Do You Feel Like a Drop? By Jan Cline

My new book just released, and despite all the attention, I still feel like a drop in the ocean of books that are produced every month. If I think about it too long, I get discouraged. An ocean is a BIG place, and most of us want to be noticed—even a little. Certainly more than just a drop.
As writers we have to be proactive to reach our goals, and sometimes our reward expectations don’t match the results. No one wants to launch a book and then disappear into the fog of unknowns. But the truth is, we have a purpose to fulfil, even when we feel we aren’t noticed, or appreciated for our talent and hard work.
Let’s look at a few positive facts about being a drop.

1. We finished a book! Do you know how many people start a book and never finish? You have probably done one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, and will probably do it again. That accomplishment is understated in most circles. Own it for yourself, and consider it an achievement – noticed or not.

2. We learned a lot along the way. Education is expensive and valuable. When you are writing a book, an article, a poem, a short story, you are educating yourself. Keeping up with good writing skills, technology for marketing, and trends in your genre is like going to school. Each time you take your writing to the next level, you will see the benefits. You will get noticed, maybe just not in ways you expected.

3. We learn to be content in our current place in the big picture of this industry. When I first stated seeking publication, the daunting task of trying to be somebody in this huge world of writers, publishers, and agents often got the best of me. I am who I am. And I am where I am because God puts me there when it’s time. I had to learn to be content, and responsible when the time comes to be taken to the next level. It has made me a better writer and person.

4. You absolutely never know when things will change. I am considered a senior, okay, I AM a senior, and I had given up the thought of being traditionally published. Then when God saw I had let go of my ideas of how things should be, He sent me a publisher that was a perfect fit for me. Yes, at my age, I was at last traditionally published novelist. But let me tell you…I would have been okay with continuing as an Indie. But God knew the ultimate desire of my heart, even when I had let it go.

So sometimes we just have to be a Dori…just keep swimming in this big ocean. Being a little fish can still afford you opportunities you never imagined if you stay open minded. Even absent minded Dori served her purpose.

It’s not so bad being a drop, but keep the faith, and see how big of a fish God would have you be. He probably has bigger plans for you than you do for yourself.

Keep swimming,

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The Pruning

Clarissa Wilding and her family have just arrived at the train station in Kennewick, Washington. Their decision to move from the drought and dust storms on the Kansas plains seemed like a good one, until Clarissa sees her husband Frank embrace his half-brother William—the man who has offered them the chance to start fresh on his vineyard.
Clarissa knows this man, but by a different name. And it is obvious that William also recognizes her, though he says nothing of their past together.
The Wilding family settles into a cottage on the farm. Frank is thrilled to be back on a productive farm, having lost their crops to the relentless dust storms back home. He is anxious to rekindle his relationship with his brother, but doesn’t understand Clarissa’s resistance to William. Frank is eager to learn the grape and fruit growing business and hopes his work ethic will please his brother. But he is disturbed to see that William has not held on to the Christian teachings of their mother, but instead is angry and resentful of his drunken father, Frank’s step-father.
Both parents are deceased, but unpleasant memories linger for both Frank and William, even after William explains he changed his name to be rid of his father’s reputation.
Clarissa cruelly discovers that you cannot always escape your past. A clandestine meeting is about to test her faith, and expose secrets that could challenge her marriage.
Will Clarissa and her husband cling to God’s promise for a new beginning? Or be destroyed by tragedies and trials.

Jan Cline is an author and speaker from Post Falls, Idaho, eager to share some American history with you.

I write Historical fiction from events in American History and the lives of those who lived in our nation's past. My debut novel is Emancipated Heart, a story about a family living in a Japanese American internment camp during WWII. My passion for history started when, as a kid, my father would stop at every roadside historical marker and every small town museum as we traveled on vacations. And my love of writing makes a good combination for great stories.

Please visit my website and sign up for my newsletter and/or blog to receive a FREE short story.
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Who’s Flying This Plane? by Linda Thompson

You could almost class it as a trope or archetype—the writer with hundreds of rejections. Every time I tell someone I’m a writer, the question seems to follow: “Have you experienced a lot of rejections, then?”

Yes, is the answer. It’s part of the game. And if you have a manuscript you’re shopping, you know the drill. The critique groups and classes and conferences and paid editors—and the learning process isn’t cheap, by the way! The query piles and hopeful meetings. The emailing of book proposals and samples and “fulls.” The waiting, waiting… waiting. And then, of course, another email conveying a polite rejection. 

It isn’t personal, although it’s wrenchingly hard not to take it that way.

Lord, aren’t you calling me to write? Don’t you want people to read this story?

