Restored Hope: My Writing Journey (Pt 1)

This month, I’m talking about my writing journey. I’ve recently received some emails asking me: “You’ve won all these writing awards, when will I be able to read your books?”

God knows the answer to that one. I’m fully trusting in Him. But I wanted to answer the question posed in those emails by sharing my publishing journey with you to date. In doing so, I hope to restore your hope in your own dreams.

Just as an aside, I had hoped to write about my publishing journey in one blog post, but there was absolutely NO WAY I could cram eight and a half years of writing and publishing experience into one post. So this is the first of a multi-part series 🙂

First, a Bible verse (And second, a little anecdote…And then third, my publishing journey.)

“They that trust in the Lord will be like Mount Zion. They shall never be removed.” (Psalm 125:1)

Since becoming a writer, I’ve learned to notice patterns. Patterns in events. Patterns in behavior. Patterns in my life. I think that’s because the gargantuan task of writing novel length manuscripts causes me to pay more attention. And so I’ve started paying attention to my life’s patterns. Whenever I reach a personal turning point, God always brings me to what I now call: “the very end of the end of the end”. Meaning, there’s no one else I can trust in but Him to make it through. Hence, Psalm 125:1 This “end of the end of the end” moment happened to me when I was a high school senior.

My Anecdote

As a high school senior, I had one dream college: Columbia University. I loved everything about Columbia. Their Core Curriculum. Their location (Manhattan). Their history of producing some of the greatest minds in the world. I loved Columbia so much that I applied to it through the Early Decision process. Early decision shows the Admissions Committee that you’re serious about attending their school. You’re not “playing the field” so to speak. Early decision is also a binding agreement (versus Early Action admission, which is non-binding) Early decision means that you send in your application exclusively to this school and withdraw all other applications to other schools. You can’t apply to more than one school under Early Decision. If you are not accepted via Early Decision, you will be either rejected or deferred. Rejected applicants can’t apply again to that school until the following year. Deferred applicants will have to compete in the larger, regular admission pool. If you are accepted via Early Decision, then you HAVE to attend that school. You are committed.

I applied to Columbia University through Early Decision, and I was accepted! Squee!! I remember receiving that letter and thinking about all the hard work I’ve done leading to that point. I didn’t excel in academics alone. A lot of the applicants to Columbia were also top students. Everyone was highly intelligent. For me to really stand out, I had to focus on one non-academic pursuit and shine in that pursuit. For me, that was acting. (I hadn’t discovered writing at this point in my life.) The Columbia admissions committee saw this in me and decided to give me a chance.

However, there was a hiccup in my dream even after I received the acceptance letter. I was a series regular on a TV show. Acting on a TV series meant that I was out of school a couple of months of the year. There are union regulations and laws in place for these situations, and so my teachers, producers, and I made sure we met them. I had a tutor on set, and I had to fulfill a set number of school hours each day. I would regularly mail my work to my teachers. They’d grade them, and I’d move on to the next assignment. I did pretty well, ranking in the top ten percent of my high school class and graduating with honors.

Yet the vice principal of my school didn’t think this was enough. He had met with me in his office and stated that because I wasn’t physically in the school building, I hadn’t met all the attendance requirements to graduate. And so I wouldn’t graduate from high school. Mind you, I have already received my acceptance letter from my dream college and I told them I’d be going. Under the Early Decision criteria, I had to attend that fall or my chance would be gone.

A huge dilemma for sure…

(Anecdote to be continued next week…)

My Writing Journey…the beginnings

I started writing fiction in January of 2008. I had left my full time job which held the promise of promotion and increased income to become a mother at home. My first child was eventually born two years later, and so I used these quiet years to start learning the craft of fiction. This was my adult “Early Decision.”

I wrote a lot of stuff. Journal entries. Young Adult. Fantasy. I finally decided that I’d focus on writing contemporary inspirational romance. I’d eat, sleep, and read romance until I knew the genre. (Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit when I say that I ate, slept, and read romance, but you get the gist. I had a strong hunger to master the romance genre.)

After a couple of years, I felt confident enough to enter the Genesis in 2011. (Okay, I’m exaggerating here too. I wasn’t confident at all about putting my work and my heart out there for people to judge! I was so nervous when I entered the Genesis in 2011!) I didn’t place that year, but I attended the ACFW conference and learned all that I could about the craft and business of writing. I love the ACFW conference. I even scoped out some agents and pondered someday signing with a literary agent 🙂

After the conference, I submitted my book to some publishers. I received non-acceptance letters. The letters were all very kind and professional. I wallowed a bit, but then I kept writing and submitting to publishers. I eventually received interest in my manuscript from one publisher, and they offered me a contract! I was over the moon happy! I was un-agented, and there was little room for negotiation in the contract. I didn’t think the terms would benefit my career in the long run, so I declined.

That was one of the toughest decisions I have ever made. Especially after my adult “Early Decision” to become a professional writer years earlier. I had set my other options aside and decided that for the rest of my adult life, I’d be a professional writer. Tough. Tough. Tough.

But I said to myself that I’d remain pre-published for now and trust that God had something better in mind for my writing career. By this time it was 2013, and I entered the ACFW Genesis contest a second time…

(To be continued next week!)