Please welcome guest writer, Jennifer Hudson Taylor,
as she shares her journey to publication.
The Birthday Blessing
Every writer has a unique journey to publication, but mine turned out to be a birthday blessing. Growing up I had been taught that I could do anything I set my mind to, and as long as I didn’t give up. At twelve, I decided I wanted to write the next Gone with the Wind. I handwrote half of it in a spiral notebook and set it aside. I finished it at age 24. My ultimate goal was to be published before I turned 30. I was too naïve to realize I had set a goal that would be in God’s timing, not mine.
Age 30 came and went with no contract. I had to accept my first failure. In prayer, I asked why. The answer came in a small, gentle voice. “Because you’re not writing for Me.”
I didn’t know how to write for God. I thought I had to be like Joyce Meyers and Juanita Bynum. Historical romance fiction writers didn’t fit into Christian publishing. Three years later, a friend prayed that God would give me the desire to write again. Six months after that I was in Borders browsing the Religion section and saw Kathleen Morgan’s Embrace the Dawn, a Scottish medieval. I rushed home to retrieve my old Scottish Medieval, but I had deleted all my files and thrown away all my hard copies. I finally found a Windows 95 disk with the old version. I converted it to Christian fiction. It finaled in the 2007 ACFW Genesis contest, and is now my debut novel, Highland Blessings. It will be released May 2010 by Abingdon Press.
The Call came seven years later on my 37th birthday. It was a personal message that God had not forsaken me and showed me that not by my might, but by His power I would be published. Since I had originally set my birthday as a goal, He chose that day to give me my gift.
Jennifer Hudson Taylor is an inspirational historical author whose debut novel, Highland Blessings (May 2010), was one of two manuscripts that won awards in the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) 2007 Genesis Contest. Jennifer is a member of ACFW and Romance Writers of America (RWA), as well as RWA chapters Faith, Hope & Love, and The Beau Monde. Several of Jennifer’s articles have been published in Guideposts’ Angels on Earth, Heritage Quest Magazine and The Military Trader. She offers writing and history workshops and speaks on topics with inspirational messages. She resides with her husband and daughter in Kannapolis, NC.
Highland Blessings
Scotland, 1473
Highland warrior Bryce MacPhearson kidnaps Akira MacKenzie on her wedding day to honor a promise he made to his dying father. When he forces Akira to wed him, hoping to end a half-century feud between their clans, she struggles to overcome her anger and resentment . . . Yet her strength in the Lord becomes a witness to Bryce. But there is a traitor in their midst . . . and murder is the ultimate weapon.
