The James Gang Rides Again! by Terry Burns

Anybody that knows anything at all about the old west knows of the infamous James Gang, Frank and Jesse. Well, the James gang rides again, and they do have a brother Frank but primarily it is mother Jean and daughter Mary writing as a mother/daughter team.

They just signed a publishing contract for their novel Sparrow Alone on the Housetop! from 4RV Press. I am told that Jean has been skipping around the horse pasture all week, but they said not to worry, the horses already know she's a little crazy! To celebrate this good news they have launched a new author's website: http://www.jameswriters.com/

The website is still under some construction but please check it out and if you feel inclined post a comment on their blog. Also, if you'd like to make friendly with the crazy lady you can also find her on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jameswriters

But it’s not just about writing books. Mary, also known as “Mean Mary” is an extremely talented musician and singer and can play a banjo like nobody’s business. She has a new CD out and just completed a live concert that was hugely successful. I’m lucky enough to be their agent, but only for the books. Being an agent in the entertainment industry is a whole different animal and takes a totally different set of contacts. Do yourself a favor and go over to http://meanmary.com/ and listen to her pick that thing. Get you a CD while you are there.

MARY JAMES’ life has been one long road show interspersed with TV, radio, and film work. She’s also a prolific songwriter, playwright, and the spirited host of Nashville TV show, MEAN MARY’S CAFÉ AMERICANA, where she brings music and pertinent “ Americana” topics to her TV audience.

Before becoming a fulltime writer JEAN JAMES collected live mammals and reptiles for US and foreign distribution and live venomous snakes for antivenom production, was involved in various wilderness construction and survival projects, and worked as a press agent and song writer. Brother FRANK JAMES was an author on their nonfiction project, BE STILL I AM GOD.

So if you hear the thundering of hooves, don’t worry, they aren’t off to rob a train, but if you are really lucky they may sell you a book . . . or a CD.

For This I Have Jesus

For This I Have Jesus

John Hunter- one of Britain’s leading evangelists coined this phrase that provides a quick reminder of the peace and hope God gives in trying circumstances. For this I have Jesus.

A long awaited word comes to you from your agent via the ‘committee’; your novel has been rejected.

For This I Have Jesus

You have filled countless notebooks with your writing, your friends and relatives believe your writing is ready and has great potential for success yet you have had none when searching for an agent.

For This I Have Jesus

You are planning to attend a writers conference that offers excellent workshops and endless opportunity of face to face meetings with agents and editors but a financial 'crisis' just took the money you had set aside to go.

For This I Have Jesus

You have just completed that novel, paid a freelance editor to do a final edit and your new agent, "Can't wait to pitch it' just as the publishing industry takes a nose dive and new authors can't get their foot in the door.

For this I have Jesus.

Your royalties are due; you’ve heard the book is doing well. Your thinking you’d like to replace that 12 year old couch in the Family Room, or have that dentistry done you have been putting off, or trade in your clunker. The agent of record sent you an email; the checks have been issued by the publisher and should arrive any day. It’s here! There must be a mistake. Isn’t there supposed to be a coma in the figures?

For this I have Jesus.

The author is feverishly writing with a looming deadline in her focus. Looking good, just four chapters remain. A phone call informs her that a parent is in hospital out of state with failing health. She packs her bag, looks back to her desk, and walks out to the taxi- knowing she must choose family.

For this I have Jesus.

An author receives two glowing professional reviews, has a potential three book contract offer and opens her last email to find out from a friend that a popular blogger has listed her newly released title as one of the worst books she has read this year.

For this I have Jesus

Please feel free to share a line or two of an example when you could apply this phrase. We are not talking about simplistic matters such as finding an ideal parking spot but a time when you have been tested, disappointed and almost lost your hope of ever seeing your dream realized. It need not apply to writing or agenting.

May you find Jesus to be your all in all.

From my heart to yours,

Diana

Finding Contentment by Joyce's Client Lisa Harris

I’m pleased to present a guest blog from Lisa Harris who is a missionary in Mozambique and has lived in Africa . Lisa’s newest book is Blood Ransom published by Zondervan. The second book in this series will be Blood Covenant. It will be released in 2011. There has been a huge response to Kathy Macias’s recent blog about human trafficking. Blood Ransom, set in Africa, is the story of a young man who sees “ghost soldiers” killing and kidnapping his whole village including his family. Even though this story is fiction, it is based on fact. Be sure to pick up a copy of Lisa’s book at your bookstore or library. It’s an exciting, suspenseful read.

CONTENTMENT

A few days ago, I opened up my email and smiled. Not only were there two raving reviews about Blood Ransom, but an email from Joyce letting me know that an editor was requesting a series from me for possible publication. Not bad for one day.

