Dearly beloved readers,
Welcome to my first newsletter of 2023. This month, I’ll tell you a little about myself and share the story of how I became a writer. As part of this newsletter, I include a link to a podcast where I shared more about my writing life than what you’ll read here,, and a link to a podcast I recorded to kick off this brand new year.
A Little About Me
First of all, let me say that I am a child of the most high God! When I was a baby, I was given 24 hours of oxygen, whin I should have been given 8 hours. This doesn’t mean that I was premature. If you ask my mother, she’d tell you that I was a full-term baby, meaning I was born on or close to the due date. When I was 18 months old, I had my right eye removed, and wore a prosthetic eye for as long as I can remember, up until about five years ago, when the prosthesis didn’t fit anymore. Needless to say, I have no vision in my right eye, since it was removed and light perception, and the ability to see shadows with no distinction in my left. I’m not telling you about my eye condition to make you feel sorry for me, I’m telling you this, so that you know without a shadow of a doubt that I don’t use my blindness as an excuse not to fulfill God’s calling for my life.
It took me years of going through some rough patches in my life, working at a job I thought I wanted when I was young, then losing that job two years later, surviving verbal and emotional abuse twice and knowing it when I sensed it the second time, the miracle of giving birth to my 14-year-old daughter and surviving the trauma after she was born, and coming back to my childhood home, where I now live in a tiny house my parents built for me, for God to show me that he wanted me to write.
How God Called me to Write
God laid a story on my heart and it was up to me to write the story he and my characters wanted, to share the message of His love, forgiveness and saving grace.
The hardest person to forgive after facing the trials in my life was myself. After experiencing these pitfalls, I found healing and forgiveness. If I hadn’t gone through these struggles, I would have never known that God could use these experiences to make me stronger.
As I learned to love music, the craft of writing, and to use journaling as a way for me to pour my heart out to God, I discovered that writing children’s books and poetry brings me inexplicable joy! Let me explain how God revealed this to me.
Discovering Who I am as a Writer
I wrote a mystery before I divorced my first husband. I will admit that I’d gotten away from God, after being saved as a child, and it wasn’t the cleanest book I’ve ever written. I published, and paid a high price for it to get out into the world, because I submitted it to a print on demand publisher. Needless to say, the book flopped, because even though God called me to write, that wasn’t the book He wanted me to send out into the world. I learned two lessons once I rededicated my life to God in 2006. I don’t remember the exact date, but what I do remember is that I had my first and only guide dog Star. Anyway, to make this long story short, after my first husband and I divorced, I felt God calling me to write again. I attempted to write a couple of stories, one before I studied communications at Kaplan University online, and another during school. A computer crash, and the school dropping my program were signs that I still wasn’t writing the story God had laid on my heart.
Jumping ahead to 2014, I wrote the first draft of a novel entitled A Journey of Faith: A stepping Stones Mystery. Apparently, I didn’t learn from my mistake of paying to have my book published until after I found out that the editor had made a mess of my work., When I looked back at the book in 2018, after my one and only book signing, I discovered that it was time to rebrand it, because the edits were messier than my original writing. I won’t bore you with all the details, but the biggest lesson I learned from both publishing mistakes is to never submit my book to a vanity press, or pay someone to publish my book. When I publish in future, I will ask God for the resources to hire an editor and cover designer to help me get my books ready for print. If that’s not the path he wants me to take, I’ll ask him to show me where to submit future books.
As for my writing, I tried to rewrite the mystery into a Christian Psychological thriller, but God brought me to a screeching halt. This book is now a Christian thriller turned Middle grade mystery with supernatural elements.
How God Called me to Write Poetry
While I was discovering what kind of writer I am, my dear friend and author coach Jen Lowry shared a fifty-word short story prompt on her Jen Lowry Writes podcast. This short story morphed into a poem, after telling the Holy Spirit and my author friends that “I can’t write poetry.” Needless to say, one poem turned into three that day, which was God’s way of illustrating Philippians 4:13 time and again. To this day, when I say I “can’t” do something, I end up doing the thing I say I can’t do, because even though I can’t, God can. Therefore, when God gives me a poem, I go ahead and write it, because I never know whose life it will touch. If you want to listen to me share more stories about my writing journey, you can listen to my guest appearance on Conversations with Rich Bennet. Though the episode is a bit long, there’s a lot of inspiration packed into this conversation.
A Resource for Writers
Many of my readers are also writers. If you’re a writer and you want a different way of outlining or revising your novel, check out my new YouTube video and podcast episode entitled Creating a Book Pattern for your Writing and Editing Projects.
Book Recommendations
If you’re a reader whose looking for a quiet story, check out Whispering Through Water by Rebecca Wenrich Wheeler, which launches tomorrow. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and Inspirational Journeys podcast, so you don’t miss my interview with her on Friday. But if a middle grade mystery with a supernatural twist is what you’re looking for, check out The Girl Who Looked Beyond the Stars, the first book in the Sheena Meyer series by L. B. Anne.
Email me at annwrites75@gmail.com and tell me what you're reading in 2023.
Next month, I will share my reflections on 2022 and the story of how God led me to launch my Inspirational Journeys podcast. Until then, unless I have something exciting to share in the coming weeks. Happy new year, and God bless you all.
Hugs,
Ann
