Informed Consent by Sandra Glahn
Author Bio:
Sandra Glahn, ThM, teaches in the media arts program at Dallas Theological Seminary, where she edits the award-winning magazine Kindred Spirit. The author of six books and co-author of seven others, she is pursuing a PhD in Aesthetic Studies (Arts and Humanities) at the University of Texas at Dallas . She recently released her first solo medical suspense novel, Informed Consent (Cook). She is the co-author of three other such novels, which include the Christy Award finalist, Lethal Harvest.
Tell us a little about your family and your call to write.
I married my husband of twenty-eight years when I was 20. (At the time that didn’t sound as young as it does today!) After sixteen years together, we adopted our daughter, who is now 12.
I started writing stories daily in the second grade, but I never aspired to be an occupational writer. (I wanted to be Diana Ross.) Yet years later when my husband and I married and moved from D.C. to Dallas so he could go to grad school, I supported him. At the financial services company where I worked, I had a great boss who believed in discovering employees’ potential and unleashing it. In the early 1980s Dallas’s businesses were booming, and he used a chunk of his development budget to send me to train with a best-selling writing. After that the company created a job for me as publications editor. I spent my days writing feature stories about what employees did off company time. They figured it would build community and morale for folks to know each other better.
Eventually, I freelanced for the magazine market, and after some time I wanted to cross over to the Christian market. When the company got sold and relocated, I had to spread my wings and fly on my own. I had no aspirations ever to write a book. The doors just kept opening and I went through them. Only as I look back do I see how God called me. It was the opposite of what we usually expect—that He calls us and we obey. Instead, I tried to make wise decisions along the way, and in retrospect I can see His call on my life.
How did you get your first “writing break?”
My husband and I had been through three years of infertility followed by a string of early pregnancy losses. I told a publisher that if he’d produce a book on the subject, I’d edit it for free, because at the time there was so little good material for how to work through the marital, emotional, spiritual, ethical crisis. And he asked, “Why don’t you write it yourself?” I about fell over.
What do you write and why this genre?
My experience writing on bioethical topics in the non-fiction genre led me to see how complex many of the issues were. Often we try to solve them in a sound bite, but we really need hours and even days to consider all the possible points of view. The vehicle of story allows me to explore the complexities in a way that shows rather than tells.
Do you have any recent contracts and up coming releases?
I contributed to a forthcoming book, Devotions for Thinking Christians (Zondervan), and also Simple Little Words (Cook) about how sometimes just a phrase or a few words can change a life. For my Coffee Cup Bible Study series, I have a proposal in to write Kona with Jonah and Frappuccino with Philippians. Of course I’m also tossing around an idea for another medical novel, but I try to avoid talking about my stories before I write them. J
What do you hope to accomplish through your novels?
My tag line is “Thinking That Transforms.” So I try to help people think in a way that causes life change. That involves prodding people on both sides of thorny issues rethink their stereotypes, reprocessing why they believe as they do rather than unthinkingly adopting the party line. For example with False Positive, I wanted readers to reconsider their stereotypes about abortion. Sometimes the life of the mother actually is at stake. But then, not all pro-lifers are clinic-bombing radicals. Many folks on both sides actually want to help women… They might be misguided, but we have to give them credit for wanting to alleviate suffering. So I try to agitate the comfortable. It’s not that I want people to accept middle-of-the-road, compromise positions. Rather, I want them to find common ground, to affirm where they agree, so they can come back to the table and talk again. We can get so polarized, and ultimately that helps no one.
With the latest novel, Informed Consent, I wanted to explore end-of-life issues, patients’ rights and AIDS, to name a few….
And now for the tough questions…
How do you balance being a mom, wife, writer, and working?
I have to write fewer books than I would like to. And I limit myself to a maximum of two classes per semester (I teach in Dallas Seminary’s media arts program). I also firmly believe in taking a full 24-hour period off every week. I nap and we often watch a movie together or I’ll use that day to cook something difficult, because that’s not work for me. I think it’s good for my daughter to see me do meaningful work. And as she gets older, she can do her own laundry and help contribute more to our household. I don’t feel I suffered for helping my dad pick pears when I was her age—quite the contrary. So sometimes part of parenting time overlaps with work time. The word “balance” suggests one at a time, like juggling balls. But for me the roles are more connected than separate.
Do you think it’s possible to give yourself fully to raising children, writing, working, and keeping in shape? If not, which one for you has to take a back seat?
