A great season for A Season to Dance

From unagented 67,500-word women's fiction to agented 75,300-word contemporary romance

Of course, when my 92-year-old grandmother died on the first day of the conference I'd been preparing for and dreaming of for a year and a half (3 weeks before my trip to Brazil to see her, mind you), I had to ask, "Why?"

I figured it out. I know why. Without her death, I would have come back from the 2014 American Christian Fiction Writers conference in St. Louis practically empty handed. I would have then prayed for God to let me put the book project on the back burner for at least 6 months to mend my broken heart and to figure out the way ahead. That would have been very sad.

But because my grandmother died late on that last Thursday of September, on Friday morning the editor I met with prayed with me and said she liked my pitch. She asked me to send her the full proposal.

That afternoon, I watched my grandma's funeral online from my hotel room. In Brazil these things happen within 24 hours of the death. Not a good day for me.

But with the ACFW worship events there and the prayers sent my way, I woke up well on Saturday and booked tons of extra pitches, all with agents. The editor I'd met with Friday encouraged me to do that. Every single agent liked the pitch, but didn't think there would be interest from editors. "Ballet stories are hard to sell in the Christian market," they said. But before saying no, most agents asked about editor interest. When I mentioned the Friday editor appointment and said they wanted to see my proposal, those agents decided they wanted to see my proposal, too.

I could not have orchestrated that. God did it. His will--His way. Right?

Once at home, before submitting the requested materials, I "stumbled upon" two ballet Christian books just published in September. Two weeks after the conference, I added the ballet titles to my proposal's comparative titles and submitted it to all the St. Louis contacts. Two days later Les Stobbe offered to represent me.

Thank you, Lord.

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Meet the agent

So...

Les Stobbe, a legend in Christian publishing, is now my agent.

Les Stobbe's storied career

Please join us in prayer for the Holy Spirit's guidance to the right publisher.

The editor I met in St. Louis said she will probably evaluate my proposal by mid-January. Les also got the interest of at least one additional editor. We haven't approached many yet.

Last year, I hired Jeff Gerke to help me with my manuscript. He did a wonderful job. I'm a huge fan. He also led me to Robert S. McGee's The Search for Significance. Because of that book, I can say my anxiety level on this path to publication dropped from an 8 to a 0.025 on a bad day. What a blessing.

I'm absolutely certain that the Lord will finish what He started when the time is right and when we're at the right door.

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This is the book that got me walking close to angst free. Who knows? It might be a blessing to one of you.

Somewhat in the same spirit, on Dec. 10 my pastor preached a wonderful sermon for people who feel too broken to contribute to the Kingdom of God: A Perfect Savior for Imperfect People. The preaching starts 29 minutes into the service.

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What's winter without Jäger Schnitzel?

Enjoy this recipe from the German Food Guide

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Callaway Gardens

Pine Mountain, Georgia

Rachel Crumbley, Callaway's marketing director, on visiting a garden in the winter: "You can appreciate the architecture of a tree, the architecture of a plant, and to see the bones of a garden is what some gardeners will tell you can be just as beautiful."

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New Year's resolutions?

How about moving farther from the super woman standard and getting better at being an abiding woman?

Wisdom from Facebook...

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Rosinha (Suzana) Vetter Fernandes

My grandmother was born in Brazil to a family of German immigrants who started the shoe industry tradition of the Vale dos Sinos in the south of Brazil. The family became "the first family" of the Vale, but my grandma, the youngest of seven children, never let her father's rise to success get to her head. For those who can't properly define women of the early 1900s without invoking Downton Abbey characters (I can't), I will say she had the spunk of Lady Mary Crawley combined with the humility of Lady Sybil. In the early 40s, she almost ran away with the circus to marry a trapeze artist. True story.

Thank you, Grandma. Thank you for being there for me, so Mom could work and support us. I remember all your bedtime stories and games, all the tricks to get me to eat more, all the care, all the letters, all the love, and all the tears.

The last words she spoke on this Earth were to me, on the phone. I'd said, "I love you." Her reply was loud and clear: "I, too, love you."

March 1922 - September 2014

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