Two More Abingdon Contracts

I'm so pleased to make these further announcements:

1. Dear Brandilyn,

I just want you to know that my novel, Surrender the Wind, has been accepted by Barbara Scott at Abingdon Press. I talked with her on the phone Friday and she is indeed a fantastic lady. I'm so thankful to you for posting on Forensic & Faith about Abingdon's new line and about Barbara. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be working with her. It was through your blog that I was shown 'the way I should go', and I mentioned to Barbara when I queried her that I read about the fiction line via your site.

My contract is on its way for me to sign. Again, thank you. I wish I could give you a hug. If it wasn't for the fact you listened to God and posted about Barbara and Abingdon Press I may not have ever known and landed a contract. It was an answer to prayer literally.

Blessings,
Rita Gerlach


From Rita's web site:

Surrender the Wind--coming to a bookstore near you in the autumn of 2009.

After a harrowing escape from the British, patriot Seth Braxton finds his father dead at Yorktown. Now battle scarred and grieving, he endeavors to settle down for a peaceful life along the shores of the Potomac by restoring the land his father loved.

Thinking he will forever stay in the secluded wilderness, he receives a message that he has inherited his grandfather's estate in faraway England. Seth is torn between the land he's fought for and the prospect of reuniting with his sister, Caroline, who was a motherless child at the onset of the Revolution, taking to England in order to spare her the horrors of war.

With no intention of making his stay at Ten Width permanent, he journeys to England to do his duty. When he arrives, he finds his sister in the throes of grief after being told her young son has died of a fever. In the midst of so much tragedy, he meets Juleah, the daughter of an eccentric landed gentleman. Her independent spirit and gentle soul steal his heart, and she becomes his wife and lady of the manor, enraging the man who once sought her hand and hoped Ten Width would be his own.

From the Virginia wilderness, to the dark halls of an isolated English estate, Seth inherits more than a crumbling ancestral home. He uncovers a sinister plot that leads to murder, abduction, and betrayal --- an ominous mix that threatens to destroy his new life and new love.


2. Hi, Brandilyn. Yep, your blog gets all the credit for opening this door for me! I'm a confessed lurker but I check it almost every day, and boy, was I glad I did that day! I had a query off to Barbara within hours of reading your post. Within a day she'd requested 3 of my proposals, and a few days later the full of one of those. A few more e-mails over the next couple of weeks made it pretty obvious she was getting serious, and then the call Friday! Wow!!!! She is absolutely the sweetest lady. Everyone who's ever had dealings with her has only good things to say, so I'm really looking forward to working with her.

Myra Johnson

From Myra's blog:

Twenty-five years and 200+ rejections later

... On the 200+ rejections leading up to this moment, I kid you not. I’ve changed my record-keeping system a few times over the years, so the exact number is kind of hazy, but I just went through all my files and it really does come out somewhere around the 200 mark ... I’m calling myself the poster child for publication perseverance. It has been a long, arduous journey, a roller-coaster ride emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I’m smart enough to realize I haven’t “arrived” yet. This is just the next leg of the journey, and one I can’t wait to explore!

I just want to say that if God has given you the desire, talent, and skill to write--or whatever He may have gifted you with--until He personally tells you otherwise, keep on keeping on. If success seems long in coming, ask God to help you see what you still need to learn, how He still wants to grow you up. Our path through this life is not about what we can achieve, but what God wants to shape us into. He is the Potter, we are the clay. Be moldable!

Myra's book that sold to Abingdon is titled One Perfect Christmas.
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Congratulations, Rita and Myra!

I know there are others of you who mailed in requested proposals only to be rejected. Perhaps for the nth time. That's happened in the past to these folks, and it surely happened to me. As Myra says, "Keep on keeping on." In the right timing, God will open the right doors for you. Even when you want to throw such a platitude across the room (I've been there more than once), hold on to it. It will prove true. God will lead.

If there are others out there who've been accepted by Abingdon, please let me know.