Please welcome author Beth Wiseman to Seriously Write as she shares her journey to publication this Fortifying Friday. I was touched and encouraged by her story. I have a feeling you will be, too. Thanks for sharing your heart with us, Beth.My Journey to Publication
Most writers who stay in the game for any length of time can paper their walls with rejection notices. I am no exception. In the early days, I thought that just having a great story was enough. It wasn’t until I really started to pursue the craft of writing that things began to change. However, it still seems like it takes all the elements in the Universe to come together and be blessed by God before we actually ‘sell’. What I learned is – things happen in God’s timeframe, not ours.
In late 2007, I spent a month at the hospital with my son, who was fifteen at the time. Cory is doing great now, but at the time, we weren’t sure what was going to happen. When you think your child might die, you pray in a different way. It’s a desperate plea to God, and I offered up everything I could possibly think of in return for my son’s life. I know that’s not how God works, but I was a broken woman. Included in my list of things I offered up was, “I don’t care if I ever get a book published.” It sounds silly now, but in addition to offering myself and everything else I could think of, that was included too. I feel certain that on that night, with my son very sick in ICU, God looked down on me and said, “Now you are ready to work for me.”
To make a long story fit into this blog space, let’s just say—I believe in miracles. My son is a healthy, happy eighteen-year-old and a full time college student, even though he had to get his GED because he missed so much school. He made a full recovery from multiple conditions that no doctor could explain. I saw the tumor in his adrenaline gland, but when it just went away, the medical team said, “We don’t know why these things happen sometimes. Medicine is not an exact science.” I know exactly why it happened. The power of prayer.
In the midst of everything that was going on, my agent and I stopped talking about books and potential book deals. Instead she prayed for my son, and we became friends. When my son was on the mend, she asked me how I felt about writing Christian fiction. I had been targeting the secular market. From the time that I typed the first page of book #1 in the Daughters of the Promise series—Plain Perfect—I knew that I’d found my calling. My agent sold the series to Thomas Nelson from just the first three chapters of Plain Perfect, and only a paragraph for each of the other two books to be included in the series. She sold it in two weeks.
If my books help one person find their way to true peace, which I believe only comes from a one-on-one relationship with God…then I’ve done my job for Him. Hopefully, God will continue to bless me with stories to tell.
In late 2007, I spent a month at the hospital with my son, who was fifteen at the time. Cory is doing great now, but at the time, we weren’t sure what was going to happen. When you think your child might die, you pray in a different way. It’s a desperate plea to God, and I offered up everything I could possibly think of in return for my son’s life. I know that’s not how God works, but I was a broken woman. Included in my list of things I offered up was, “I don’t care if I ever get a book published.” It sounds silly now, but in addition to offering myself and everything else I could think of, that was included too. I feel certain that on that night, with my son very sick in ICU, God looked down on me and said, “Now you are ready to work for me.”
To make a long story fit into this blog space, let’s just say—I believe in miracles. My son is a healthy, happy eighteen-year-old and a full time college student, even though he had to get his GED because he missed so much school. He made a full recovery from multiple conditions that no doctor could explain. I saw the tumor in his adrenaline gland, but when it just went away, the medical team said, “We don’t know why these things happen sometimes. Medicine is not an exact science.” I know exactly why it happened. The power of prayer.
In the midst of everything that was going on, my agent and I stopped talking about books and potential book deals. Instead she prayed for my son, and we became friends. When my son was on the mend, she asked me how I felt about writing Christian fiction. I had been targeting the secular market. From the time that I typed the first page of book #1 in the Daughters of the Promise series—Plain Perfect—I knew that I’d found my calling. My agent sold the series to Thomas Nelson from just the first three chapters of Plain Perfect, and only a paragraph for each of the other two books to be included in the series. She sold it in two weeks.
If my books help one person find their way to true peace, which I believe only comes from a one-on-one relationship with God…then I’ve done my job for Him. Hopefully, God will continue to bless me with stories to tell.
Plain Paradise is book #4 in the Daughters of the Promise series. It releases next week, and is available for pre-order anywhere that books are sold.
Beth Wiseman is the bestselling author of the Daughters of the Promise series—Plain Perfect, Plain Pursuit, and Plain Promise. She has also contributed to two novella collections—An Amish Christmas and An Amish Gathering. All of her books have earned spots on both the CBA and ECPA Bestseller lists. Beth is contracted with Thomas Nelson Publishers for ten full-length novels and three novellas, which will carry her into the year 2013. She lives in Texas with her husband, youngest son, two cats, and two dogs.
You can find out more about Beth and her work at:
http://www.bethwiseman.com/
http://blog.bethwiseman.net/
http://www.amishhearts.com/
http://www.amishliving.com/
Beth Wiseman is the bestselling author of the Daughters of the Promise series—Plain Perfect, Plain Pursuit, and Plain Promise. She has also contributed to two novella collections—An Amish Christmas and An Amish Gathering. All of her books have earned spots on both the CBA and ECPA Bestseller lists. Beth is contracted with Thomas Nelson Publishers for ten full-length novels and three novellas, which will carry her into the year 2013. She lives in Texas with her husband, youngest son, two cats, and two dogs.
You can find out more about Beth and her work at:
http://www.bethwiseman.com/
http://blog.bethwiseman.net/
http://www.amishhearts.com/
http://www.amishliving.com/
