Meet and Greet: Terry Burns

Book Giveaway Drawing! 
Read the details later in this post.


Terry Burns is an agent with Hartline Literary. He also writes inspirational fiction. As a writer he has over 40 books in print, including 10 novels. A new series from Port Yonder Press entitled “The Sagebrush Collection” features his short works. The first, “On the Road Home,” released in March 2010.  A Young Adult title, Beyond the Smoke, won the Will Rogers Medallion. “A Writer’s Survival Guide to Publication” from Port Yonder Press, developed out of his month-long course for American Christian Fiction Writers. Terry is a popular speaker at workshops across the country. Find a bookstore of his available works as well as a regular blog at www.terryburns.net.


BRC: How would you describe On the Road Home?


It’s just fun. It has some cowboy poetry and some regular poetry. It has some short stories that hopefully never go where you think they are going, and it wraps up with a novella in the back of the book. I’m not trying to pass on any earthshaking messages but I wrote most of this because it was fun to write and I believe it is fun to read as well.


BRC: How did the book come about?


I was asked to read some cowboy poetry at a campfire session at a conference. I don’t consider myself a cowboy poet but I have written some of it so I did. Following the session Chila Woychik at Port Yonder Press asked me if my little cowboy poetry book was still in print and I said no. She asked if she could bring it back. I said that would be nice and I sent the material for it to her. She came back and asked if I had any short stories and I said yes and sent some of those. She asked if I had any novellas and I said I did. I thought Chila was having a very difficult time finding things to fill up a book. Then she came back and said it was going to take several books. 


I was very pleased someone thought my short works, many of which have been published elsewhere, were worth collecting. The first book, On the Road Home, is out. The second book, which will be heavily western, is in progress. She was originally thinking four (books). I’m not sure how many it might end up being, maybe just two.

BRC: That's a great story! It sounds like a lot of work. How do you balance your time between writing and agenting?

That’s hard. I’m a full-time writing professional and most of it is devoted to being an agent and trying to get the words of my clients out there. I have to balance writing with doing that, with traveling all over the country teaching workshops and speaking, with being a husband, father and grandfather (soon to be great-grandfather) and I’ll admit writing takes a hit. But I decided some time ago that I could have more impact using my faith in my writing by helping a number of writers get good Christian work out there than I could by doing a couple of books a year myself. All of my clients are Christian even though I don’t restrict my work to the Christian market so I feel good that I am helping get work out there that will do just that. I generally rank up toward the top of the Publisher’s Marketplace list of top agents making deals for debut writers because I have a heart for trying to help writers get started.

BRC: That's quite a balancing act. What inspired you to become a writer in the first place?

I had no choice. I’m a fifth-generation Irish storyteller (that I know about, it probably goes much further back) and a fourth-generation Texas teller of tall tales. Telling a story is as natural to me as breathing, but learning to write it down in a manner that will be publishable takes a lot of hard work and study.

BRC: Bonnie Calhoun calls you "a modern-day Cowboy" in her endorsement of your book. Do you consider that assessment accurate?

I’ve loved the cowboy life ever since I helped Roy Rogers clean up the west in Saturday morning matinees. I’ve worked on ranches when I could, I put on a rodeo for many years, and when it comes to reading or writing I love that time period. I once heard a western described as “a morality play on horseback” and there is a lot of truth to that. Most of the time westerns have good guys and bad guys and there’s not a lot of gray in them. We could use more of that in today’s world, particularly in Washington. I consider being a cowboy more how you live your life and what you believe than about where you work or where you were born. Roy Rogers is still my all-time hero, a good Christian man who cared more about being a role model for the kids than he cared about being a movie star. We could use more of that too.

BRC: Well spoken. We need more true heroes. 


Tell us about your writing process.

I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer. My first 2-3 chapters are just placeholders to get the story moving. Usually by that point the characters have taken over and I’m just along for the ride. I write a first draft that is maybe half the size the final manuscript will be but which contains the entire story line. Then I go back and rewrite the first chapters now that I know the story and the characters and go back through the book fleshing it out and adding subplots, setting and detail. The very last thing I do is craft a really compelling first page that will hook the reader and reel them in. Finally I go through and “direct” the final story making sure it flows well from chapter to chapter, has no dead spots, and keeps the reader engrossed.

BRC:  What are you working on now?

The next book in the Sagebrush Collection.

BRC: When you're not writing, which books do you enjoy reading?

This may surprise you, or maybe it won’t. I’m very concerned about all of the silly things they are doing in Washington and how our country is moving away from the principles that it was founded on. I’m reading several books that I believe are giving me a better understanding of what is going on and what I might could do about it. I have never been affiliated with a political party and have been an independent all of my life. I believe we’d be better off if there were MORE independents holding both political party’s feet to the fire telling them what we want and expect. But I’ll get down off my soapbox.

BRC: Good for you, standing up for your convictions. 


Where can readers find you online?

Primarily at my Web site, at the Hartline Web site, at the Hartline Blog http://hartlineliteraryagency.blogspot.com/ , not to mention Facebook, Twitter, and a couple of dozen other writing-related sites and groups.

©2011 Janalyn Voigt, author of novel books

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Book Giveaway Drawing: Terry Burns will give away a free copy of  On the Road Home to a reader of this blog. To enter, leave a comment to this post no later than midnight (Pacific Time) this Thursday. If you are a follower of Book Readers Central and tell me so in a separate comment, I'll give you an extra chance to win. 

Please include a valid email address in an anti-spam format (example: youremailhandle[at]gmail[dot]com]) or your entry will become invalid. 

I'll announce the winner on Book Readers Central on Friday. The winner must respond within two weeks of notification. Detailed rules of giveaways on Book Reader's Central are located in the footer of this blog.

**Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when products are purchased on Amazon through links from Book Readers Central.