Part Five: Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars by Cheryl Wyatt

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS!

Please welcome back our friend Cheryl Wyatt as she returns with the final installment of her Staying Grounded While Your Career Soars. We've enjoyed hosting her and appreciate her wisdom.

Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars: Part Five
by Chery Wyatt

Day 5 - Giving

Wow. When I found out this post was going to go up on Christmas Day, I felt very inadequate to post it. Especially when Annette pointed out how neat it was that my final post in this series was on giving and that it fell on Christmas Day.

No gift is more valuable than the one wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. No gift maybe except the fact that that “gift” grew up despite the satanic attacks on his life and still loved us enough to go to the cross. And with no guarantee we’d ever love Him back.

This post is supposed to be writing related.

But frankly, I don’t know what to say other than every good and perfect gift is from Him. We have nothing, no gift or talent or imaginative ability except what comes from Him.

It boggles my mind that He doesn’t take the gifts away from people who don’t serve Him.

I think of beautiful voices who don’t sing to or for Him but who should because He planted that voice within them when He knit them together in their mother’s wombs. I wonder if He still loves to listen to them sing? Does it hurt Him?

I really wonder.

What about writers so talented yet their words mock Him? I’m not pointing fingers or judging anyone. I just wonder what their words would be like, the impact they’d have if their words were for Him?

Do you ever wonder?

I’m so thankful for the gift of writing. I know it comes from Him.

Even the desire to use my words as worship, poured out as perfume. Many times written in brokenness of things He’s allowed into my life. Just like He allowed the men to mock the woman who shattered her bottle and wasted it all over his feet.

Yet her gift meant more to Jesus than any other that day.

You are a sweet fragrance to God. I pray that today you will determine to write as worship. That you would lose concern over reviews, bad numbers, no contract, rejection, etc. And just be secure in the fact that your words mean something profound to Him. Let that be enough. Let that be your gift to Him today.

Your readership is a gift for which I’m humbly thankful.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and my prayer is that your writing will be a gift to others and especially to the One who placed the dream within you.

Happy Birthday, Jesus. This one’s for you.

Cheryl Wyatt

Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers.

Her latest book, A Soldier's Devotion, releases January 1, 2010.

U.S. Air Force pararescue jumper Vince Reardon was headed to a lifesaving mission-until pretty lawyer Valentina Russo crashed into him, sidelining him for two weeks. Ever since his brother was wrongly convicted, Vince has little respect for lawyers, but Valentina soon earns his respect.and his heart.

Part Four: Staying Grounded While Your Career Soars by Cheryl Wyatt

It's Fortifying Friday, and Cheryl Wyatt has returned with her inspirational series on staying grounded as a writer. Please welcome her back as she shares more wisdom with us.

Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars
by Cheryl Wyatt

Day 4 -- Growing/Mentoring

At first I was going to do two separate posts on growing and mentoring. But then it occurred to me that they should go hand in hand.

I will never forget the day that bestselling author Margaret Daley turned to me at a conference and said, “You need to be mentoring.”

I don’t think I closed my mouth for five solid minutes. After all, I’d only been writing for a few years. I certainly didn’t feel qualified, and I wasn’t even published. But in that moment, it was like God was directing me through her. I had actually been longing to get to a place in my writing craft that I could help others. I love mentoring. Love helping others go forward.

I had an image in my mind then of a long line of people, all holding hands. For each person in the middle, there was someone a step ahead of them and someone else a step behind them.

The person in front of the person in the middle tugged the middle person forward and the middle person in turn reached back and tugged the person a few steps behind them forward.

And suddenly I got it.

We don’t have to be perfect in order to help.

You probably aren’t the most experienced writer out there. But you probably also aren’t the least experienced either. Publication has nothing to do with it. I know writers who are farther advanced than me in their craft yet they’re not yet published.

You’re the person in the middle but that’s good news. Reach back and take the hand of the person who is one or two or a few steps behind you in this road. Teach them what you’ve learned along the way.

The more you grow the more you will be able to mentor others.

Yes, it’s true that when novelists help less-experienced novelists that they’re actually training their future competition.

But they delight in it anyway because they remember those who mentored them.

You can mentor people many different ways. Even if it’s once a year doing paid critiques at the ACFW conference, then donating the money you make back into the conference scholarship fund so someone else has a chance to come deepen their craft and grow to be a mentor to others.

Thank you to all authors who encouraged and mentored me along my journey. All the authors who still do.

If you are in need of mentorship, ask God to send someone. Respect their time and remember to thank them because mentorship is very time-consuming.

