Process – Finally A Step Closer
Meghan’s Choice in semi-finals
I finally got some good news on Sunday. Back in September I entered Operation First Novel from Christian Writers Guild. Even though the Guild has closed, Jerry B. Jenkins has promised to follow through with everything that began this year, and included Operation First Novel.
I got an email on Sunday. Meghan’s Choice made the semi-finals. Yeah! There are ten of us. After receiving three rejections, and you’ve gotten to read all about them, with a couple saying my book wasn’t ready for publication, when I knew it was – well this has done me a boatload of good. It makes it all worthwhile. Because I’ve been wondering about that. I’ve invested thousands of dollars in myself, developing my writing, learning, getting it edited, taking the Guild classes, and connecting with many other writers, both published and pre-published.
I kept hearing, “Keep writing, no matter what, keep writing!” Then the rejections started coming in. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to publish a book. About five years ago, I attended a writer’s conference in Philadelphia and submitted to several editors – rejects all. So, I decided to try my hand at fiction, taking more classes through the Guild, and going to St. Louis to another writer’s conference, and doing quite well there. Because at a writer’s conference, the best you can hope for is they ask for more.
They ask for a book proposal, or better yet, to see the whole manuscript. I had four of those, two proposals with sample chapters, and two publishers who asked to see the whole manuscript. I still haven’t heard from one publisher. But I feel I’m closer than ever to getting published. I never got this far before, and I am honored.
I’ve decided that whoever gets me first – gets me. Here’s an interesting sidebar to this story. Jerry Jenkins is going to be in Hershey, Pennsylvania in mid-January. I only live 45 minutes away, so I registered for the Munce Group Writer-to-Writer Conference. I was going to try wrangle some sort of answer from Jerry about my status with the contest. I won’t have to wrangle anything out of him. He’s going to announce the contest winners in Hershey the weekend of January 16-17.
My fingers are crossed. I’m in God’s hands. He holds my future, and He holds me. I’ll let you know how things go.
Donna L.H. Smith 
Praise the Lord! Good news right before Christmas!
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Thanks Dorothy. I was extremely excited to receive this honor. Because like I said, I was going to try to wrangle something out of Jerry, but I won’t have to now, because he’ll announce the three publishing packages Believer’s Press is awarding. Who knows? This might be the last Operation First Novel there will ever be, so I’m just glad to be a part of it.
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Praise the Lord! What a blessing! I hope you will receive wonderful news at the conference in January. You have worked hard. God bless.
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Thanks Kelly. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve already “met” other semi-finalists on Facebook, and even if I don’t win, I’m glad I made this, for reasons I stated in the article. Will I see you on Saturday?
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