Have you ever felt discouraged or tempted to
give up your dream of being published because doors refused to open? Today,
author Myra Johnson shares her
personal journey to publication. Her story is a testimony to perseverance and
learning to trust God’s timing. Be encouraged! ~ Dawn
My 25-Year “Overnight Success” Story
by Myra Johnson
Ever since 2008, when I received my first two
book contracts within a couple of months of each other, I’ve jokingly labeled
myself a “25-year overnight success.”
It was 1983 when I first got serious about
writing and enrolled in the Institute of Children’s Literature course. My
stories and articles began to sell right away, but though all those magazine
credits were nice, my lifelong dream was to publish a novel. I wrote and
submitted one children’s book manuscript after another, but despite
consistently positive editorial feedback, I could never seem to find the right
fit.
After my daughters grew up, I turned my focus
to Christian romance and women’s fiction, learning all I could through writers
organizations, critique groups, craft books, and conferences. In the meantime,
I was still getting enough of those “encouraging” rejections to keep me
hopeful.
In 2005 I entered RWA’s Golden Heart
competition, and was both shocked and thrilled when my manuscript actually won
the Inspirational Romance category. After all, rumor had it that even placing
in the Golden Heart was practically a guarantee of publication.
Not for me. Over the next couple of years,
two of the other finalists sold their books, and I began to question whether
all the time, money, and hopes I had invested in this dream had been in
vain.
Then, at a writers conference in 2007, I
reached my lowest point. It was so hard to be there, still unpublished, when so
many of my friends were celebrating their first book contracts. But that night
I had an amazingly vivid dream that I am absolutely sure was a direct message
from God telling me that writing is so much a part of who he created me to be
that if I gave up writing, the very framework of my being would be gone.
So I held on another year, continuing to
write and doing my best to be obedient to God’s direction and to trust him for
the results.
Then in 2008, the new fiction editor for
Abingdon Press put out the word that she especially welcomed submissions from
unpublished but talented writers who had paid their dues. I figured that was
me, so I e-mailed the editor that very day. She requested one of my
manuscripts, and within a month, she offered a contract for my book One Imperfect Christmas. Then, as if God
really wanted to show off, one month later the editor of Barbour’s Heartsong
Presents line accepted Autumn Rains,
the manuscript that had won the Golden Heart three years earlier. Both books
released in 2009, and I officially became a published novelist.
Twenty-five years is a long, long time to hold
onto such an elusive dream. But if I’d given up at any point along the way, I
wouldn’t be here today with six published novels, plus an anthology, another
romance releasing later this year, and
contracts from Abingdon Press for a three-book historical romance series. God
is so good!
If there’s a lesson to be learned from my
writing journey, it’s this: If God gives you a dream, there’s a plan and a
purpose for it. No matter how long it takes, God’s timing is always perfect,
and he is never late. So follow your dreams in faith, and remember “that he who
began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ
Jesus.”
Award-winning author Myra Johnson writes Christian romance
and women’s fiction—emotionally gripping stories about love, life, and faith.
Her Heartsong Presents novel Autumn Rains
won the Romance Writers of America 2005 Golden Heart for Best Inspirational
Romance Manuscript and was a 2010 finalist in the prestigious American
Christian Fiction Writers Carol Awards. Myra and her husband are the proud
parents of two beautiful daughters and grandparents of four rambunctious
grandsons and two precious granddaughters. Although Myra is a native Texan, she
and her husband now reside in the Carolinas, sharing their home with two very
spoiled oversized lapdogs. A Horseman’s
Gift is Myra’s latest Heartsong Presents release, soon to be followed by A Horseman’s Hope.
To learn more about Myra and her books,
please visit:
