Each spring as the earth blooms in an array of colors and shades of green, I am awed and amazed by God’s handiwork. From seeds, bulbs and dry barren trees, God creates beauty, life and a harvest of goodness. The spring season is my favorite, probably because it reminds me of what God can do with our lives if we submit to Him.

Before time, God planted gifts and talents inside us in the hopes that we would allow Him to bring them to fruition in our lives. These seeds germinate in our hearts, waiting to spring forth in their season. We only need to be obedient to the Father as He cultivates the ground of our hearts, watering and fertilizing, coaxing the seeds to grow. As I look around me, I see people in various stages of growth. Some are just sprouting, others blossoming, while still others have entered the harvest season with fruit hanging heavy on their vines.

As a tender shoot just emerging in the publishing world, I am grateful for people like Andrea Boeshaar, who has allowed God’s gifts and talents to blossom and grow inside her. As a writer she ministers to her readers through messages of hope in Christ. As an agent, she mentors and promotes aspiring authors, allowing God to use her to cultivate the seeds of another generation of Christian writers.

With numerous novels in print and a stack of awards to accompany them, Andrea has established herself as a popular Christian writer. Her latest novel “Broken Things” released in April. This full-length women's fiction novel about broken dreams and God's saving grace can be ordered through her website www.andreaboeshaar.com or through Promise Press (aka Barbour Publishing).

I hope you enjoy this peek “Behind the Scenes” into Andrea Boeshaar’s career as a writer and agent.

Q: How many years have you been writing?
A: I have been writing since I was a little girl. My first book was called “Little Miss Mouse.” I wrote it when I was in fourth grade. I wrote short stories in high school, and after I married, I wanted to write romances for the secular market. God had other plans. I was gloriously born again in 1991, and the very next year I sold my first novel to Heartsong Presents. It was published in 1994 and I’ve been writing and publishing in the Christian market ever since.

Q: How much time do you spend writing daily?
A: I’m a full-time plus writer. I spend between three and twelve hours a day writing, depending on the day.

Q: Do you set daily goals for your writing?
A: I don’t set daily goals because sometimes I’m feeling more creative than others. Some days I go through previous chapters and tweak and polish scenes. Other days I write up a storm. Sometimes I have to drop everything and proof galleys. Then there are life’s little surprises—like a friend in crisis who needs a shoulder to cry on, or my three-year-old niece is sick and my sister begs me to babysit so she can go to work, or I have a migraine headache (not necessarily my niece’s fault), or my self-employed husband needs his billing done, or my mother stops by. There are days when I don’t get a single word written on my work in progress!

Q: Where do you write?
A: I have three favorite places that I write: 1) in my office, sitting at my desk. 2) in my hubby’s recliner with my laptop. 3) propped up in bed with my laptop.

Q: Do you plot or not?
A: I always have a detailed synopsis so I know that I’m going from point A to point Z … and I know points L, M, N, O and P have to be in the middle somewhere, but the rest just sort of happens in the process of writing.

Q: Is your first draft rough or do you aim for a polished manuscript the first time through? How much time do you spend on rewrites?
A: I’ll write a chapter or two and then let the dust settle. Then I go over it once more and send it to my critique buddies. I have a select two or three people who read my work and give it a good slashing. After my critique buddies send me back the chapter(s), I read over their comments and suggestions and decide if I agree or disagree (sometimes I don’t take their advice, after all it’s my story). Finally, I implement the changes, and go on writing.

Q: You also work as an agent. How do you incorporate agenting responsibilities into your schedule?
A: I usually spend three or four hours a day on reading manuscripts, phone calls, e-mails, etc. I have a part-time job in the admitting department of large hospital here in Milwaukee, so I work three nights a week from 4 to 9 p.m. When I get home from work, I write until about 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. That’s my creative time—late night, early morning.

Q: How does your Christian walk influence your writing?
A: I don’t integrate God and writing—they are one in the same. The Lord IS my reason for writing—my very reason for being. I really try to live my faith. Everyone I work with knows I’m a born again Christian and I’m a writer. I recently led a coworker to the Lord. To me the Christian life is an adventure, and I just have to write about it!

Q: Do you have any advice for a new writer?
A: Yes. Two things: 1) Persevere. Don’t give up. Keep writing and pray your work into the publishing houses. Claim a verse of Scripture and use it while you’re on your knees. 2) Be open to the Lord’s leading. If He wants you to start by writing announcements in your church’s bulletin, be willing to do it even if you have your heart set on publishing a full-length novel. The latter will come in God’s perfect timing.