When God Calls You To Be A Writer | Shira J. Rodriguez

 When God Calls You To Be A Writer | Shira J. Rodriguez   

blog interview + blog tour for Novelist In November 

Hi friend! 

Today I am so incredibly excited to be sharing an interview I did with the incredibly talented, old soul, lover of books, writer extraordinaire, podcaster, Christian, my lovely bestie: Shira J. Rodriguez! 

I had such a fun time with Shira! I’m so excited to share this interview with you! I hope you enjoy our conversation and you found some inspiration while reading. 

Feel free to join in on the conversation by commenting down below! You can also connect with Shira with the links below! 

• Connect with Shira: https://bio.site/shirajrodriguez 

• Subscribe to her newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/81c04af69141/join-my-email-list 

• Get Novelists In November: https://wildbluewonderpress.com/novelists-in-november/ 

• Preorder goodies: https://wildbluewonderpress.com/preorders/ 

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, pull up a chair and come join us in our conversation about writing, books, faith, Shira’s story and more! 

Hello Shira, dear! Welcome to The Fable Rose blog! I am so delighted to have you here! Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this little interview with me! 

Moriyah!!! AHHHH!!! *squeals and hugs* I’m so thrilled to be here!! Thank YOU for inviting me!! And readers, I’m so excited to meet you too!! I’m delighted you’re here!! *give a big hug*

Imagine we are sitting together at a coffee shop (us and our lovely friends reading this). Some classical music is playing in the background. The smell of fresh brewed coffee fills the room. People are chatting in the background. Maybe we are in a bookstore coffee shop so books fill the walls and there is a lovely little fireplace we sit beside to chat together. Speaking of being at a coffee shop, what is your drink order? And are you a coffee or tea person? Right now I am a tea person so I would most likely order an iced pumpkin chai. 

Well, first off, that sounds gloriously bookish and cozy! I’d want to live here forever! But yes, I’ll often do either one. I dote on herbal teas (I’m really loving Yogi tea’s Immunity and Stress tea…it’s so calming. I love it!) but occasionally will have a mug of decaf coffee and oatmilk. And with a drizzle of caramel…chef’s kiss.

Aww! I’m so glad! That sounds delicious! For those who haven’t met you yet, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? *takes a sip of tea* 

Absolutely! I’m Shira and I love helping people find life-changing books and write life-changing stories! I know that feeling of finishing a book feeling a bit “meh” instead of inspired and in love with the characters and story. And I want to help you read more books that make you see life as more beautiful than you ever imagined it. 

But here’s the thing, I also think  people underestimate how many stories they have buried within themselves. And if you dig deep enough, anyone can write a life-changing story if you write from the very deepest, most authentic part of you and tell the story nobody but you can tell. 

So that’s why I host Her Reading Life Podcast, where I recommend some of my favorite books as well as give writing tips and advice! You can find the video episodes on YouTube (where I also post reading and writing life vlogs!) and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other favorite streaming service!! I also delight in posting aesthetic reels on Instagram, where you can take a peek into my daily life!

Oh my goodness! Shira, I love that! Everyone has a story to tell. We all are stories weaving into each others lives. It really is such a beautiful thing! Friends, you should totally follow Shira’s podcast because it is amazing! 

You wrote a beautiful short story that is going to be PUBLISHED and featured in the cozy autumnal dark academia anthology Novelists In November! Ahh!!! I am so beyond excited for this story to be out there in the world! I had such a pleasure getting to read this story early and I fell in love with the story, setting and the amazing characters! Can you tell us a little bit about your short story and what it's called? 

Awwwww, you are so absolutely precious and amazing, girl!!! I’m honestly so grateful you got to read it and loved the characters and story!!! 

My story “The Lost History of Lavender Lockbourne” is only one of the incredible stories included in the wonderful Novellists in November Anthology! I’ve had the privilege of reading least one other of the amazing stories in this anthology and if you love sweaters, thanksgiving, autumn vibes and mugs of steaming tea and cozy scones, you will adore this anthology collection.

“The Lost History of Lavender Lockbourne” tells the story of a young and timid bestselling author with terminal leukemia named Lavender Lockbourne who must look for the parents she lost in a foreign country before her time runs out, unearthing a whirlwind story and family secrets she could never have imagined.

Here’s the full blurb:

It’s November 20, 1984, and Lavender Leoni’s time is running out.

