This is my first official blog post.  I have been writing most of my life. In the past few years, I have been on a journey to become an author.  When you transition from being a writer to an author it becomes real.

I believe that God has called me to be an author so I want to get it right!  My first step in faith was to go to a Christian writers conference in July 2017.  The conference was in Montrose, PA and it was the first time I drove by myself over a bridge and off of Long Island, NY.  Whenever I got nervous (which was often), I would raise my hand and declare that Jesus was my co-pilot.  It was a week of great growth and revelation.  It quickly became obvious you don’t write a book and voila you’re an author.  There is a lot of hard work that must go into the finished product.  There were terms and requirements that I never knew existed – one sheets, elevator proposals, query letters, book proposals and manuscripts to name a few.  It seemed I needed all of these to evolve from writer to author.  I came home humbled and energized.

I returned to the writers conference in July 2018.  I was a bit better prepared and traveled without apprehension.  I had a piece written and printed for presentation at the conference. I had completed a chapter of my book; I was ready.  There were great classes on non fiction writing. I was more relaxed and got a lot written down and revised during the week. Someone said that by your third conference, you should be focusing on editorial meetings, getting an agent and having your work published.  This was going to be my goal for the next conference.  I was finally off to a good start or was I? I came home re-energized, it did not last long.  I put away my notebook went back to my daily routine.

There is a writers conference coming in July of this year.  I purposed that if I were to go, I would go as a serious author.  I was going armed with a one sheet, a book proposal, business cards and an author’s blog.  I started by going through the notes from the writer’s conferences and drafts of my work.  I went through personal journals and notes written during my daughter’s illness.  I went through many emotions.  I was determined.  In the past three weeks I have drafted a one sheet, written two chapters of the book, written a few short stories, created business cards and started this blog.  I have also cried a lot.  

It has been difficult for me to relive life events and put them on a page with painful detail.  I have had to revisit times and days that were bleak.  I am grateful I have the journals and notebooks, in them I recorded what my mind would not allow me to fully grasp and hold onto. The transformation from a writer to an author has been difficult but my mind and my spirit have been renewed as I know I am following God’s will.   This is a new phase of the journey.  The writing has become real!

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve of what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  Romans 12:2