Pick Up Your Sword: Heroines Volume II (Caroline George)

War burns as a charcoal haze, a bundle of embers flickering where the kingdom melts to horizon. Your fur cloak, white as Michelangelo marble, is replaced with plated metal. You trade your scepter for a sword, your throne for a chariot. The calling to battle is rich, anointed and promised. You will charge into the fire out of obedience to the King, fight for the people He has placed under your leadership. To forgo the task would result in destruction, so you push away your fear and submit yourself to whatever occurs at the front.

Beauty once drew their attention but now it has transformed into a radiant strength that surpasses eyes and reaches deep into hearts, divine in origin, holy in mission.

There has come a time in each of our lives when we’ve had to trade our flower crowns for ones made of metal, forged from heat and sweat, given out of necessity, not vanity. We’ve experienced painful seasons when what seems pretty around us carries the weight of a battlefield. We may look put together like queens but at the center of our innermost being, we are survivors, warriors and royals riding our horses into already-won battles. We are God-authored to be heroines in His victorious saga, but have we accepted the role, been rebuilt by the divine authority entrusted to us as daughters of the Most High God?

Heroines, in literature, are characters who accomplish incredible feats despite impossible odds. They sacrifice their own interests to attain a goal greater than themselves. Their motivation stems from mission, purpose, vision for self, others and the world.

God-authored heroines are women of vision.

Throughout the Bible is evidence of God’s relationship with His girls. He handpicked women from insignificant backgrounds and used them in world-changing ways. Not glamorous. Not sugar-coated and dipped in petals. Hard, taxing ways that made history.

We, as handpicked protagonists, have the same potential and God-strength as Esther, Ruth, Mary and the other countless women who were used in the story of Christianity. Time does not sever us from saga-impacting roles—time is irrelevant and unbinding to the God who created it. We are our generation’s heroines.

Judges 4-5 introduces girl-boss heroine Deborah, leader of the Israelite people, a prophetess and wife. Deborah had a deep relationship with God that yielded strength, insight and vision. She was faithful to her calling, recognized the strength of others but remained steadfast in God-ordained authority and sanctification.

Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him; “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

“Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.

Judges 4:4-6

Three things to note . . .

1.     God gave Deborah a vision for the Israelite nation.

2.     Because of the vision, Deborah was a steward of God’s plan for others.

3.     Deborah did not leave Barak to tackle his God-given mission alone, rather she went with him into battle to share the weight of such a task.

God-authored heroines . . .

-        Are fueled by futuristic calling, accept leadership and point others to their God-authored visions.

-        Recognize God’s presence in the visions of others.

-        Magnify the callings of others.

-        Heroines see through the worldly shroud of sin and bear witness to God’s will for the future.

God’s daughters have melted under stereotypes, expectations, fears and insecurities for too long. They have denied their swords and crowns, instead retreating to their small, safe dreams. Heroines take their swords to already won battles and suffer through trials with supernatural endurance. They also join others in their suffering so as to keep unified the Kingdom of God.

What is vision? How do we get it?

-        Visions are God-sized, God-given dreams powered by purposeful calling.

-        To have vision is to have vision for self, vision for others and the world.

-        Visions are not products of tenacity, rather weapons gifted to us by the King of Kings. As children of God, we have visionary birthrights, positions of ordained leadership bought for us through salvation. If we take ownership of the power offered to us, we step into a place of sacred closeness with God and the visions handed to us like swords become our drive, our struggle and His victory.

-        Vision isn’t a quiet, gentle gift. It roars like a lion. It rattles its cage, aching to break free.

-        Vision leads.

Takeaway: Women with holy vision are women equipped with the power of God.

We are not flawless. We have been broken, pieced together and scarred in battle. Our lives are not aesthetic scrapbooks uploaded on social media sites, rather charred battlegrounds and reconstructed fortresses. In the eyes of others, we appear pretty and soft, but our Creator has designed us to carry vision, leadership and care for others.

What are the visions God has placed on your life? What’s stopping you from charging into battle with faithful endurance and royal confidence?

