnosed with mild dyslexia, although by that time I had learned to compensate on my own for my reading and writing challenges. I even wrote for the school newspapers in high school and college and loved it. Then I married and stayed home with my children and began to journal about parenthood. I took off on the adventure of homeschooling my son, and learned right along with him all the grammar I never really understood in school. I love writing about life and lessons learned. I love encouraging others. I write about my disabled daughter all the time. I write about everything she has taught me and how my life has been blessed because of her. I have been blogging for two years and this has opened up a whole new writing world to me. Now I am not only writing for my personal blog Passionate Perseverance but also for a new Catholic woman’s ministry called Phases of Womanhood.

2. This is your chance to pitch! Can you tell us about your novel?

I am writing an Inspirational Romance. It’s “incomplete” at the moment. That’s all I can really say because I have set it aside to write the memoir.

3. What benefit is it to attend conferences?

I have been apart of RWA (Romance Writer’s for America) and ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writer’s) for three years now and have learned so much about the art of writing as well as the publishing industry. I just joined the Catholic Writer’s Guild after attending their conference this past summer. The lectures given at each of these conferences on craft and structure are invaluable to me. I am a natural storyteller but not the best writer. I have trouble with grammar and punctuation. It’s where my dyslexia shows up. I also have trouble with conflict, so the conferences help me figure out how to make my story better. It also gives me an opportunity to meet other writer’s. Woman who share many of my same struggles. There is community and camaraderie.

4. Who has been your biggest influence? And, if I were to compare you favorably to another author, who would you like that to be?

I would have to say Nora Roberts and Debbie Macomber have been my biggest influences. I have read them both for years. Nora is all about her characters. You care about them, you cheer them on. I don’t know anyone who does it better. Debbie is an inspiration to me because of her storytelling. She too had learning disabilities growing up and she persevered. She is a master at setting and internal conflict. She creates a place you want to go visit again and again. Both of these woman have created long running series that keep their audiences coming back again and again.

As for comparing me to another author…I would love to tell a story as well as Lisa Wingate. She makes you laugh and cry, sometimes in the same page. The way she weaves a story together is tremendous. The balance between romance, woman’s fiction and inspiration is wonderful. “Tending Roses” is one of my all-time favorite books. She is the type of author I aspire to be.

5. How do you see God using you in your writing? (And, please, don’t be overly humble. God is certainly using your writing!)

God is very present in everything I write. My blog is all about living the best Catholic Christian life I can. My memoir is about my daughter and how God has created miracle after miracle in our family’s life. I learn more about my God everyday and I am so blessed by His mercy and unfailing love.

6. Please tell us about your memoir, your daughter, and what prompted you to write about it.

Unable to speak, see, or walk my profoundly disabled 17-year-old daughter Courtney has taught more people about God’s love and mercy than I, an able bodied person could ever hope. Courtney has beaten all the medical odds and continues to amaze us with her tenacity and strength of will to live. Love Conquers All is a memoir of how Courtney has transformed not only my heart, but also the hearts of our family and our entire community. This memoir traces our steps as we learn that she is not a broken being, she is perfect in God’s eyes, and she has a job to do that is an important as any of ours.
In 2000 we took Courtney to Lourdes, France on a healing pilgrimage. This book tells that story and what has transpired since then. I was tired of everyone telling me I should write a book. I decided that it was time to write everything down. We shall see what God wants to do with it. The manuscript has been requested by three Catholic presses. I will be sending it out in the early fall. At that point, if God wants it sold, than He will make it happen.

7. What does your daily writing time look like?

Mostly chaos and anarchy. I have realized I must start a “regular” daily writing schedule. When I finally sat down to write my goals I knew it was way past time to stop “winging it” and I finally set a writing time. I take my daughter to school and then I write for the next three to four hours on my memoir. If I have any time left before I pick her up, I will work on blog posts and other projects. Then it’s all about my daughter. Once my husband is home, dinner is done and Courtney is in bed for the night, I may go back to it. Usually though I use that time to read. The more I get into writing the less TV I watch.

8. If you could go back and talk to yourself as a new writer, say, five years ago, what would you tell yourself?
“You can do this. I doesn’t matter is you can’t spell or your grammar is horrible. That’s why God created editors and critique groups. Get your bum in the chair and finish the book!”

9. Do you have an agent? How did you obtain one?
I don’t currently have an agent. I have decided that it may time to begin queries though. This is something I am currently doing research on.

10. And could you give us a 100 word biography? Including your website, blog, etc?
I am a faithful Catholic Christian writer, a loving wife to Jerry and a proud mother of Courtney and Jonathan. I write about the things I am most passionate about: faith, family, food, fiction and fashion. I strive to live more like Mary, our Blessed Mother and less like Martha. Maybe one day I will succeed! You can find me blogging at Passionate Perseverance (www.passionateperseverance.blogspot.com) and Phases of Womanhood (www.phasesofwomanhood.org).