A bestselling romance author struggling with social anxiety, she’s been diagnosed with terminal leukemia just  two weeks shy of her twenty-sixth birthday. Or what she assumes to be her birthday. Her only hope of ever tracing her lost family hinges on a single locket left in the box where her adopted parents found her while on a trip to Yorkshire, England. As her fate ticks down, she sets out on a journey back to her birthplace to unearth her lost history, where the answers – or the lack of them – may haunt her for the rest of her life.

This story is at once humorous and poignant, told from Lavender’s piquant and observant perspective as she wrestles with her own anxieties and fears, as well as the decades-old secrets that lie far in her unknown past. It deals with grief, love, friendship, and anxiety and begs the question every broken family asks: whether loving someone is ever not worth the effort?

Told in the tradition of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, and All Creatures Great and Small, this story will be welcomed with open arms by all old-soul book girls who love stories of hope, healing, and the pursuit of happiness.

I wrote this as an homage to all the timeless classic stories we loved as children. The warm feeling of a good story and the relish of little things that delight your heart, like girlish sisterly banter and  mysterious dark houses and tea and scones. I really strove to write everything I wanted to read within these  pages. I know what it’s like to yearn for that feeling of “home” in a book and that’s exactly what you’ll get with each of these beautiful stories.

I love how in your story you wanted there to be the feeling of finding “home” in its pages. You definitely succeeded with your story! I can’t wait for more people to read your stories (as well as all the other amazing stories in the Novelists In November anthology) and find home!

You host an amazing podcast called Her Reading Life podcast that I highly recommend everyone to listen to if you love books, the feeling of sitting down and chatting with a friend and listening in on some amazing interviews (Shira is such a wonderful host). In one of your episodes you mentioned that The Lost History of Lavender Lockbourne was inspired by Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I know you are an avid reader and lover of stories. A topic that we’ve discussed a lot together is the importance of reading books, especially classics, to learn how to write stories and have them be an influence on our writing. I was wondering if you are willing to share a bit about this topic. How have classics influenced your writing? What is something valuable you have learned from these great and beloved stories? 

Oh my goodness, girl, you know you and I can talk for hours about this!! But yes, classics have influenced everything about my writing. When I was in high school, I wasn’t able to find a creative writing curriculum that taught me how to write in a way that resonated with me. Classics have been my first love ever since I was young and showed me how to tell a story that transcends space and time. 

So I designed a curriculum of my own that would use the classics as a basis for my education. I began to imitate many books from the canon of British Literature, including Beowulf (you would not believe how  much it  can help you to imitate Anglo-Saxon poetry! Seriously!), Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolfe, and even Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

Funny story, “The Lost History of Lavender Lockbourne” started off as a Wuthering Heights short story imitation! Of course, I eventually changed about 60% of the story (such as setting it in the 1980’s instead of 1920’s and starting the story in New York instead of Chicago), but the main concept and themes came from that project, which is why Wuthering Heights and its themes  played such a significant role in this story!

Something valuable that I’ve learned from studying these beautiful tomes is that good stories are timeless. They reach out beyond the limits of time and space and still grip your heart today the same way it did its original readers. In fact, maybe more. Because you are instantly connected to the readers of the past, present, and future. These stories aren’t good because they are old. They are old and yet still sold in bookstores because they are deeply, richly, heart-wrenchingly good stories. They’re stories that present a mirror to ourselves and lift our chins and force our eyes to look deeply within ourselves and ask ourselves, “Who are we? Who do we want to be? What could we become?” Because that’s what a truly good story does. It outlives its writer and speaks with words all its own and makes its home in the hearts of hundreds of people across time and space.

I love how The Lost History Of Lavender Lockbourne began as a Wuthering Heights short story imitation! That is so fun!

This is SO beautiful!!! I love how you describe books! You give words to the magical feeling of reading books (especially to the timeless classics). I could hear you talk about books for hours honestly!

What is one way that faith has played a part in your writing life? I know for myself that faith is SO important to me and my writing. That is really how my writing journey started. I would really love to hear from you how your faith as a Christian and believer in Jesus has affected or has been impactful on your writing.  

YESSS!!! This is such a good question!! 

So here’s the thing, I was never really supposed to be a writer. When my mom felt God calling her to homeschool me, she thought, “Absolutely not. There’s no way I’m doing this. I’m not a teacher and English isn’t even my first language.” But she still felt that nudge from God. And even my dad surprised her by suggesting she put it on trial over the summer.

Well, let’s just say the trial went so well, we kept it up for thirteen years!

