#174: Dr. Karen Lindwall-Bourg finished writing her children's books and had them published

Welcome.

My name is Shelley Hitz. And I'm CJ Hitz. And today we are featuring one of our Christian Book Academy members, Karen Lindwald Borg. Welcome, Karen.

Thanks. Good to be here.

Yes. We are so excited to have you. And I was thinking back and we've known each other for about five years, I think it was at a conference in 2016. And then you attended our first ever in person writing retreat. And you've been an academy member for these five years. And so it's just been so amazing to watch what God has been doing in your life as you've progressed through writing, but then also helping others to publish their books. And so we were talking beforehand and you said you think you have now nine books of your own. Right.

And then you also have a. You're a shepherd publisher. And you said you've helped probably a couple dozen people publish their books as well. And so that is so exciting. But just wanted you to share about kind of an aha moment that you had during our retreat and you know, just how it's impacted your writing sense.

Okay. I mean, honestly, there are so many benefits from Christian Book Academy. It was hard for me to choose one. But it's good that I chose the retreat. I met you, I'm a total rule follower. So this was really crucial. I met you, we talked about the writing retreat. I thought I'm going to do that. I had only published the traditional venue book and was not happy, was very discouraged. It was so hard. So came there. I don't know if I came with expectations, but one of the things you said was please don't come without an outline. And you know, you gave us permission. That outline will change and morph as you grow and as you evolve through the project, but come with an outline. So I don't know. I think I was the only person who actually came. I had my homework with me. I thought you meant like I had to turn it in or something. That was one of those beer had really for. And we did start the traditional publishing project with an outline, but it didn't flow. So I didn't know. So I read some of your articles and watched some of your videos about outlines. You know, is there a way to do this? The way not to do this came with a really strong outline. I loved the writing retreat. Of course, it was in beautiful Colorado. I also knew the guy who owned the cabin, the big, if you can call it a cabin, big log house that we stayed in. I thought that was just the cat's meow. I Was able to write him a note and say, we know each other. And then I felt like the writing retreat was very structured and I needed that. So it was great to have someone to say, okay, now you know, now we will sit down and write. Now we will take a break. Now we will play. Now we will rest. Now we will go downtown or whatever. I followed the letter to the law of the law to the extent that I could. And I finished a children's book. I have a series of little children's books that can be used for children who are grieving, but really also can be used for someone who's working with a child who is grieving, which is what I had done for many years before that. And was able to finish that entire book in one weekend, which is something I would have said if you had asked me. Was not possible before. So imagine the boost that gave. There were other people who finished a book in that weekend, if I recall.

I think that.

I think that first retreat, all of you, there was five of you, all of you finished a first draft. So that was exciting. I remember during the breaks we were cheering. And one of the things that you really learned at the retreat was the Pomodoro technique, right? Writing for 25 minutes, taking a five minute break, and then after two hours taking a longer 20 to 30 minute break. And how has that changed the way you write and work ever since?

You know, there are a few things in your life that you can say are life changers or total game changers. And that's been one of them for me. I really appreciated your introduction for us to that technique.

I, I use it for everything. So besides writing, so I. Not only did I go on to do my own writing retreats, thank you for that boost. Yeah, if Shelly says, Karen, go do this, I just get to it. But I also have incorporated the Pomodoro technique into so many things that we do. Our whole tribe, our team. Sometimes when we're working together as a team, we'll use that technique to work on.

A specific part of the project. We use it. We do some co working spaces like we do in the Christian Book Academy. You do in my organization as well. I have a huge, huge testimony. Well, two quick testimonies for you about the Pomodoro technique. I have a beautiful, raving redhead daughter in law who is just so distracted. I don't know how she gets anything done and admits it. And one day she was lamenting not being able to get anything done. And I said, look, look, let's work Pomodoro style. Right, I'll work. What are the two things you need to get done the most? The kitchen and the laundry. So I said, well, I can see you doing the laundry you can see me do in the kitchen. We're going to set a timer for 25 minutes and knock this out. We did sit her two little ones at that time. Now they have three in front of the TV where we could see them, too, so that they weren't under our feet. And we cranked it out. And it was a great boost for her to know this works. You know, this is possible. But even more, I don't know if I've ever told you this story before. So my PhD is in family therapy, which means I needed to do a dissertation. The thing was a monster. I had professors say, this is not your magnum opus. It's just what you do to get out of college. But I kind of made it my magnum opus. It was related to grief as. As you can imagine, and how couples grieve together. And the university that I went to very wisely had several times a year, what they called dissertation or thesis boot camps. And we would. You had to promise, you had to sign a contract, you were going to be there Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. You had to take the week off from work or whatever. You were going to do it their way. They offered meals and snacks and water. And they brought in guest speakers for 10 or 15 minutes every now and then to talk about writing your dissertation or thesis. They really did it. Well, they had people there to help you if you got stuck. But they also sent us off into our little corners of this huge library for writing sessions. And they were about two hours. And so, you know me, I said, why don't we try. Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro technique? Why don't we try this? There were some great dissenters in the group, and. And I. But I just said, what if we tried it once out of this whole five days, let's do one. And you wouldn't believe. I mean, very rarely was there anyone who ever said, oh, that just didn't work for me. They didn't think it was going to work for them. They had all sorts of excuses, but it really worked. Even something as technical as a dissertation, where you're researching and, you know, crediting, citing everything, and it has to be every dot has to be, you know, and every. Every tittle dot and tittle has to be in its right place. It was amazing. I don't know if they continued that tradition along the way after I wasn't there anymore. But when I was there, we usually gave it a good try. That says a lot for that technique, I think.

Yes.

So many different things.

Yes. And I love it because, Karen, you're. You do so many things. You're a biblical counselor, a kingdom coach, a shepherd publisher. But, you know, you pomodoro evangelist.

And I love that you're commission.

Yes. I love that you're passing that on, because that's the thing. Like, when we teach, you know, we're not like, oh, we gotta hoard this, you know? And when you were like, oh, Shala, you need to do these other retreats, I'm like, well, why don't you host a retreat? You know, it's like, do your own.

Okay. Yeah.

But you came to the first two of our Colorado writing retreats and really just, you know, embraced that. That thing, and we saw the power of it. You know, we saw it firsthand. And after that first one, that's why I started doing the virtual writing retreats. Same kind of format, two days, you know, getting a lot of writing done. And we host those now three times a year. But then every week inside her shroom Book academy, we have a group writing session called productivity parties. So, you know, a lot of that was birthed through just seeing the power of it. Some of those first retreats that you were there and so just been so fun to be on this journey with you, to see all that God is doing in and through you. And so how can people find out more about you and your books and all that you do.

On Amazon? It's under Karen Lindwell borg. Say that 15 times really fast, right? Yeah. And then on Facebook, you can go to the Facebook group, facebook.com groups. Rhema3e services group. We're trying to. I'm trying to streamline and put everything. So we used to have Rhema Counseling associates and Rhema coaching, and we also had Rhema publishing house, and we still have those, but we're trying to bring them all under one umbrella. So everything's in one place. Very exciting new venue for me. So Rhema 3e services.

That's awesome. So we're just so proud of you, all that you're doing, how you're helping writers and how you're continuing to just impact the kingdom in so many ways. So thank you so much for sharing just a part of your story, and we appreciate you.

Thank you. And you should be proud of yourselves. I'm one of the fruits of your labors.

Know, what I have learned about writing, I did not learn from that traditional experience. I learned through Christian Book Academy. I appreciate it.

Yes. Well, thank you so much. And Lord bless you, Karen.

Yeah. Bye.

Bye.