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. […] “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”

Proverbs 31: 25-26, 29

Heroines, let’s forgo our scepters, pick up our swords and step into the history-changing, generation-defining roles prepared for us by the Author of All.

Composed: We, The Authored Volume IV

Set: Nashville, Tennessee. Present day.

Protagonist description: Twenty-year-old girl with dyed blonde hair, mature features and a figure shape she tallies as another insecurity. Motivated by vision and God-conviction, the girl battles for her beliefs even when faced with impossible odds. However, she struggles with lies from her past.

The girl originated from a small town in Georgia but moved to Nashville for her education and career. Her insecurities stem from middle school weight gain, high school rejection and family issues.

Other character ideas: The girl often embarrasses herself by falling down stairs, walking into doors and getting stuck in rose bushes. She drinks too much coffee and writes science fiction books, maybe maintains a blog comparing God to an author.

Do you know me?

You have select facts about my past, but do you really know me? Have you read my story, experienced each plot point, loss and gain? Did you witness the inciting incident of my writing journey? Were you in my baby blue bedroom when I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life?

Backstories exist with the sole purpose of providing foundations for character development. They are established by facts and give an author the first rung in an extensive ladder.

Composition of any kind begins with a plan, a pencil sketch in a notepad or a few test shots. For art to form, the artist must mentally and physically develop the included elements. Writing functions in a similar manner—authors must sketch their characters from facts before developing them through the writing process. These facts are often dark and twisted because . . .

To conquer, one must have something to overcome.

Key elements of character development are fatal flaws and lies. Over the course of a book, the protagonist must wage war against his or her fatal flaw and discover the truth to counteract their believed lie.

As characters in a God-authored saga, we have flaws and lies. We begin from a series of facts but grow into perfectly composed entities.

Three things to remember:

1.      An author begins a story when he or she meets the main character.

2.      An author uses a character’s past to build a more victorious story.

3.      An author takes the lies a character believes and uses revelation to create a glorified novel.

Stories do not have true beginnings or ends. Before the first indented paragraph, there was a story. When the final period concludes a written work, the story continues in a place accessible only to the author.

God begins the divine epics of our lives when we surrender ourselves to His writing. He indents what becomes the first paragraph and goes to work, crafting us from the facts of the past.

We absorb our true identities as we are saturated with the Author’s will.

To restate what I said earlier, backstories are often dark and twisted. Readers fall in love with characters from rough beginnings and celebrate with them when they achieve their end goal. Through struggles comes purpose, transformation and triumph. Endurance brings about the greatest development.

One question I have heard a lot as of late is, “Why did God let bad things happen to me?”

I do not pretend to understand God’s plan, nor can I predict His plotlines. All I know for certain is nothing happens by accident, and He works all things for the good of His characters.

The roughest beginnings have potential for the most cinematic, fist-raising endings. No matter the obstacles you encounter, your story has a predesigned plotline, an indented first paragraph and a holy, God-redeemed final period.

“Many are the plans of the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

-        Proverbs 19:21

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

-        Ephesians 2:10

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

-        1 John 5:4

“The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.”

-        Psalm 138:8

WE, THE AUTHORED is meant to showcase God’s intentionality by comparing His careful construction with the writing process. Life, from a day-to-day viewpoint, can seem obscure and without structure. However, through the eyes of an author, love, obstacles and backstories make sense and point to the relentless, all-consuming love of our Savior.

“I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.”

-        Philippians 3:12-14

We, the authored, are composed.

Resisted: We, The Authored Volume III

“I was transformed by the program.

Nothing is the same now.

Not me. Not Kyle.

Not the world.

It’s been two years since the Titan first started killing off Legionaries. He challenged us all to a game but killed ninety-percent of our soldiers before the fight for our survival could begin.

My brother is dead. So is Sarah and all of Kyle’s task force.

Europe is a nuclear wasteland.

The other continents have gone dark.

America is barely a flicker on earth’s rotating screen.

And I know that if things don’t change, its meager light will go out.”

