Let me introduce my friend and fellow author, Regina Walker. I’m so happy to welcome her as a guest blogger today on Jenny Knipfer–Author. Regina writes contemporary Christian fiction. Her first novel, We Go On, focused on a family learning to function again after enduring a season of grief. Following is Regina’s guest post.
Why I Write
First, I want to thank Jenny for hosting me today. I have been so inspired and encouraged by our friendship. If you haven’t already grabbed a copy of her By the Light of the Moon series, you need to. I’ve enjoyed reading them immensely.
My name is Regina and I am so excited to be here with you today, dear readers. I have published a contemporary Christian fiction. I have a non-fiction in mind, and I’m already working on a second contemporary Christian fiction. I also blog regularly, and I’m working on writing devotionals for several outlets.
That’s my what – I write. It’s pretty easy to sum up the what. It’s a little bit harder to explain the why.
The easy why is that I write to glorify God and point others toward Him, to remind others of His love, and to shine a spotlight on His grace. This seems like such an obvious answer for someone writing in Christian genres – of course, we are writing to glorify God.
So, let me tell you a little more about me and my journey with words.
I am in my thirties and I am a wife and a mom of seven. We have a blended family. We’ve owned two towing businesses and a feed store, and they all came to a sad end. I grew up in Colorado but imported to Oklahoma when I was sixteen.
I was homeschooled from 3rd grade through graduation. My favorite subject in school was Language Arts. I excelled when writing essays and small papers. As I got older, I enjoyed creative writing as an extra class. I wrote poems constantly. I even played a writing-based online game where we were all horse owners/breeders/racers/competitors.
I journaled often when I was overwhelmed or hurting or elated. It seemed that no matter what life sent my way, I turned to my pen and paper to record how I felt or what I thought. In my early twenties, I was a new mom, writing to explore and understand my experiences in motherhood when I felt the first tug of the Holy Spirit on my heart. I started a blog pretty quickly. Still to this day, I blog. I’ve practiced and honed my writing in so many ways on that blog. It is a history of me, of sorts.
I felt called to start my first book, a novel, ten years ago. I drafted it in a few months time and began revising it. I never could get it to a place I felt comfortable with. I ended up shelving that project. In the ten years between that drafted novel and today, I’ve started countless manuscripts. I think there are about fifteen on this harddrive.
Two years ago, I was two years into being sicker than I ever remember in my life. I was having migraines that would last for 42 days. I was in pain. I was having electrical shocks through my body. It was a nightmare, and I didn’t know exactly what was wrong. I was also running a feed store while my husband was running a towing business. I took 5 of the 7 kids to work with me every day to do their schoolwork while I ran the store. I had been without insurance, but I finally got a policy and began seeing doctors.
My primary care doctor was incredible and took the problems seriously. It took about four appointments with various specialists and a long MRI, but it was determined that I have an Arnold Chiari Malformation I. We joke from time to time that my brain is falling out of my head or that I have more brains than I can contain. Realistically, my cerebellar tonsils have herniated into my spinal canal. The flow of spinal fluid is often blocked or limited and causes a wealth of weird symptoms.
It is a strange thing to face, but it has been a fire to my purpose. It has been my fire to focusing on the Lord, His call on my life, and doing what He made me to do. He made me to write. So I am writing. It took me a couple of years to really find my feet with writing again after my diagnosis.
This year, my word is obedience. As the Lord has drawn my eyes to focus on Him and on the work He has for me, He also immediately impressed upon my heart that I need to get to writing. Each word that I pen feels like a victory. It is obedience to my Lord and Saviour, and it is how I overcome limitations in my physical body. Some days, we can hardly tell I’m sick, other days, I thank God that my fingers still work to type because of all the things that don’t work right.
This is my why – because obeying my call honors and glorifies my God. Because obeying my call gives me a way to win and overcome an illness that is without a cure. Because obeying my calling will point others to my heavenly Father.
Until next time,
Regina Walker released her debut novel, We Go On, this year. She crafts compelling characters facing some of life’s hardest challenges. Her heart’s desire is to always point toward Jesus through the way her characters face challenges, relationships, and adversity. Regina is an Oklahoma import, although she was born and raised in the beautiful state of Colorado. She likes to curl up on the couch and binge-watch crime shows with her hard-working husband. When she’s not wrestling with a writing project, she can be found wrangling their children, riding their horses, or working around their small hobby farm.
MY REVIEW:
We Go On, by Regina Walker
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Go On is a contemporary Christian novel, telling the tale of one family and how they deal with their grief and manage life after a tragic incident.
With a surprise link to the one she mourns, Liz starts on the road to healing with a curry comb and boots and a horse she knows nothing about. Misunderstandings and the fact that they process their grief differently keep Liz and Josh on different emotional levels.
Will Liz, Josh, and their son, Tyler, learn to cope and trust that God will somehow bring about something redeeming from the pain they’ve suffered, or will they allow their troubles to delve them into separation and a valley of bitterness?
Walker lays out the drama, stress, and emotional pain of the characters in a believable way but leaves the door open for hope and a way to go on.
Thank you!
Thanks so much for reading, and thanks to Regina for being a guest blogger today. One of the best things about being an author is connecting with other authors and making new friends! I hope you have the opportunity to read Regina’s hopeful novel.
Blessings, J