Not For Widows Only - Meet Jewel Sample - Author of Flying Hugs and Kisses

Regarding the topic of heartache and loss and intrigued by how writer Jewel Sample handled the issue of Sudden Baby Death Syndrome in her new book, Flight Hugs and Kisses, I contacted Sample and requested an interview.

Here's what Jewel Sample had to say:

Q: Hello Jewel. Congratulations on your recent success and publication of Flight Hugs and Kisses. Can you share where the thought for your narrative came target="_new" from?

The thought of authorship a narrative about heartache and loss and the issues surrounding Sudden Baby Death Syndrome (SIDS) came out of a demand of my grandchildren. When our baby grandson, Brennen succumbed to sudden infant decease syndrome it was hard for my grandchildren to understand his death because sudden infant death syndrome is a medical mystery. sudden infant death syndrome stays a medical enigma today. It is neither predictable nor preventable. Doctors are not certain what do a baby's organic structure to close down. As a consequence of not having a ground for Brennen's death, it was very hard to explain. Our household establish there are many amalgamated messages about SIDS. It was a clip of ambivalence. In order to travel forward in our heartache process, my grandchildren needed accurate information. They also needed aid in creating meaningful memories about Brennen's life.

Q: How long did it take you to compose "Flying Hugs and Kisses?"

"Flying Hugs and Kisses" took about 18 calendar months to convey it from the unsmooth bill of exchange short letters to the published manuscript. How long before it was published. From the clip I submitted my ms until it was ready for readers was about seven or eight months. Five of those calendar months involved working with my illustrator, Lori Pandy Kiplinger.

Q: Please explicate what the National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center is and how did it go on that "Flying Hugs and Kisses" was selected as a resource for grieving parents?

…It is my apprehension the resource centre was birthed out of our legislators' designation of sudden infant death syndrome as a cause worthy of attending through the passing play of respective pieces of legislation, including the Sudden Baby Death Syndrome Act of 1974. This legislative enactment placed the duty of sudden infant death syndrome research upon the National Institute of Child Health and Person Development and designated the constitution of guidance programmes through the Office of Maternal and Child Health-now the Maternal and Child Health Agency (MCHB). Later the Populace Law 96-142 enacted in 1979, "established a national clearinghouse for the airing of information on sudden infant death syndrome to wellness attention professionals, community service personnel, sudden infant death syndrome parents and the general public." (http://www.sidscenter.org).

Today, the NSIDRC is "dedicated to educating parents, families, health people and people on the up-to-the-minute information on sudden infant death syndrome research, reducing the hazard of sudden infant death syndrome and providing support resources for heartache and bereavement." I knew NSIDRC was an physical thing that valued up to day of the month and accurate information, so I sent them a question missive about reviewing my book in hopes it would go portion of their resource list. It is my apprehension that portion of the book reappraisal procedure is meeting the agency's range of sudden baby decease syndrome and infant death concerns. For example, is the subject related to sudden baby decease syndrome or infant death issues, makes the book circulate right information, and is it good to the public. If the book rans into these criteria, then it will most likely be added as a resource.

Q: What is your secret for success?

The 1 thing I establish that helped "Flying Hugs and Kisses" go a success is the fact that it rans into an individual demand to assist children understand heartache and loss in a sensitive and compassionate way. The degree of success the book attains is up to God. I have got just allow travel and excitingly watch for Supreme Being make His work with the book. It truly have been an astonishing experience.

Q: What inspires you?

Wow, this is a difficult question. I would state children are my chief inspiration when authorship children's stories.

Q: What motivates you?

For "Flying Hugs and Kisses" my motive was to delight a grandchild who wanted their ain narrative to read at their house. They wanted a narrative to assist them experience comforted while experiencing their ain heartache and loss of their babe Brennen.

Another thing that motivates me to compose is my demand for accurate information, strong household values in narrative characters, and learning about new things. I desire my narratives to have got some fictional characters that show features of integrity, kindness, and regard for others, but most of all a sense of resilience. I must also say, my husband, my friend and strong protagonist of my authorship attempts is the existent wind beneath my wings. Without his encouragement, I doubt if I would have got got got taken my authorship attempts to the degree they are today.

