This is the way the world begins…

Yes, I’m playing with T.S. Eliot.  I remember, as a teenager, reading a snippet of his Waste Land in jr. high, in a Lois Duncan book of all places. 

This is the way the world will end -
Not with a bang, but a whimper

The words stuck to me, yes, but not just the words.  The cadence of the words.  Over the years, I’d hear sentences with this rhythm and be taken back to that book, to the scene when Karen is dumped by her boyfriend after the prom, with a pat on the shoulder and sticky maple syrup breath.  And in my first novel, I wrote a line with similar phrasing to describe how my protagonist was feeling about the demise of her marriage.  A tribute to Eliot.  A tribute, really, to all the novelists and poets I read while growing up, the ones who taught me how to write well – and the ones who good writing was not.

So, this is the way my world as a writer begins, today, with a three-book deal from Bethany House Publishers.  It’s official.  I’m a contracted writer (okay, I haven’t actually signed my name, but paperwork is in the mail).  I am absolutely amazed by God’s graciousness toward me, and when my agent called me last night to tell me, I sobbed against the refrigerator. 

Welcome to my blog, my chronicle of my publishing journey, the editorial process, the actual grinding away at my next book, and probably a bunch of non-writing related ramblings whenever I feel like it.  Hey, it’s my site – I can do that.