Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Mount Ayr Public Library will host a book signing by another local author next week. Debbie GILLILAND of Mount Ayr has written a book entitled "To Comfort a King," and she will be greeting the public and signing books from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, September 27.

The following is an interview GILLILAND provieded to the Record-News

Rec-News: Please describe your book.

DG: "To Comfort a King" is centered around four verses from the Bible: 1Kings 1:1-4. It is my fictionalized story of King David's end-of-life friendship with the young shunamite maiden who was chosen to comfort him. Abishag was chosed from all of Israel because of her beauty, but it was something else entirely that knit the two of them together.

When Abishag's father accepts the palace's commission for his daughter to become King David's nurse, she is torn from the comfort of her small village and thrust into a world of unfamiliar custom, royal expectations and palace intrigue. Abishag suffers personal losses, as well as scorn from much of the royal court. She begins to question God's goodness in placing her in the king's service. Eventually, she finds friendship in a most unexpected place.

My high school English teacher, Merlin WILKINS, remained a close friend through my adult life. About five years ago, he asked me if I had ever noticed those four verses in the Bible. I had to admit to him that the brief mention of Abishag had never caught my attention. He suggested that the verses might be a good basis for a book, so I expanded on what the Bible tells us about the young woman and her relationship with King David.

Rec-News: How many books have you written?

DG: This is the first book I have written. I am working on another book, totally unrelated to this one. Several people who have read "To Comfort a King" have asked if there will be a sequel, and some even suggested where they might like a sequel to take them.

Rec-News: When did you begin writing?

DG: My English instructor during the first half of my freshman year was Miss Marian MATTHEWS. One class assignment was a daily journal. While most of my classmates groaned over that assignement, I enjoyed it and developed a close friendship with Miss MATHEWS through it. She married and left at the semester, and I was fortunate enough to be placed in Mr. WILINs' care for the rest of the year. He continued the daily journal assignment. During my junior and senior eyars of high school, the administration was experimenting with "modular scheduling" which allowed teachers to offer individualized courses. Mr. WILKINS develped some creative writing courses and guided me through the process of developing plot and characters. I was the co-editor of both our weekly school newspaper column and our yearbook and really enjoyed both of those activities. I also enjoy writing poetry and have even written a few Christmas plays for my church.

One tradition I have started with my grandchildren is writing a summary of each year in verse, accompanied by photos, and bound into a book. The little "book" reminds them of all the fun family times we had and has become something they look forward to.

Rec-News: What is the greatest challenge facing a beginning author?

DG: Confidence! Although Mr. WILKINS encouraged me to get the book published five years ago when I first shared it with him, I always feared that he was prejudiced in his assessmentn of my writing. He passed away in April 2012, and I decided that one way to memorialize my life-long friendship with him would be to get my book published.

I ran across a website called The Writer's Edge, which was a group who offered to review Christian book queries. Those submissions that passed their requirements would then be forwarded to a list of Christian publishers. Any publisher who was interested would contact the author for a complete manuscript. "To Comfort a King" made the cut and was submitted to the list of publishers the first of October 2012. Before the end of that month, I had been contacted by four different publishers, was offered a contract from two of them and signed with Winepress Publishing on November 1.

Rec-News: Describe your writing routine.

DG: Working a full-time job and being actively involved in my children's and grandchildren's lives doesn't leave a lot of writing time. Recently I was permitted to change my work schedule to four 10-hour days so I could be off every Wednesday. I have tried to devote part of those days to writing.

I do a lot of mental prep before I write. The nature trail in Mount Ayr has fostered a lot of that preparation time. When I get to a point in my writing where I don't really know what is going to happen next, I go for a walk and think about different scenarios that might work. I try to get very acquainted with my characters in my head so that the dialog I write for them just flows naturally.

The revision time I put in during the publishing process for this book taught me a lot about what editors look for when they read a manuscript. The Winepress editor assigned to my book was meticulous! She pointed out point-of-view conflicts and guided me in the correction of those spots. The proofreader then found a couple of things the editor and I had both missed during our three-stage editing process.

Rec-News: In your opinion, are writers born or can they be made?

DG: Mr. Wilkins spent much time grooming me to become a better writer by showing me different ways to put words together, but he always maintained that the ability to actually put those words down on paper was something that could not be taught. Like athletic ability, the ability to write is something that some people have, and if developed, will be something they enjoy for a lifetime.

Rec-News: In your opinion, is writing moreinspiration or perspiration?

DG: Definitely inspiration! When I have a gripping idean, I can sit and write for hours. But I have learned that getting a book published requires a lot of perspiration, too. I have read this book so many times now that I could probably quote much of it. There is much merit to the theory, "Revise, revise, revise." When the revisions are all done, then comes all the marketing effort. Inspiration is what gets and keeps an author writing. perspiration is what gets an author published.

Rec-News: What was your biggest surprise on your journey to becoming a published author?

DG: The amount of time and effort that an author will spend on the actual publshing effort was a big surprise. I have already mentioned the revision time, bu there was also the time spent writing the text for the book cover, writing the text for marketing tools, proofreading all those things, coordinating with the artist on the book cover, setting up all the social media links, and making decisions about advertising opportunities. Perhaps the most difficult part was just being patient while the book went through the whole process.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2013