Taking the Blame

I’m currently reading a non-fiction book on investing. The author suggests you know the managing style of the CEO and trust him or her before investing your money in the company.

If a company has performed poorly the good CEO takes the blame for the failures of the business and tells the shareholders information to help them evaluate the performance and the future for the company.

The bad CEO doesn’t admit to mistakes even though it’s obvious something has gone wrong.

Whether the good CEO realizes it or not, he or she is following a Biblical truth:

Proverbs 28:13 (King James Version)

13He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

I believe when you admit to mistakes–sins– you relieve yourself of anxiety.

1 John 1:8-10 (King James Version)

King James Version (KJV)

8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confession is freeing.

As Southern as they get

I was born and bred in the South- the tarheel state.

In my area there are a lot of “new” people who don’t appreciate southern charm. But I’m here to tell you, I’m a southerner and proud of it.

I say ya’ll and howdy.

I like Southern Gospel music.

I am a Southern Baptist.

I LOVE fried chicken and sweet tea. (Please, no comments on how evident that fact is)

I was raised on a farm that grew the cash crop of North Carolina.

I’ve driven tractors.(Not much. My Daddy didn’t trust me)

There is deer meat in my freezer. (not from road kill, although that’s too easy to find around here these days)

I watched HeeHaw as a child. A former co-worker didn’t know who Roy Clark was. How un-cultured.

I love the humor of the Andy Griffith show. It should be mandatory for everyone moving into the state to watch all episodes as kind of a culture immersion.

Just because we put extra syllables in words, doesn’t mean we’re stupid. Country Hicks, maybe, but not stupid.

My Book is Available

I’m happy to announce that my book, Finding Riches, is now available and can be purchased at:

http://www.lulu.com/content/1465764

Half of all profits goes to the Pregnancy Support Center Of Person County.

If you purchase the book between now and December 20th, you can enter to win an electric throw blanket. Just forward the email you receive after the purchase to my email address and you’ll be registered.

I debated the whole self-publishing issue. If my book wasn’t good enough for a traditional publisher, then why would I think anyone  would want to read it.  After praying about it, I decided that there would have to be some purpose, some good thing that the book would have to do in order to make self-publishing a viable option.

At some point it occurred to me that I could donate half of the profits received to the Pregnancy Support Center of Person County. That would make it worthwhile.

I’m truly thankful to the director of the center for allowing me the opportunity to help out in that organization.

Time – an important commodity

If you read my earlier post, “Writing Advice”, you would have seen my question about where to find time to write.

Time is an important commodity–one that runs out one day for all of us. How we spend our alloted time is up to us.

I decided this week I would not spend my time working so many hours, so I swallowed my pride and accepted a position with my old employer.

When I took my current job I was naive enough to believe I would be able to leave the office at 4:00pm. It took three months to figure out that would only happen occasionally. I worked many 12 hour days and came home too exhausted to even consider writing.

The lesson here is don’t burn any bridges. I didn’t at my old employer, and they seem to be welcoming me back with open arms. Even so much as to send me an email with the subject line “Welcome Home”.  That felt good.

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful to have a job and one where people feel confident in my abilities(even though I don’t at times).

I’m thankful to have a God who cares enough to answer a poor girl’s prayer to “get me out of here quick” and then to send a phone call from a former co-worker who led me straight to the answered prayer within a week’s time.

God is Good and Merciful. Be thankful.

Missing the Mark

My very first rejection came in November 2004 from Harvest House Publishers, http://www.harvesthousepublishers.com/ .

To coin a phrase from the USA TV show MONK, Here’s what happened:

I finished writing my book, Riches in Glory–now called Finding Riches, in August 2004, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Somehow I came across ECPA’s First Edition (now known as Christian Manuscript Submissions- http://christianmanuscriptsubmissions.com/) and for a fee posted my manuscript proposal so that publishing houses could see it.

An editor at Harvest House saw my proposal and requested the first 3 chapters. I can’t tell you how excited I was to have Harvest House request my manuscript. They publish best selling author, Lori Wick.

Little did I know then how badly the manuscript needed editing. It wasn’t until I joined a critique group that the manuscript improved. I read somewhere (It may have been Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird) it would take 15 people reading your manuscript to find all the flaws that one good professional editor could find. And I believe it. Each additional person that read the book found something wrong. And I wondered how I could have missed those errors. But I did.

The rejection I received from Harvest House said that it was “very close to industry standards.”

Very close, but not quite there.

I feel that way in all areas of my life — faith, family, work and writing. I’m not excellent at anything. I fall just shy of the mark.

But I am not alone. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God. We all fall short and miss the mark of holiness. And missing that mark stains us and makes it so we are not “good enough” to enter into heaven. No one can ever be “good enough.”

That is why Jesus came — we can’t be good enough, but He is. (See my post called Blood Donor)

The Message Bible says it this way in Romans 6: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%206:%206-11;&version=65;

I started writing this morning at 6 o’clock. My intention was to work on my contemporary work called Sweet Sixteen. An agent said he pitched it at the International Christian Retail Show and got some interest. But that was not what was on my mind today.

So instead, I wrote 26 pages on a regency novel I’m working on. I pitched this to a well-known publisher in the Christian market — well kinda. He read a sample of my work(a contemporary piece), wasn’t interested in that story, but looked at all my story ideas. (I have too many) And the ones he wanted to see most were the Regencies.

Originally, I had dubbed my tag line to be, “Writing Contemporary Fiction with Old-Fashioned Values” but if you notice on my website, www.anitareaves.com , I’ve dropped the “Contemporary” part. At least until I sell something. Then that will determine whether I write contemporary or historical. I’d prefer to write both, but people in the industry advise on sticking to one genre to create a “brand” of yourself. All of my fiction is romance, so I consider that my genre.

Writing the Regency was a lot of fun today.  But it’s intimidating– all the research I need to do. I think I’m pushing to finish the story by the end of the month, so I can get it to a professional editor before sending it to that publisher.

Pray for me.