Focus Groups

I had the privilege of participating in a Christian Fiction focus group held by Thomas Nelson Publishers tonight.  This was the first one I had ever participated in and I loved it!  I had to apologize at the end as I felt that I had probably spoken way too much, but that's just me.  I am opinionated and when you ask for my opinion, I will most certainly give it.

There were ten of us in all in the group, led by two facilitators, Eric and Aaron.  The breakdown was 2 guys and 8 women.  What was really surprising was the number of women who read the same genres I did, and had the same opinions on romance, historical and modern fiction as I do.  It was really cool to discover that! 

So what exactly did we do?  We answered questions of course.  Questions like: "How do you describe Christian Fiction?", "What types of fiction do you like to read?", as well as "Why do you read Christian Fiction?".  We looked at some book jacket cover art, including some that was in development still and some that is due to be released in the next few months, and gave our opinions on.  Overall it was such a positive experience for me.  I do hope I'll be able to do this again sometime.  The other thing that was cool, or maybe not, is that we were videotaped during this.  I'm just glad I'll never have to see that tape!

Oh, and the other cool thing about it?  Swag.  We each received a bag with a Max Lucado book, (one not released yet!) and a coupon for any three Christian fiction books on the Thomas Nelson website!

If you have never participated in a focus group, I highly recommend doing so.  It is quite an experience.

So have a great evening and God Bless!

Wednesday's Musings

All my life I have been a creative person. I didn't have a whole lot of friends growing up, so like any other introverted child, I invented them. But not one friend, I invented whole worlds, with governments, wars, people, storylines, the whole nine yards. I even wrote a short novel at age 12.

I have written other novels over the years, but never tried to publish them. Sometimes I wonder if I should have. Now however, I plan on doing that. Try to publish the one I am working on now.

I am working on a Christian Suspense/Horror novel at the moment (Yes Virginia, that is a real genre in fiction.) and this is the one I want to try.

Now, it is nowhere near being finished, or for that matter, the main writing hasn't even started. I am currently on writing the notes for the story. Notes on the town it's located in, the characters involved, and the basic story idea. Right now I am up to 48 pages of written notes. Novels do take planning and preparation.

So I will keep you up to date on this. It's a long term project, one I expect to have completed by this time next year. Who knows, perhaps I will start putting some of it on here for feedback.

So have a great day and as always, thanks for reading.

Eric