Tuesdays with Story

I started writing in a journal in the seventh grade and it snowballed from there. I am still journaling, however, gone are the little locked books (I have stacks of them). My journal these days requires a computer and couple of passwords.

I learned to write during my babies’ nap times. During those two-hour naps I went to school in a room just off my kitchen and eventually learned my craft. Hopefully, I’m still learning.

After our second son was born, the Hubs bought me a little metal file box and some note cards, and a book by Marjorie Holmes. He said, “This book is good, but you can do better. Go write!” So, I did. I was successful in getting some articles in some church related magazines and some regional ones.  Then I started cutting my teeth on short stories. I could write one in a day and then spend several weeks editing. I kept sending them out and getting rejections. What I didn’t know at the time, and there was tons of things I didn’t know about writing, was that personal rejections were good.  That little handwritten notes on a rejection form letter meant I had promise. I thought it meant, “And don’t come calling again!”

Then I started writing a weekly newspaper column that was paid for by my church.  I started getting positive letters from people who actually read the thing. Being the smart girl that I am, I said, “Hey! Maybe somebody will pay me to write the column.” So I began sending it out to newspapers everywhere. Soon Footsteps & Heartbeats was in five daily papers—and they were paying me to write it! The column ran in those papers for seventeen years. I stopped it when I decided to give my writing over to longer pieces. At the time, I worked full-time for the Oshkosh Police Department as a grant writer. There are only so many hours in the day.

Next, I tried testing the waters of humor writing and sent an article to Woman’s Day.  The day I got the call from Ellen McFadden, the then editor of Woman’s Day, was the turning point for me. An editor of one of the ‘seven sisters’ took me seriously and wanted to pay me $2,000 for a 750-word article. (Happy dance!) Green Bean Cookies came out in Woman’s Day in 2000.

The same week Ellen McFadden called, Oliver Nelson, then senior editor at Thomas Nelson, called. He was taking my book proposal to ‘committee’ and that it was the best thing he had read in a long time. My ship had finally come in! That’s when I learned that the Marketing Team actually runs the show. Oliver called several times over the years with some very sweet rejections, but still encouraged me to keep at it. So I did.

However, Howard Publishing, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, did pick up the book. Hugs from Heaven: Portraits of a Woman’s Faith came out in 2000.

Flash forward a hundred years or so, I have three completed novels in my drawer with no home; the three boys now educated, married and doing their duty to give me as many grandchildren as possible, I decided to retire from the Police Department and follow my dream of writing full-time. A week after my retirement, I got a call asking if I would be interested in writing a biography on commission. I jumped at it and thus began the book of my heart. Dr. Aaron Johnson, North Carolina’s first African-American to be appointed Secretary of Corrections took me on quite an adventure. After three years of interviews, research, travel, and a visit with a death row inmate, the book was finally completed. However, because I decided to write it in first person, the biography became and autobiography. I met Charles Colson one Easter weekend when I participated in one of his Prison Fellowship rallies at a prison in Indiana. I asked him since he and Aaron were friends and had a history together in prison ministry, if he would write the foreword to MAN FROM MACEDONIA.  His answer: “Well, if you don’t write like a fourth grader I’ll see.” Apparently, I don’t, so he did. The book launched during Black History Month and every year since, Dr. Johnson is on the road lecturing and selling books. We did two two-week book tours around to several colleges and we were invited to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee to read and make presentations. They also interviewed and recorded Dr. Johnson to play at various time throughout the year in the museum.

The last four years have been a journey. My Hubs died of cancer after forty-two years of marriage in 2013. He was my biggest champion. He died right after I’d finished the first draft of the book now in progress. The fact that he got to read it was such a blessing to me. However, writing the other six drafts have been difficult to say the least. Agents I have sent it to requested a full manuscript, probably about seven of them. Every one of them requested a rewrite. Every one of them rejected it. Until…

…. in final desperation I sent my proposal and the first fifty pages to agent Wendy Sherman. Never met her. Had no clue who she was. Of course, I did my research on her and everything I learned about her clicked with me. If she rejected it, I was done. Two days later she emailed and asked for the full. She asked for a two week exclusive. With my history, there was no happy dance at this time. Two weeks later, she emailed with suggestions and edits and if I were to do them, she’d love to read the manuscript again. Okay, rewrite five begins. It takes a year. My dad died. My mother has needed lots of care and I moved. Yeah, it took me a year.

Two weeks after Wendy received it, she called. She loved it but it wasn’t quite yet where it needed to be. She asked if I would consider hiring an editor to help me through the rough spots. Why not? Of course, there was the little matter of cost. The editor she recommended was expensive. This editor was on retainer with James Patterson (I was the last freelance job she took. James Patterson and Little, Brown & Co hired her full time.) I scratched the funds together and the editor and I began our work together. (I loved her) Ten months later, the manuscript was off to Wendy once again. She calls. She loves it, however, it still needs a little tweaking. What??? But, this time, she wants to pull in another agent from her agency to do the edits. She said, “Think of it as getting two agent for the price of one.” Since I hadn’t paid Wendy a dime, I hoped this agent wasn’t expecting much. Wendy makes the introductions. Nicki was wonderful and actually the edits were mostly minor… mostly.

As of today, I’ve been working on the seventh rewrite since late February. Next week, I send it off to Wendy again. I wished I could say with certainty it is my last rewrite. I want it to be. I’m praying it will be. I’m so wanting to do the happy dance.