Sharing the Writing Journey
Be nice to your writing pals because the world of publishing grows smaller and smaller as you go. Not only do you want your friends beside you, but you never know where you will each end up years down the road.
A few months ago I participated in a book signing at Barnes and Noble Cheyenne with the lovely Megan DiMaria who is the author of Searching for Spice. Megan and I met a few years ago at the ACFW conference in Dallas. I remember riding in the car with Megan from the airport to the hotel. We touched base during the conference as we passed in the halls and offered words of encouragement to each other. I had recently received a contract prior to conference, but Megan was nervous about appointments with editors. I decided to start praying for her. Later we sent each other the occasional email and kept in touch that way. Now here we are, both of our first novels coming out in the same year.
Megan and I also signed together at Cornerstone Christian Supply in Cheyenne with speaker and author, Jami Kirkbride, who signed copies of Laundry Tales and the new MOPS book The Mommy Diaries. Both include several of Jami’s wonderful stories about the adventures of being a mom. I first met Jami about six or seven years ago during an Apples of Gold study associated with the church we both attended. Eventually she “confessed” that she was a writer too. We were both still aspiring at the time with only small credits to our names. And now Jami is a popular speaker in Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado. Her publishing credits just keep on growing.
My friend and author Karen Mackey was also at the Cornerstone signing. She signed copies of Life Savors for Women. Karen is a Wyoming native and a church secretary. For a couple of years we had lunch and she let me pour my heart out to her, offering wisdom and friendship in return. When she learned I was a writer she became an encourager and told me she was a writer too. Besides being a local speaker, she has now broken into publishing with a regular column in Around Cheyenne magazine and a wonderful story in Life Savors.
It’s a pleasure to see how far they have each come on their journeys. It was fun to sit at the joint signing and think back to where we each were a few years ago. I hope we can all come together again in five years and do the same thing.
Look around the next time you are in the company of other writers. You never know where they will be on their writing journey in a few years. You never know where You will be on yours.
left to right: Jami, Tina, Karen and Megan
