My ACFW Conference Take

By Elizabeth Ludwig

I was privileged to attend the 2015 American Christian Fiction Writer’s Conference recently in Dallas, Texas. This is an event that I’ve attended before. In fact, I’ve only missed a couple of conferences since I started writing for publication back in 2002. The math on this one is pretty simple…that’s fourteen conferences over a span of an equal number of years (give or take a year when life got in the way). 

On paper, the conference hasn’t changed much. The focus has always been directed toward teaching aspiring authors the craft of writing and inducting them in the intricate, and often treacherous, world of publishing. To accomplish this, the staff at ACFW do quite a remarkable job of scheduling informative workshops and speakers with a heart for authors. They also put together an impressive list of industry professionals—editors, agents, book reviewers, and media—for authors to meet and talk to about their respective writing projects. 

At one time, this was a very valuable experience. In 2002, as an unpublished, un-agented author with a dozen different writing projects and no clear sense of direction, what ACFW provided was instruction and guidance. Several years later, with thirteen book titles to my name, including a Carol Award Finalist, an ECPA bestseller/SELAH Award Finalist, and a Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Finalist, I have to admit that the conference no longer holds the same allure. In addition, I honored to say that I am represented by one of the most respected agents in the business. 

ACFW 2015: Beth Adams, Elizabeth Ludwig, Susan Downs

So what is the takeaway for an author in my position? Why would I bother spending the money to go to a conference that I’ve attended at least twelve times before? 

If I’m honest, I struggled to answer that question before arriving in Dallas. I justified the expense with some inane excuses that sounded good but held very little validity. And then, I looked over my schedule. Along with the appointments I remembered, I had signed up to serve as an appointment monitor.

For two hours!

Two hours of doing nothing more than standing outside a door and holding up my hand to signal when the time on a fifteen-minute appointment expired (insert whine here). Two hours of pacing in bored stupor while the workshop I really wanted to attend went on without me and other people went in to speak with people I hoped to meet but now would not be able to…or so I thought. 

What really happened was that I stood outside the door and chatted with a representative from RT Book Reviews for almost all of those two hours. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by a representative from Library Journal who asked about my books, my career, and eventually my publishing history. Please understand…I have never, ever had the chance to rub elbows with such prestigious industry professionals for such an extended length of time. With my very best efforts, I could not have coordinated such an opportunity! 

In addition, I renewed old contacts as I walked editors and agents to their seats, introduced them to their respective appointments, and volunteered my services as timekeeper, hostess, and overall gopher. 

That, my friends, is the takeaway from a conference such as ACFW. It’s not always about the scheduled appointments. Sometimes, it’s about the chance meetings that only God can orchestrate. It’s about the friendships that happen over coffee, and the kinship that comes with shared prayers in crowded hallways. Finally, it’s about stepping out in faith, without an organized agenda but with a heart for service—even if that heart started out whining, and ended up being incredibly and unbelievably blessed. 

Elizabeth Ludwig is the award-winning author of No Safe Harbor and Dark Road Home, books one and two in the popular EDGE OF FREEDOM series. Book three in the series, Tide and Tempest, was recently named a finalist for the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. Elizabeth was also named a finalist in the 2015 Selah Awards for her novella “One Holy Night”, part of the bestselling anthology collection, Christmas Comes to Bethlehem, Maine. She is an accomplished speaker and teacher, often attending conferences and seminars where she lectures on editing for fiction writers, crafting effective novel proposals, and conducting successful editor/agent interviews. Along with her husband and children, she makes her home in the great state of Texas. To learn more, visit ElizabethLudwig.com.

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Run To the Unknown

Run to the Unknown

by Allen Arnold 

We gravitate to the known. Familiarity feels good whether it’s our favorite pair of jeans, the movie that never grows old or the annual vacation getaway.

Doing what we’ve done before can be stabilizing and comforting – but it rarely stretches us.

The same applies to your life as a writer. Mastering a skill is never the finish line for an artist but simply an invitation towards the next starting block. It is your chance to breathe something into existence the world has yet to imagine. A story that you didn’t believe you could write a year ago but now see the way.

This month, I step into a new first.

I will attend my first writer’s conference as a student.

Yes, I’ve been to dozens of writer’s conferences during more than twenty years in the publishing industry. But each time, I was on assignment – either to represent the Christian Fiction division I served as Publisher or, more recently, to offer a keynote message, teach a class or serve on the board of the conference. All good things...but not the same.

This week I get to be the student. No one expects me to share any wisdom or make things go right. I have total freedom to simply sit at the feet of others and savor what is being offered. It is both exciting and wildly disruptive to a guy who lived too much of life trying to earn his place at the table.

You may be in the opposite situation. If you’ve been the student at several conferences – perhaps it’s time for you to offer to lead a session. Or if you attend the same gathering every year with the same people, why not fly across the country by yourself to an event where no one knows your name?

Years ago, I heard the concept of a Learning Bandwidth that made a huge impact on my life. It’s based on the ratio of how much we speak versus how much we listen. From there, it calculates our capacity – or bandwidth – for learning. The premise is we only learn when we hear new ideas and information – and we only do that by listening to others. When we dominate a conversation – we say what we already know (or think we know). In the next 24 hours, notice your ratio of talking versus asking questions and active listening.

