Get to Know Janet Thompson on the Diamond Mine!

I’m delighted to introduce my new friend and fellow author, JANET THOMPSON, to the Rough Diamond Writers, today. Janet was introduced to me through a mutual friend who sent a copy of her blog post this past week. And it was sister-ship on my end at first read.

Welcome Janet, and in one small question that takes a paragraph to answer, can you tell us when, why, and how you began writing?

In 1995 while managing an insurance agency and attending Fuller Theological Seminary, I heard a call from the Lord to "feed my sheep." Later He revealed the sheep were women and the feeding was mentoring. I took the steps to start a mentoring ministry at my church, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. The ministry turned out to be successful and other churches started calling to find out what we were doing. I couldn’t tell them in a phone call, so I sat down and wrote the Woman to Woman Mentoring Resources, available exclusively now at our website, where you can also read more of my story and testimony. Writing these resources also launched my speaking and writing ministry, About His Work Ministry.

And isn’t that a writer’s heart? You just sat down and wrote…love it! Our readers are always interested to know about the personal side of your life. Please tell us about your family, your church, and your favorite scripture passage.

My husband Dave and I are a blended family. Together we have four children and eleven sweet grandchildren living throughout the United States, but we’re blessed to have one family living within an hour from where we live. We were members at Saddleback Church for twenty-three years and served there before moving to the rural mountains of Idaho, where we attend a small community church and Dave is an elder. The theme of the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry is Titus 2:3-5, and mentoring is at the heart of everything I write and speak about: one generation sharing life's experiences and God's faithfulness with the next generation.

The rural mountains of Idaho? That seems like a dream come true…except in the winter. What fills your time when you’re not in front of the computer?

I must admit I do have calluses on my hands from hours writing and networking on the computer. In fact, I have two screens and one of my screens is actually a TV monitor. It’s so wonderful in today's world to reach so many people at one time without having to leave your home. That's how I met you! But I love spending time with my grandchildren, and as I said most are in different states, so we try to plan my speaking around trips to visit them and spend as much time as we can with those that live close to us. When weather permits, I take a three-mile mountain walk that gets the blood and ideas flowing. I'm a three-time breast cancer survivor. I feel the Lord spared my life for a specific purpose: to spread the Gospel, help Christians grow in faith to mentor new believers and seekers, and focus my time and energy on things that have kingdom value. My husband and I co-facilitate a Couples Small Group at our church, I'm doing a Bible study with my young granddaughters, and mentoring several young women long distance. I write a Monday Morning Blog and a Monthly Newsletter...so I guess being About His Work would be my pass time and hobby.

What is your heart’s desire for the reader to understand from your writing?

I have a passion for our generation to teach and train the next generation. That we would understand this is the job description for EVERY Christian, male and female. There are no qualifiers in passages like Titus 2:1-8 or Psalm 145:4 or so many others. They don't say if you feel like it, or have time, or it's your calling . . . they all say "One generation will..." I feel we are seeing the fall in our culture today because “One generation didn't . . .”

My latest book Forsaken God: Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten is the most passionate book I've written to date on this topic, and it's written to both men and women. God gave me the idea for that book ten years ago, but I know now why He had it come out February 2016, because I wrote it for such a time as this when we’ve reached a point in our culture where God has been from the public square. But with the new administration, we have a chance to bring God back into our culture, but the church must lead this revival and it must start with individual Christians.

Will you share your WIP?

I have a book releasing this fall with Leafwood Publishers Mentoring for All Seasons: Women Sharing Life’s Experiences and God’s Faithfulness, which I’m very excited about as it will help women either mentor or be mentored in every season from tweens to death.

I’m currently writing Get Your Brave On and am soliciting stories from women who had a time in their life where God asked them to be brave. Maybe they didn’t see it as brave at the time, but they knew they couldn’t have done it without God, or others have told them their actions were brave even when they were just doing what comes naturally. They can contact me for more guidelines at ahw@sbcglobal.net

And finally do you have a word of encouragement or advice for new writers?

When anyone asks about writing, I always advise to attend a writer’s conference. I never aspired to be an author, ever. But after starting the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry, I attended Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference ten times, and that is where I learned to write. I made so many contacts and took all the workshops, and did finally get a proposal accepted by Howard Books/ Simon & Schuster for my book Dear God, They Say It’s Cancer: A Companion Guide For Women on the Breast Cancer Journey. That book came next after the Woman to Woman Mentoring resources, with many rejections in between in which I perfected my craft.

The other advice is never self-publish without paying for professional editing. You can’t edit your own work! And your family, friends, other authors…can’t do it either. If you think you have a project worth publishing, it’s worth doing it right.

And I just want to add a little blip. Go to: http://dianegates.wordpress.com/ to read Janet’s blog that introduced me to this fine author and sister-laborer-together in sharing the Good News of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.