Sunday, February 3, 2008

Missy Tippens...When She Was Just a Kid

Winner of the Book, Her Unlikely Family is...Hannah!

Missy2

Missy Tippens, A Cutie from the Beginning

You are going to laugh and love reading about Missy Tippens. She was a part of a gang as a child (well, the Eastland Park Girls hung together) and her gang jacket? A "poodle" jacket. (I've heard of poodle skirts, but this was a first for a poodle jacket.)

Her childhood has wonderful memories, humorous moments and a rich fabric of family, friends and traditions that were sure to have added to her fiction. Check out Missy back in the day:

Childhood Ambition: Early on, I really wanted to be a teacher. And I wanted my name to be Kathy. But later, in high school, I wanted to be a microbiologist—which I did become!

Fondest Memory (then): I have so many great memories of Christmas. My parents would go all out to make it very special. And I loved our tradition of eating out at Pizza Hut before going to the candle light service at church, then going home to open one small gift. It was pure torture not to be able to open them all! But I loved that little taste.

Missy9

Missy, Age 9

Proudest Moment (then): I was so very proud when I won a coloring contest in elementary school. I think it was at Sears or some other store downtown. I won a pair of pantyhose—a big thrill for a little girl. Of course, then my mother wouldn’t let me wear them! She said I was too young. (What were they thinking, giving pantyhose as a prize for a coloring contest??!)

Biggest Challenge as a Child or Teen: Self-esteem, especially as a teen. I think it’s a big problem for many girls. I didn’t look like all the models on TV or in magazines (didn’t have the stick figure or the big hair), so I felt like I didn’t measure up. I thought I was fat then at 115-120 pounds. If only I weighed that now!

My First Job: I got my first job after I started driving. My mother decided they weren’t going to pay for all the gas I was using to haul my friends around, so I got a part-time job at Long John Silver’s. When the new mall was built in town, I changed jobs and went to work at The Peanut Shack, and then for an eye doctor in the mall.

Missy n Mindy

Missy and little sister, Mindy

(Don't you love their poofy matching dresses?)

Childhood Indulgence: Though we didn’t have a lot of money, my younger sister and I were indulged children. Our parents tried to make sure we had the things our friends had (even if it wasn’t always the name brand). And I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Europe with my family, then later with my high school band, then once more with a study abroad program before college. Our parents were always very focused on education and on making sure we were raised thinking we could do anything we set our minds to doing.

Favorite Outfit as a Child: Oh, my goodness, I remember this great jacket that a bunch of my friends and I all bought in about 7th grade. They were made of fluffy, white fake fur with white fake (oh, maybe I should say faux) shiny “leather” trim, and we called them our poodle coats. We were the Poodle Patrol. So fun! And we wore them with our high-waisted, elephant-leg jeans. Don’t you know we looked good! LOL

Favorite Childhood Movie and/or TV Show: I loved to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. I have great memories of my sister and I sitting by the fireplace to dry our freshly-washed hair while watching. I also remember my family watching The Love Boat (which, now that I think about it, probably wasn’t very appropriate! LOL)

Favorite Childhood Book: World Book’s Childcraft Library. I’m pretty sure the one I loved so much was Volume 1. It was full of nursery rhymes, and I memorized almost all of them. I loved to have my dad read them to me, too. I also remember loving to have my mother read The Children’s Bible to me in the doctor’s office while we waited. I think we eventually bought a copy for home.

Favorite Childhood Activity/Pastime: I loved to climb the mimosa tree in my front yard. It was a great place to sit and read. And I loved to play with my Barbies. In fifth grade, we moved to a house that had a neighborhood pool, and I pretty much lived there in the summers all the way through high school. Of course, now I cringe at the fact that I baked myself in the sun every day with baby oil and iodine!

Childhood Hero: I don’t remember any heroes, unless you count Bobby Sherman! (Am I showing my age?) Oh, and I loved, loved, loved Carol Burnett. I thought she was so funny, and I remember wanting to make people laugh like she did. I cried years later when her last show aired.

