"Dreams Revised" by Sharon Dunn - WIN A BOOK!

A big welcome to today’s guest blogger, author Sharon Dunn!

A Dream Revised

Sometimes it is not that we need to give up our dreams, we just need to revise them. From an early age, I gravitated toward the arts. When I was 14, I decided to become an actress. At high school graduation being an actress was my strongest desire and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. That was my dream.

I performed in plays, won awards and was going to major in theater in college. When my mother expressed concern about a job, I compromised and majored in Film production while still taking theater classes and performing. Enter marriage and my first baby. Working professionally and traveling was out of the question, so I thought I would continue to do community theater. After being a part of a church production, I realized that would not work with having a family. I wasn’t getting paid and I was gone four or five hours a night to rehearse. It wasn’t fair to my family. After some prayer I was fine with giving up the theater, but still I had all this creative energy.

Writing worked with having children. I could slip away to the computer while the kids napped or hubby watched them and it allowed me to express myself creatively. At first, I worked on shorter things like articles and skits and then I decided to tackle a novel. In 2003, my first novel was published.

What I hadn’t realized is that the work I had done in theater and film production was not wasted time. I understood story structure from the study of film and developing character on the page was very similar to work that went into portraying a character on stage. Many writers point out that it can take up to ten years to really learn how to write a novel. With my theater and film training, I was ahead of the learning curve.

Giving up the theater was a hard decision even though I knew it was the right decision. I had never pictured myself as a writer though now after five novels, I can’t imagine any other life.

Life is about compromise and putting relationships first. I could not pursue my dream at the expense of my family. But God knew what would be the perfect fit for my talent, training and my family. Perhaps you have had a dream and because of life circumstances, you thought you had to let it die. Revisit that dream, maybe there are possibilities for revision.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharon is the author of five mysteries for the Christian reader. Her books have been characterized as humorous who-dun-its. Sharon lives with her hubby of 21 years, three kids, three cats and lots of dust bunnies. You can read more about Sharon and her books at http://www.sharondunnbooks.com/.


ABOUT THE SERIES
The Bargain Hunters mysteries features four women bonded together by the need to clip coupons and be first in line at doorbuster sales. In this award winning first installment in the series, Death of a Garage Sale Newbie, the head bargain hunter Ginger finds herself drawn into a mystery when her best friend and fellow coupon clipper goes missing. Could her friend’s disappearance have anything to do with the items she bought at garage sales? Join Ginger and the gang as they hunt down clues and good deals.

WIN THE BOOK

If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Death of a Garage Sale Newbie, just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on February 16th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) Good luck!