by jphilo | Oct 22, 2008 | Book Updates
Today I hit the Big 6-0, and I’m doing a happy dance to celebrate. I finished the sixtieth and last devotion for my book. Since the manuscript isn’t due to the publisher until January 1, you probably think I’m doing the overachiever thing. I assure you, I’m not.
In the next couple days, I’ll do a light edit on the eleven devotions in the final section of the book and paste them into a preliminary order, something I’ve already done to the first five sections. I still have to send individual devotions from the last two sections to anyone mentioned in them so they can give approval and suggestions. The introductions for all six sections need to be written, and then I’ll paste everything into a first draft of the entire manuscript, kind of like connecting strings of Christmas lights.
But wait, there’s more. Once the first draft is all together, I will send the electronic manuscript to several cold readers. They’ll have two weeks to read it and make comments. Then I’ll consider their comments and incorporate many of them.
But that’s not all. After those changes are made, I’ll print a hard copy and edit it all by myself. My goal is to have everything done and the manuscript sent to Discovery House Publishers before Christmas. Sort of an early present to myself. Thinking about what remains to be done overwhelms me, especially since I have to squeeze in baking pies for Thanksgiving, making holiday Chex mix with Mom, and Christmas shopping.
But I refuse to worry about those things today. Today is all about hitting the Big 6-0 and doing a happy dance. Life is good!
by jphilo | Jun 30, 2008 | Out and About
My trip to Grand Rapids was an out-of-body experience. Michigan is beautiful this time of year, so the scenery itself gave the trip a dreamlike quality. But, so many things occurred that don’t normally happen to ordinary Iowa girls like me, I began to wonder if I was living someone else’s life. I’m not being modest. More like flabbergasted, incredulous, blown-away. Here are a few examples:
- The editors at Discovery House Publishing took me out to dinner. (I can’t believe I’m saying this: “My editors took me to dinner.”) It was pretty cool, discussing who to get to endorse my book, and finding out they can contact some people I thought were way out of reach. And I managed not to spill anything on my lap, belch, or sneeze with food and drink in my mouth.
- The friend I stayed with, Shelly Beach, knows everyone in Grand Rapids. We met a couple of them, both published book authors, at a bakery one morning. I thought they would be highfaluting, literary types. But instead they were frazzled moms happy to talk grown-up for a few minutes while somebody else watched their kids. They even appreciated my parenting advice.
- Shelly took me to visit her editor. He asked to see our mystery book proposal when it’s ready in a month. If you are a writer, you know how many hurdles were avoided with that request.
- At the “Speak Up” Conference, which was the main reason I went, my-son-the-monk was often the topic of conversation. Many people were so fascinated, they asked for my business card. What can I say?
If it weren’t for the laundry waiting to be done, the backlog of mail, the huge list of things to follow up on, and my increasing sense of panic as my to do list grows exponentially, I’d be sure I’m living someone else’s life.
But I’m not. And the only explanation I can come up with is this: Aslan’s on the move.
by jphilo | Feb 21, 2008 | Book Updates
Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from the editor at Discovery House Publishers. They want to publish my proposed book A Different Dream for My Child: Meditations for Parents of Critically and Chronically Ill Children.
After waiting so long to hear about the proposal, the news doesn’t seem real. When Allen was born and quickly flown to the University of Nebraska hospital in Omaha, that didn’t seem real either. But it was.
When Hiram and I first saw Allen after his surgery, all I could do was cry. Our baby bristled with tubes and monitors. His tiny hands covered his ears as if he wanted to shut out the painful world he’d entered. “This isn’t the dream I had for my child,” I told God. “Why are you doing this?”
Over the years, as God has worked in our lives, He’s revealed bits of His reasons. Yesterday, He revealed a little bit more. My husband and healthy twenty-six-year-old son were as excited about the news as I was. It’s much different from the dream I thought I wanted. But it’s a good one.
That’s why I’ll write this book. So devastated parents will place their hope in God’s dream for their children. So they can trust His dream, though different from their own, to be good.
by jphilo | Jan 25, 2008 | Book Updates
If you’re wondering about the picture, it’s a blood pressure cuff. It will be twenty-six years old this May, the same age as our son who spent the first two and a half weeks of his life in in the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of Nebraska hospital in Omaha.
For years, while he endured more surgeries and procedures, the cuff was hidden in of his box of baby things. But now it hangs near his six month picture, in my office. I put it there so I wouldn’t forget the babies and parents going through heart-wrenching experiences every day.
For a long time, I’ve been asking God what I could do to help those hurting families. In a week or so, I may get an answer. My book proposal, A Different Dream for My Child: Meditations for Parents of Critically and Chronically Ill Children, has been at Discovery House Publishers since August. The publisher called me in late November to tell me that they loved the proposal, but because it focused on such a niche audience they weren’t sure it was feasible. Still the marketing committee wanted time to brainstorm strategies and see if they could develop a viable plan.
The editor emailed me yesterday and said they’ve run the numbers and will meet next week to make a final decision. I have no clue as to the outcome. All I know is that hurting parents need this book. So if you think of it this week, would you pray for the committee and for me?
Pray that they would make the right decision based on the information they’ve gathered. And pray that I would accept their decision with grace and move forward with confidence. Because whatever they decide, I can’t shake the conviction that God has a way for me to minister to those parents and their children. The blood pressure cuff won’t let me.
