Meet the Voices presents Sally Hanan. Sally is originally from Wicklow, Ireland, but managed to permanently escape the cold, wet weather with her family in 1995. The true story about being allowed into the US is that her husband got lucky with the lottery visa, but she tells people that America just couldn’t bear to be without her wit and charm. She now lives in Texas, where she is known for chumming up to people who own boats and cook rib-eye steak on the barbecue. Sally owns her own freelancing editing business and she also serves as an inner-healing ministry leader, youth pastor, lay counselor, and teacher in her home church.

What is the biggest writing challenge you’ve encountered this past year–craft, career, writing life, etc?

It’s extremly difficult to create a platfrom for oneself as a fiction writer. I have heard that publishing houses are looking for new writers, but they want those writers to be known, to a degree, already. My writing circle has been Faithwriters.com for years, but I have had to broaden my connections.

How did you solve it?

I’ve read everything I could get my eyes on and have decided to self-publish my collection of flash fiction just so that people know I can write. This doesn’t necessarily solve my dilemma, but it does show prospective agents and publishers that I am serious about getting published.

What is the one thing you learned that you can share with other writers?

I’ve learned that trying to promote myself takes hours of work each day–blogging, being active on social media sites, helping others–if you want to sell books, be prepared to work hard.

Tell us about your current WIP.

My flash fiction book Joy in a Box is almost in print. It’s a mix of humor, suspense, Christian, lit, and true life stories. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1912

I’m currently rewriting a novel called We Know The Truth about a woman scorned whose husband who values his secretive job more than his marriage.

Sally, thank you for being our featured Voice this week!

If you would like to learn more about Sally, visit her website and blog.

Visit the Voices forum and Meet the Voices thread to discuss writing, life, and everything in between with Sally. We will feature Sally as our guest Voice during a chat on Friday, August 7 at 7 PM EST. To access the My Book Therapy chat, follow these steps:

• Log onto My Book Therapy.
• Click on the forum button.
• Sign in with your username and password, if necessary.
• Along the bottom of your browser window, you will see MBT Voices Chat. Click on that and the chat window will pop up.
• Your name will show up in the box on the right hand side. To comment, type in the box in the bottom under the yellow smiley face.
• If you have any questions, send an e-mail to meetvoices@mybooktherapy.com and put Chat in the subject.