Beth Vogt
10 min read ⭑
“Real life is hard, and I can still write fun, romantic stories that are woven through with encouraging truths. I believe God stepped into this world and said, ‘I have more for you than this.’ I weave this vital truth into all my novels.”
For years, Beth Vogt believed she would never marry a doctor or anyone in the military. She would never have children. And she would certainly never write fiction. But God has a sense of humor because Beth has done all three — with several grandchildren and multiple literary awards to show for it. She’s written 15 novels and novellas in the contemporary romance and women’s fiction categories, is an experienced magazine writer and editor, mentors writers and aspiring authors, and speaks about writing and storytelling across the country. Join us as we chat about her favorite places to unwind, the spiritual reason she has over 69,000 photos on her iPhone, her personal battles with comparison and the journaling practices that keep her anchored to truth. Plus, find out which books, songs and community groups are helping her grow closer to Jesus.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
It’s funny how, with a newly renovated kitchen and a fully stocked fridge, my husband, Rob, and I will still be at our favorite breakfast place at 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Makeup for me? Maybe. We beat the crowd, claim a booth for two and enjoy the view of Pikes Peak through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that front the restaurant. We’re comfortable here, and not just because we don’t need a menu to place our orders of breakfast tacos (Rob) and gluten-free eggs Benedict (me). We’re not greeted with a rote “How are you today?” when we walk into the restaurant. People know our names — they know us. Our favorite waitress, wearing distinctive silver jewelry made by her husband, delivers my red mug of Boulder Breakfast tea with a hug and then lingers for a few minutes to chat about our families. The food? It’s great. Has there been a mistake here or there? Sure, but needing a restaurant to re-crisp my bacon is not a crime, right? Walking into a place where you’re welcomed — that’s why we keep coming back.
Unsplash+
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activity (or activities) do you love engaging in, which also help you find essential spiritual renewal?
I have more than 69,000 photos on my iPhone. Pictures of people I know and love — family and friends around the world. Places I’ve been from the West Coast to the East Coast. Experiences shared with family and friends — birthdays and holidays and regular days. I took a lot of the photographs during walks in our neighborhood. Early mornings, when the Colorado air is cool and crisp while my husband and I walk our dog, Jo, before the day’s busyness runs away with us. Evenings, when the sun tints the clouds over the mountains orange and pink as we discuss how the day has rarely gone according to our plans. The camera lens changes my perspective. I find myself slowing down, intent on looking through, up and down. What might I miss if I don’t slow down? A deer resting with her fawn, hidden in the shadows of some trees. The slow rite of passage of flowers budding. Each photo represents a time when I stopped and saw something … or someone. I was present in the moment. And that’s the value of my thousands of photographs. They’re a reminder to stop and see life as it’s happening around me.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you hide it?
If anyone should know who I am, it should be me, right? And yet, I doubt myself all too often. It’s a mental tug-of-war between confidence and uncertainty, and all too often, uncertainty wins the battle and drags my emotions through the mud.
When I try to pinpoint a root cause for my lack of self-confidence, it seems to get stirred up by comparison, which is something I’ve known all my life. As a fraternal twin, teachers often compared my sister and me, saying things like, “Why can’t you be more like your sister?” We both heard it for different reasons, from our grades to our personalities. From an early age, I was set up to compare my performance to others’, for better or worse. When I became a writer, I told my husband I wasn’t cut out emotionally for this performance-based business. Think reviews. Think contracts being determined by the number of books an author sells.
And yet, I know God doesn’t judge me based on what I do. He isn’t a God of comparison. He sees me as an individual created in his image. If I anchor myself to the truth that I’m to reflect him to the world as I am, being just Beth, then I have peace. And if I take the time to celebrate other writers rather than compare myself to them, I don’t get bogged down in self-doubt.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
My writing life hasn’t gone according to plan — and neither has my real life. Back in 2023, I mentally stomped my foot and determined to write a book despite all the unexpected, heartbreaking stuff going on in my life. I wrote a fun rom-com, “Dedicated to the One I Love.” I wanted to delve into the joy of story despite my circumstances. Being creative was hard when I was emotionally depleted, but I did it.
Now, I’m writing a family series set in a fictional Colorado town for the same reason — because I can. Real life is hard, and I can still write fun, romantic stories that are woven through with encouraging truths. I believe God stepped into this world and said, “I have more for you than this.” I weave this vital truth into all my novels, but my goal is never to interrupt the regularly scheduled story.
I also mentor other writers. I’ve achieved my writing dreams because other writers poured their time and their talent into me. It’s so important to come alongside others and help them in the same way. You hear so often that the writing life is isolating — just you and your story on your computer. Mentoring another writer means they’re not alone, trying to figure things out all by themselves.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
For the last several months, I’ve been focused on the first book in my new series. But for too many weeks, I was stalled. I’d done all my prep work: character development, overall plot, town map and yes, I’d even started writing the book.
And then nothing.
I tried changing some things, but nothing worked. I even considered starting a new story, but I loved the premise of this book.
Then, I pulled “The Artist’s Way” off my bookshelf. Written in 1992 by Julia Cameron for creatives, this book helps unblock your creativity through a 12-week series of exercises.
It couldn’t hurt, and it just might help.
I worked through the first week, underlining quotes like, “We think we need to be in the mood to write. We don’t.”