-        The Prime Way Program: Divided (Coming fall, 2017)

Conflict sparks a story and keeps it in motion. The first element of plotting an author must determine is the inciting incident, the moment when a character’s life is thrust in a new, life-altering direction. Before the grand conflict, all that exists are a backstory, a character with tremendous flaws and limitless potential. What matters most about the character comes from the pain, the suffering and times when he or she has to either conquer or be conquered. The story itself stems from resistance.

When readers reach the final sentence of a novel, they desire resolution, a sigh-worthy scene where the protagonist at last has what he or she has been fighting to gain. THE END is the end for a reason because once a book or series is finished, the conflict is, in theory, no more. How can we, the authored, live with the expectation that life is meant to be different for us; we should be without obstacles and villains, we should waltz into our dreams as easily as stepping across a threshold?

Without a villain, there cannot be victory.

Without obstacles, a story is an eternal state of THE END.

Obstacles come in various forms. Writers have pinpointed and categorized these struggles: man versus self, man versus man, and man versus world. However, there is one other conflict not included in the list—man versus Satan.

Self is a villain often overlooked. We, the authored, sabotage ourselves. Like any well-developed character, we believe our own lies, we allow insecurities to riot against our calling. Self is an insurgence waging war against the confidence gifted to us as children of the Most High God.

Man is the more notorious villain. In most books and movies, there is an individual wreaking havoc on the protagonist’s life or threatening the world on a massive scale. Although used by storytellers to give evil a face, men can be overcome. They are mortal. They believe their own lies.

World is a villain with power over the physical. It can attack a character’s body and state of wellbeing, but it cannot fully reach an emotional level. The world doesn’t have supernatural authority. However, its ability to deprive is its greatest weapon.

Satan surpasses all villains. He is our greatest enemy, knows when we are weak and works without relent to prevent us from fully experiencing the favor of God. He works . . . but the war against him has been won. We, the authored, have been victoriously rescued and claimed. Our THE END was written before we breathed our beginning. The conflict was resolved before the inciting incident.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” – John, 16:33

Suffering comes with the question of why, and the answer isn’t sweet and straightforward. It isn’t wrapped in a gift box or include hot tea and fuzzy slippers to comfort us while we deal with its truth. Suffering is the foundation of our story. We live to fight a God-won war, to grow as characters in His saga and reach the victorious THE END. We suffer to manifest the glory of Jesus Christ on earth and magnify His sovereignty.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” – 1 Peter 5:10

My intentions for this post are not to woo with poetic language. Instead, I desire only to offer truth and encourage my fellow comrades. We have been called by the Living Christ to enter into a crusade for His glory. We, the authored, suffer so we can have a meaty, rich story that oozes His divine power. The war isn’t easy and will require everything to complete. With urgency and determination, we must clothe ourselves in righteous armor and battle the villains, obstacles, conflict.

We must allow God to conquer our villains by surrendering ourselves to His plot.

Friends, I have been fighting the good fight and I am weary. Conflict rages in the rooms I enter, saturates the air I breathe, but God has declared victory over my heart and soul. He has won the battles I am now facing, so all I must do is endure.

“The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” – Exodus 14:14

Our villains do not define us, whether they are memories of sexual abuse, bad relationships, addiction, anxiety or depression, etc. If we have entered into the kingdom of God by confessing our mistakes and asking Him to claim us as sons and daughters, the conflict in our stories has been resolved. We fight with divine armor and God-favor. We are free of fear.

What are your villains? Have you surrendered your pain to God and asked Him to transform your suffering into a glory-rich story?

The protagonist climbed the plot graph, gained and lost, bled and sweat, reached a climax, then plummeted down a falling action. They endured a catastrophic amount of turmoil, yet they’re stronger, wiser. And when their THE END comes, all that once seemed impossible no longer holds relevance. With their THE END comes victory.

Through resistance, they discovered their story.

We, the authored, are won.

Love-Struck: We, The Authored Volume II

A barista shoots me glances of confusion while I slump over my laptop and coffee-stained notebook. I squeal like a teen girl at a boyband concert while rereading conversations between my book couples. I’m the author of their story, yet I delight in each sentence of their journey. Why? There must be a reason for this insane, geeky reaction, a connection to someone greater than me and my fictional stories.

