FINISHING WELL
My first two novels went like clockwork, once the literary agency I was signed with decided to publish them through a special Amazon program. Meghan’s Choice was released in November 2017, and Rose’s Redemption followed in 2018. No problem. More about this in the next post.
In 2019, I finished Hannah’s Hope and sent it to the lit agency. And heard nothing for months. When I checked, I discovered they wanted changes. So, I took three months or so, maybe four, and changed it—hopefully the way they wanted it—and resubmitted it.
And waited. And waited. And waited. And heard nothing. But, I felt God was leading me in another direction, it felt OK. I didn’t think too much about it—until early one morning in 2021, when I was half asleep, I felt the Lord say I should find out what happened. I was rather shocked and disappointed when I heard—because I hadn’t been told anything.
When the pandemic hit, the person at the lit agency who did all the KDP work on formatting books, etc. resigned. I didn’t know about it. No one had informed me at all. When that wonderful woman left—the lit agency got out of the publishing business altogether—the Amazon White Glove program anyway, which was being discontinued.
Hannah’s Hope should have been released in November 2019. But it is now live on Amazon, in both kindle and paperback formats. I have the rights to all my novels, and Hannah’s Hope will be the first one published. Meghan’s Choice and Rose’s Redemption are in the process of being republished. So ends my fiction writing career—at least for the present.
I believe I am finishing up these projects with excellence in doing them “myself.” A fellow writer who also formats and uploads to KDP is taking care of that for me this week. I have a contest running on 99Designs for a new cover for Meghan’s Choice.
The point of all this is to finish what you start. Back in 2012, I began writing Zorro stories on FanFiction.net. It was so much fun; I asked the Lord what I could write for “real” and the idea for Meghan’s Choice came to me. It’s been a great journey. I learned a lot. My favorite year of my writing career was 2018, when I got to present workshops at six small-medium sized writer’s conferences. However, only one door was open to me in 2019, and soon after, I was in seminary.
God is good. But I am finishing well with the novels. I have more books to write and one to release maybe later this year — a training manual for healing. That’s what God has called me to — healing of all kinds. I’m not a professional counselor, nor will I ever be — but a prayer “counselor” who prays for healing for others and aligns with the Holy Spirit to break through and find causes of wounds, etc. to bring healing. More on that later.
#finishing well #knownbyheartseries #meghanschoice #rosesredemption #hannahshope #donnalhsmith #healing
Donna L.H. Smith 