At the Glorieta Christian Writers’ Conference in 2003, I met several people who had a profound influence on my entering the field of Christian writing.  The first of these was James Scott Bell .  I ended up in Jim’s class on writing fiction and found it fascinating.  I’d always been a voracious reader, but had never really thought much about what it takes to put together a plot, bring the characters to life, and convey a message while holding the reader’s attention. Jim ended up becoming a friend and mentor. 

            I also took a class in writing “edgy fiction” taught by another man who has meant a great deal to me, Alton Gansky .  Like Jim Bell, Al introduced me to many of the basics of Christian fiction.  He told the class, “Once you try your hand at writing, you’ll never read in the same way again.” He proved to be right. One of the benefits of the conference was one-on-one time with writers and editors, and I decided to sign up with Al for some advice on what to do with my non-fiction work.  I still remember his casual remark that was affirming for me: “You know how to put the words together.”  Then he took me across the room, introduced me to editor Gary Terashita, and the snowball kept rolling. 

            Encouraged, I wrote a novel which was eventually turned down.   But I was hooked. I rewrote that first novel, then crafted and submitted a second and a third. Along the way I received mentoring and support from a bunch of folks in the writing world: Gayle Roper, Randy Ingermanson, Karen Ball, Janet Benrey, DiAnn Mills, and many others. I received lots of positive comments from editors, but never got that elusive contract. Instead, I piled up rejection after rejection.

            After my fourth novel was rejected by several publishers, I decided to give up. After all, forty rejections seemed to send a pretty clear signal. But a number of factors resulted in my giving it one more try.  In October 2008, I got the call from my agent, Rachelle Gardner “You’ve sold your first novel.”  It was published by Abingdon Publishers in March, 2010. That was followed by Medical Error, Diagnosis Death and Lethal Remedy, all of which have received great reviews.

            If there’s a lesson here, I suppose it’s this: Do the work, learn the craft, write, then write some more, and leave the timing to God.