When Christine Grote returned to school at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio, she began the journey of an emerging writer. She earned a bachelor's degree in English 2007 and even started up a literary magazine for the college.
Her writings began to get published by magazines and newspapers, including St. Anthony Messenger, RED Webzine, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Her journey as a writer would also take her down another path: That of an author.
Christine just wrote and published a memoir about her sister Annie, who passed away in 2009. Dancing in Heaven takes you inside Christine's family and their life with Annie, who was disabled from birth.
In the following interview, Christine talks about Dancing in Heaven and also the process of publishing this inspirational memoir.
Tell about when the inspiration came to you to write a book about your sister's life.
I've always known I would eventually write a story about Annie. This particular story began as a short story in collage form about Annie's life for a creative writing class I was taking at the College of Mount St. Joseph in 2005, several years before Annie died. Although my teacher encouraged me to pursue the story by polishing it and seeking publication, I put it away. When Annie died in August of 2009, I felt compelled to tell her story. So I combined my short story with notes, journal entries, and e-mails from Annie's last days. I filled in with more stories and drafted Dancing in Heaven.
What challenges did you face in the journey from an inspired idea to a ready-to-publish manuscript?
The first challenge was determining what to include and what to cut. I do a lot of revising, and make a fairly big mess of it in the process by at times physically cutting printed pages and taping things back together in a different arrangement. I felt the most challenged by, or least secure in, the final editing as a self-publishing author. No one has your back, so you have all the responsibility of making sure the final product is clean and correct.
What led you to start your own publishing company as opposed to sending your book to a traditional publisher?
Originally I intended to seek traditional publication. I bought books about getting an agent, writing a book proposal, and getting published. I sent out a single query letter to a recommended agent. I never heard anything back. Not even a simple, "I got your query and I'm not interested." Agents don't even have time for that much.
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