I encourage you to run into the unknown this summer. Rather than remain in the place where you have all the answers, enter into a hobby or a vacation or class where you are the student. Skip your favorite lunch hangout for the place you haven’t eaten at before. Visit the church on the other end of town. Pick up an instrument you’ve never played. All of these will stimulate your senses in a new way.

When it comes to story, discover the art of writing with God rather than writing for or about him. If you’d like to learn more about that, I share thoughts on how to experience creative intimacy with God in a blog post titled The Deeper Magic of Writing.

God is constantly inviting us into new frontiers where we can’t rely on our own strength or past experience to get us through. In these journeys, he offers no upfront map. The only way to navigate the terrain is with him or the people he provides along the way.

Here’s the reason why. Once you’ve mastered something, it’s too easy to rely on yourself. God constantly is wooing us to pursue our gifting with him.

Sometimes we don’t expose ourselves to the new because deep down we feel inadequate. We know we need help but are unsure whom to ask. But as Anthony Hopkins said in The Mask of Zorro, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Are you ready?

This is your invitation to enter new frontiers that force you to be a beginner again. The goal isn’t simply to conquer whatever is new...another notch on your belt of accomplishments. The goal is to listen more. Discover more. Stretch more. If you go all out, you will come to know God in new ways that only present themselves when you reach the end of yourself.

Watch the effect it has on you. As my friend John Eldredge recently said, “What good is a new frontier if you get into it and emerge out of it exactly the same person?”

Exactly.

Become a student again. Learn from other people. Learn from God. In the process, you will become a new creation. And that, in turn, will transform the way you create.

Allen Arnold loves the epic adventure God has set before him. From the mountains of Colorado, he leads Content & Resources for Ransomed Heart Ministries (led by John Eldredge). Before that, he spent 20 years in Christian Publishing - overseeing  the development of more than 500 novels as founder and Publisher of Thomas Nelson Fiction. He was awarded the ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. But that doesn't really describe the man. Allen savors time with his family, craves the beach, drinks salsa by the glass, is hooked on the TV series "Once Upon a Time" and is passionate about helping storytellers tell better stories from an awakened heart.  

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My Winding Path to Publication

Author Kimberly Rose Johnson

Posted by Michelle Griep

No two writers’ journeys are the same. Here’s one author’s story of her road to writerly success. Meet author Kimberly Rose Johnson.

For most of us success doesn’t happen overnight. Most of us see success in increments over time. Perhaps the victory is so small we don’t even notice it except in hindsight.

As a newbie writer I attended my first writer’s conference in 2006. I didn’t know anyone there except one woman, Miralee Ferrell, whom I’d briefly met online and emailed a couple of times beforehand. When I saw her there I introduced myself. As it turned out we hit it off, became friends, then critique partners, and she is now my publisher. I certainly didn’t see that coming! It goes to show though, that you never know who or what will make a difference in your personal or your writing life.

We are in the midst of conference season, and once again I will be heading to the Oregon Christian Writer’s Conference where I received my first glimpse into how to write while sitting in a workshop taught by Randy Ingermannson, famous for his Snowflake method. After taking his class I went back to my room and wrote a short story based on what he taught. I then submitted to a mystery and suspense magazine—my first sale.

This little success was enough to keep me working hard for six more years until I sold my first novel to Harlequin’s Love Inspired Heartsong Present’s line. I then went on to sell four more books before they announced the line would close this June.

That announcement really messed with my head. It took several months before I could decide what I was going to do next. Then my good friend I met all those years ago asked if I would allow her to publish, Island Refuge, a book I’d written a couple of years ago. Not only did she want to publish that book, but she wanted it to be a series. I was cool with that. J I had the proposal already written up for a series and knew exactly what I would write. Island Dreams is the next book in the Wildflower B&B Series, and it will release in August.

That is how I came to be published by Mountain Brook Ink. My writing life has come full circle. My first friend in the writing world is now my publisher.  Talk about a winding path!

About the Book: Island Refuge

Five-Star-Chef Zoe Griffin walked away from her dream job. Did she make a mistake? 

Her engagement off, Zoe Griffin retreats to tiny Wildflower Island in the Puget Sound. Hiding out as a cook and maid at a shabby bed-and-breakfast seems crazy for a chef who’s used to running her own five-star kitchen. And just as she starts to feel at home, her klutzy mishaps make Zoe fear her handsome new boss will fire her. 

Dr. Nick Jackson is done with medicine, and owning a B&B is as far from doctoring as he can get. He needs help, but his only employee’s mistakes give him doubts. As Zoe lets her defenses down, Nick begins to see a competent and caring woman. One whose wounds are as deep as his own. But as they fall for each other, Nick and Zoe must learn the hardest lesson of all—to forgive. Only then can they heal the past and embrace the future . . . together. 

About the Author:

Kimberly Rose Johnson, soon to be empty-nester, lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their yellow lab. Island Refuge is her sixth published book and the first in a series of three. Kimberly enjoys long walks, chocolate, and mochas, not necessarily in that order. 

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