If you’re reading this, I can guess the answer to that is a “yes.” But, here’s something I know. First and foremost, the Lord is using the ups and downs of your journey to call you into a deeper relationship with Himself. What an amazing honor! But being clay worked by the potter’s fingers doesn’t always feel good!

“Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. For the testing of your faith produces endurance.” (James 1:2-3) Hardships come to prove—and in many cases, improve—the quality of our faith. That’s the outcome that actually matters.

The Lord has spoken to me on a few occasions via “Mount Moriah moments.” Moments of deep discouragement where I questioned the calling. If my manuscript was my “child of promise,” if I picked it up because He had called me to it, was I ready to surrender it on His command as well?

If you’re a Christian writer, you’re probably familiar with Allen Arnold and his book, The Story of With. It’s an extended allegory of a creative who seeks self-actualization and worldly success, but without a deep partnership with her Heavenly Father. She ultimately learns that the endpoint is not the point. The real point is the journey—with God. 

My most discouraging “Mount Moriah moment” came a couple of years ago, when my first agent dropped me. I didn’t even know that was a thing! This person had been so generous to coach and mentor me through several revisions. Only a few months earlier my manuscript had garnered a significant industry award, which I know would not have happened without that agent’s guidance.

Award ceremony photo goes here. Caption: Me in 2016, at a big glam awards ceremony, the evening I was blessed to see my manuscript win the ACFW Genesis contest. Pinch me! But… still no path to publication.

I couldn’t fathom going through the querying process again. Lord, what are you telling me?

He was telling me what He tells us all. At the end of the day, it’s not about any earthly outcome. It’s about our relationship with Him. About relying on Him through the journey.

Today, my saga appears to have ended in what the world would call success. A respected agent (Wordserve Literary) and a three-book contract with a quality publisher. My debut novel, a World War II story inspired by true events from the Doolittle Raid of April, 1942, was released on December 1. And it’s a beautiful “book baby,” if I do say so myself! Thank you, Mountain Brook Ink! Plus, my street team has been wonderful, and the feedback from early readers and reviewers has been very heartening.

But! I have to tell you that the battle over who owns this book doesn’t go away, because it’s a battle between flesh and spirit. Each open door just moves the conflict to a new field. Two years ago, the wrestling with the Lord was over whether anyone would publish my—oops, His!—story. Now the question is whether anyone (or, rather, enough “anyones”) will read it. How does my one little book get attention amidst Amazon’s eight million titles?

As my husband likes to annoyingly point out: if it’s really His, won’t He bring the audience?

I’ll offer you a note of encouragement I often come back to. Naturally, during my lengthy journey to publication I meditated on scriptures on waiting. “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength” (Is 40:31), right? I noticed for the first time that the word for “wait” in this passage has a sense of being intertwined.

From the Complete Word Study Bible:

קָוָה qāwāh: A verb meaning to wait for, to look for, to hope for. The root meaning is that of twisting or winding a strand of cord or rope….

I should be so intertwined with my Lord that my will disappears into His! Didn’t Jesus also say something like this—something about abiding? “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4)

At the end of the day, I’m not after book sales. Not really. I’m after spiritual fruit, right? I want the story to impact lives. That will only come through abiding in Jesus. Not through my own fleshly efforts to drive the book-marketing flywheel.

There’s no question that it’s the Lord who brought me this far. I’m waiting and praying to see what He will do through this novel, and future writing ventures. And if He should call me to put my WIP in a virtual drawer and my writing career on the altar (again)? Well, I think I’m ready for that too.

GIVEAWAY

I’m hosting my Grand Launch Giveaway until 12/31—still plenty of time to get in on the action! Click here for details on the prizes—including two beautiful coffee mugs, a hand-painted vintage silk scarf from Japan, and a copy of Unbroken: The Path to Redemption on DVD—and how to enter.

THE PLUM BLOOMS IN WINTER

“A taut, crisp debut achievement that colorfully evokes the Pacific theater of WWII. Start this one forewarned: it's a stay-up-all-night read."

- Jerry B. Jenkins, 21-time New York Times bestselling author (Left Behind, et al)

A Prostitute Seeks Her Revenge—In 1942, Miyako Matsuura cradled her little brother as he died on the sidewalk, a victim of the first U.S. bombing raid on Japan. By 1948, the war has reduced her to a street-hardened prostitute consumed by her shame.

A WWII Hero Finds His True Mission—Dave Delham makes military aviation history piloting a B-25 in the audacious Doolittle Raid. Forced to bail out over occupied China, he and his crew are captured by the Japanese and survive a harrowing P.O.W. ordeal. In 1948, he returns to Japan as a Christian missionary, determined to showcase Christ's forgiveness.

