ACFW: Day 1

The Early Bird class certainly lived up to its name, coming at a very early hour of 7 AM our normal time. (Didn’t help that I got a 2:30 AM call from two crying kids.) Which meant up at 5:30 to be showered and have breakfast. But can you guess who we had breakfast with?

Donald Maass!

Too funny! All the tables were full and he was wandering, so we invited him to sit with us again, while clearly stating we understood that he might have already enjoyed more of our company than he would have liked. More great conversation, which is truly spectacular since only 1/3 of our party is a morning person. Not me. Not Donald.

His class was amazing, so chock full of info about 200 heads were spinning by the time 4 PM and the end of the session rolled around. I applied his questions to my WIP, which meant I didn’t have to deal with the frustration a lot of people felt. Many had thought their books were done, then realized they had a WHOLE lot more work to do. 🙁 But the end result will be much stronger novels. 🙂

When Mr. Miller was talking about having a character choose between two wrong things or two right things having much more conflict than choosing between a right and a wrong, it shed light onto a personal situation for me. I have two good things to choose between, and was saying I should be confused about what to do, but wasn’t. However, I do feel turmoil and conflict about the choice. So while not confused, I’m not given surety either. (Anyone who followed this paragraph deserves a trophy. Preferable volleyball.)

During lunch I readied my donation to the ACFW scholarship fundraiser silent auction. It’s a cool tiny tote with my book, some yummies, a mug, and a free $25 critique. I wonder if anyone will bid on it … Hope so! On the flight here, I teared up thinking of the committee finding me worthy of a scholarship to come to the conference. God is SO good to me! I’d love to raise a little money in return.

Mom and I volunteered for meal ticket taking and greeting for dinner, our first official meal of the conference. I had so much fun greeting people by name and welcoming them. Finally met my dear Ashley Weis in person!

Debbie Macomber delivered an inspiring keynote. I especially want to share some words for you writing moms and dads who are not at the conference. She talked about how your family does NOT suffer from you being a writer. It does NOT take away from your family. Instead, she said it taught her children lessons they could use later on in life about believing in yourself, persevering, and following your dreams. This validated so much of what I’ve believed.

I know that I am doing what God called me to do. I hope He continues to call me in this and that I can have a long, fruitful career of writing His truth in engaging stories. And my children will only be blessed because of what I am doing for Him and for them.

After the session, we had a short break and then I sat in on Thomas Nelson’s late night chat. Allen Arnold is a great speaker and really communicates the heart of TN’s publishing goals. He was refreshing and relevant. Talking about how the Gospel has never been safe. That many, many stories in the Bible are not safe. TN does not want to do safe stories. In the same way that Christ can redeem any person, writing from a Christian world view can redeem any genre, any story. They are amazing folks over there at Thomas Nelson.

So that’s Day 1! I can’t believe I’m still awake enough to write this, though I can’t guarantee its readability. What I hope you take away from this post is a confirmation of God’s calling on your life and an eagerness to go wherever He leads.

Today’s blog tour stop is the UNBELIEVABLE Novel Journey! I’ve read this blog for years and dreamed of the day I might be featured. That day turns out to be September 17, 2009. Woohoo!

(Novel Journey was chosen as one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 MOST VALUABLE WEBSITES FOR WRITERS, 2008.)