Gracias a Dios

How to describe the feelings when something unexpected but wonderful happens?

Shock. Disbelief. Excitement. Gratitude.

On Father’s Day Sunday, June 20, 2021, I opened my spam email folder, checking one last time for a missing notification from a businessperson who wasn’t doing his job to suit me. I was preparing to make a phone call in which I had rehearsed my indignant argument. No, scratch that. I’ll be honest. I was preparing to bite someone’s head off. But before I did that, I wanted to be sure the “missing” email wasn’t in my spam folder.

It wasn’t. But something else was!

It was an invitation to join the Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. family. I had a contract hiding in my junk file.

My annoyance vanished without a second thought. I was home alone and had no one to share my news with. I pummeled my feet on the ground and shouted. Both dogs came running, ears perked, tails wagging uncertainly. Were we under attack?

I started writing Protected six years ago. I did everything wrong that was conceivable to do. My Christian fiction, historical romance topped off at 145,000 words. I later learned industry average is 75,000 – 85,000. Oops.

I had point of view issues. My characters’ thoughts head-hopped. I misused dialogue tags. Had no idea what an action beat was. Dangling participles, echos, passive writing, over-explaining. My novel was a train wreck.

But God directed me to ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) through a contact on Twitter (a mostly God-less place, so that was a minor miracle in itself). At an ACFW meeting, I met Lena Nelson Dooley and invited myself to her weekly critique group meeting, which she graciously allowed.

The patient ladies at Lena’s – Nancy Lavo, Sara Meg Seese, Rachael Acree, Lisa Crane, Kelly Daniels – slowly and gently guided me through my first foray into editing. Each week, they showed me a different mistake I had made. Each week, they helped me learn how to write better.

I attended several online workshops, events I wouldn’t have known about or been able to attend if not for Covid forcing us all to learn to use Zoom. I read book after book on the craft of writing. Other books in my genre piled up on my nightstand, so I could learn what the market wanted.

I turned again and again to my sounding boards, who helped me formulate better ideas for my stories. Ronda Elston, John Peckham, Kathy Severe. They got me over many a hump when the idea pipeline clogged up.

Nineteen months and several rejection letters later, I found myself in a Zoom meeting at the Mt. Zion Ridge conference, in a breakout room I hadn’t signed up for and wasn’t supposed to be in, but somehow was, talking with Deb Haggerty, owner and editor-in-chief of Elk Lake Publishing.

And that, as they say, was all it took.

That’s all. Six years of writing. Nineteen months of revising. Several attempts to make contact with someone in the publishing industry. And week after week of meeting with friends who wanted nothing but to help me as we all worked together to improve our skills.

And now, I have a contract with a publishing house to send my book out into the world. I feel validated. Seen. Valued.

Was I all those things before Father’s Day? Yes. God sees me. He values me. He validates me. And as I move forward down this new and exciting path, I pray thanks to God, gracias a Dios, and I ask for his guidance to help me produce work that glorifies him.

Thank you all for your support through the years. I hope you enjoy what comes from this effort as much as I have enjoyed producing it.

9 Replies to “Gracias a Dios”

  1. This is sooooo cool! You never gave up and kept plugging along, bit by bit. Glad to know you, my friend.

  2. Paula,
    I am so proud of you! I have not run accross th word “luck” in the bible! God is continuously whispering to us constantly, we need only to quietly listen.
    God’s Blessings to you!
    With admiration and love!
    Dale

    1. Thank you! There is so much more backstory behind what I wrote. I truly never worried about if/when this would happen (and I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant, because I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be, only that God would guide it). Whatever was to happen would occur in His timing, not mine.

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