Faithwalk: Hungry Writer’s Early Arrives at ACFW Conference

 

What do you do when you do not see anyone that looks like you? This question has haunted me for days. On the plane, I read the ACFW Journal The Voice of Christian Fiction and none of the columnist look like me. Not the same hair texture or skin color.

Once I arrive in Dallas-Forth Worth, I get on the hotel shuttle, and politely ask the other women, “Are you attending the conference?” They reply yes. I say, “I’m nervous this is my first one.” They smile. I wonder what are they thinking.

I check in, and then head downstairs to pick up my registration packet. Still no one looks like me, and I get that stare. If you have been in my shoes, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself and say I’m being paranoid. And then again, it is what it is.

I go to my hotel room and call my three favorite people. They look like me but they are not at this conference and they are not writers. I unpack and head downstairs for dinner. Not even the staff looks like me, however they notice me, for I look like no one else in the dining room.

After dinner, I browse the hotel. Not even the people in the paintings look like me. I head to the ACFW bookstore to see what’s been published. I’ve looked at thirty books and the cover images, you guessed it, don’t look like me. I sigh. A lady passes me, and says: “Is that a good sigh.” I say, “No.” I continue walking through the tables and looking at books. I stop at books published by Zondervan, simply because I have a Saturday appointment with an editor from that publishing house. I take a breath. I focus. I remember the morning devotion.

God is the source of all creativity and innovation. He created the world in seven days. He has made you to create. If God has placed an idea in your heart to do, ask the Lord for His help in bringing it to reality. He desires to see His people create new things that can serve mankind and bring glory to God. Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”
Faith plays an important role when considering stepping out to launch a new endeavor.

Well, I had faith that I could. In May of this year, I decided to write full-time. Despite the color of my skin, the texture of my hair, the editors and agents that I would meet at this conference were looking for one thing: a writer who could write a compelling, emotional story that millions of people wanted to read. And my goal is to do God’s will because when I don’t see anyone that looks like me, and hopefully I will, I have to remember I’m God’s child and according to His Word we are all made in his image. So maybe everybody looks like me.

Stay tuned for next week when the Hungry Writer shares her conference experience.