But then I opened the last email. It was from a fellow writer friend of mine who was passing on some not so good news. Apparently, we each had a book we'd written that been voted on a site as being the two worst books this blogger had read so far this year.

Ouch!

I was quickly smacked back down to reality, but it also got me thinking. How often do we put our confidence in what we do? We win an award, receive a compliment, and get that pat on the back for something we did at work and we're on the top of the world. But that happens when our boss complains about our work, our best friend is mad at something we did (or didn't do), the kids whine about dinner, and the bathroom scale registers a few pounds to high.

It's like a yo-yo that never stops bouncing. Or when it does, it leaves us feeling as if the world has crashed in around us.

Here is what I was reminded of. I'm more than what I do. Yes, there are people who love my books, but there are also clearly those who don't. I've received awards for my books, but have never reached the best-sellers list in the CBA let alone the New York Times list, but that's okay, because that isn't who I am.

So who am I? Who are you?

We are children of the King of Kings, the creator of the universe. God has called us to follow Him, to serve others through His strength, to find intimacy with Him, and to discover that who we are is not based our accomplishments anymore than it is based on our regrets and failures.

Does that mean I stop trying to make that best-seller list? No way. But in the meantime, I don't ever want to forget who I really am.

Paul put it this way, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13

I know there are a number of you who are struggling right now as you dream of signing with an agent. Or perhaps you’re still waiting to sign that allusive first book contract (or in today’s environment, your fifth, or tenth, or twentieth book). It can make finding contentment seem impossible. For today, I'm praying that God's peace, a peace that transcends all human understanding and logic, guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

God, we want to be more like you. Content to dream big, but also to enjoy the ups and downs of the journey while we get there. We want to be content to love family, friends, and those around us. We want to be content to serve others in Your name. Content to cry with those around us when our hearts are breaking, but also to never forget that true contentment can not be found in our circumstances, but only through you, because You are the one who gives us strength to get through each day.

Be blessed today!

Lisa

When the Creditor is Coming

Today we welcome Diana's client Sharon Elliot back as guest blogger. Sharon uses her writing gift to encourage her blog readers through God's word daily in addition to the many other hats she wears. In today's economy and challenges to all of us, Diana felt there was much to be gained from her advice.

1 Kings 4:1-7 relates a story that is very timely for many of us in the current economic recession our country is facing. A single mom finds herself in credit trouble. She articulates her problem to Elisha the prophet who asks her what she has. All she has is some oil in a jar. Elisha tells her, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors – empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones…

(When she returned to Elisha with the task completed, he told her) Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest” II Kings 4:3-4 and 7 (NKJ).

If you find yourself in a similar situation today – in bondage to credit – take the six steps this woman took to become free:

• Step 1: Express your need to God – Now is not the time to stop going to church, to stop praying, and to stop serving God. This woman expressed her need to the man of God. She didn’t turn to ungodly sources or get-rich-quick schemes. She needed help; she turned to God. You need help; turn to God.
• Step 2: Examine your assets – This woman had a little oil – something that everyone needed. What do you have that everyone needs? Maybe it’s not something physical like oil; perhaps you have strengths, talents, and skills. For example, I can write, teach the Bible, and multi-task.
• Step 3: Employ the family – This woman had two sons who she rallied to her aid. They helped to collect the empty pots from the neighbors. Get others involved with you gathering all you’ll need to position yourself to exit your credit problem. Put their strengths and skills to work for you.
• Step 4: Evaluate the emptiness of others – How can your assets fulfill the needs around you? This woman and her sons found people who had empty vessels, people who needed oil. Look around: who needs what you have, even if you have just a little of it? I could, for example, appraise who might need to learn to write, understand the Bible, or be better at organizational skills?
• Step 5: Exercise the entrepreneurial spirit – Go into business using your assets to fill others’ needs. This woman poured her oil into the empty pots until there were no more empty vessels. Her oil didn’t run out until the empty pots ran out. And her oil was worth money. Your assets, gifts, and talents are not to be cheaply prostituted. Set a fair price and don’t apologize. People will pay for what they want and need. As long as the need exists, you’ll be in business.
• Step 6: Exist on the increase – This woman sold her oil and she and her sons lived on the rest. She had not only enough to get out of debt, but she also had enough to sustain her family going forward. Her assets profited enough for investment for the future. Wisely handle the increase from now on to keep the creditor from coming back again.

What a wonderful plan to undertake when the creditor is coming. Try it.

_________________________

©2010 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

Thanks Sharon, for sharing a post from your blog. I encourage our reader to go to Sharon's blog today as well. It takes us a step further and reminded me of who I am journeying with.

