Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts

Sunday, March 14, 2010

We're Back

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, Cheryl and I decided it was best to step back from the Writers' Pointe and focus on our own writing projects.

We did that.

And I'm pleased, and humbled, to say God has moved in crazy, unexpected ways in our lives.

Cheryl has been asked to be a regular contributor for Christiandevotions.us. She's also completed a proposal for her Non-fiction Christian living book and is in the process of touching up chapters and compulsively editing.

Last month, Cheryl was appointed to the SC Commission on Women.

A few weeks ago, she won the SC Independent Colleges and Universities Excellence in Teaching award for North Greenville University.

She's also been approached to be a part of several collaborative projects.

And Mandy . . .

Well, I signed my first book contract last week.

I have another under consideration at the same house and am working on my third manuscript (who would have thought I'd even finish the first one . . . definitely a God thing!)

So, we've decided to come back to the blog (renamed Just for this Season) and share our journeys with you. Our hope is that by allowing others to see the life-transforming changes and opportunities God has worked for us, it will be an encouragement to our readers. We also hope you'll do us the honor of sharing your journey (whether it be writing, homemaking, finishing school, etc) with us.

--Mandy

Monday, February 2, 2009

A Bump in the Road to Publication


It was always my intention, when blogging and sharing with everyone, to be excruciatingly and heartbreakingly honest about my own personal journey to becoming a published novelist.

So in the interest of being truthful, I have to say . . .

Rejection stinks. It does . . . really, really badly.

Enjoy the excerpt from my latest "make you feel good" letter I received.

" . . . I believe your writing has a lot of potential, and particularly enjoyed your gift for sharp characterization and witty dialogue. (I'll admit, I laughed out loud at the marriage proposal scene in chapter one.) Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I had some trouble with plausibility elements in your plot . . ."

My first reaction upon scanning the note was: Seriously? Plausibility elements? Did she READ my manuscript? Plausibility elements . . . HA! What does that even mean anyway?

Needless to say, I was not a very happy person. I looked at my husband with an evil glare, about to begin a tirade.

"Why don't you call Cheryl?" he asked hastily, with a bit of fear in his voice.

So I did. And I ranted. And I questioned. And I battled the sense of failure that threatened to overwhelm me.

I spent the rest of the afternoon obsessing on the phone over each minute plot twist and each character trait. I analyzed the emotions and the motivations, wondering where I crossed from amusing story to the land of the unrealistic.

And we found them--the "plausibility elements" I refused to believe existed. I won't go into the details other than to say I had wrapped up my novel with a beautiful, shiny, unbelievable fictional bow (I'll let Cheryl explain that one later). To make a long story short, the revised idea is even better than the original. I'm reenergized in my quest to publish the next great American novel (or something like it).

All is not lost. That's what I really learned last weekend. And I have a suspicion that, before long, I'll actually be thankful for this rejection.

--Mandy