I'm back and I'm blessed!

I don't know what to do first, I learned so many things while at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference. Wow. I am thrilled to say no one thought I was a complete nut case. Several thought my writing was very good. (I was shocked and humbled to hear that) We were told we could have four 15 minute sessions, but God was merciful and I had eight.

I found two possible publishers for Through the Tears. One took my book proposal and sample chapters, read them and talked to me again after our initial meeting. She said it still needs some polish, but it is good. They cannot publish it now because they have a book coming out this year with a similar message or rather topic about death/murder. She added that it would be about two to three years before they could produce something in that nature again. However, she did add that if I am not published within the next year, to call her! That was HUGE. Thank you Jesus. That was Howard Publishers. The other is Strang Publishers and she wants me to send her a proposal and the completed manuscript as soon as it is complete! She seemed excited about reading it.

I will be writing devotionals for the David C. Cook company's The Quiet Hour or Standard Publishing's Devotionals. I am pretty excited, it just happens to be a paying project. Hallelujah! So I will be published, I'm just not sure what month I will be doing the writing in. I am supposed to hear from him by June.

I also spoke to someone from Focus on the Family magazine, and Focus on the Family books. The magazine people told me to get the guidelines to submit a possible article, and she was very encouraging. The lady from the books portion was encouraging about my message, but said that Focus books has very limited titles that they publish, but encouraged me to submit to the magazine. Nothing negative, all positive. She also added she'd publish all of the books if she could.

I spoke to someone representing Come to the Fire magazine, and she liked my article. She told me that I'm a very good writer. That she could "hear my voice" as she read. Not literally but it's a figurative term. She told me to "tighten it up" to shorten it, to make sure it is focused on the theme, and take out the unnecessary parts that don't enhance it. She gave me an e-mail address to contact them.

I also spoke with David Manuel. He gave me a word from the Lord, and prayed with me. He encouraged me a lot. He is the Editorial Director for Awakening Unlimited, the author of 37 books, worked as editor for Doubleday Canada Ltd. Managing editor of division of Logos International where he was the first managing editor to set up and head the book division, it being the first Charismatic publishing house.

So, I think I made a few connections and I feel totally blessed that I was able to go, that Jeff agreed to let me be gone for that long.

I made some WONDERFUL friends while there. I met several authors while I was on the shuttle van from the airport, and we ended up meeting numerous times while at the conference. It was as if God said "these are the people that are significant for you to meet, they will be a new part of your life and your future" Whew, wow. I gave my blog information to most of them so I hope they all check it out, and contact me.

Here are a couple of pictures I took, the view was amazing. I didn't much care for the snow we got on Thursday, especially since I didn't take heavy clothes, or a coat (not one of my better ideas)

Thanks for all of your prayers, don't stop praying, because this is really only the beginning. I'm excited to see what God is going to do in me and through me!