Dec 21, 2009

Nice to Meet You

This is my first blog post for ANWA Founder & Friends, so I thought I would introduce myself and share a little about my writing background. Here are my important stats:

Name: Rebecca Spiers Irvine (most close friends and family call me Becky)

Family Situation: Married, three kids, three turtles

Home: Mesa, AZ

Education: MA from BYU

Employment: Market Research Analyst, author/illustrator

Most of my writing skills are steeped in writing questionnaires and analyzing data collected for surveys (i.e., those annoying people who call your home during dinner). I spend my days writing such sentences as, "Three in five residents (60%) of the Southwestern United States mistakenly identify market research calls as telemarketing calls." Over the years I have analyzed data and written reports for numerous nationally known businesses, although a majority of my work now is for one specific Arizona utility.

As an author I have published two non-fiction books, Adventures with the Word of God (a family scripture study aid book) and Family Home Evening Adventures (a book of FHE lessons). To be honest, I did not start out to become an author or publish a book; I was just trying to find a way to more fully engage my children in family scripture study. After some time experimenting with various strategies, and having some success, I decided to see if what I had developed might be worthy of being published. My manuscript was picked up by Horizon, an imprint of Cedar Fort. A year later they also accepted a second manuscript of a similar nature.

I joined ANWA earlier this year in an effort to get support in working on a third manuscript. My new book is much more challenging for me. It is not a set of lessons like my first two books were, although it is still a non-fiction book for the LDS market. My writing skills (as well as my artistic abilities) are being stretched.

I have to admit I often doubt myself as a writer--there are many others out there more talented. But I am diligent and determined to finish what I have started. The challenge of writing well brings too great a blessing to let fall by the wayside.

Feel free to visit my personal blog: rebeccairvine.blogspot.com

10 comments:

  1. Hi Becky, I'm a technical writer myself although I'm trying to write a novel. It's such a different set of rules. But worth stretching yourself for. And isn't it interesting those of us in the non-fiction field somehow think we are not writers when we really are.

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  2. Terri, you are so right. I am doing my best to make my "technical writing" more appealing to my target market--entertainment is much more part of the equation when publishing. Thanks for taking time to comment on my post! Becky

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  3. That's awesome that your desire to be a good mom was the path that led you to become published. I will look for Family Home Evening Adventures for my little ones!!

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  4. I love your path to published author. There's much I can learn from you.

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  5. Welcome to ANWA! You will find many to relate to.

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  6. Hmmmm...Let me try this again...
    Welcome Becky! It's so nice to get to know you a bit! Loved reading how you came to be a writer...and like the others, I can relate to your feelings of doubt. Keep writing!
    hugs~
    kari diane

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  7. Congrats Rebeeca...I was asked to join Molly Mormon but had to hold on the offer. I plan to do it sometime in 2010. Good Luck.

    http://inspirationallettersbymillie.blogspot.com

    http://nuestracena-vegancuisine.blogspot.com

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  8. Becky - I'm so glad you are here and so glad you joined ANWA. As you know, I've been out of the loop somewhat with the new baby's arrival, so I didn't realize you were blogging with us until tonight. Glad we have been friends for so long.

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