Review Fix chats with “Get me to Church on Time: Tips and Tricks to getting your family ready and out the Door for Church†author Heather Gravell, who discusses her writing process and so much more.
For more info on the book, click here.
Head to her official site, here.
Review Fix: What inspired this book?
Heather Gravell: I wrote this book because I remember how much I used to dread Sundays. I knew it was going to be a crazy day of me running around the kids not listening. I always left feeling so embarrassed by how much my kids interrupted the people trying to hear the sermon. They would always so “oh it was no big deal,†but you knew it was. I would come home, and the house would look like a tornado came through it. I would clean the rest of the day and try to think of something to make for dinner. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest and it felt like anything but. I am happy to say I have figured out a system that really works for me and I know enjoy Sundays and they really feel like a day of peace and rest for me. I am the type of person who once I figure something out, want to help other people do the same, so I wrote a book telling them how.
Review Fix: Why is the subject matter important to you?
Gravell: It is important to me because I know how I felt. I felt like I was failing- like I was a bad mom when really, I was just going about it wrong. We moms have enough to deal with and we go to sleep feeling like we messed so much up that day we don’t need another thing to worry about.
Review Fix: What was the writing process like?
Gravell: I wrote this book so fast; I was so excited to be making a book. It’s not a big book it’s actually really small but it was my first. The writing part was really easy I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted it to look like but the process of putting it together was such a challenge. Finding pictures that matched my vision was so hard I thought about making my own, but my kids never sit still long enough and based on the hundreds of pictures I have to take just to get one of them looking at me and smiling with a normal smile I was not up to it. Then trying to make the cover was a nightmare I almost quit altogether. I can’t even tell you how many copies I made trying to get the font right and the spacing. Thank goodness it is all done online now, and you can see a copy and just delete or move it over, I can’t imagine doing it before where you had to get the copy mailed to you just to find out the picture isn’t centered right. Funny story- I made the book, put it out for sale, bought my first copy, opened it, only to find out that there were so many things misspelled. I had my husband proofread it and he made all the right corrections, but I still somehow copied it all wrong. So I have learned my lesson and now I take my time and write slowly when I write the final copy.
Review Fix: What did you learn while writing?
Gravell: Besides go slow and don’t give up, I learned just how much I love to write.
Review Fix: What makes you the ideal person to write this book?
Gravell: I don’t think there is anything special about me that makes me the best person to write this book or any of the books I write. But I write about things I have gone through, so I know how they feel. I’ve been where they are, and I can help show them the way out. There is a quote that I keep close that pretty much sums up what I’m trying to say “I went through this, so you don’t have to.â€
Review Fix: What are your goals?
Gravell: My goals are to keep writing. I hope to maybe one day do public speaking and take about the stuff I write about and maybe answer questions parents have I want to walk into Target one day and see my books on the shelves. I want to have someone come up to me and tell me my books helped them in some way.
Review Fix: Who has to read this book and why?
Gravell: Parents, moms or dads. So, they can see they are doing fine they just need a little organization. And I don’t want parents to stop going to church because it’s too hard. It is very important for a child to be brought up in the church and to think they may not because of this is sad to think of.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Gravell: Well, I can’t tell you too much, but I am working on a new book. This book means a lot to me, and it is the biggest book I’ve made yet. It talks about anxiety, mom guilt, and mom burnout all things I know so many of us moms who deal with all this daily.
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