Writing in the Midst of Life

God is soooo amazing and so faithful. If you’ve been following my posts on agents then you know last ACFW I met with two and they both were interested in my proposal. After meeting with these two I started to think about the different scenarios. What if they both wanted to represent me? I admired and respected both agents and really went through a couple of weeks of angst over the thought of having to choose. Then reality set in, what if neither of them wanted me?

I decided not to worry about it and just write the best story I could, though I really wished and prayed that only one would be interested in representing me.

Nine months later, I sent my WIP off and heard from one agent right away. He was interested in the story, but wanted me to change a few things. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Then he wanted to meet at ICRS. So we met, I explained the reason for wanting to keep the story the way it was, and he was okay with it. You can read my last post for more details on the meeting.

But I still hadn’t heard from the other agent. So I sent off an email, telling him of the other agent was interested but I wanted to hear what he had to say. He responded a couple of days later with the best rejection I could have asked for.

To summarize, he said even though he liked me and thought I had “enormous potential” he didn’t feel he could represent the project. He gave me his reasons why and told me he wants to see me succeed and that some day he hopes he could say I was the “one that got away.”

I was actually beaming as I read this rejection. This particular agent was someone I’d been following for several years. In fact he was the only agent I wanted until I met agent number two two years ago and God spoke to me very clearly saying “What if the agent you want isn’t the agent you need.”

After coming to terms with that, I did open up to God’s will for me. Now looking back, I really see God’s hand in all of this, how if I hadn’t had an appointment with agent number 1 and showed up 15 minutes earlier, I might not have gotten to meet with agent number 2 who suddenly had an opening!

I’m still in awe that God honored my desire to not have to choose. One agent said yes, the other said no. God’s handprint is very visible and I’ve never been so happy to be rejected! Not that I wouldn’t have loved to have agent number 1, but that I didn’t have to choose!