Over the past five years of having my books on shelves, I have learned people crave stories with romance. Some of my friends won’t read a book or watch a movie unless there is a prominent love interest. What gives us this need? Why do we hunger for hope in someone else’s happy ending?

Books hold incredible romances, but our love story began at the cross where the Prince of Peace, Son of the Living God, sacrificed Himself in a wild, unrestrained, indescribable gesture of desire. Love-struck and infatuated with us, He did the one thing others have written into their stories for millenniums. He demonstrated love in its purest form.

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

– Romans 5:8

Before documentation of Jesus Christ, there isn’t a recorded case of sacrifice in the name of love, so why has society accepted the selfless giving of one’s own self as the most extreme expression of care?

We, the authored, radiate with our Creator.

Our hearts ache and break for a cinematic meet cute; boy and girl make eye contact from opposite sides of the room—maybe they sit next to each other, begin an awkward first conversation—and they fall in love. Easy. Fast. Straightforward.

We want to be able to fit a love story into a few chapters or a two hour movie because for the duration of our lives, we’ve been taught by the media that love happens fast and concludes with a couple lounging on a park bench, hopelessly enthralled with each other as the camera zooms out or the final paragraph comes to a sweet conclusion. Although we all have a victorious ending in Christ, our stories read different. They’re each beautiful and captivating in their own way, but their plot graphs differ in rising action and climax.

I met a dear friend for coffee a few days ago. As we sipped our fancy Cubans, she reminded me of a truth that has stuck with me—Love may start with sparks, but it comes softly with time.

God delights in our love stories more than we could ever “fan girl” over book characters and their climactic, romantic breakthroughs. He is writing our love interests into existence, smiling as we move toward each other. He reveals His own love for us as we grapple with the uncertainty and fear of opening our hearts. Softly—a word saturated with the deep richness of all beauty and excitement that is to come through our intimate relationship with the Author.

Time is irrelevant to God. In fact, He uses time as a buffer between plot points, a suspense-builder and a catalyst to merge His glory into the romance. He manifests Himself when the story reaches a prime moment, when the unfolding beams with evidence of His inspiration. As heroes and heroines in the God-authored saga, we must ask Him to sync our souls with His will for our stories and be confident in all that is to come because . . . it will come . . . in forms we may or may not expect.

Uniting the threads between writing and resting in God’s composition is the simple truth: Without the author, there cannot be a love story. Relationships in books require the author’s inspiration and the characters’ willingness to subject their independent nature to reliance on the author’s care for them. Three entities. Three lovers. One story.

Genesis 24 holds the love story that has haunted my mind for months. I often feel like Rebekah, carrying my jug of water to the spring, waiting for God to choose me for His Isaac. I have been like Abraham’s servant, asked for signs, watched closely to “learn whether or not the Lord had made (my) journey successful.”

Hearts cry out with joy when the Lord taps His podium, raises His conductor’s baton and signals destiny to erupt in a symphonic celebration. The audience sighs when the story unravels at the pristine instance, when both characters mature to perfection and merge lives. They clutch their mouths when Rebekah appears on the horizon, clothed in her wedding garb. They weep as Isaac moves across the field, captivated by her. They cheer as the Author unites both characters in a scene of desert breezes, canvas tents and ordained lovers standing face-to-face, hand-in-hand.

Crafting a romance between pages or on a screen is nothing more than an allegorical representation of our lives with Christ Jesus. When we write books, we reflect what God is doing with us, the craving He has for our attention and faith. Write with this fact in mind, know that perfect love takes three entities and Jesus-inspired sacrifices.

Our desire for a meet cute is the echo of need we have for a romance with our Writer. Once we’ve synced ourselves with His cinematic story, we melt in the sheer wonder that comes from His anointed plotline because . . .

We, the authored, are love-struck.

