Merry Christmas 2006

I haven’t written a Christmas letter in years, but this year, I have no excuse!

The year 2006 has been a year of major changes in my life. Late last year, dissatisfied with my secretarial job at the newspaper (as well as the company as a whole) and ready to move into an editorial career-path job in book publishing, I started a job search, looking for any kind of job that would start building my professional editorial skills. On my way home from spending a few days in Dallas at Christmas, I received a call from a government contractor with which I’d applied for a job as a proposal writer. Just after New Year’s, I drove the 80 miles to Tullahoma, TN, for the interview. Within a week, I had a job offer, but felt it was the wrong job for me (boring, worse benefits/vacation than where I was, and I didn’t want to relocate for it). But knowing there were other companies out there who wanted my skills and talents gave me the hope and determination to carry on the job search no matter how long it took. (Here’s my entry about this experience. )

The second week of January, I started my final semester of graduate school. So, as I scoured the want-ads online and tried to figure out how to go on interviews without taking time off work, I was also making final edits to my 360+ page thesis novel. As if that weren’t enough, after over a year without a permanent church, I finally felt God was telling me the time was right to find a place to call home. In April, I learned my thesis novel was a finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Genesis Contest for unpublished authors. Needless to say, Spring 2006 was quite a busy time for me!

After applying and interviewing for every possible editorial job in this city that is home to scores of book, magazine, and church materials publishing houses, I had two companies with which I had wonderful first, second, and third interviews: United Methodist Publishing House in their marketing department as a copy writer/editor of their product catalogs (“marketing specialist”) and Ideals Publications as a copy editor.

A little more than a month before my 10-year anniversary at the newspaper, on Tuesday, May 9, 2006, on my way to work, I was offered and accepted the position of Copy Editor at Ideals. I put in my 2-weeks’ notice that morning and was escorted from the building at 5:30 p.m. I had a wonderful, relaxing, almost-2-weeks off before starting my new job May 22.

When I went back to college at the age of 28, I made the commitment to myself to prayerfully prepare myself to be in a career-path job by the time I turned 35. I celebrated my 35th birthday nine days after starting my new job. God continues to prove how faithful He is to us if we remain faithful to His calling.

On Sunday, June 25, 2006, I received my Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction. I was privileged to give the prayer at commencement, which is posted here.

In the summer, I had my very first official publication credits—first two CD reviews and then, in August, a cover story in Singing News magazine, the industry rag for Southern Gospel music.

After a months’-long search, on September 3, I joined Woodmont Baptist Church, where I have started singing in choir again (after almost four years) and joined a Sunday School class where nearly everyone is at least 20 years older than me and married!

September 22, I flew to Dallas to spend the weekend with my parents to attend the awards banquet at the ACFW national conference. My manuscript placed second in the contemporary romance category, and I had the chance to speak to two of the top agents in the Christian publishing industry—and got invitations to submit a proposal to both of them.

Since then, the last quarter of the year has flown by. While one of the two agents rejected my proposal immediately, the other—one that I already know and worked with on a major project with ACFW when I was vice president in 2005—requested the full manuscript and we are discussing the possibility of his representing me and trying to get my work published! So, 2007 is looking like it is going to be an exciting year as well!

On December 22, I will be driving to Baton Rouge to spend Christmas with my extended family. I pray you have a very wonderful Christmas and holiday season, and that in all the hustle and bustle, you will be able to take the time to remember to focus on the Guest of Honor at this party—Jesus Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!