Childhood Pets and/or Friends? We always had cats and even had a couple of dogs. I guess I grew up with a cat or dog sleeping in my bed every night. As for friends, we had a large group of girls in my neighborhood. We called ourselves the Eastland Park girls. We hung out a lot outside, riding bikes, playing Kick the Can and hide-and-go-seek, and we spent the night together a good bit.

Links to Missy:http://www.missytippens.com/, lifewithmissy.blogspot.com

Missy Tippens

Missy Today

Anything else you would like to share with readers about your childhood which affected the writer you have become? I think growing up in the South has affected my writing more than anything. I grew up in Kentucky and have now lived half my life in Georgia. I tend to write about small southern towns and love them as settings.

Missy was born and raised in Kentucky, and met her very own hero when she headed off to grad school in Atlanta, Georgia. She promptly fell in love and hasn’t left Georgia since. She and her pastor husband have been married 20-plus years now, and have been blessed with three wonderful children along with an assortment of pets.

In L.B.C. (Life Before Children), Missy worked as a clinical microbiologist. Once she had her first baby, she retired to become a stay-at-home mom. She’s grateful to God that she was able to do that for 16 years and had the opportunity to pursue her writing during that time. Nowadays, in addition to her writing, she teaches as an adjunct instructor at a local technical college.

Missy is an award-winning writer and was a finalist in Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Contest. After ten years of pursuing her dream, she made her first sale of a full-length novel to Steeple Hill Love Inspired. She still pinches herself to see if it really happened!

Missy would love to hear from readers through her website, http://www.missytippens.com/, or by email: missytippens[at]aol.com.

Missy Love Inspired

Her Unlikely Family by Missy Tippens

Read an excerpt on this link

Opposites attract when an uptight banker encounters a free-spirited waitress during the search for his runaway teenage niece. As they work together to heal the young girl's damaged spirit, an unlikely family begins to form...

Places to get Missy's Book

http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html?iid=16511&cid=236, http://www.amazon.com/Her-Unlikely-Family-Love-Inspired/dp/0373874707/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201511286&sr=8-1, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Her+Unlikely+Family&z=y, and http://www.cbd.com/.

Missy likes to blog! Check out her blog thoughts:

Her personal blog, LifeWithMissy, where she discusses writing, reading, life, and family. She also does author interviews and the occasional contest/book giveaway.


A group blog, F.A.I.T.H., where she posts on Thursdays. They blog about the writing life, about faith, about family and anything else that the writers may be dealing with. They also have guest authors and post book reviews. F.A.I.T.H. is an acronym for Following Always, Intently Trusting Him.


A group blog, Seekerville, with a group of her writer friends. Entering manuscripts in the contest circuit is what brought them together, so they discuss contests and the journey toward publication. When the group formed, one of the group was newly contracted. Now, six of the fifteen of this group are published! They have experience for the writing for publication journey.

Another story by Missy:

176_Blessings_of_mossy_creek

Come meet Mark and Amelia. He's the new pastor in town, and he seems to be having a tad of trouble with the stingy, controlling church treasurer!

Available at BelleBooks.com and bookstores near you, this collective novel contains her first sale--a short story.

28 comments:

Missy Tippens said...

Crystal,

You did a wonderful job on the blog post! Thanks so much for having me!!

Missy

Crystal Laine said...

Missy, You were a fun interview! And so many of your memories gave me warm fuzzies (especially that
7th grade jacket!) Thanks so much for sharing.

Julie Lessman said...

Fun, fun interview Crystal and Missy!! As a Seeker buddy, I feel like I know a lot about Mrs. Tippens, but microbioligist??? Holy cow, that could have been a multiple-choice question of two, and I would have missed it! Southern, sweet and fun is how I see Missy, but test-tubin' it in a lab? Wow, who knew?

Now poodle jacket??? Oh, yeah, that fits!

Love ya, Miss!

Julie

Missy Tippens said...

LOL, Julie. Yes, I was behind a microscope for years. :)

I so wanted to find a photo of the Poodle Patrol! I know we had one made in the machine at the mall, but I'm not sure where they are.


Missy

Cheryl Wyatt said...

Missy....I LOVED looking at your pictures and reading snippets about your childhood.

Crystal, I just can't express enough how much I love this blog. How creative and unique!

Thanks for doing it.

Warmly,

Cheryl

Missy Tippens said...

