FEATURED AUTHOR: Camy Tang

Please give the readers a brief bio on you the person and the writer.

I grew up in Wahiawa, Hawai'i, a small town right in the center of the island of O'ahu. I worked as a biologist researcher for nine years, but in 2003, I felt God's calling to write Christian fiction.

Outside of writing, my husband and I are staff workers with our youth group at an Asian Christian church in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a mutt we adopted from the Santa Clara animal shelter named Snickers.

When I first started writing, I didn't know if God was going to allow my novels to be published, but the entire experience has taught me
more about entirely, completely, totally depending upon Him, and
submitting to Him aspects of my life that I never realized I was
trying to keep control over.

Tell us about your current book?

Here's the back cover blurb:

Will Trish Sakai be able to follow her three simple rules and hold out against two gorgeous guys?

Trish Sakai is ready for a change from her wild, flirtatious behavior. And her three cousins are anxious for her to change, too. Trish is always knocking something over, knocking herself out, and taking hard knocks in her perpetual confusion about men.

When Trish's ex-boyfriend, Kazuo the artist, keeps popping up at all the wrong moments, Trish decides to be firm with herself. She creates three simple rules from First and Second Corinthians and plans to follow them to the letter. No more looking at men! No more dating non-Christians! She will persevere in hardship by relying on God.

Except now Kazuo is claiming Trish is his muse, and he can't complete his major work of art without her. And a gorgeous coworker is reassigned, bringing him in daily contact with Trish. But her cousins are determined to hold her accountable to her plan. She thought three rules would be a cinch, but suddenly Trish's simple rules don't seem so simple after all.

What would you like your readers to take away from your book?

The theme of grace is laced throughout Only Uni--grace not just for
our big mistakes, but for our daily walk with him, for all the little
mistakes that plague us. God cares about every aspect of our lives,
and even when we stumble, He's there to help us through.

What's something you wish you'd known earlier that might have saved you some
time/frustration in the publishing business?

As a beginning writer, I was just too arrogant about my own writing,
which I thought was brilliant. I submitted it to agents and editors
before my writing craft was really up to snuff. None of those agents
or editors held it against me, especially when they saw my writing
improve as I started winning contests, but what they say about a first
impression is absolutely true. I wish I'd waited a year or two, waited
for my writing to become good enough to start finaling and winning
contests, before I sent it off to industry professionals. Several
editors' first views of my writing were abysmal, and I can't help
wondering if they'd have been more keen to look at later manuscripts
if my first one hadn't been quite so bad.

This month our theme is Children Writing. Have you ever considered writing
a children book?

No, I don't really feel called to write for children, but I do feel
called to write for teens, since I've been working with my church
youth group for 12 years. I have a young adult novel proposal being
shopped around, but no news on any bites yet.

Any advice for new writers?

This is not going to make anyone very happy, but my advice is to be
patient. Don't be so quick to send your manuscripts to editors and
agents--spend some time with critique partners and contests first.
Don't be so impatient to become published, even though you're finaling
and winning those contests. All things happen in God's timing, and
even though no one likes to hear it, it's true. It will happen when
God wants it to happen, not just because we want it badly enough. It's
entirely possible that there are things we need to learn first before
God gives us that publishing contract--I know it was true for me.

How can readers get in contact with you? (mail, email, website)

My website is: http://www.camytang.com/

And I blog five days a week: http://camys-loft.blogspot.com/

I have a great website contest going on right now, giving away 5 boxes
of Christian fiction! It's only open to my newsletter YahooGroup
members, so join today: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Camys_Loft/join

Thanks for having me here, LaShaunda!

Camy

We have a free copy of Camy's book to a lucky winner who tells us one of their dating rules.