Q: Make you have a family?

Yes, my hubby Chow and I will observe our 40th Wedding Anniversary in December, 2007.

Q: Pets?

We have one pet. Cherished is a sheltie and cocker spaniel mix, who have been in the household for about 15 old age now.

Q: Children?

Chuck and I share three sons, two daughter-in-loves (don't care for the "in-law" word), and 13 grandchildren. The grandchildren scope in age from 17 old age through 22 months.

Q: Are they supportive of your writing?

At first, I did not state anyone besides Chuck, about my narrative until I had finished the concluding draft. Then I shared it with my aged grandchildren because they were interested in learning about how to compose a narrative and became my best critics. Publication a narrative was a dreaming to me. When the remainder of the household and friends heard I was going to be published, they cheered me on!

Q: What is your typical authorship day?

Each morning time I pour my ego a cup of motivation, called very weak coffee. Then read a transition from the Bible. Sometimes I compose a paragraph about what I gleaned from that transition or about what I discovered about life a Christian life. Then off to my computing machine to first expression at emails, unless I have got put a deadline for myself, then to authorship or redaction what I am working on. I seek to set in at least six hours a twenty-four hours to writing. I make not always acquire to make that because my precedences are first household related activities then writing. I just won't state no to Grama drama days of the month and household merriment with Chuck.

Q: Make you believe in Writer's block?

Yes, I believe in writer's block, but I be given to name it more than opposition to travel forward with the story. If so, how make you acquire through it? To me writing "Flying Hugs and Kisses" was hard because of the nature of my subject was about the conclusiveness of loss and death. It was tough authorship about personal heartache and loss. I got through each encephalon block by taking interruptions and telling myself I was not in a haste to acquire to the last page. I had to be patient with my ain procedure as a new writer. When I establish myself resisting to go on the narrative process, I would take clip to calculate out why it had go difficult. Sometimes it was just the overpowering sense of the heartache I felt for my grownup children, my grandchildren and myself. Other modern times it was owed to inexperience as a author and struggling to set the sentence construction in simple apprehensible form. I also did not mean to submit my narrative for publication; it was just a narrative for my grandchildren to enjoy. Therefore, I did not experience the pressure level of a deadline or trying to do it perfect.

Q: Make you have got a favourite topographic point to write? Bash you compose with notebook and pen? Or make you type directly to a computer?

More often than not, I happen myself writing in my computing machine room, clacking away at the cardinal board. Before computers, I wrote wherever I happened to be, like in the auto on a trip or sitting in my backyard under a shadiness tree. I still make that from clip to clip if I have got ideas about something or an experience that I make not desire to bury about, I jotting it down in my small notebook. But I detest trying to decipher my script and transcribing, so my computing machine have got go my best brother these days.

Q: Make you have a place office?

Our household computing machine room is my office, which I share with my husband, Chow who replies more than to Grandfather these days. My authorship milieu are shelves of books, little hills of paper that demand to be filed and comfortableness points such as as my children's framed fine art work from their childhood days, old-timer dolls, antique plaything cars, and a couple of redstem storksbill (one plant and the other clock is an antique that never acquires wound).

Q: Make you have got got a favourite authorship tip or some writerly advice you wish to share with other writers?

As I was contemplating this inquiry and the immense missionary post that Supreme Being had placed before me, I remembered my favourite Book Bible in Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV) "For I cognize the ideas that I believe toward you, states the Lord, ideas of peace and not of evil, to give you a hereafter and a hope." To see my hope for successful book gross sales come up to fruition I had to larn a large lesson.

One of the large lessons I have learned as a new author, is once your book is published no substance who prints it, there are some things publishing houses cannot make by themselves. An writer must larn to advance their book with their name, talking about their personal experiences, and their signature, in order for their book to have got a nice opportunity in the concern world. Promoting one's book makes not have got to be expensive; however, there is no such as thing as free selling or book promoting.

Thank you, Jewel Sample, for your time. And best wishes on future writing