But I’m convinced that when we help others, God also helps us. Don’t forget to give back to the writing community as you’ve been helped. No one gets there alone. We're not meant to. :-)

Blessings on your endeavors!

~Cheryl Wyatt

Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers. Check out her Web site.

Her latest book, Soldier Daddy, a Steeple Hill Love Inspired title, released in October, 2009.

U.S. Air Force commander Aaron Petrowski leads pararescue teams, yet can't find one nanny for his three-year-old twins? The widowed father is returning to duty, but not without the best care for his beloved boys.

So when Sarah Graham applies, the young woman surprises everyone by passing inspection. Until Aaron discovers Sarah has a secret tied to a tragedy in his past.

He can't keep her in his employ—or in his heart. Until his brave little soldier boys teach him a thing or two about love.

Part Three: Staying Grounded While Your Career Soars by Cheryl Wyatt

Cheryl Wyatt's series has been so "meaty." I hope you're enjoying it as much as I (Annette) am. Please welcome her back for Part Three of her series this Fortifying Friday.

Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars
by Cheryl Wyatt

Day 3 - Serving

An interesting phenomenon happened to me at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference. I set aside my entire conference one year to assist another member who is differently-abled.

The very next year a medical misdiagnoses put me in a wheelchair for months following a major reconstructive surgery. I am also a donor bone recipient which is part of the reason I can walk today.

Suddenly I went from being able to serve to needing help. Guess what?

I hated it.

It gave me a new level of respect for disabled people as well as the person I’d helped the year prior.

Trust me, it was much easier for me to be the one helping than the one needing help. I squirmed with uncomfortable emotions the entire conference.

Yet I was profoundly thankful too. A friend, Pammer James, without me asking her, set aside her entire conference to push me around in that chair.

I couldn’t bring myself to ask for help. I don’t know if it was self-sufficiency or embarrassment or what. But it was ugly, and God wanted it out of me. I like to be independent. God, in his mercy, sent me this friend and put it on her heart to serve me at the conference instead of having her own agenda.

From that point onward I determined to go to ACFW with a heart to serve and without my own agenda. To seek out the lonely and scared and those too scared or shy to ask for help.

I pray for you as you attend writers’ conferences next year that you will be super sensitive to the needs of others. You have no idea what a blessing you will be to that person who needs help but for whatever reason can’t ask.

You never know when you will be the one needing help. God makes us take turns. LOL! You will be forced to depend on others some day.

