Sunday, June 19, 2005

The Waiting Room

I know many of you have spent time in a waiting room, reading six-month old magazines and looking up each time the door to the doctor's inner sanctum opens, hoping to hear your name called. Usually it's someone else's. And sometimes it's someone who came after you. Well, I've been in a sort of waiting room for the past six months. Last January my proposal for Daughters of Justice went out to as many Christian publishers as you can count on both hands. Some responded right away with polite "no thank-you's" yet others still have yet to respond. One has shown some interest but still hasn't asked for the full manuscript. So I continue to wait. If anyone thinks that writing a novel and getting it published happens overnight, you need to think again. For a new writer I need to have it written before I propose it. Then the proposals go out and the waiting begins. Hopefully, someone eventually asks for the full manuscript to read and you move back into the waiting room again. Each time can take months. You know the old cliche. Don't give up your day job. Meanwhile I work on preparing yet another manuscript and synopsis for proposal for another publisher. Why do I do it? Because it's what God has laid on my heart to do. I don't know His plan for my writing, but I do know that I can trust Him for the outcome. An outcome that is perfect for me. One that He knows will bring Him glory. And I can trust that.