The Never-Ending Saga Lives On

Happy Monday, BGs. (What happened to the weekend?)

Thanks for the comments and ideas for topics left on Friday's post. I'll be looking into those topics to see what I can come up with. Now, an update. The Scenes and Beans Gang (SBGs for short, naturally) is now complete. All ARCS of Violet Dawn are gone. Today I’ll post an update on the Scenes and Beans blog that says so, in order to stop the flow of e-mails from people wanting to audition. ARCS went out last week to most of the auditioners.

Sunday I received an e-mail from one gal who’d already received the ARC and read the whole book! Now that’s fast. Here’s what she had to say about the first chapter:

I once read a book by Mary Higgins Clark called Daddy’s Little Girl. One scene in that book was so honest-to-goodness scary it had my skin vibrating. I experienced that same sensation this afternoon while reading your hot tub scene. That is by far your most realistic and creepy EVER! Never again shall I set foot in a hot tub without checking it first!

Sorry, folks, if Violet Dawn takes your hot tub away from you. I mean, it's one thing to cast aspersions on spiders. But hot tubs? Maybe I should pull out the ol’ Jaws line: Just when you thought you could go back in the water . . . heh-heh

Over the weekend I received a letter from a new BG (stands for bloggee, or blog reader, for you newbies) that did my heart good. I am using it with the person’s permission, having taken out all pertinent names.
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I just finished reading your NES. [Never-Ending Saga—the story, titled “How I Got Here,” of my journey to publication in fiction, found on this blog.] Your story has really ministered to me this week.

I've talked with you a couple of times at Mt. Hermon, this year included, and I enjoy your books. I've had a couple of "close encounters" with pub boards, the latest of which came this week. [Recently] I was thrilled to get an email from [an editor] saying my suspense novel would be taken to committee on Wednesday April 19. But I'd been disappointed before so I was trying not to get my hopes up.

Right.

Wednesday came and nearly went, and when I didn't get an email from [the editor] I had a feeling the news was not going to be happy. When instead I got an email from [my agent] with the word "drat" in the subject line—well that said it all. It seemed my story was too disturbing. [The editor] was disappointed, [my agent] was disappointed, I was certainly disappointed, but the answer was still no.

Having gone through this same type of thing two years before with a manuscript that [another editor] took to committee, and having seen my first contracted book go unpublished a year before that when the company filed bankruptcy, I was beginning to feel that maybe God hadn't called me to be a writer of Christian fiction even though it's been my passion for two decades. I was feeling pretty down when a good friend and fellow writer sent me a link to your blog, saying I should read your "How I got here" never-ending saga.

It was not an accident that she came across it, and not an accident that she sent it. And all I can say after reading it is, "Please God, please God, please God, NOT THAT!" Ha.

But I've been encouraged by your story. And the thing I came away with tonight is that I'm not going to buy into Satan's lies anymore. God has called me to write. I write for Him and the results are in His hands. So thank you for sharing.
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I am so encouraged to received e-mails like this one. We serve an efficient God. He can use one person’s difficulties to reach many people. That's why we should tell others about our struggles whenever it's appropriate. Never know who may be helped along the way. Long live the NES!