YA AUTHORS HOST INTERACTIVE WRITING AND PUBLISHING WORKSHOP, OCTOBER 8

Tessa Emily Hall, award-winning author of “Purple Moon,” and

Caroline George, author of “The Prime Way Trilogy,”

set to hold workshop for aspiring authors

at the Anderson County Museum

(Nashville, Tenn.) – The teen author duo, Tessa Emily Hall and Caroline George, will host a writing and publishing workshop, Write Now, on October 8, 2016 at the Anderson County Museum, 202 E Greenville St, Anderson, SC from 10:30 AM – 3:30 PM. Write Now caters to teen and adult writers, and offers inspiration as well as step-by-step guidelines that will increase chances of publication.

Unlike other workshops, Write Now motivates writers to pursue author careers with realistic expectations and knowledge of the current marketplace. Tessa Emily Hall, award-winning author, blogger and agent intern, shatters the misconceptions surrounding the traditional publishing realm and offers editing and pitch tips. Caroline George, two-time Georgia Author of the Year nominee, multi-self-published author and marketing intern for Harper Collins Publishing, offers an in-depth look at the setup of a publishing house and the process of self-publication. Participants will leave Write Now with a better understanding of the industry and be equipped with writing, editing and marketing tools to assist their efforts.

Tessa’s debut novel, “Purple Moon,” which was published while she was still in her teen years, has been vastly praised. Actress Alyson Stoner, known for her roles in Cheaper by the Dozen, Camp Rock and Step Up, said about “Purple Moon,” “Tessa offers a glance at the complex and all-too-commonly dysfunctional nature of relationships--to self, to family and peers--especially as we're learning to navigate the world on our own. Nimbly, she also interweaves hope amidst suffering; promise amidst frustration; restoration and wholeness among chaos and confusion; and endurance and vibrance among the throes of life. Purple Moon feels like the perfect side-hug to my teenage self, which reassures me I'm not alone, but knows I'm highly hormonal and not in the mood to romanticize life’s messes.”

At fifteen years of age, Caroline self-published the first book in her trilogy, “The Prime Way Program: Be the Victor.” Since then, the series has gained worldwide readership and gushing reviews from readers such as “George's world building is stunning and character development is amazingly strong. Her dedication to this book and characters is also not something to be overlooked. […] Truly an amazing story.”

From the get-go, when Tessa and Caroline first met to discuss book-tour plans over cups of coffee, they decided pairing their platforms would not only grow their success but encourage young writers to pursue their life visions. Now, after two years spent strengthening their credentials and friendship, they are ready to broaden their audience to include adult writers.

“I’ve never had a friendship quite like mine and Caroline’s,” Tessa said in an interview with Lisa Bergmanis of Belmont University. “We both share a strange obsession for imaginary characters, coffee and stories. Because of that, when we hang out, we don’t typically do the normal best friend stuff—such as watching movies, painting our nails, shopping, etc. (Actually, on a rare occasion when we did watch a movie, we took notes on the plot the entire time. Ha!)”

With one teen writer’s workshop already under their belts, complete with raving reviews from participants, the YA author duo is ecstatic to be offering the information behind Write Now to the general public.

###

To reserve a spot at the event and pay the twenty-dollar fee, email TessaEmilyHall@gmail.com. Registration closes October 7, 2016.

Official Trailer of THE PRIME WAY PROGRAM: BE THE VICTOR

What Agents Don’t Tell You: From Query to Contract

 Have you written a book?

Are you looking for an agent?

As a two-time self-published author now signed with Hartline Literary Agency and past intern of Harper Collins, I have experienced the pros and cons of both traditional and nontraditional publishing.

In this blog post, I will share what agents don’t tell you and offer tips on how to land a contract with an agency.

Agents are the real-estate agents of publishing, acting as the “middle-men” between sellers and buyers, authors and publishers. They add credibility to manuscripts, reducing publishers’ slush piles to a few thousand proposals.

The best ways to land an agent:

Since the emergence of literary agencies, there has been a standard process for querying. Writers send their pitch letters, sometimes the first few pages of their manuscript, to agents and wait up to six-months for a response. If an agent is interested, the author then sends more of the manuscript. This process continues until the interested agent reads the whole book and offers a contract.

Pros of the system: Agents are able to weed out books that aren’t ready for the market, and authors have the ability to query as many agents as desired.

