...of She Speaks Conference part 3

…and for the first time, I felt incapable of walking up a set of stairs. Dreadful thoughts of tripping and then tumbling backward consumed me. With that, I held onto the railing and slowed my pace.

At the top of the stairs there was a beautiful woman waiting to greet those, like myself, who had bravely ascended with proposals to present. She informed me that my scheduled meeting time had been altered just a bit due to a mistake with the person ahead of being scratched off the list because the person before her had the same name so she thought it was a misprint! Isn’t that funny? Not that the appointment was cancelled but that two women had the same name and was scheduled closely like that!

Okay, so, I was not the least bit bothered and was thankful for the extra few minutes until, I began to get nervous! People, I’m talking nervous like my stomach bubbled, I felt nauseated, and I began to tremble. Fight or flight took over; I popped up from my chair with the intent to tackle those stairs to take me back to the lectures! However, there was a prayer warrior standing next to my chair, I had no clue that she was there so when I turned to walk away I almost bumped into her! Glancing at her nametag I read Kristi Brown and then blurted, “Will you pray for me please!” Her eyes widened, proposal fell to the ground as she grabbed my hands and sternly said, “Oh no! Don’t you do it! Do-not-get-nervous!”

Ms. Kristi literally dropped everything to pray for God’s weak daughter at that moment y’all, literally! She asked my name and commenced to pray. Just as soon as she said, “Amen,” her name was called for her meeting. As that servant of the LORD walked off I managed to say a faint thank you. A few seconds later my name was called and I was then escorted into my meeting with a representative of Kregel Publications. I did not see Kristi Brown again.

The meeting went absolutely well, so well in fact that I was given the opportunity to submit my proposal! The representative gave me the proper information needed to ensure that our, (Acts 3:32-37), book proposal arrived at its’ destination. Going down those stairs after that meeting was a breeze. I did not hold onto the railing and there was a bit of “pep in my step” as well! YES!!!

The next thing I did? Well, I called Anton of course, but remember, our phone was not working properly…BUMMER, so, I called my sister but she had been asleep and was very incoherent, however, I knew she was excited. Then I entered the, “Top Tips from a Veteran Publisher,” facilitated by Sandy Vander Zicht and filled the designated page in my binder with notes from her unselfish presentation.

Finally, there came the “Writer’s Peer Critique” group meeting. We were told to bring two copies of a double-spaced, 750-word count article that we would want published in a Christian magazine for review. Our facilitator, Glynnis Whitwer told us to get in a group of three, read the articles and effectively critique it. I began on the first one and knew that my article would look as if it had been brutally murdered because of the red ink marks I anticipated getting! The article I was reading was AWESOME!

Then came the second one, OH WOW! She totally rocked it as well! Larie fell into that debilitating comparison cistern: a writer, not me, not even fit to be in the same area as my name. “Poor me,” I started questioning the existence of my presence at ‘She Speaks’ again.