At the Glorieta Christian Writers' Conference in November, I was one of twelve mentors for a class called "Get Published Now." The class is sponsored by CLASServices (who runs the conference) and Essence Publishing. Here's the premise--writers apply for the class, and if they are selected, they meet with mentors (two writers for every mentor) for four days to rework an article that the writer wrote before he or she came to the conference about a preselected theme. In this case, the topic was "true stories of transformation by God's grace."
I spent four days with two writers who were assigned to me and we covered the basics of good writing--showing instead of telling, active voice instead of passive voice, solid structure, believable dialogue, proper sentence structure, staying in the correct person, etc. By the end of the last class, both writers had a finished article which turned out to be a chapter in a book that was scheduled for release by Essence Publishing before Christmas called "When God Steps In." The book contains twenty-four such chapters.
I received a package the other day and as I ripped it open, I became as giddy by what I saw as I do when one of my own books arrives on my doorstep for the first time. It was a copy of "When God Steps In." I quickly turned to the two stories that I helped with and I read them both. I loved seeing how the stories came to life after both women implemented what they learned.
Oddly, the book isn't available on the Essence Bookstore website yet, but if you are interested in getting a copy, you could probably go to their Contact page and give them a call.