Cons of the system: Many queries and manuscripts are left in an agent’s slush pile, some never to be examined. Those reviewed are strictly analyzed and refused if the structure, word count, etc. are less than optimal. This denies writers the chance to fully present their writing and the marketability of their work.

With such a systematic process in place, how can writers raise their chances of landing agents?

Conferences offer a unique opportunity for writers to have face-to-face interaction with agents and other professionals within the publishing industry. Often, writers are able to schedule time with the faculty to pitch their books. Agents can then put a face to a query letter and are more likely to select the book for representation.

Secret . . .

The key to a successful pitch isn’t scheduling time with an agent and delivering a top-notch hook; it is the connection fused between the writer and the agent.

Tip . . .

When you attend a writers’ conference, focus on genuine relationship building. Connect with other writers and publishing professionals. This will allow you to show your marketability, your book’s overall potential, and most importantly, give you the chance to learn. Ask questions. Listen to what others have to say. Apply the advice presented to you.

By networking, you unlock the second and most secret way to landing an agent.

Word-of-Mouth is a method rarely mentioned by agents but has proven the most successful for me. I pitched at a writers’ conference in New York City and queried over a hundred agents, but I didn’t land a contract with an agency until my close friend, who I met by inquiring about a book review, referred me to her boss/agent. Because of her recommendation, my query was raised to the top of the slush pile and given more notice.

Remember: Who you know is everything.

Build your platform. Befriend others who are more and less experienced. You never know which conversation over a cup of coffee will gift an opportunity.

How to make yourself more appealing to agents:

Professionalism is candy to an agent. When you query, send a proposal, and generally communicate, make sure to be well-informed and respectful. Nothing is more of a turn-off than a sloppy proposal and a nagging, ignorant author.

Do your research—everything you need to know about the submission process can be found online. Edit your work, even your emails. And please, be educated on the publishing industry and current marketplace.

Tips . . .

An agent’s job is to shop your book to publishers, making them your business partner, not your teacher, editor, and confidant. Respect their time and workload, and they will respect you.

Platform is number-one priority to publishers, which gives it extreme importance to agents. Books are a dime-a-dozen, so make your book more than a book. Give it backing. Create a brand for yourself by blogging, being active on social media, etc. And formulate a viable, creative marketing plan for your book.

To express your dreams, you must first express yourself. Readers are more likely to buy a book if they have a connection with the author.

In conclusion, agents and publishers aren’t the formula of a bestselling book, rather they’re the projectors showing your masterpiece on an international screen. You are your book’s greatest advocate. Once you relinquish reliance on the standard system and fight to make your work an asset to the publishing industry, you find your place within it.
Authors, self-published and traditionally-published, are entrepreneurs. Those who treat their writing as a business stand more of a chance at achieving success. 

Announcements:

A Recap of 2015 and a Glimpse at 2016

 

2015 was the most change-filled, rewarding year of my life. During the past twelve months, I had the cover designed for my most recent novel (not an installment of The Prime Way Trilogy), released an EP album on Sound Cloud, graduated from high school, joined author Tessa Emily Hall on a YA book tour, and attended the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City where I pitched to eight agents. I also moved to Nashville where I began classes at Belmont University, worked as a founding editor for The Belmont Story Review, and reported at the red carpet premiere of Providence.

Many great things happened in 2015, but I have a feeling that 2016 is going to be even more incredible. To make a few announcements….

-        This semester, I’ll be working as a marketing intern for Harper Collins Christian Publishing, specifically their WestBow, Elm Hill, and Author Gateway imprints. I’ve also been offered a part-time publicist position with Faith Flix.

-        The Prime Way Program book 3 will be released Fall 2016. I’m beyond excited about this concluding installment and cannot wait to share it with you.

-        A thematic book trailer for Be The Victor is currently in pre-production and will be released later this year. Unlike the first trailer, it will be scripted and include actors.

-        I’m currently in the querying process for another book, which I plan to traditionally publish.

 

As you can see, a lot is happening. I’m beyond grateful for the opportunities presented and cannot wait to share my experiences with you all.

Thank you for the support, readership, and encouragement.

You made my 2015 great.

