I'm in the US at the moment. Perched in a rocking chair in the second floor bedroom of my friend's house. I'm in Texas, but I've just come from North Carolina, and before that I was back home in Australia. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks of conference prep, travel, catching up with friends and now the down-time before another conference next week. I'm exhausted. But I'm also conscious that this is precious time. Time to take stock and stash my suitcase full of memories so I won't forget. 

Well, this month's author interview is someone you've probably already heard me rave about. That's because she's my Ella Shine co-author: Cecily Paterson!
I first met Cecily at an Omega Writers conference and one day we got chatting. Our books competed against each other in various CALEB awards (sometimes I won, sometimes she did) and over the years that competition obviously didn't hurt us because we became good friends. Although I work quite closely with Cecily these days on various fun Pet Sitter projects, I was still keen to interview her to find out a bit more about how she sees her writing and faith work together. Here's what she had to say...

Continuing my Author Interview Series, this month I'm interviewing an Australian author whose mantra is to write stories that encourage and inspire, engage and entertain!  Meredith Resce is no newbie on the Christian fiction scene, with more than 25 titles to her name, she writes across multiple genres and is also a generous supporter of the Australian Christian writing community! In fact, that's where I first met Meredith: at an Omega Writers conference, and have since had the privilege to work alongside her organising various events for writers. I've also enjoyed reading some of her novels. (Can I just put a plug in here for her Luella Linley series? They are such fun.) It was exciting to be able to ask her some questions about her writing, especially as she's launching a new book this month!

I'm heading to the USA soon, to attend two writers conferences and apparently, when you attend writers conferences in the States, you are supposed to bring business cards.
I've had business cards before. A few different variations. But apparently, according to the gurus of business cards and conferences (who knew there was such a thing?) it's good to have a card with a few features. For one thing, you are encouraged to include a head shot. This is so people can remember what you look like when they get home and are sorting through their stash of accumulated cards. I understand the reasons, but still...

Welcome to the first of a new series of posts on The Penny Drops: my Author Interviews! 
Each month I'll be interviewing an author I've bumped into over my years as a writer. Some of these authors you may recognise, others will be brand new. Some I've read, others I haven't. I'll interview writers of fiction, memoir, non-fiction and children's books (of course!). But despite their varying genres or stages as a writer, what they all have in common is their Christian faith. And this is strategic from my part, because what I really wanted to learn about was how their faith influences their writing, and what lessons are learned as they work on their very different projects.
To begin this series, I got to chat with Vanessa Foran. Vanessa is a psychologist living in Melbourne, Australia who loves thinking about the relationship between faith and mental health. Her first book - a creative memoir - rose out of her experiences traveling around Australia with her young family.