Hitting over the head sometimes required!

I’ve been meaning to write about this for quite some time. But as I tried to work out the technological aspects this post called for, the memory began to fade and slip beneath my radar. That’s how life goes sometimes.

A conversation with my sister-in-law, a desire to share my excitement with the world outside my little corner of Pennsylvania, and the discovery of iMovie on my MacBook (who knew thatwas on here!) has brought this occurrence to the forefront of my mind once more. Take a short trip back in time with me.

The beginning of August was fraught with anxiety. I had attended the Montrose Christian Writers Conference in July. There I had learned everything I’m supposed to do to promote my book. My sister had taken ridiculously flattering professional photos of me, an exercise that seemed intertwined with narcissism in the worst way. I had set up my Facebook authorpage. (Please “like” me! If that doesn’t sound pathetic, I don’t know what does.) And I had an Excel spreadsheet with a huge long list of marketing and promotion “tasks” that looked was impossible to accomplish—especially between potty-training (we’re going on a year with this now, folks) and shopping for school supplies, let alone all the normal every day things required of a wife and mother of two young children. There was no way to accomplish everything I wanted to do. There was no way my book was going to do well. How could I possibly promote it properly? I kept giving it to God. I kept telling myself (and hearing others tell me) that God would open the right doors. That I would be able to accomplish what He wanted me to. That He would guide me to the opportunities for promotion that would be the most profitable.

That first Sunday evening in August, we went a prayer meeting at church. Sunday evening is generally much more relaxed than Sunday morning. Often, the prayer meetings have a theme, so we focus on that particular issue in our prayer time together. This time, though, our pastor asked if anyone needed prayer for anything at all. I explained my dilemma, in the midst of tears (as usual). My kids are only going to be little for a short time. But I also want to follow God’s call to write. I was overwhelmed with balancing it all. So my church family gathered around me and prayed.

When I think back on it, I can see God throwing up His hands and saying, “Really? You still can’t trust me? Fine. I’ll show you how this is going to work.”

That Wednesday afternoon, after another round of “how-am-I-going-to-do-all-this” with my spreadsheet, the telephone rang. It was a friend of a friend who works in television. She needed a guest for a show they were taping the next day. In less than 24 hours, I was sitting in a studio being interviewed about my novel for a show called “You Be the Judge”. The show aired that Sunday.

And finally, I relaxed a little bit. Not enough to blow off my tasks. But enough to know that what needs to happen will happen at the right time. It won’t happen if I neglect the more important things of life. I could work all day every day on promoting my book and still get nowhere. But with hard work at the right tasks, and divine intervention, the people who need to read the book will find out about it. And the word will spread.

What’s that? You want to see the show? I thought you’d never ask!