Thanks, Cheryl! And I agree. This is a fantastic blog.

Missy

Mary Connealy said...

Missy, those poofy skirts are so cute. And imagining your dad reading poetry to you. My dad read to us a lot too. Mom cooked and Dad read(I know now he was just keeping us out of mom's hair while she cooked but we loved it). That's how I remember my childhood.
And I loved Carol Burnett and Bobby Sherman. I think I'm older than you, though. I might have been a case of arrested development.

Missy Tippens said...

Mary, I think I just fell in love with Bobby Sherman at an early age. He had appeal to us kids and to you older kids/teens. :)

Now, my sister, who is two years younger, was in love with Donny Osmond. :)

Missy

Janna said...

This was such a fun interview - wish I could've seen the poodle jacket :-)

Janna
ryanx6 at msn dot com

Missy Tippens said...

Janna,

It was totally white, short-waisted, and really thick with the fake fur. I'm sure they looked horrible on us! LOL

Missy

Cherie J said...

Great interview! Loved all the cool photos. Would love to be entered in the drawing for this book.

cherierjatyahoo.com

Pat Jeanne Davis said...

Nice to see the pics and learn more about Missy through this interview. Love the blog post, too.
Please enter my name for the drawing for Missy's novel.
Pat

Patty said...

What a cute story. I love the pictures. That poofy dress is absolutely adorable.

pleblanc_1 at charter dot net

Anonymous said...

great interview! i'd love to win a copy of the book! hsmuda[at]gmail[dot]com

Hope Chastain said...

Delightful interview! Please enter me to win the book. It sounds wonderful! Thanks!
:-)

hope_chastain [at] yahoo [dot] com

Missy Tippens said...

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by! It's funny to see those poofy dresses now. We were wearing it for my sister's outdoor birthday party. No one would dress up like that today! I wonder if I was miserable. :)

Missy

Anonymous said...

what adorable pictures, thanks for sharing! please enter me in the contest!

Donna said...

I love this blog. It is so fun to learn about authors when they were kids. Please enter me in the drawing.runninmama[at]sbcglobal[dot]net

Carole said...

I enjoyed the interview with Missy very much. I can remember hating to go to church on Sunday nights because of missing "The Wonderful World of Disney." Of course, that was before VCR's and Tivo's!

Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of "An Unlikely Family."

cjarvis [at] bellsouth [dot] net

Pamela J said...

Thanks for the opportunity to win this book, I am looking forward to reading this someday. Please enter me in your drawing.
Pam
cepjwms at yahoo dot com

Missy Tippens said...

Carole, I guess that would have been hard to have had church on Sundays! Our church didn't have an evening service so we always knew we'd be home to watch. We also watched Wild Kingdom, and I believe that was on Sundays as well. :)

Thank, everyone, for stopping by!

Missy

Stacey said...

The book sounds truly inspiring. Please put me in the drawing. I'm not sure what I enjoyed more: the interview or the banter in the comments section. Thanks for both as well as the contest.

stacey_dale[at]yahoo[dot]com

Stacey said...

The book sounds truly inspiring. Please put me in the drawing. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more: the interview or the banter in the comments section. Thank you for both and for the contest.

stacey_dale[at]yahoo[dot]com

Ausjenny said...

Oh i loved the interview please enter me for the contest.
ausjenny (at) gmail.com
this book sounds fun.
Oh Missy we had a pine tree well several but one was a great one to climb. i use to love climbing the tree and i also loved my barbie dolls.

Missy Tippens said...

Climbing trees and playing with Barbies. We could be rather tomboyish and also girly. I like that. :)

Missy

Ausjenny said...

yep, i grew up with an older brother on a farm and the farm manager had 3 boys living right next door so i didn't have much choice but to do some of those things but climbing trees i am told i was about 2 when i first made it to the top of the tree. but i did love playing barbies. just didn't like pink

Missy Tippens said...

We've drawn a winner! My son helped with the drawing. He's 13 and thought it was great fun. :)

Hannah, you're name was drawn. I'll be contacting you by email for your address. Congrats!!

Thanks to all of you for visiting this week! Thanks again, Crystal, for having me!

Missy

Ausjenny said...

congratulations Hannah.