#MMBBR #Showcase A Month of Sundays by Paula Hartman

A Month of Sundays provides food for the body as well as the soul. It offers thirty-one weeks of delicious Sabbath meals along with reflections on the need for true Sabbath rest. This book will leave you feeling spiritually refreshed, reconnected with your Creator, and at peace with yourself.

Q. What inspires your writing?

A. I am inspired by ordinary life and ordinary people. I find endless amusement in both. Some people will cut friends off when they begin telling a story they have heard before. Not me. I love to hear stories over and over again, especially if they are funny. When I was still working at the hospital, I loved it when we got a new employee because we would hear all the old stories again.

Q. What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

A. Self discovery. I find I cannot lie on paper, even when I am just journaling. As soon as I write something that isn’t true, it glares at me from the page until I am forced to scratch it out. Once in awhile I write something that seems to write itself. I feel like a vehicle for something that needs to be written. That’s pretty cool too.

Q. What is the toughest part of being a writer?

A. Sitting down to write. I know that sounds funny but I have heard a lot of other writers say the same thing. I will spend half an hour making a cup of tea to avoid the blank page. Once I sit down and get in the zone, time flies.

I hyper focus and can write for hours, but getting myself to sit down can be challenging.

Q. What would the story of your life be entitled?

A. This is such a great question, because I was just thinking about this yesterday. I was running errands and every time I wanted to turn into a store’s parking lot, I was in the wrong lane. It was so frustrating! Then all of a sudden, it struck me funny. I laughed and thought to myself, This could be the title of my life—I am in the Wrong Lane. I worked as a medical technologist for 25 years. The job was not a good fit for me but it paid well and it helped me raise my children but I am a writer. It took a lot of courage to quit my job (switch lanes) and write full time.

Q. Which character from any book are you the most like?

A. The summer I turned twelve, I read Little Women. My dad had just moved us to a new town. I was a bit anxious about starting a new school.

It was period of adolescent angst. As I was reading the book, I wanted so badly to be like everyone’s sweetheart, Beth. I wanted to be so kind that I never thought anything bad about anyone. But I am no Beth. I am a Jo.

I am a bit feisty and sometimes a bit outspoken.

Q. What character from all your books are you the most like?

A. I have a series of children’s books waiting in the wings. I hope to have the first one out after the first of the year. It is a reimagined story of Red Riding Hood. It’s Red Riding Hood meets Taming of the Shrew. After the wolf runs ahead to Granny’s house, Granny mistakes him for a large dog and nearly kills him with kindness. I indentify with Granny. People around me are always offended by something or other. I rarely feel that way. You almost have to knock me down in the parking lot to make me mad at you. I have begun to suspect that I just don’t realize I am being dissed. I sometimes feel like everyone else has a secret that I don’t know.

Q. Which book would you love to take a weekend vacation inside of?

A. Treasure Island. I have always loved the challenge of making something out of nothing and I never pass up an opportunity to be by the ocean.

Q. What is your favorite season?

A. Fall. I love the colors and the cooler weather. I don’t think there is anything better than taking a long walk in just a sweater.

Q. What inspired your book cover?

A. I wrote a children’s book (still in the wings) called the Magnificent Old Tree. I used a process I call paper piecing to make the tree in all four seasons. When I found an illustrator for my children’s books, I wanted them to look the same so I combined the four trees to look like the passing of time.

Q. Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. I have an inner ditz. There is nothing I can do about it. I don’t know how many times I have gotten into the wrong car. I once took my children into the men’s locker room. But this was a new. I was staying in a hotel and had gone out for dinner. When I got back to the hotel, I parked and went in. I was heading to the elevator when I got that wait a minute feeling. It was then that I realized I had gone into the wrong hotel. I have friends who way I should be watched at all times.

Q. Are you working on something new?

A. Since the book came out, people have been sharing their family recipes with me. So I have started a second book using the same format. For right now, I am calling it A Month of Mondays, but it is still pretty fluid.

Q. Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those just stopping by?

A. I think the message I would like to leave is that it is important to intentionally set time aside for real rest. I think Sabbath rest has the power to heal. I know it healed me.