Warmly,

Diana

Is the Western dead? by Terry Burns

I’m in an invitation-only online group of western writers. I wasn’t sure why I was invited. This is a gathering of some of the most published names in the western genre and most have published books numbering up into the hundreds. My little thirty-some-odd bibliography didn’t really stack up. Then I discovered they were curious as to what it took to put books into the Christian market. However I managed to get invited, it’s a terrific group and I enjoy interfacing with them.

But right now they aren’t happy. It seems western writer Richard Wheeler (not a member of the group) wrote a blog pronouncing the “Death of the Western Genre” and basically saying good riddance. Can you say angry? This is a writer that has significant standing in the Western Writers of America organization, has won spur awards, and has written in the traditional western genre himself for years. This means many people think he is speaking for the organization itself. I am assured by the WWA President that he is not.

There is still a significant following for the genre, and some of us have intentionally been writing some western young adult titles to interest a new generation in reading westerns. You see, that’s the problem, those of us who grew up on Gunsmoke and Bonanza and Saturday mornings with Roy Rogers and Gene Autrey love westerns. Kids who have grown up on video games haven’t been introduced to them very much. Instead of writing off one of the most amazing periods in our history we need to be proactive about arranging this introduction.

There’s another factor involved here and that is the current trend to re-write history to suit ourselves. Don’t like the fact that slavery was part of our nation’s history? No problem, take it out of the history books. Think it is inappropriate that Indians and settlers fought and killed each other over western expansion? Simple, do away with the word Indians rewrite history to include little if any of this conflict. Don’t want to admit that America was a Christian nation? Re-write history to downplay the role of faith for our founding fathers and while you are at it try to take every reference to faith out of our government. I could go on and on. Are we interested in doing this to the old west as well?

I’m pleased WWA has reaffirmed their intent to continue to support and promote the genre western. Originally that’s what the organization was founded on. They have spread their net much wider since then incorporating all kinds of literature on or about the West. It has relegated the genre westerns to a much smaller role.

Further, There was a very interesting session on the future of publishing at the last conference I worked. A group of a dozen editors talked about where publishing was and where it was going. The bottom line was they felt the middle size publisher was disappearing. They think publishing is very much becoming a big versus small publisher situation with the smaller publisher utilizing non-traditional distribution methods, particularly online sales, more and more effectively. They also said that the ‘niche markets,’ that large publishers have always said were not worth their time, is the bread and butter of the small publisher.

I believe this why the large houses that have dropped the western lines are doing it. They have relegated it to be a niche market and not worth their time. It doesn’t mean the market is not there, but does mean that it is much smaller for them to do this. I recognized this trend over a year ago and started taking some of my debut clients into these developing small markets. Will it pay off? Is it worth the time of an experienced writer to be in this market? I guess we'll have to see how things develop.

But the thing about a niche market is this, it works the other way too. A niche market that starts doing well attracts the attention of a major publisher again. The major houses had Christian Fiction relegated to niche market status. Then the fastest growth area in publishing for several years was Christian fiction and they all started buying small Christian houses or forming Christian imprints in their house. If the demand for genre westerns increases in the small houses it could interest the major houses again.

These small houses operate on a model that allows them to make money virtually from day one, very modest revenue, but they keep their backlist in play for a long time. Maybe part of our strategy for advancing the genre needs to be recognizing the changes in the industry.

We hear about the western dying off a lot, but all genre fiction is cyclical. It has faded and rebounded before. Then along comes a high visibility western movie or TV show or such, and it bounces right back. I believe it is up to us to find ways to reach those readers.

Guest blog by Joyce's client Ace Collins

Attitudes or Gratitudes — It’s Your Choice!

The dictionary describes attitude in this way, “a manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing.” When a teacher or coach says, “He’s got an attitude,” it is not a positive remark. No matter how you cut it “having an attitude” is not a good thing.

“Attituders” are complainers. They yell and moan about what is wrong and don’t get anything done. Attituders seem to revel in making everyone meserible. And you don’t have to look very far to find them.

Attituders can be heard almost any time of the day on talk radio. They often scream and find great fault in things the other side is doing. They almost always feel like someone is out to get them and forgiveness is not something that they embrace. They point out problems, but don’t outline solutions. If fact, attituders don’t listen, they are too busy trying to make their point, which, they believe, is the only one worth having.

It was the attituders who led the march to crucify Jesus, supported Hitler and tried to stop America’s integration.

The dictionary defines gratitude “as the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful.” It then states that gratitude is “the essence of good mental health and spirituality.” Now this sounds like a group we would have to have over for dinner.

“Gratituders” are those who see their blessings, look for solutions, lift up rather than put down and solve problems. Grattituders make life better from everyone around them because they care deeply about more than just themselves.

In other words, gratituders are doers. You may not hear them, they won’t be yelling on street corners or screaming out at radio broadcasts, but you can see their work. They are spiritual healers whose touch can bring comfort and understanding. They encourage and don’t judge. They don’t set themselves apart from others, but see all people are their brothers and sisters.

