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My Writing Journey -- with giveaway

Martha Rogers • Mar 18, 2022

I am excited to welcome author Martha Rogers to my blog today. Martha and I have skirted around each other in several different circles over the years, but I've not had the pleasure of hosting her. She is offering a giveaway of a copy of her book, so be sure to read all the way down to the end of the post.


Martha, what's on your mind today?

One of the most important traits I have learned on my long writing journey is patience. However, it took over seventy years for that to happen, and I’m still wrestling with it. I’ve always been a “let’s do it right now” type of person. I never liked waiting for anything. The sooner I could make things happen, the happier I was.


Waiting to be published didn’t come easy, and I almost gave up several times even after I signed on with an agent. I started to seriously seek publication in the 1990’s at the age of fifty-six. More rejections than I could ever count came my way. Although I signed with an agent in 2002, I didn’t find publishing success with fiction although I did have a number of magazine articles and true stories for other authors’ compilations.


Finally, Barbour offered a novella contract and I had my first fiction publication in 2005, but that didn’t satisfy me. I grew more impatient and even asked if He know how old I was getting and long I had to live. Of course He did and He gave me the verse, Galatians 6:9 to hold on to for the next five years. I now sign all my books with that Scripture reference.


To combat that impatience, I couldn’t just sit around waiting, I attended writing conferences, joined writing groups, and joined a critique group. I wanted to ready when the time came because I believed it would.


A contract came on my seventy-third birthday in 2009. It ended up being for a six book series, and the first one was published in 2010. When God opened the door, He shoved me through it, and I haven’t stopped since. In that time since 2009, I have over sixty novels and novellas in print with more plots dancing around in my head just waiting to go on paper.


God is faithful, and if we persevere in His will, seeking His guidance, and always trusting Him, our paths will be made straight and our plans will succeed. If God has laid it on your heart to be a writer, don’t give up. Give it all to Him and let Him do His work. God has never failed me, and He won’t fail you.


“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

 

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

Most people know that I once taught English in high school and college, but they don’t know I also taught Home Economics in middle and high school. My college degree is a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics with a minor in English. I then earned my master’s degree in education and English. I also worked in retailing in the executive training program at a department store in Houston and also as a home economist for a utility company.

 

The thing I enjoy most about writing is being able to share my own experiences with God’s love and power through my characters and their lives. I also enjoy the editing process and making my writing better.

 

I got started writing as a child when I would scribble stories with a big pencil as I told them to my mother. I then had teachers who encouraged my imagination. One thing that really reinforced my story telling involved making up stories for my paper dolls after my parents divorced and changed my life. My stories gave my paper dolls and baby dolls perfect lives. I wrote my first novel as a seventeen-year-old freshman at Baylor University in 1958.


Excerpt:

Chapter 1

Fort Worth, Texas 1895


Blake Sullivan strolled through the Fort Worth stockyards where pens contained cattle from all over Texas with buyers from points north hoping to buy the best of the herds. The number of cattle brought in on the trail rides grew each year and converged here in this stockyard. Some would be shipped on to markets in Kansas and Missouri, and some would wind up at the meat packing plants in Chicago. 


The bawling animals, stench of manure, and heat of their hides only whetted Blake’ desire to be the owner of his own herd. Right now the cattle were a sea of bodies with some sporting the wide span of horns well known in Texas, some with white faces and red hides and others all black. He had yet to decide which breed would graze on his own land someday.


Today, interested buyers wandered through the herds searching for prime beef. They would soon be bidding on those same animals and then shipping the ones they bought on the railroad back to points in the mid-west. Everywhere one could see, cowboys roamed the pens. The town’s nickname, Cow Town, fit it well. 


Working for ranches in Kansas and Oklahoma the past eleven years had schooled him well on the ins and outs of cattle raising. For several years now he’d yearned to have his own spread and had begun saving for it. Other cowboys spent their earnings on whiskey and women, but none of that appealed to Blake. Not that he didn’t like women, but the ones in the saloon were not what he ultimately wanted in his life. He figured another year or two would give him all he needed for a ranch, and he hoped to find it here in Texas.


Even now the image of his friends after they received their pay for their part in the drives across the state filled his heart with sorrow. For the most part, many of them would spend near half their earnings in the saloons. He’d tried to convince some of the ones from the Holstead ranch to be more careful and plan ahead. That advice had been met with laughter and back slaps and pleas for him to let loose and have fun for a change. 


He inspected the cattle milling in the pens with an eye to what he might want on his own ranch when he finally bought the land. He intended to learn as much about the business as he possibly could now in order to be successful later. So far, he’d been lucky enough to find well-paying jobs with good men where he gained the reputation as a straight-talking, honest man who knew how to run a ranch. His father had said God blessed Blake, and he should be thankful for what he had.


Blake may be thankful, but he’d done all the work, not God.


Men like himself moved around a lot and didn’t stay around a ranch more than a year or two. The next ranch and possible higher pay were always incentives to move on. As much as he liked working for Oscar Holstead, he’d been with the ranch three years in Oklahoma, and now the time to move ahead had come. When he had approached Mr. Holstead about coming with him to the stockyards and why, the rancher had been understanding and agreed to this trip.


With one last inspection of the cattle ready for sale, he found the brand that interested him—the Circle W. He’d heard about the Wingate spread in Texas that had grown to one to become of the best in the state. When Blake mentioned it, Holstead had been supportive and recommended talking with Mr. Wingate as a good place to start. Blake liked what he saw in the herd and made his way to the auction building.  

 


Question for Readers:

What is your favorite genre to read? Mine is mystery/suspense whether adventure or romantic suspense. I pick those up first.


Leave a comment, and we'll draw randomly for a print copy (US only) or ebook, (winner's choice otherwise) of Treasure for the Heart. Please disguise your email address as name AT email provider DOT extension. For example, maryATyahooDOTcom so we can get in touch if you're the winner, and so that those nasty robot things don't snag your email address.

 

Author Bio:

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years teaching Freshman English at the college level. She is a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS chapter in Houston, and serves as President of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers Alive. 

 

Find Martha at: 

www.marthawrogers.com, www.hhhistory.com                                                                                                                                                                         Twitter: @martharogers2                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarthaRogersAuthor

 


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