Until and after then, go with a heart to serve.

~~~
Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers.

Her latest book, Soldier Daddy, a Steeple Hill Love Inspired title, released in October, 2009.

U.S. Air Force commander Aaron Petrowski leads pararescue teams, yet can't find one nanny for his three-year-old twins? The widowed father is returning to duty, but not without the best care for his beloved boys.

So when Sarah Graham applies, the young woman surprises everyone by passing inspection. Until Aaron discovers Sarah has a secret tied to a tragedy in his past.

He can't keep her in his employ—or in his heart. Until his brave little soldier boys teach him a thing or two about love.

Part Two: Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars by Cheryl Wyatt

Please welcome back Cheryl Wyatt as she continues her series this Fortifying Friday.

Staying Grounded While Your Career Soars
By Cheryl Wyatt

Day 2 - Humility

When my debut sold, the celebratory outpouring of support from family and friends was enormous. I’ll always be thankful for that and remain hopeful for their dreams to come true, too.

I wasn’t prepared for how news that I’d sold a book thrust me from shadows of obscurity as a shy pray-er, into the title of “published author” in people’s minds. I love praying for others. My church, leaders, family, friends, strangers, etc. I have a tremendous love for orphans.

The only reason I asked God to get my writing to the point of making money was because half my heart is in pieces on the other side of the world. Strips of it tore away and clung like Band-aids to the motherless children in South Indian orphanages I visited after the big tsunami. It only takes $5,000 American dollars to build an orphanage for four hundred children. Multitudes are still homeless.

God’s answer to that prayer? “Write as worship.”

Well, okay but I wanted to be published. I wrote for free for years before I finally sold a book. Seven years later I was sitting at my desk when I sensed God ask again, “Will you always write as worship?”

“Yes, Lord. You know I will.” I chuckled because I knew He knew I would and He’d stay my heart to keep that promise.

I’m not kidding when I say THAT moment the phone rang. It was The Call.

That it happened as that answer left my lips was no coincidence. Any time I doubt this calling, God is gracious to remind me.

Every book sold means several hundred orphans have haven. I promised every penny to God for that purpose. No one knew.

So when people began saying things like, “You must be rolling in dough now” and other well-meaning but ridiculous and insensitive things, it honestly broke my heart. It was like all of a sudden no one knew the real me. I knew after soul-searching I hadn’t changed. I begged God to be sure this writing thing hadn’t gone to my head. I felt secure that I was still true to who God made me. I don’t view my writing as above any other gift. They each are important. My writing gives me more people to pray for.

People tend to either think too highly of themselves or too little. I fall in the latter category. I constantly fight negative voices telling me my writing’s not good enough. Guess what? Sometimes it’s not! LOL.

A line to one of my favorite songs says, “All I am is yours.”

I’m not a failure even though I fail. I am His. So are you. Take great comfort in that. Let’s never forget who we are or where we came from, no matter how successful we become. If you write as worship to the living God, you will be less likely to fall prey to pride when success is handed to you.

~ Cheryl Wyatt

Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers. Check out her Web site.

Her latest book, Soldier Daddy, a Steeple Hill Love Inspired title, released in October, 2009.

U.S. Air Force commander Aaron Petrowski leads pararescue teams, yet can't find one nanny for his three-year-old twins? The widowed father is returning to duty, but not without the best care for his beloved boys.

So when Sarah Graham applies, the young woman surprises everyone by passing inspection. Until Aaron discovers Sarah has a secret tied to a tragedy in his past.

He can't keep her in his employ—or in his heart. Until his brave little soldier boys teach him a thing or two about love.

Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars by Cheryl Wyatt

Author Cheryl Wyatt has gracious agreed to run a series on Seriously Write over the next several Fridays. She has provided encouragement and advice to me (Annette) on several occasions, cheering me on. I'm thrilled she can visit Seriously Write.

So, this Fortifying Friday, please welcome Cheryl with the first part of her Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars series.

Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars
By Cheryl Wyatt

Day 1-Friendship

At a writers’ retreat, well-known authors spoke about the importance of maintaining hometown friendships. I want to share their advice.

Writers are strange. Who else stands in elevators with “normals” aka non-writers and argue over the best place to hide a weapon? Or walk into police stations and blurt, “I need to know the best place to hide a decomposing body so it won’t be found for three weeks.”

Yes, I know suspense writers who’ve done it. LOL! Shocked the officers on duty.

Because writers are wired weird, we tend to clump together. As our life becomes more grounded in the publishing industry, we accrue more online friends than hometown buddies.

But what happens when something hard comes? We need people geographically close. Most of our writer buddies won’t be able to physically help us through a taxing ordeal. Life spits storms at all of us.

I don’t want you to be bereft of friends when yours blows to shore.

After a 2008 car accident, I required surgeries. It’s hard to take care of a family when both feet can’t bear weight. Try to hop, crutches under arms, to a stove with a pan. By the time I reached the stove, all the water sloshed from the pan. Menial tasks became monumental. A dear writer friend, Camy Tang, flew from afar to stay with us during one of my surgeries, days apart from another. I can’t enunciate the tremendous blessing and relief she was to my family during that time.

But, she couldn’t obviously leave her own family for the entire ordeal which lasted months. It was people from my church, close-by family and neighbors who came bearing meals, wheels, and mops who got us through the long haul. It’s really hard to have to depend on others but at points in life we’ll all be in that position. People will be more apt to pitch in and help if we’ve remained active and interested in them and their lives.

No matter where we are in our publication journey, let’s not neglect our friendships. People matter more than things. Cultivate hometown friendships. Hardship passes over no one. Sure, our writer friends will send cyber hugs. But there’s nothing more comforting than sharing a warm cup of cocoa with a face-to-face friend who can hug us in person on a truly blue day. I’ve learned not to neglect friendships for the sake of story. Nor be such a deadline-driven recluse that I pull away from those who love and care about me.

When we enter hard seasons, they’ll be there. They’ll also cheer as our life crawls from winter’s cold ashes into new seasons of hope reborn. Good friends will be there in hard times and happy times. I encourage you to nurture nearby friendships. You have no idea how much you need them and they need you. Keep close and hold dear the family and friends around you.

~ Cheryl Wyatt

Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers. Check out her Web site.

Her latest book, Soldier Daddy, a Steeple Hill Love Inspired title, released in October, 2009.

U.S. Air Force commander Aaron Petrowski leads pararescue teams, yet can't find one nanny for his three-year-old twins?

The widowed father is returning to duty, but not without the best care for his beloved boys. So when Sarah Graham applies, the young woman surprises everyone by passing inspection. Until Aaron discovers Sarah has a secret tied to a tragedy in his past.

He can't keep her in his employ—or in his heart. Until his brave little soldier boys teach him a thing or two about love.