When I Was Just a Kid...Sharon Hinck

When I Was Just a Kid...

SHARON HINCK

Sharon Hinck is no ordinary woman. She writes "stories for the hero in all of us." Makes you almost wonder where her telephone booth is kept (that's for all of you oldies who remember Superman changing in telephone booths from Clark Kent...or for that matter, remember telephone booths!) But Sharon's adventures are for those who think they are just ordinary people. She helps us to realize we all can be heroes.

Sharon tells us: When the minutia of modern life wears me down, I write to remind myself of the bigger picture: We have an amazing God who made us, loves us, and invites us to be part of His story. And He is an expert at taking ordinary people and empowering them to make a difference by sharing His grace with others.

So, what was it in Sharon's childhood that put together a woman who writes stories to send a reader on his own adventures? Let's find out!

Childhood Ambition:To be a secret agent

Fondest Memory (then):Being the princess in “The Frog Prince” in the second grade musical

Proudest Moment (now):Holding each child at birth

Biggest Challenge as a Child or Teen:My very intense emotions and finding ways to express them. I danced. I played guitar and wrote sad songs. I walked in the woods and prayed.

My First Job:I made decoupage plaques and walked around the neighborhood pulling a wagon full of them and trying to sell them door to door.

Childhood Indulgence: Toy horses. I loved my collection of tiny plastic Palaminos and Pintos and Arabians and Thoroughbreds and acted out stories with them. I also had a few beautiful larger toy horses with real hair.

Favorite Outfit as a Child:My grandma sewed me a new “first day back to school” dress each year. One year she made a German dirndle dress – with embroidery and an apron.

Crystal Editor's Note: (Wouldn't we have loved to see these dresses! I love Sharon's Grandmother for doing that, don't you?)

Favorite Childhood Movie:Peter Pan

Favorite Childhood Book:The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Childhood Hero:Nellie Bly. I read a child’s book about her groundbreaking undercover journalism and longed to be like her.

Favorite Childhood Activity:Acting out plays, musical reviews, etc. I talked neighbors into joining in, classmates at school into rehearsing skits at recess. I was relentless. The original “Let’s find a barn and put on a show” mentality.

(Secret Agent) Sharon once rappelled down the outside of a five-story building, so maybe there is more to this story. (She has a whole page on her web site dedicated to "where she gets her crazy ideas.")

Sharon says:
Books were my mentors, friends, companions and teachers. I always revered the mythic people called “authors.” Getting to be one now is truly a fulfillment of a dream I wouldn’t have dared voice as a child.

Sharon is a wife and mom to four who has had many adventures, though none have involved an alternate universe (thus far). She has an M.A. in Communication from Regent University and has spent her life working in the arts (music, theatre, dance, and writing).Ten years were spent as the artistic director of a Christian performing arts group, CrossCurrent. That ministry included three short-term mission trips to Hong Kong.

She has been a church youth worker, a choreographer and ballet teacher, a home-school mom, a church organist, and a freelance writer. One day she’ll figure out what to be when she grows up, but in the meantime she’s pouring her imagination into writing novels. Her novels include The Secret Life of Becky Miller (Bethany House, 2006), Renovating Becky Miller (Bethany House, 2007),
The Restorer (NavPress, 2007,)The Restorer's Son (NavPress, 2007.)

and if you go here, you can purchase those books SIGNED by Sharon.

You can keep up with her amazing adventures on her blog(check out her events.) Not long ago a group bid and won Sharon and a tea party at a fundraiser auction (an English tea with an author.) So who knows where Sharon will be next? Don't forget to check out her web site to sign up for her newsletter Book Buddies!

(Sharon is the one in the middle of the first row at the English tea party with an author.)