Send to KindleOur interview today is with Pastor George McVey. Thank you Pastor George for being here today and for agreeing to doing this interview.
Answer: This is a hard question for me to answer since I don’t really have a chosen genre. I just write the stories and teaching books God drops into my heart. Now having said that I’ve always been a story teller and I grew up in a family of storytellers. It was a part of our family get togethers to sit around and listen to the adults and children tell stories. True life or otherwise. So that I think is my qualifications, God given stories and a history of telling them.
Question: Tell us a little about your “real” (Non-writing) life — family, job, church life. Does it give you inspiration for your writing? Does it get in the way of your writing, or are there times when you get help, from people or circumstances?
Answer: I’ve been married to my wife, Sheri, for 26 years. We have three children Valerie, George Jr., and Alfred. I have a grandson Nathan and one on the way named Alexander, two dogs and a cat. I’m also the teaching pastor at West Charleston Baptist Church in Charleston WV. To be honest these things are both a source of inspiration for my writing and at times a hindrance. Things I encounter in my family and church life often lead me to a teaching book or a cute saying or scene in my fiction books. Having people stop by to chat with the pastor or come by my house to visit the pastor when they need to talk can get in the way of putting words on paper. However to me writing is just an extension of the ministry God has given me so in that instance I do what needs done and put aside the manuscript and help out. Then I come right back to the manuscript when I can.
Question: Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction?
Answer: I’m a huge movie and TV buff. Though I hardly ever admit it, I’m a huge geek. Scifi, Fantasy and Comic book movies and TV are my absolute favorites, with reality TV being a close second.
Question: Tell us about working with any people who help you create your books — Do you use Beta readers? Hire an editor or proofreader? How do you get your covers?
Answer: My books are a family affair. What I mean by that is both my wife and Mother-in-law are intial beta readers. Then I have a series of other people who look and give me feed back as well, including my editor and friend M.L. Donovan.
Question: Since you have several books out, tell us what you think works for promotion. What are your thoughts on ebooks versus print books and different ways to let people know about you and your books?
Answer: The best promotion is people who have read and love your books. I’m passionate about what I write and if I do it right my readers become passionate about them as well. Honestly my best selling book is my teaching book “The Complete Armor of God.” I’ve never done any promotion for it yet it consistently sells over 150 copies every month. Why because people read it and tell people about it. I’ve been contacted by readers who have talked about it in a Sunday School Class or Bible Study and the whole class or group has bought it. One man let me know his whole church purchased it for their mid week Bible study. So the best promotion is readers who share.
I like both ebooks and print books. I read both. I understand the pull of ebooks. I love my kindle and the fact that I have hundreds of books in my hand at any given time. But I also love sinking into my Lazy-boy in front of my fake fireplace and reading a good old fashioned hard back or paper back. I think there is a need for both. However, I realize that it is likely that print books will go the way of the dinosaur. If I had to choose only one way to publish it would be ebooks. I’m just glad I don’t have to choose.
Question: Tell us about your newest book. Make us want to read it.
Answer: My newest book is called ‘Redeeming Grace’ it’s the third book in my Redemption Tales series. The series follows Nathan Ryder a young preacher heading west to the New Mexico Territory to take on his first pastorate. Along the way he stops in Missiouri and aquires a gunslingers reputation, and a wife. The first two books deal with Nathan coming to terms somewhat with the douality of his callings and getting to Redemption New Mexico to start his life. I’ll let Redeeming Grace’s back cover speak for itself.
The past has caught up to Grace and the Preacher. For Grace in the woman she worked for in New York. For Nathan in the arrival of his judgemental father.
Rumors and gossip threaten to destroy Nathan’s position as pastor before it’s even really begun. Twisting the truth, Grace’s singing career becomes the focus of self-righteous church members. Nathan’s father not only disapproves of Grace but also Nathan’s dual occupations of US Marshal and Preacher. Add one determined gunslinger out to take The Preacher’s reputation and a deputy who is overcome by guilt and loss. It will take a heavy dose of God’s grace to survive.
What do you do when your past threatens your future? When people forget what God’s forgiveness is all about? How, as pastor, will Nathan get them to see what should be obvious?
Is there anything that isn’t covered by Redeeming Grace?
Question: Share something that’s amazing, touching, or that makes you angry.
Answer: The most amazing thing that has ever happened to me as a writer was receiving an email from a recently returned solider who had been in Afghanistan. He was thanking me for Redeeming Reputation because he had been struggling with how to live with killing men in battle as a Christian. He said when he read who Nathan was struggling with that same issue and the answer he came up with helped him to overcome his own struggle. That was the most amazing touching thing I have ever had happen. To know that this book I wrote helped someone with something so personal and deep. That’s what keeps me writing.
Question: What’s the worst trouble you ever had with getting a book written (plots, finding needed information, getting a cover done)?
Answer: Actually I am working on a book now that is giving me trouble. It is the second book in my Spiritual Warfare for End Times Warriors series. I’ve been working on it for over a year. I can teach on the topic and I use the information in my ministry. However, for some reason I just can’t seem to get it on paper. I don’t know why but I keep praying about it and pick it up and work on it every now and again.
Question: What’s your next project? Tell us so we can’t wait for it to come out!
Answer: Well my next project is a collaboration with Sophie Dawson where the main characters of Redemption Tales visit the town of Cottonwood from Sophie’s Cottonwood Series.
Question: What is your current WIP?
Answer: Well it’s Nanowrimo so my current WIP is my entry for that, it’s called “A Terrorist Tale.” It’s a different sort of story for me in that it isn’t a western and there isn’t any romance. It’s about an ex-navy SEAL who is asked to go off the grid and eliminate terrorists threats against our country after 9/11. In the future he is given a list of terrorist to eliminate and it is his and his teams own Christian family members. They have to decide do they follow orders or follow God? Not only that but who is actually giving these orders and why?
Question: How many books do you have out?
Answer: I have seven books out counting Redeeming Grace. They can all be found on my Amazon Author Page
Question: What are your future projects?
Answer: Well for 2014 there are two more Redemption Tales to be written tentatively titled ‘Redeeming Time and Redeeming Family, then there is a book about Nathan’s famous grandfather Nugget Nate that I also want to write this year. I also need to finish the second booklet in my Spiritual Warfare series.
Question: Are their characters/stories/scenes/etc based on anything in real life?
Answer: A fun fact here is in my Redemption Tale series I do include some real life famous people of the wild west. I also include several characters from famous western TV shows. I won’t tell you who or where but my fans tell me that is one of the fun discoveries they get to make in my books.
Question: What is your writing style?
Answer: People ask me that and my answer is two fold. One I fly by the seat of my pants. As we know some writers plot out their books, not me. I have a general idea where I’m going but the characters drive my books, they have to tell me where they’re going and what they’re doing. The second answer is this in fiction I am a storyteller. I write in the style that I tell stories in real life. I guess you would call it conversational. It is one of the biggest compliments I get in my non-fiction that reading them is like being in one of my bible-study classes.
Website: http://georgemcvey.webs.com/
Blog: http://georgesshorts.wordpress.com/
Amazon Author Page