New Website

Lots of good things have going on in the background as we finish up this year and look forward to 2013. First, since I have three books releasing next year—not bad for a first-time-to-be-published author!—I have a new website, Discovering Foundations of Truth.

The guys at SKWD Ministries have done an awesome job with the design and teaching me how to maintain a website—what they use is SUPER easy! Something I value since my time is limited. I still have some tweaking to do and material/info to add, but it's a good start. It also includes my editing service and a link to this blog. 

My first nonfiction, Calming the Storm Within: God's Peace in Depression and Anxiety, will release in the first few months of 2013 from OakTara. This book comes from my experiences growing up with a father who would now be considered bipolar. Twenty years ago I was working, with the Lord's help, my way out of my own severe clinical depression. The idea to write this book came shortly after that. But I didn't get serious about pulling it together until about 15 years ago. In 2004 my agent, Joyce Hart, took me on and started trying to sell it. Don't know how many rejections or expressions of no interest we got on it then, but it was a ton! Very discouraging. Most publishers wanted me to be at least a licensed counselor but it would be better if I were a psychologist. But that wasn't the focus of the book, and after praying about it, we tabled the proposal. Then last year, I met Ramona Tucker, an editor/publisher at OakTara. She showed a decided interest in the book when I pitched the idea. Joyce sent her the proposal . . . and we waited. Lots went on in both Ramona's and my life. When I saw her at the Colorado conference in May this year, she remembered me and the book proposal. And I received the promise of a contract to publish this book. Wow! 

It has been interesting going back and writing/editing the material I already had. Some had to be updated since I wrote it at least eight years ago. I've taught the material in a small group Bible study, which provided much of the already written portion. I still have three chapters to complete, and the journey of getting it ready for publication has been challenging, interesting, and exciting. The Lord is already working good in those who are reading/critiquing the chapters as I get it done. Many more have expressed an interest in buying the book when it comes out. I don't know the exact publication date yet, but I will announce it here when I do know.

My first fiction also debuts this year in April. A Shelter from the Storm is one of four novellas in Sundays in Fredericksburg (TX) from Barbour Publishing. It's historical romance with a touch of mystery/suspense in it. Here's the blurb: Mildred Zimmermann, a nurse in World War I Europe, returns to Fredericksburg, Texas, which is dealing with an outbreak of Spanish influenza. Drawn into the hometown battle, Mildred opens her family’s Sunday house as an overflow to the small, overcrowded clinic. Death seems to plague those she loves, and she is determined not to allow herself to fall in love, afraid that man, too, would die. Nelson Winters, a newcomer to Fredericksburg and the protégé of the town’s doctor, succumbs to the flu, and he is placed in Mildred’s care. The war hero, rejected by his fiancée because he returned from the war crippled, both challenges and disturbs Mildred as she nurses him back to health. In order for them to have a future together, they must learn to accept their humanness and allow God to make them whole.

Finally, I have a devotional book on Hope in the Encouraging Words series from Barbour coming out next year. It's a work-for-hire project, meaning my name won't be on the front of the book. The deadline to turn the manuscript in is mid-January, so I've already started work on it. However, the bulk of the work will be after I finish Calming the Storm Within. 

God has been so good to allow me to realize my publishing dreams. I never expected it to come all at once like it has, but He doesn't usually work in the ways we expect. So many people have been instrumental in getting me here, and I know there will be many more in the future. We writers like to think this is a lonely occupation, and it is at times. But in reality there are a whole bunch of people involved in the making of one book. When I first realized what that meant, I wanted to give up because that meant I would have to "put myself out there," self-promote in other words. My shyness and natural introvertedness put up major walls. So I asked the Lord that if this was the route He wanted for me, He would have to open the doors, put me in the way of the people I needed to know, etc. And He did! It truly amazes me. 

I will still continue with my editing service as the Lord has made it clear that He desires me to continue. It will be on a much lesser level of projects than I've had in the past, but I look forward to those projects He sends my way. I'm sure there will be more new adventures ahead as I continue to follow the Lord in this writing/publishing adventure.    

So please go check out my new website here, and leave me a message through the contact form.