A Choice...
Each of us has a choice. We choose the team we want to serve. The choice you have to make is if you want to be an attituder or a gratituder. If you decide to be like those who have have brought light into a dark world then you will be a gratituder and the world will be a better place because your choice.

There are ten attitudes in the book GrATTITDUE that I feel we need to fully embrace to be a happy, productive influence. One of those is recognizing the importance of TEAM. My agent Joyce Hart knows this concept well. She has experience the importance of team not just in career as an agent, but in her current recovery from major back surgery. It has taken a team to get her back on her feet and put her back in the game that reunites her with those us who look upon Joyce as the captain of our book team.

Each of us is part of a team. Whether we like to admit it or not, we rely on others and others rely on us. What matters most is not how we stand out as individuals, but rather how we make the team better with our time, energy, and gifts. When we make the team better, that same team gives back to us in our moments of need.

The lesson that each individual is called to be more than an individual is exemplified by Shalee Lehning, a basketball point guard who played for four years at Kansas State University and now plays in the WNBA. Shalee is not a large woman. At a bit over five-feet seven, she is strong, but lean. She is quick, but not fast. She is not as much a pure athlete as she is ane example of a person who worked hard to enhance her modest God-given skills. If you were to line up ten women from the pro league in a row and ask someone to pick out the one was not really a pro player, she will likely be the first won chosen.

So why is this brown-eyed former high school homecoming queen constantly surrounded by young girls seeking her autograph? Why was Shalee so successful at making others look better that her college number was retired?

If you look through the Kansas State record books you will not find her leading the list of the school’s scorers. She also was never a great three point shooter. Where her name pops up first in as the school’s assit leader. What does that mean? Essentially Shalee was the person who passed the ball to a person who made the points. And she did it more than any else in school history and led all rookies in the WNBA in that often overlooked category in her first year in the pro ranks. In other words, Shalee became a star by literally “passing” the spotlight to others.

At the ceremony where Kansas State become the first player who was not a scoring leader to have her number retired, thousands cheered as Shalee’s number 5 jersey was lifted into the rafters of the gym. Over the deafening roar, a newspaper reporter asked the basketball player what it meant to have her number honored in such a way.

“I’ve always thought there were five on the court. There isn’t just one. There are five of us out there at a given time, which is why I picked number 5. For that number, I hope people know that this honor does not exemplify Shalee Lehning. That’s for the team, the program, the university, anyone who helped get me to where I am today. I didn’t do any of this on my own. It’s always been a team.”

Shalee’s attitude provided Kansas State with more than just wins. It gave the school an unselfish sports’ icon. Because she was seen on a national stage as someone who put others first and herself second, many parents steered their high school kids to attend the school she attended. Her values unknowingly made her a recruiter for the school. Yet that was just the beginning. Thousands, including many reporters, tried to find out why in the era of “me first” athletes that Shalee put such an emphasis on team. The answered proved to be a recruiting tool for another group.

Shalee explained that it was her Christian faith that caused her to look out of others. It was her faith that forced to her to think about giving before recieving. It was that faith that made her want to lift her teammates and dimish herself. And it was her faith that caused a number of folks to look at their own lives and then join the team she viewed as the most important in her life.

We’re all on a team—and those of us who embrace the gratitude of teamwork become leaders who make others, and ourselves, better. True team players also become the greatest and most followed leaders. And that makes understanding the concept of TEAM a very powerful GrATTITUDE.

If you don’t believe me, ask Joyce!

No Response Unless Interested by Terry Burns

I get it. There are thousands upon thousands of authors submitting books right and left. I understand of necessity publishing houses adopting a “no response unless interested” policy to cut down on the work needed, particularly with staff cutbacks in recent times.

However, it seems to me the policy should be different for agents sending submissions. We are culling through hundreds of submissions picking out the projects we choose to send, and we do our best to determine what might be the best fit for the editor that we are submitting to. I would think it would be professional courtesy to answer agents even if such a policy exists regarding the general public.
I work for my clients by definition, however, initially it is more like I work for the editors that I interface with. I’m trying to find something that they might be looking for, something that fits that catalog spot that they are trying to fill. Once a potential fit is determined, then I am all about representing my client from that point forward.

If I get no response, or just a “not for us” that doesn’t give me any information that will allow me to do a better job of finding what that editor might or might not like. Fortunately most of the editors that I work with are great about this and they give me input that will help me help them. That’s why I work as many conferences as I do, to try and establish relationships with them and I count a lot of them as good friends by this point.

As I said, I really do get it, I just think instead of saving themselves work, those who adopt this policy are creating work for themselves by including the professionals as we continue to try and find out what works instead of better targeting our efforts.