So for me, the fact that I do write and and love English literature, written in a language that was an immense challenge for my mom to speak, let alone teach, is an immense miracle. I think that’s why words are so precious to me. I know it’s an incredible gift. I was never supposed to and yet I do. What my beautiful mother felt was her weakness, God turned into her strength.

So for me, writing reminds me over and over, that nothing is impossible. If God sends me to do something, I think, “Okay, God, you’ve been faithful so far. You’ll be faithful to this dream you’ve put in my heart, too.” Jesus doesn’t call the people who have it all together. He calls the people still fixing their nets, the people who haven’t caught anything all night, the people who’ve tried all the doctors and are on their last threads of hope. The people who who know only God could have written their story the way he did.

There’s a verse that’s always impacted me deeply, even from when I was little. It’s become my prayer every time I don’t know what to say in a public setting or when I sit down to write in front of a blank screen (or in interviews like this one!):

“But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20 NIV) 

So I turn them into little breath prayers where I say, “Holy Spirit, give me the words.”

And guess what?

He always comes through.

Every time.

*cries* Shira! I love your story and your strong faith! It really is so inspiring and beautiful! I love seeing your walk with God and how He lead you to writing. I love hearing how you become a homeschooler and your mom’s trust in the Lord even when she felt like she wasn’t able. God was her strength. It is so beautiful and I can see her strong faith evident in you and your life, Shira. It is such a blessing to have parents who are strong in their faith and who pass down that faith into us. We get to continue on in that legacy of faith!

That verse has always been such an encouragement to me! You have no idea how many times I have prayed those words. I’m so thankful God through the Holy Spirit speaks to us and through us and gives us the words we need! What a blessing!

My final question—I know this has been a lot so thank you for sticking around and answering all these questions—is how can people find you? 

Hahaha! These are all AMAZING questions, lovely!! I’m so grateful to have had the immense opportunity to be on your blog (which, I’ve been a HUGEEEE fan of since before I met Moriyah, so it was kind of a dream come true to meet her. And now she’s one of my besties????? Only God, guys!! Lol!). 

My door is always open at Her Reading Life Podcast, where I invite you on a virtual coffee date to talk all about finding life-changing books and writing life-changing stories! It’s available on YouTube, Spotify, and any other one of your favorite podcast listening platforms!

And you can always pop over onto my Instagram and Pinterest, where I share aesthetic reels on my daily life and writing inspiration. I love encouraging people to pursue what they love, so definitely follow if you want writing inspo and encouragement!!

And then you can also sign up to my email newsletter here: (bio.site/shirajrodriguez) and get exclusive semi-monthly updates on my writing and all my other fun projects I’ll be releasing soon!! (Including a podcast workshop and merch…?? For the record, I didn’t say anything, okay?)

Aww! You are the sweetest! Shira is seriously the best! She is such a beacon of light and never fails to encourage me or bring a smile to my face! I am such a HUGE fan of hers and I’m so excited to continue to see all the amazing things God is coming in her life!

Ahhh!!! That is so exciting! We’ll keep your secret *shh*. You guys, make sure to subscribe to her emails to get all the amazing updates! Shira also posts occasional writing snippet in her newsletters that are AMAZING!

Thank you so so much Shira for being here and doing this little interview for the blog! It has been so wonderful to have you here! I love any time we get to chat and this has been so special to have you on my blog! 

My darling, it’s always a delight to get to chat with you!! We totally need to do this more!! 

(And y’all, Moriyah is absolutely incredible, so if you’re not following her yet, put down whatever you’re doing and follow this blog, sign up to her email list, and follow her Pinterest. She’s amazing and deserves all the love in the world!)

Aww! That you so much friend! Please go support Shira and all the amazing things she is doing! You are going to love listening to her podcast, watching her YouTube videos, seeing behind the scenes on her Instagram (and Pinterest) and getting her lovely newsletters!

Friends! Don’t forget to order Novelists In November! It comes out November 19th and if you preorder there are some exciting goodies you can receive including a scrumptious recipe and an exclusive audiobook specifically for Shira’s story along with other goodies from the other featured authors in the anthology! 

Ahhh!!! Wasn’t that conversation just amazing?!? I had such a fun time doing this interview with Shira! It was so amazing hearing how even though it wasn’t her plan to be a writer, God had an amazing calling on her life! Now we see evidence of this in her beautiful short story she is publishing in the Novelists In November anthology. 

I was tearing up hearing about her mom’s faith in trusting in God while homeschooling. What an incredible testimony! I hope you enjoyed reading along with us! Hopefully we can bring Shira back for a guest post or something because that was just so lovely getting to chat and have her over here! 

