It really is funny how we met people in this Internet age. I guess the equivalent of how I met Lisa would be walking into a Hoedown in a town you’ve never been to before after a long ride on your horse where you fell asleep and the horse picked the destination.
So how did I meet her? Completely by chance after doing a google search for designers! But Lisa isn’t a designer… after striking up a Ravelry conversation, low and behold I discovered she’s an author! And not only an author, a generous soul who’s offering two of her titles as a prize for our Hoedown Showdown event. Please join me saying “howdy” to Lisa!
Q1. Your titles are very inspiring:
Come On In, Taking the Hassle out of Hospitality
Knit with Love, Stories to Warm a Knitter’s Heart
Knit, Purl, Pray
Drawn From The Heart, Drawn to Worship, & Drawn into Christmas
Would you mind sharing a bit about how each book came about?
Come On In was a brainstorm with an editor I met at Mount Hermon Christian Writing Conference. Judi and I had met in 2001 and enjoyed each other so much, but we didn’t have a project in mind we could work on together. I kept at it though. In 2004 I wanted to do a book about recipes I love and the stories behind them. Judi helped refine the idea so it had much more meat. It became a feast of how entertaining is all about your guests not your clean house or perfect food. I love that as my editor Judi elevated the book to something about the gift of hospitality rather than a bunch of how to tips for cooking.
Knit With Love was a pet project. After collecting stories for the hospitality book I realized that format would work beautifully for all the stories I heard at knit night. It was fun to pull together stories from folks I knew and even better to discover stories about knitting love from others. I sought out of stories about how different knit charities started and it was a real joy to interview other knitters.
Knit Purl Pray continued my knit themed writing. When I was writing the first knit book I didn’t have a lot of time to actually knit. So when it was over I took off several months for new projects. But I was still in writing mode. As I knit a thought would pop in my head about how this or that part of knitting led me to a prayer moment or a God thought or a lovely reminder of my faith. So I started writing those thoughts down. 52 devotions later it was time to find a publisher. I was thrilled when Pamela at Worthy Inspired decided to take on the project and be my editor.
Finally the devotional coloring books. This was a real case of the right idea at the right time. A little background first. I worked as a graphic designer for a decade before becoming a wife, mom and author. After that I still loved to use my design skills but for Christmas cards and birthday parties not getting paid for graphics. Then while again attending the Mount Hermon Christian Writing Conference in 2015 I took all my notes with magic markers and doodled a lot just for fun. I shared my doodles a little on Facebook and got a lovely reaction. I’d been searching for my next devotional project (devotions being my favorite format) and thought why not marry my drawings with my words. I passed the idea by my agent, Janet and she was all for it. The timing was right. It was the summer of 2015 and the coloring book craze was in full swing. We acted quickly. Janet sold the idea to Pamela at Worthy Inspired. (Yes the very same lovely editor of Knit Purl Pray.) I wrote and drew three books in ten months so we could release them in the fall of 2016. It was incredibly fast but so very satisfying. The strong team at Worthy was very helpful when I got stuck. But I didn’t get stuck that often, I had the experience of creating something with God rather than making something for Him. It was a very exciting year.
Q2. What upcoming titles do we have to look forward to? Will anything be coming out soon?
After 2016, the year of coloring books, I took a break. Then there were a few family things came up that needed my attention. Now I’ve been tinkering with some new ideas but they are in baby form and not ready to share. You’ll have time to knit and color while you wait. teehee
Q3. On your website you have the tag line “She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands” Proverbs 31:13. How has this verse impacted you as an author?
What a great question. I love this verse because it seems to give heavenly permission to knit. Teehee As an author it means I look at things from a warm and fuzzy perspective and use the tools and topics at hand to write about my faith. Writing about baking or hiking or knitting or whatever I come to my keyboard with eager hands to share my ah-ha moments.
Q4. What is a Guidepost writer and how has it impacted your writing?
Guideposts is a little magazine with the tagline: True stories of hope and inspiration. It was founded by Normand Vincent Peale in 1945, and been going strong ever since. Every even numbered year Guideposts holds a Writers Workshop Contest. I entered in 2008 with two stories but didn’t make the cut. I tried again in 2010 with three stories and was one of 12 people selected from 4,000 entrants. The prize was to go to New York for a week and learn how to be a writer for Guideposts magazine. It was very exciting. I met some good writer friends as well as the lovely staff from Guideposts. My relationship with Guideposts continues today, as they like to say, “Once a workshopper, always a workshopper.” I’ve been in a magazine five times now. And for four years I wrote for the Daily Guideposts, which was my favorite. So I guess you could say their impact has been national recognition and a humble heart when I still get story ideas rejected.
Q5. Pudles and I “zug” too! We bop around in a clubman ?. Do you get a lot of inspiration when out and about driving and hiking or does it come when you are snug up at home knitting and baking?
Yes. Okay I’ll expand a little on that. First of all I LOVE driving a mini cooper, such a fun zippy car. As for inspiration I like to keep an eye out for ah-ha moments all the time. Hiking is a perfect time to rest and marvel over creation so yes sometimes I get ideas then. Snug at home I am usually knitting and that often gives rise to good ideas as my mind can wonder. I also find inspiration in listening to different interview shows/podcasts and I can knit at the same time! My current favorites are Off Camera with Sam Jones and Impact Theory with Tim Bilyeu on YouTube. I also have been known to wander through the TED talk listings and see what’s new. What I’m saying is be open! Ideas strike when you are not looking.
Puddles species to species question. What role does Pepper play in your creative endeavors?
Ah Puddles, Pepper is a very old kitty these days. He’s 19! He sleeps so much that his part of my creative endeavors is being a warm purring body next to mine while I knit. Pepper has never been a kitty who liked to play with my yarn so he’s always been welcome to cuddle up next to me whatever project I have on the needles.
You can find Lisa around the world wide web in the following places:
Website: http://lisabogart.com/
Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/people/LisaWriter
Ravelry Group: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/knit-with-love
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaBogartAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisabogartauthor/
Where to purchase her titles! Website book list link: http://www.lisabogart.com/html/books.html – books available on B&N, amazon, and Christianbook with select titles also available on Lifeway, Indiebound
And if you are interested in some of the writing and podcasts, she mentioned in the interview, here are those links as well!
https://www.guideposts.org/ – Guideposts magazine
http://writers.mounthermon.org/ – Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=impact+theory – Impact Theory
https://offcamera.com/ – Off Camera with Sam Jones
https://www.ted.com/ – TED talks (Technology Entertainment Design)
And I did say prizes… here are the titles YOU could win in the Hoedown Showdown FO thread!
