Debut Author Spotlight ... Eddie Snipes

THE GRAVEL ROAD TO PUBLICATION

by Eddie Snipes

Writing may be a lonely endeavor, but publishing is a social world. I’ve been writing a long time, but have only been writing fiction for 2-3 years. To learn the craft of fiction, I read a dozen books on the craft and more than a hundred novels to get the feel for a good story. A bestselling author made the comment, “Everything I write is garbage. Then I have to shape it into something worth reading.”

I didn’t know it, but this would be a word of encouragement. It took three complete rewrites and countless revisions before my story would be worth publishing. I save every revision under a new file name. When victory was in sight, I named my file ‘final’. When I reached ‘final29’, I renamed it to something realistic. There are five-hundred revisions on my computer. Once I felt certain my work was nearly perfect, I had it edited. Almost every page bled with red marks. I wanted to toss my hands up and say, “I can’t do any better than this.” But I could. I had to. The truth is, bad writing is the gravel road everyone travels down to reach good writing.

My publishing journey was filled with inspiration, excitement, disappointment, and frustration. Writing is a great risk. My heart and soul is typed out on the page, and in order to succeed, I must present that work to those I know may reject it. Many will criticize it. But through perseverance, the lump of words shaped into something of value. When people began saying that they were moved by the characters and couldn’t put the book down, I breathed a sigh of relief, then felt encouraged. My efforts were not in vain. Each work is a long journey, but worth every frustrating minute.

I CALLED HIM DANCER
by Eddie Snipes

GES Book Publishing, April 2011
292 pages

For a moment, Michael danced on top of the world, but one bad choice turned his life upside down. The once promising Broadway star now washes windshields for tips and lives among the homeless. When his former dance partner recognizes him behind the fray of whiskers, shame drives him away from her. Angry at God and the world, the Dancer refuses to allow anyone into his life. When everything is stripped away, three things remain: faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love.

I Called Him Dancer is a story about how one woman's enduring faith and unconditional love drives her to reach out to a homeless man who has given up on life.

Eddie Snipes is president of the Christian Authors Guild (www.christianauthorsguild.org) and founder of Exchanged Life Discipleship (www.exchangedlife.com). His writing began as a ministry that produced Bible studies for a local prison. Over the last decade, he has written hundreds of studies and is a contributor to several online sites including OnePlace.com.

Eddie is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Christian Authors Guild. He has won five writing contests for flash fiction, short stories, and creative non-fiction.

In 2011 his first novel, I Called Him Dancer, was released. He has two other books in the process of being published. Watch for an upcoming release called Simple Faith.
http://www.eddiesnipes.com/