Don’t forget to PREORDER Novelists In November! If you preorder you can snag some incredible pre order goodies! Specifically for Shira’s beautiful story, you will receive an audiobook of her story, a bonus short story from one of my personal favorite characters and a delicious recipe inspired by the story! Trust me when I say that you do not want to miss these goodies!* 

*I am not an affiliate. I am just a huge fangirl of this story and want you all to read this story and get these amazing preorder goodies before the time is up! 

Thank you Shira for coming on the blog and for doing this interview with me! This was so fun and I hope to have you on my blog again soon! 

Want to learn more about Novelists In November? You are in luck because we are doing a BLOG TOUR! Come back this Friday for my review of Shira’s story, then on the 19th we’ll be celebrating release day, on the 22 we’ll be having another one of the authors come to do a guest post on my blog! That’s not all, for the full blog tour schedule, check out the list below! 

Blog Tour Information: 

Buy the book: https://wildbluewonderpress.com/novelists-in-november/ 

Follow our host: https://kellynrothauthor.com/blog/ 

Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, Nov. 11th

Intro Post by Kell @ Lilacs & Reveries

“Write Into Fall Tag” by Andrea @ Andrea Renee Cox & screenwriter87 (Twitter/X)

Anthology Spotlight + Interview with Andrea Renee Cox  by Sara G. Miller @ Baking Up Stories 

Interview with Heather Flynn by DevotedToHope @ Devoted To Hope

Interview with Shira J. Rodriguez by Moriyah Cordova @ Fable Rose

Tuesday, Nov. 12th

Anthology Spotlight by M.C. Kennedy @ Graceful Reflections & Instagram

Anthology Spotlight by Faith Gilliosa @ Faith on the Farm

Interview with Andrea Renee Cox by DevotedToHope @ Devoted To Hope

Wednesday, Nov. 13th

Anthology Spotlight by Faith @ FaithDCox.com/blog & FaithDCox (X/Twitter)

Anthology Spotlight & Interview with Faith D. Cox by DevotedToHope @ Devoted To Hope

Interview with Bethany Willcock by DevotedToHope @ Devoted To Hope

Thursday, Nov. 14th

Interview with Andrea Renee Cox by Alena @ Alena Mentink 

Anthology Spotlight by Lorelei Angelino on Facebook

Interview with Katja H. Labonté by DevotedToHope @ Devoted To Hope

Friday, Nov. 15th

Resharing of “Write Into Fall Tag” by Andrea Renee Cox @ screenwriter87 (Twitter/X)

Anthology Spotlight by Riley G. @ Nerd of the Arts

Guest Post from Kellyn Roth by Rachel Leitch @  ProseWorthy   

Anthology/Story Review by Moriyah Cordova @ Fable Rose 

Monday, Nov. 18th

Interview with Kelsey Bryant by Faith Blum @ faithblumauthor (Instagram) 

“Release Day Tomorrow” by Andrea Renee Cox @ Andrea Renee Cox & screenwriter87 (Twitter/X)

Tuesday, Nov. 19th (LAUNCH DAY)

“Introducing . . . Novelists in November” by Kell @ Lilacs & Reveries

Anthology/Story Review by M.C. Kennedy @ Graceful Reflections & mckennedy.author (Instagram)

Interview with Bethany Willcock by Faith Gilliosa @ Faith on the Farm

Anthology Spotlight by Moriyah Cordova @ Fable Rose 

Anthology/Story Review by DevotedToHope @ Devoted To Hope 

Wednesday, Nov. 20th

Guest Post & Giveaway by Faith D. Cox @ Deena Adams’s blog

Anthology/Story Review  by Emma @ Emma Crooks + newsletter & Anthology Spotlight on emma.crooks.books (Instagram) 

Thursday, Nov. 21st

Guest Post from Kellyn Roth by Cate VanNostrand @ Southern Story Scribbler 

Anthology Spotlight by Naomi Sowell @ naomisowellwrites (Instagram)  

Friday, Nov. 22nd

Wrapup Post by Kell @ Lilacs & Reveries

Resharing of “Release Day Tomorrow” by Andrea Renee Cox @ screenwriter87 (Twitter/X)
Interview with Katja H. Labonté by Riley G. @ Nerd of the Arts 

Guest Post from Kellyn Roth by Moriyah Cordova @ Fable Rose

Thank you all for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! I’ll see you soon! 

Love,

Moriyah