Convinced that Delham was responsible for the bomb that snuffed out her brother's life, Miyako resolves to restore her honor by avenging him--even if it costs her own life. But the huntress soon becomes hunted in Osaka's treacherous underworld. Miyako must outmaneuver a ruthless brothel owner, outwit gangs with competing plans to profit by her, and overcome betrayal by family and friends--only to confront a decision that will change everything.

Buy link: http://a.co/d/iSiOYNK

Linda Thompson stepped back from a corporate career that spanned continents to write what she loves–stories where reckless faith meets relentless redemption. Her recently launched debut novel, The Plum Blooms in Winter, is an A.C.F.W. Genesis award winner. Linda writes from the sun-drenched Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband, a third-generation airline pilot who doubles as her Chief Military Research Officer, two mostly-grown-up kids, and a small platoon of housecats. When Linda isn't writing, you'll find her rollerblading–yes, that does make her a throwback–taking in a majestic desert moonrise, or dreaming of an upcoming trip. She and her husband recently returned from a tour of Israel and Jordan and a visit to Wales.

Linda loves to connect with readers! Linda’s website: http://lthompsonbooks.com. Follow Linda on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or Bookbub.

Seasons of Writing by Terri Weldon

April has been a tricky month this year. Early on I had beautiful tulips in pink, red, and orange blooming in my yard. The slow growing redbud trees put on their prettiest show since they’d been planted. Then the freeze came. The purple blooms on the redbuds shriveled up and the tulip blooms leaned over as if their necks had been broken. Where was spring? 

The weather warmed up again and surprisingly the tulips fared better than expected and their blooms perked back up for the most part. Then it froze again. 

This time I had a little more hope, I knew some of the tulips would wither, but others would make it. Plus I had a crop of late bloomers waiting to burst out. Even through the chill I knew spring was coming. 

So what does this have to do with writing and why am I rambling about my flowers? Because when I started thinking about what to write for this post the seasons of writing popped into my mind and I realized writing, much like the weather, has seasons. 

When I first began writing it felt like spring. Story ideas abounded. Excitement sprang up much like the tulips in my yard. Writing was fresh and new. I wrote fast and furiously. 

Now admittedly I had a long spring season, but finally summer arrived. I sold a book. Nothing seemed impossible. I had a request from an editor at my dream publisher. Like my garden in the summer, everything was in bloom. 

But have you ever designed a flowerbed and it didn’t quite turn out like you expected? Or planted a flower just to have it die? Yeah, well now you know how my book at my dream publisher fared. Fall had arrived. Most blooms were stripped away. Still there were snippets of hope. While the publisher rejected my book they did welcome other submissions from me.  Plus I had a request from a small publisher for a novella I had written. So just like fall, things were changing, but there was still beauty. 

I guess we all know what comes after fall. Winter. You guessed it, the novella…it was rejected. My writing, my creativity had taken some hard hits. And just like winter everything seemed frozen. Should I keep on writing? Was I spinning my wheels or was there hope? That’s a question each author has to answer for themselves. There is no wrong choice as long as you are doing what God wants you to do. 

Thankfully winter isn’t the end. There is always another spring coming. I made the decision to keep writing and while I wish I could say I’m enjoying an endless summer I’d be lying. The seasons have come and gone. I’m still here and thankfully have a novella coming out this July. After that, well I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.  

I think Solomon said it best:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)

I hope you’ll share a little bit about your writing seasons and where you are in your writing journey now.

The Matchmakers Anthology
A Match Made in Sheffield (Book Two by Terri Weldon)

Nalie Benton bounced from one foster home to another until she landed on Ellie Alexander’s doorstep. Natalie’s vagabond childhood caused her to yearn for a secure life, which led to Natalie’s five-year plan: complete her law degree, marry the perfect man, become a partner at Montgomery, Haynes, and Preston, and produce one child. Getting arrested wasn’t in Natalie’s plan. Needing a public defender wasn’t in her plan. Falling for Grady Hunter, her public defender, definitely wasn’t in her plan. Can Grady convince Natalie there is more to life than her five-year plan? Is Ellie the only one who sees a future for Natalie and Grady?

Terri Weldon is a lead analyst by day and an award winning author by night. Her novella The Christmas Bride Wore Boots won the best novella category in the 2016 Lyra Awards. She enjoys traveling, gardening, reading, spending time with her family, and shopping for shoes. One of her favorite pastimes is volunteering as the librarian at her church. It allows her to shop for books and spend someone else’s money! Plus, she has the great joy of introducing people to Christian fiction. She lives with her family in the Heartland of the United States. Terri has two adorable Westies – Crosby and Nolly Grace. Terri is a member of ACFW and RWA. She is a member of the Seriously Write Team (www.seriouslywrite.blogspot.com). Readers can connect with Terri at www.terriweldon.com