"Flying" takes Flight

Manila Times featured "Flying on Broken Wings" on November 8 this year.                      
  

Let me share with you an excerpt of the write-up:

IN HER OWN WORDS

Author Grace Dacanay-Chong talks about her new book and the writing life

Interview by Perry Gil S. Mallari
Reporter

Manila Times (MT): You were known for writing great inspirational books. Would you agree that writing in this genre demands more than excellent writing skill but also the depth of the writer’s experience in the issues he is talking about?

Grace: Writing inspirational books demands heart and soul. It is introspective. A writer must be willing to dig deep into her core and share the unique things she mines there.

An inspirational book author can only write incisively about the things she believes in and has experienced. It is easy for anyone to write about a topic, but only a creative writer can write about life, what one has gone through—because that is exclusive, enriched by people and circumstances that will never pass her way again.

There is nothing I like doing better than writing. That’s why sometimes I wish I should have started writing much earlier. But then, again, I wouldn’t have much to write about when I was younger, than I have now that I am battle-scarred, so to speak.

MT: What is the best hour of the day to work? Do you have any personal rituals before you begin writing?

Grace: I am a day person. I wake up as early as 5 AM for my morning walk; then after breakfast, I start writing. I knock off around 7 PM when my husband and kids arrive from work for dinner. I retire early to wake up early again the next day.

No rituals—just a quiet, personal talk with God, thanking Him for a new day, praising Him for His grace, and seeking His guidance for the words that I write.

MT: Your books obviously are very spiritual in nature. Can you share insights on personal spirituality and its connection to daily life?

Grace: I personally believe in living by grace. That apart from God, I can do nothing. So every thought that I write is a product of my relationship with Him.

For this, I have a Bible verse to guide me (I call it my life verse): Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

I chose this verse in a youth camp when I was 12, not because I understood it (or particularly liked it) but because we were asked by the camp director to choose a life verse. It was only when I started writing in the year 2000, when I found time to reflect on its essence, that I fully understood what it meant.

I guess it wasn’t an accident that I chose it after all—it led me to what I am doing now.

MT: You were in the lucrative field of advertising before you decided to pursue creative writing, can you tell us more of that important turning point in your career?

Grace: This was what I wrote in my writer’s folio:

One day I woke up and my children were wonderfully grown. After 20 years in advertising, I found the landscape quickly changing. And so was my attitude towards career and the corporate world. In the year 2000, a merger between our company and another giant was in the offing. So was a juicy early retirement offer for the upper tier of management.

After prayers after prayers, I took it.

Finally, from a long and winding detour, I am writing. Not for mass media but for God’s glory.

MT: Can you name a particular person or event that made the greatest influence in your life as a writer and as a person?

Grace: My dad was a bookworm. I remember watching him read—it was as though he was in another world. I wanted so much to be in that world, too. Reading and writing are Siamese twins.

As a kid, I always loved to write. I wrote speeches and letters for aunts, uncles, and my mom’s friends. I was always assigned to do scripts for skits, plays and to edit newsletters. In the closet, I was writing poems, plays, essays, letters to whomever. I was also contributing to publications.

But there was no creative writing degree at that time. So I was waylaid and took up other courses.

There are many (as in countless) people who have influenced my life as a person. In my “Gifts of Grace” book series, I speak of how grace was sent to me through a total of 45 people in three books. I could go on and write till book 10 and beyond, and yet I’d still have many people left out.

MT: What motivated you to write Flying on Broken Wings?

Grace: May I just quote Bezalie Uc-Kung? She is the Executive Director of New Day Publishers. She wrote this in the book’s “Publisher's Note.” I couldn’t write it any better.

"I waited many years for this dream book to come to fruition. . . "

MT: What future works await Grace D. Chong’s followers?

Grace: I blog, every three to four days. I hope that counts. I work on every blog post like I am writing for a publication.

I am also working on a daily devotional for young, busy women, due in March. What qualifies me to write this book? Well, I have always been busy myself and I wish I had read a book like this to affirm my busyness in the early days of my career. Again, this falls under the inspirational genre. I am not a theologian or a Bible scholar, so this book is not going to be preachy.

Through my journey, particularly my life’s dips and swells, I think I can share perspectives that others see differently. By combining mine with those of the readers’, I know they will go through their busyness with lighter, spryer steps. And as they reflect on these nuggets of life, they will find theirs more meaningful.

In between, I write children’s books on family values.

I am what you call a cut-to-cut person (an influence of the fast-paced advertising world). I can’t work on something non-stop. I usually take a breather and write something else; I guess it’s to give myself some space, the better to know where I am going.