Voices of the Past

A Dream Come True

My friend, historical fiction writer Jamie Ogle, recently signed a two-book contract with a major publisher! A life-long dream for many writers, including myself. So I had to hear all about how the dream came true for her. Join me:

When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve always adored stories and told and wrote them as soon as I could fit letters together. When we were kids, my sisters and I loved to play church, and I always wanted to be the foreign missionary so I could stand up and tell amazing stories. As a child and teen, I truly thought I would be a foreign missionary when I grew up, but as I entered college, I felt God telling me that foreign missions wasn’t the path He wanted me on, and in a panic I went into elementary education instead—which turned out to be definitely not the right path either.

At 20, I married my amazing husband, Phil, and he encouraged me to pursue the thing that I loved best since I was going to spend the rest of my life doing it. Well, that was writing. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to make a career out of that, but Phil supported and encouraged me all the way. Once I made the choice to pursue writing, all the panic, anxiety, and frustration over what God wanted me to do with my life just vanished, replaced with perfect peace. I knew then that God wanted me to be a writer. It didn’t make the writing journey easy by any means, but it gave me the confidence to keep going when things got hard and frustrating.

Where do you get your story ideas from?

I write historical fiction, so the quick answer is: from history. Since I grew up listening to my grandparents tell stories about what it was like to live through and fight during WWII, and survive during the Great Depression, I’ve always been drawn to “darker” times in history and couldn’t help but what it felt like to live through them. What would one see or hear? What would it have smelled like? And with all the dark, scary things happening, where would one find hope?

Several (All?) of your stories focus on real people. How do you go about researching their lives? To what extent do you alter or not alter their stories? (For example, give them love-interest, or a spouse, or let them live longer, etc.?) 

Since I use real history, all of my stories (so far) do include real people. If I know my historical timeline, and I’m choosing a real character to write about, I like to choose someone who isn’t well-known or doesn’t have a lot of historical information about them. It makes for easier research, and I most likely won’t irritate any “experts” or descendants. For my current series set in the ancient Roman Empire, I have characters that are considered real according to tradition and whose stories were written down 200-300 years after their deaths. There are no primary sources and fewer secondary sources. For these characters, I do my best to mesh the traditional stories/legends with what we know is true about the history/culture of their time, and wherever these two don’t align, I usually side with the known history/culture of the time.

You’ve written books set in various historical eras. Do you have a favorite era or an era you’d like to do next?

I’ve written stories set in 17th century America, 15th century Netherlands, and 3rd century Rome. I definitely favor stories set before the 19th century, but don’t know if I have a favorite era to write in. I tend to write stories I want to read, and sometimes that means they’re all over the place. I’m currently writing a story set in the 4th century Roman Empire, and I’m loving it!

How many books/stories have you written? How long have you been writing?

Not counting all the stuff I wrote as a kid, I’ve written 4 complete novels, a novella, and about 3 novels in various stages of completion that will (thankfully)never see the outside of the closet.

You just signed your first traditional book contract. Tell us a little about your publication journey. How long have you been pitching to agents and editors? Did you ever feel like giving up? How did it finally happen (an agent saying yes)?

I’m a plotter. I like the control. I like knowing what’s going to happen and why, and how and when things are going to end. I say all that because I had a plan for how my publishing journey was going to go, and turns out, that story was never mine to plot. But it took me a long time to figure that out.

If you go to my website and look at my “Books” page, you’ll see 2 of my novels and a list of contests and awards they’ve won. But what you won’t see are the months in between every one of those highs where I was getting 5-10 agent rejections on those same stories. Talk about confusing and frustrating! As writers, we’re told to enter our stories into contests, and then, magically, agents will pay attention to us. That’s what I was told, and that’s what I believed and planned on. But that’s not what happened.

Susie Larson spoke at my very first writers conference, and she said something that changed my whole focus. “If God is making you wait, He is making you ready.” I realized that this writing journey wasn’t about my books, or publishing, or whatever idea of “success” I had—it was a journey God was taking me on to teach and refine me as a follower of Him. And I had a choice to make. Was I going to submit to His plan and His timing? Or, like an unruly character, was I going to go my own way, deviate from the plot, and end up in a plot hole?

Submission to God is a daily thing for me, but when I look for how God is refining and teaching me through the journey, it’s a lot easier to see the purpose in all the waiting.

But to answer the question, while I was winning the contests/awards with my first novel, I was rejected by just about every agent in the Christian market. So, I wrote my second novel and queried that one—with the same exact outcome. Then when Kristy Cambron became an agent, I felt God nudging me to go back to my first novel that I’d given up on, and send it to her. I was super intimidated because I’d read some of her books, and thought her writing was incredible and WAY out of my league. But she said yes, and I’m so glad I get to work with her!

After you signed with your agent, how long did it take to get a publishing contract? Which publishing house did you sign with? Which stories did they contract for?

Honestly, it’s all been about God’s timing. For nearly 4 years, I was in wait mode, and finally, when He determined the time was right, it all happened really quickly. Within a couple of weeks of signing with my agent, we had great offers from two publishers, each offering for a different book/series. It was such a hard decision to make, but it came down to which story/stories I was most excited to devote the next few years to. I’m so excited to have signed with Tyndale House for Of Love and Treason (you can check out the blurb on my website), and a stand-alone sequel which I’m writing now.

Any advice for up-and-coming writers who are still working on getting an agent or publisher?

Be teachable and don’t quit. If God has called you to write, He’ll make a way at the perfect time. Don’t let rejections stop you. Keep reading, writing, and learning while you wait and pray for Him to open doors. When you do get rejected, try to think of them as a  “here/not yet.” And keep going

You can reach Jamie at:  www.jamieogle.com