Today, I’ll be catching the red eye to Nashville, TN in order to attend the American Christian Fiction Writers conference. Wonderful learning opportunities, incredible networking, meetings with my publishing team and agent, giving back with volunteering and teaching as well as singing in the conference choir, and best of all, hanging out with wonderful Christian authors for a time of encouragement and fostering friendships.
Over the years, as I moved from unpublished to contracted to published to multi-published author, my experiences at ACFW helped shape my career.
ACFW 2007 – I arrived early to volunteer by stuffing envelopes. A lovely lady stood next to me at the stuffing table. Her name was Karen, my name was Karen. That’s all I knew. Being the shy type, I just stuffed my envelopes while others in the room chatted. But I listened to those other conversations and soon discovered that the Karen standing next to me was none other than Karen Schurrer, an editor from Bethany House, which just happened to be my dream publisher! Not knowing if it was proper etiquette to pitch during envelope stuffing, I kept my story to myself, but whenever I saw her around the hotel, I smiled and said hi. Then at lunch one day, I sat at her table and she was gracious to listen to all of our short pitches. She seemed politely interested, but if it had been up to me, that would have been the end of the story. Thankfully, God had bigger plans in mind, so he prompted another lady at the table, one who thankfully was much less timid than me, to boldly ask if we could send Karen our proposals. Gracious lady that she is, Karen agreed. When I got home, I immediately sent off my proposal. Then came the request for the full manuscript. Then came the rejection. No!!!! But God is good, even in rejection he can bring blessing. For they liked my writing, they just thought that particular story was too similar to something else they had recently published. But there was one thing they really liked about it. The dress shop. Could I write a new story about a dress shop? Now you have to understand that in the original manuscript, the dress shop burned to the ground on page 4. There was no way to salvage this story. I would have to start from scratch. Even so, I told them yes – I will write you a story about that dress shop as soon as I finish the book I’m currently writing.
ACFW 2008 – I’ve completed that other story and have one chapter of the dress shop book written. I meet with Charlene Patterson, acquisitions editor for Bethany House. She’s likes my book, but would rather launch me with the dress shop book. Wait – launch me? Does that mean there’s a contract in the offering? I mention this promising turn of events to the agent who I have an appointment with, and Rachelle Gardner assures me that it is very promising. A few weeks after this conference not only do I have an agent contracted, but I have a three-book deal with my dream publisher that later debuted with A Tailor-Made Bride – my dress shop book in June 2010. (I still had to write the thing, hence the delay. LOL.) Not only that, but that other book I had been working on – well, it was a finalist in the Genesis contest that year and went on to become Head in the Clouds.
ACFW 2012 –
I won my first Carol Award for To Win Her Heart.
ACFW 2013 –
I taught my first session as a professional author.
ACFW 2015 –
I co-taught a session with my agent on marketing. (Pretending I knew what I was talking about – Ha!)
ACFW 2016 –
Click Cover to Pre-order
Kristi Ann Hunter and I sat in the back of a workshop room and brainstormed ideas about how to partner in a novella collection. Came up with the idea of a family heirloom passed from mother to daughter across the generations. Found Sarah Loudin Thomas and Becky Wade and convinced them to join us. The Christmas Heirloom was born and it will release next month (October 2). Yay! Oh, and this was also the year I won my second Carol Award for A Worthy Pursuit. It was a very good year.
ACFW 2018 – I’m not sure what is in store for me this year. God always brings new people into my life at these conferences, sends me home with nuggets of writing wisdom, and a feeds my creative spirit. This year I will be sitting on 3 different panels. One on Romance Tropes, one on Historical Fiction, and one on Writing in Community. I love being able to share with other writers and encourage young authors to follow their dreams. I’m up for another Carol Award, too, which is a HUGE honor. The competition is fierce with our own Tammy Alexander being nominated as well, along with the fabulous Karen Barnett. At least there is a 66% chance that a Karen will win. Ha! No matter whose name is called, God will be glorified, and the art of Christian fiction will be honored. That is what matters.
- What events have made an impact on your life?
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Have a wonderful time!!