OK then.
I also committed myself to the process of reconnecting with God to write this book, remembering that writing is something I accomplish with God, not on my own.
I went upstairs to take a shower and that’s when God said, “You have the wrong main character.”
Huh?
It took me a minute to realize God was telling me I needed to let my heroine lead the story, not my hero. She’d been dominating the story anyway — and for good reason. It was her story, not his.
A good reminder for me, too — to lean into this creative process and remember I don’t always have to lead … if ever.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you right now?
It’s all too easy to let difficult circumstances or negative thoughts pull me away from my relationship with God and from trusting him. Just like a ship’s anchor keeps it from drifting off course due to wind or currents, I anchor myself to truths that hold me spiritually steady each day. I begin by journaling, but that’s not just writing down my thoughts. I first write out three Scriptures that help hold me steady.
Psalm 90:14 (ESV) reminds me to be satisfied in the morning with God’s steadfast love.
1 John 4:16a (NASB) reminds me that I believe in God’s love for me.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB) reminds me to rejoice, pray and give thanks in everything.
After this, I focus on giving thanks. There is a repeated call for gratitude throughout the Bible. Years ago, when I chose gratitude as my one word for the year, I discovered how gratitude reshapes my mindset. Now, I make daily lists of things I’m thankful for: early morning walks, my grandkiddos’ laughter, prayer time with friends and the hush of a snowfall.
Even on my toughest days, there are always reasons to be thankful.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed the game and changed your heart? What radically altered your life? What changed your reality?
I’m broken … but then again, so are you.
Reading “The Beauty of Broken” by Elisa Morgan enabled me to embrace this truth she stated so boldly: “I come from a broken family. I still come from a broken family. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.” There’s no way brokenness can create perfect, and Elisa’s honesty helped me abandon the pretense of perfect and allow God to work in my family.
“Lord, I Want to Know You” by Kay Arthur is a devotional study on the names of God that was pivotal in drawing me closer to him. God revealed himself to the Jewish people in the Old Testament by his names. El Roi, the God Who Sees. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace. Jehovah-Raah, the Lord is my Shepherd. Just as Psalm 9:10 says, I was able to trust in God more as I discovered more about him through his names.
Lastly, I make worship playlists on Spotify. I’m grateful for how musicians so often express my heart when I struggle to find the words or calm my thoughts when I doubt. “Give Me Jesus” by Jeremy Camp and “Reckless Love” by Cory Asbury are songs I return to again and again.
We all have things we cling to to survive (or even thrive) in tough times — times like these! Name one resource you’re savoring and/or finding indispensable in this current season, and tell us what it’s doing for you.
True confession time: I’ve never read through the entire Bible — but that is about to change.
I’m a member of Stop2Read, an online group that reads through the Bible in two years. We’ll complete this goal in 2024, and then we’ll read through the Bible chronologically for two years, beginning in 2025.
This community, founded by author and speaker Edie Melson, has been what I’ve needed to be disciplined in my daily Bible reading. The pace is right for me, and I appreciate the daily commentaries as well as the opportunity to write out a specific Scripture verse each day. Members comment on what we’ve read, so there’s a sense of connection with others, too.
Earlier this year, my involvement in Stop2Read increased when I became a team member, writing a commentary on Wednesdays. I used to teach women’s Bible studies and had a yearning to do that again, but I couldn’t commit to that full time with my writing schedule. My study for writing the once-a-week commentary — praying over the chapter, researching keywords in the passage and utilizing other resources — reminds me of how I used to prepare for teaching.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
For the last couple of years, I’ve battled the temptation to quit writing. I realize that thought is a trap, something meant to pull me off course from who God made me to be and what he has for me. I’m blessed to have been mentored by two other writers, Rachel Hauck and Susan May Warren, who taught me that writing is a faith journey. That it’s more about how this whole writing experience is strengthening my relationship with God than it is about sales and awards — or any other way you want to define success.
God in no way has called me to quit.
I’m showing up every day with gratitude, writing stories with him. For now, I’ve got book one in a series to complete. It examines the question: Is a promise ever meant to be broken? And then it’s on to book two all the way to the end of the series in the fictional town of Chestnut, Colorado. I’m mentoring writers to help them achieve their dreams too. And besides trying to unravel the problems in my fictional characters’ lives, I’m loving my real-life family — praying over them and believing God’s best for them — because that’s what God calls us to, right?
Have you ever wanted to quit something God had called you to do? Most of us probably have. That’s because the good things God calls us to are beautiful but rarely easy.
The apostle Paul understood this too. While he and his companions were ministering in Asia, they faced intense hardship and persecution — so much so that Paul says, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor. 1:8b, ESV).
But Paul kept his eyes on his prize: Jesus. And I believe that’s the real reason he could truthfully write this near the end of his life:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7, ESV).
May we never give up, friend, so we can say the same.
Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” She’s written 15 novels and novellas, both contemporary romance and women’s fiction. Beth is a Christy Award winner, an ACFW Carol Award winner and a RITA® finalist. Her novel Things I Never Told You, book one in her Thatcher Sisters Series by Tyndale House Publishers, won the 2019 AWSA Golden Scroll Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year. An established magazine writer and editor, Beth lives in Colorado with her husband, Rob, who has adjusted to discussing the lives of imaginary people. Connect with her at bethvogt.com.
