Member Spotlight: James Guy Mansfield

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing provides a thoughtful way of sharing important stories, experiences, and ideas.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I find the best approach is to just set the writing project down, then return the next day.

What is your favorite time to write? I’m up between 4AM-5AM every morning, and it’s during the quiet morning hours that I do my best thinking and writing.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? As a first-time author, I think the best advice I received was the caution that getting a book written and published would take a long, long, long time.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Writing is a chance to contribute and disseminate important ideas. My co-author and I wrote our book to share out stories about our adventures in search and rescue. More importantly, we wrote our book to tell the story of dedicated search and rescue volunteers everywhere.

James Guy Mansfield’s A Dog’s Devotion: True Adventures of a K9 Search and Rescue Team, co-written by Suzanne Elshult, is out now with Lyons Press.