 

 

To read an interview I did for Faith Flix Films, click here.

 

 

By: @livia.sketches

 

Waiting for YES

Words of encouragement for those in the midst of rejection.

 

Rejection is blood pumping through the publishing industry’s heart—agents reject authors, publishers reject manuscripts, and stores reject books. Although this is frustrating for writers desiring publication, rejection helps to weed out the “dandelions” from the “roses.” In other words, NO ensures that the best books reach shelves.

Does this mean rejection brands a book as a “dandelion”?

Of course not!

Remember, the publishing industry is based solely on preferences, opinions, and past successes. One agent’s “dandelion” is another’s “rose.”

And let’s be honest; everyone loves to pick a “dandelion” once in a while.

 

 

I am currently in the querying process for my latest book. I’ve sent out close to sixty queries and even though I know the facts, it isn’t easy to check my email and see a rejection letter.

Many of you are in a similar situation. You’re aching for someone to recognize your potential and fall in love with your work. You dream of the day when you’ll check your email and find a YES.

But until that day comes, remember these four things:

1.     It’s not personal.

Agents/Publishers receive hundreds of queries/proposals per week. They have preferences and are looking for ways to cut their slush skyscraper into a manageable pile.

 

2.     Each NO brings you closer to YES.

Crossing an agent or publisher off your list only means you’re approaching a breakthrough.

You can’t find an open “door” until you start knocking.

 

3.     Remember your dream, your passion, and why your book deserves to be read.

It’s easy to become discouraged during the querying process and think of your work as a soulless product to be sold. Fight the urge. Remind yourself why you’re querying, why you decided to write your book, and why it deserves to be read.

 

4.     When the “doors” close, kick one down.

After you’ve extinguished all options, shift your perspective and find new, unconsidered options. Be your own YES. Make your dreams happen.

In publishing, this option is known as self-publishing.

 

 Quoting actor Tom Hanks,

“If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”

 

 

 

Student Vs. Author

Prepare. Pause. Patience.

 

I’m currently sitting at a round table in my campus Starbucks, sipping a hazelnut latte, and watching for my coffeehouse crush to stroll through the main door. I love my college. I love Nashville and the opportunities it offers. I love meeting new people, learning about the publishing industry, going to concerts, and dressing like a hipster without shame or reservation.

Although my social life has gained a needed boost from my move, my writing schedule has experienced a major blow. Not a bullet ricochet; a nuclear bombing. The schedule is so meager it consists only of short fiction-writing assignments for my publishing class, blog posts, and the occasional tweet.

So what am I doing now?

School? Exercising at the gym? Drinking lots of coffee?

Yes. Yes. Yes. And more.

I’ve dedicated this school year to querying agents and building my author platform. As of now, I’ve queried fifty agents and am awaiting responses. YES—that’s the word I need to hear.

My odds seem decent at the moment.

For me, the most difficult aspect of the process has been the wait. I trudge through my day and courses, not working on another book, not organizing author events, just doing my student duties and praying that God will open doors at the right time. I have accomplished what I can accomplish at this point in time. Now I must wait. And waiting is hard. Especially for an overly determined person like me.

 

Since many of you are facing a schedule change, I’d like to offer some advice.

1.      Don’t lose sight of your dream.

It’s easy to shift focus when you’re in a new place, surrounded by new people, but you can’t forget your dream. Never forget.

2.      Remind yourself of that paused part of you.

The dream you’ve placed on hold is a slice of your identity. Forgetting it is like forgetting a part of yourself. Talk about your dream with others. Place a visual reminder somewhere in your room to keep that part of you present.

3.      Take a step forward every day, even if it’s small and seems inconsequential.

Make choices daily that will draw you closer to your goal. Practice your talents. Contact people who might be willing to help you reach your dream. The small steps you make will be what carry you to success.

 

If you are encountering a situation similar to mine, tell me about it!

If you have any questions about the publishing industry, college life, or my coffeehouse crush, email me! I’ll post interesting questions and my answers on this blog.

Also, send me a review of THE PRIME WAY PROGRAM and I’ll send you something in return!

Email: authorcarolinegeorge@gmail.com