Keeping in shape is taking a back seat for the four months of the fall semester. But come December, I plan to work with a trainer for a couple of months. I try to limit myself to speaking only one weekend per month. So yes, I have to set limits. But I think ultimately cutting back like that makes me more productive ultimately, just as pruning pear trees made my dad’s orchard more robust. It forces me to focus on making the best use of my time rather than accepting everything that comes along. My husband and I got a flu shots yesterday and we plan to take our daughter to get one, so I can spend less time at home this winter playing nurse maid and more time as professor/writing. Sometimes it’s that simple.
When do you find the time to write, and do you ever feel like you’re neglecting your children when you write?
We wanted four kids, but the Lord had other plans. And having an only child has turned out to be pretty manageable for this writer. We have a fantastic public school system where we live, so I don’t home school. That gives be big chunks of the day during the week to write while my husband’s at work and my daughter’s at school. But even after she arrives home, she practices violin and has some chores to do, so I continue writing for a while after she’s here. Today my husband plans to take her to East Texas antiquing, and because I’m allergic to dust, I plan to stay here. And I’ll write. No, I don’t feel like I’m neglecting her. And tomorrow we’ll rest and play. Sometimes during major deadlines, I hole myself up in my office and my husband handles the primary parenting, but neither of us feel she needs us both present every moment she’s home.
Also, two years ago in the sovereignty of God, a wonderful missionary family bought the house six houses down, and their daughter is my daughter’s age. We carpool together both to school and youth group. And when I need to travel on a Friday, she goes there after school for the two hours until my husband can pick her up. They make sure homework gets done. I couldn’t ask for a better set-up. God’s provision is another confirmation of my ministry.
How do you handle interruptions in your writing life?
I get frustrated! But I try to remind myself that the more eternal work is often in the interruption. Let me tell you about one of them…For a number of semesters an international student would email me his papers to edit before he turned in seminary assignments. I’d check email at 7 AM and find something he needed by 8:30! The interruption frustrated me, but I did it because I knew how much he needed my help and had nowhere else to turn. Then one year during commencement I was sitting with the DTS faculty watching him get his diploma. Up on stage he received it and then stopped. While everyone watched, he turned to face me in the choir loft. Then he smiled, thrust his diploma toward me in the air as a sign of victory, and then walked off the stage. I imagine the investment in his seminary training was more eternal than whatever I was writing at the time. Today that student has a radio ministry that covers something like forty-two countries!
How do you get back into the flow of writing after you’ve been interrupted?
I go back and re-read the previous two paragraphs of my WIP, and that usually helps me ramp up to where I was when I had to stop. And I also need it especially quiet during those few minutes when I have to refocus.
What do you do to encourage yourself during those stormy days every writing mom has?
Eat chocolate. Take a hot bath. Cry on my husband’s shoulder. Depends on how stormy the day is!
How do you position yourself to HEAR God’s voice when all the noises of life are swirling around you?
My weekly Sabbath time helps there. And I do spend some time in the Word most days. Driving time is also good. I listen to the radio less than I used to and instead I may just think and pray.
If you do feel your priorities slipping, what do you do to get back on track?
Make a list. Put it in order. Pray!
Has there ever been a time God told you to set aside your writing to focus on other areas of your life? If so, how did you handle that?
Absolutely. I fell down the stairs head first about two years ago and since then I’ve had two hip surgeries to do grafts that’ll put my collar bone back together. I even had a hospital bed at home for a while. I walked with a cane when I could walk at all. And all the deadlines stacked up. I couldn’t do the marketing I wanted to do. But I had no choice. And there’s no point fighting God when you have no choice. I had to set aside writing to heal. That time made me even more committed to weekly rest. That rest serves as a great reminder that God doesn’t need my help in keeping the universe operational.
Did you ever feel like you’ve “missed” God in regards to writing, that maybe you should be doing something else?
Never. To paraphrase Eric Liddell, When I write I feel His pleasure.
What advice would you give to writing moms who are have their hearts set on publication?
I think one of the least quoted verses we need today comes out of 1 Thessalonians 4: “Aspire to lead a quiet life.” Being a mom and being famous and multi-published are generally not possible for most mortals. But you can write for your group of contacts, for the people you influence. I tell my writing students to quit thinking they’ll get paid until they’ve donated at least 30 works somewhere. Most of us have to persevere in obscurity, to be faithful in little over the long haul, before we’re entrusted with much.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Annie Dillard says not to hoard or save your best ideas, but to spend them. Don’t save your best stuff for when you make it big. Trust the creative process that if you spend your best now, another even better idea will replace what you used.
Thanks for the opportunity to talk about stuff that’s so important to me!
Thank you for sharing with us today!
Sandi’s website:
http://www.aspire2.com/index.html
or you can go to http://www.aspire2.com/books%20fiction.htm for more on Informed Consent
