I'll Be Your Mississippi: Guest Post, Patricia Beal

Hi All! This is Angie. I am pleased to introduce my new writer friend, Patricia Beal. We found each other on Twitter...my newest social media! Wahoo for trying new things, and finding new authors! Enjoy Patricia's guest post.

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Hundreds of writers are preparing for the 2015 American Christian Fiction Writers Conference next month. This will be my second ACFW and the highlight of my writing year.

But already things are not going as planned. 

I want to share a story with you that I hope you’ll tuck away and use in case of emergency. I want you to know that it doesn’t matter how badly your plan falls apart, God’s plan will still stand.

Did you guys watch “Annapolis”? It’s an underdog-makes-good movie about a young man from the wrong side of the tracks, Jake Huard, who gets into the U.S. Naval Academy but soon begins to wonder if he can measure up. 

His classmates sense his weakness and before long he’s down to one roommate, a sweet kid from Arkansas who’s addicted to Twinkies and can’t complete the obstacle course. His nickname is Twins.

Twins: You want to know why I stay in this room? 

Jake Huard: Yeah. 

Twins: Cause Jake, you're my Mississippi. 

Jake Huard: I'm your what? 

Twins: People who live in Arkansas, you know what their favorite state is? 

Jake Huard: No. 

Twins: Mississippi. Cause Mississippi's the only thing that keeps Arkansas from being the worst state in the whole country. 

Jake Huard: I'm Mississippi? 

Twins: Well you sure as hell ain't California. Listen, Cole and Whitaker are so busy tryin' to run you out they forgot about me. As a matter of fact, they've forgotten about every other plebe in this whole company. That's why I stay in this room Jake. Cause if Mississippi quits, then all of a sudden Arkansas is the worst state in the whole country. 

Disclaimer: I don’t have anything against Arkansas or Mississippi. If you’re from one of these states, please feel free to share something lovely about it.

But you get the gist.

Come along and let me encourage you. I’m your Mississippi, and here’s why.

Last year while I attended my second Spotlight On session on the very first day of my first ACFW, my grandmother, all the way in Brazil, took her final breath.

Back home people get buried fast, so a trip there wasn’t an option. The following day, I watched the funeral and cremation ceremony from my room.

I can safely say my plan for the conference I’d prayed about for more than 1 year went out the window.

But God orchestrated meetings that comforted me and that moved me closer to His will, and His plan stood. 

On Saturday I met Les Stobbe, and two weeks later he became my agent.

So if your plan for ACFW 2015 falls apart, don’t be discouraged. God’s plan will stand.

My ACFW 2015 plan already fell apart. It fell apart last month when I realized my new manuscript wouldn’t be polished in time. I’ll have to pitch my first manuscript in Dallas.

Some editors have already seen that first manuscript and either don’t need it or don’t like it. My options are limited, the enemy says. 

But are they? How about living by faith, not by sight?

The truth is that there are editors who haven’t seen it, and it takes only one “yes.” A lot has changed since the last rejection: opening, word count, comp titles, bio, endorsement, contest nod, and platform numbers.

I feel like God is already taking over ACFW 2015 and that’s really, really exciting.

It reminds me of a devotion I read last month. I ripped it out of the book and stuck it to my kitchen wall, where all the important stuff goes. 

Pastor Barry Farnsworth wrote that fathers teach kids how to shoot a bow by kneeling next to them and placing their left hand on the kid’s left hand and placing the right hand on the kid’s right hand. 

From a distance it looks like the child is shooting the bow, but in reality, the father is doing all the work.

By DIVIDSHUB on Flickr

Jacob, while blessing Joseph in Genesis 49:22-26, uses this very image: “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”

God’s hands on the bow prospered Joseph, Noah, Abraham, Moses and every servant of the Lord since time began. Why would it be any different for us? And how cool and comforting is that?

I want to show up in Dallas representing well the gift that God gave me, but without the stress—just humble, teachable, ready to be a blessing to others, and expectant. What’s God got up His sleeve this time? How’s He going to work the bow?

In addition to knowing that God’s plan will prevail, there’s one more thing you should do to de-stress and be strong out there. Ask yourself the question we all loathe: What if I never get published?

How big of a deal is it to you and why? We’ve all at some point desired publication to feel special. I know I have. You probably have, too.

If you’re still feeling that way, please read The Search for Significance by Robert McGee. It freed me from dry wells and got me walking toward publication for the right reason: to be in the will of my accepting audience of One.

Once you have your motivations in check, dream big, pray big, and pursue publication with wild abandon. 

If your strategy falls apart mid-conference, don’t sweat it. Pray and worship. God’s plan will stand. 

And remember I’m your Mississippi, and Mississippi isn’t quitting. I’ll be out there with the manuscript that was once rejected on the West Coast, East Coast, and London on the same week.

How about you? Are you attending any conferences this year? Have you found success in the middle of chaos? 

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Patricia Beal is a Christian author, Army wife, and ballerina. She writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Leslie Stobbe of the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency. She’s a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist.

Patricia is from Brazil and immigrated to America in 1992. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1998 with a B.A. in English Literature.

After an internship at the Pentagon, she worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for 7 years. The stories she filed from Guantanamo Bay during the early days of the detention operation there gained national attention. Two years later she received a Keith L. Ware award in print journalism for a feature on a day in the life of “Bad Luck Squad” in Iraq.

She and her husband live in El Paso, Texas, with their two children.

Patricia is very active online and would love to connect with readers.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author

Twitter - https://twitter.com/bealpat

Web – www.patriciabeal.com