Looking Ahead to 2026

Every January, I like to look ahead to the new year and post what writing activities I have to look forward to. Because I have a couple of surgeries coming up, this year they will be previewed as I look ahead too. 

January: 

*An article I wrote will appear in Home Life (a LifeWay publication.) 

* Devotion on Arise Daily

* I will have knuckle joint replacement surgery on either the 8th or the 29th. I am currently on the schedule for the 29th but my doctor is going to try to move things around so I can have it on the 8th. I won't know which date my surgery if on until I go in for my pre-op on the 5th. This will be my fourth knuckle replacement. Arthritis has hit my hands hard. 

* Other things of note in the writing world in January: SCWC Notable Book Awards finalists are announced on 1/19.

March: 

*I will have a total knee replacement on 3/6. This is my 2nd (and last) knee replacement. I had the other knee replaced in '24 and now know just how hard a recovery I am in for. 

*Also, 3/20-3/21 is the MidSouth Christian Writer's Conference in Memphis. I am on the MSCWC planning committee and serve on the faculty selection committee every year. I hate to miss this year's conference but will not be able to go because of the knee surgery. 

May: 

* The EPA convention is in Nashville this year 5/10-5/13. I 'm hoping to attend depending on how my knee surgery recovery goes. 

Summer '26: 

*A book I contributed to titled, "God's Perfect Moment" published by Guidepost will release.

*An article I wrote is contracted to be published in Bible Advocate sometime in the summer too.

Fall '26: 

Ten devotions I wrote will appear in Open Windows (Lifeway) 

Other Things:

The above are all that I know are for certain happening in the months ahead but there are many other writing related things that keep me busy. Every month I attend a meeting of the KY ACFW as well as a zoom meeting of the EPA Freelancers. At one of those ACFW meetings, I will be teaching on writer's rights but I don't know exactly which one yet. As soon as the MSCWC is over, my faculty committee will start working on the faculty for '27, every month I have a devo in Arise Daily and every week I post a devotional thought on my FB author page. In addition, I have completed a fiction manuscript that I am currently pitching to publishers and hope to be able to report a contract on it in the not-so-distant future and as soon as that book is contracted, I will need to buckle down and write its sequel which has less than 20,000 words written in it right now. And I am always writing, and submitting freelance work, Last year, for instance, at this time I only knew of one Chichen Soup book that one of my stories would appear in but by the end of '25 I had had three CS books with stories in them. The same can be said for articles in "The Lutheran Digest."

Writing related tasks keep me busy but I absolutely love doing them! Blessings to you and yours in 2026. 

The Long and Short of It

 

What is my most memorable experience in Christian writing?

Two come to my mind and together they taught me a lesson. These two constitute the quickest acceptance, I ever received from a magazine editor and the slowest. The slow one ended up getting picked up by a secular magazine, so in terms of experiences in Christian writing, I guess I haven’t received a “yes” on it yet.

“Mom, I’m pregnant. I’ve made one mistake but I’m not going to make more. I am not going to marry the father, at least not yet, and I’m not going to abort my child.” This is how the fastest acceptance article began.

My daughter, a sophomore in college on a volleyball scholarship at a Christian college, woke me with a late-night phone call with these words. The article went on to share her story, a story of bravery in the face of adversity and shame. With me beside her, supporting her, my brave daughter explained her situation to the dean of students at her school. I will always remember how this woman responded. After saying my daughter would not be expelled, she said, “At this school we do not believe in premarital sex, but we are pro-life. And to be prolife, you have to be pro-unwed mothers because they are the ones who abort most often.”

My daughter chose to come home anyway and continued studying at a different school while living at home. She gave up her starting position on the volleyball team and faced personal embarrassment and judgement from others because she knew the life growing inside her was created by God and precious.

My grandson was born six weeks early. Both she and the baby became septic and nearly died. By God’s grace they both made full recoveries. A few weeks after the baby was born, I overheard her on the phone discussing abortion with a friend. She said, “Don’t talk to me about abortion. My baby was born at a gestational age when babies are still aborted. While others are killing their babies, I did everything I could to save mine. I gave up college life, volleyball, was sick the entire pregnancy, and both he and I nearly died afterwards. I know how precious life is!”

How I admired my brave little girl and oh how I love my grandchild. I asked her if I could write her story and she eagerly agreed. I titled it, “And Baby Makes Two; a Profile in Courage”. One morning I sat at my laptop and submitted it to a pro-life magazine. In less than thirty minutes I got a return email from the editor wanting to publish it. I went cold thinking this story would actually be made public. Did I really want this level of transparency for my daughter and my family?

Just then, my daughter came downstairs to the kitchen where I was and started pouring herself orange juice. I sheepishly told her I had just sold her story. I told her it wasn’t too late to change our minds. I could email the editor back and say on second thought we don’t want it published. She grinned from ear to ear and enthusiastically gave her permission once again. 

This story has been sold and resold many times. It is my most widely read article because of how many times it has sold but most importantly, it has blessed the lives of countless thousands. 

The slowest acceptance, on the other hand, is a short memoir I once wrote about my high school football team’s Cinderella run to a state championship. It’s a great story, sort in the “Hoosiers” vein. In fact, I think the story of that school and that year would make a great family-oriented high school sports film. It’s a treasured memory for me because I was a senior and a cheerleader that year.

That article sat unpublished for over four years. I submitted it many times but kept getting rejections. I realize it’s more of a human-interest story than one with a strong Christian message, but don’t Christians enjoy heartwarming human-interest stories too? Finally, it was picked up by a regional magazine with a large circulation and had a wonderful three-page spread with pictures. I was thrilled with the final result.

And my take-away from these two experiences? Like they used to say in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, “keep on keeping on”. Success in writing may come quickly or at a turtle’s pace, but if it’s your passion, keep learning the craft, keep writing what is on your heart, and keep submitting, however long or short it may take to reach your goal. 

 

The Inside Story

I thought I'd share some information that mostly only book authors know. I'll give you an inside look at general things an author deals with and my writing life, specifically.

Author Central: If a person has books listed for sale on Amazon, he or she has access to a web page called Author Central. This page lists all books by the author and shows sales of the books (both paperback and ebook) via a graph. The author has some responsibility on setting this page up. For instance, she links all of her books to the page when she adds them to her public Amazon author page.

There are options on this page as to some books, such as anthologies to which  the author has contributed. I have contributed to three Chicken Soup for the Soul books but I do not choose to link them to my page. I have seen where other authors have. I have several reasons for not linking them: 1) their sales do not generate any additional revenue to me. (I was paid a one-time fee of $200 by Chicken Soup for the use of my story.) 2) I am one of 101 other writers in the books, and 3) I have a growing number of other books that I have either fully written or co-written with only one other author and I would rather direct traffic.

The Author Central page shows individual sales ranks of the various books, information that is also posted on the books themselves when people search for them on Amazon but it has an author rank, too, which only the author can see. For the past year I have averaged around the 200,000 rank out of millions of authors on Amazon. This rank goes up and down daily with sales or the lack of them. The highest I have ever hit was close to 15,000.

Reviews: Book Reviews posted on Amazon are so important to authors! The more reviews a book has the more exposure Amazon will give it. This is especially true if the book has 50 or more. I am always begging people to leave reviews of my books. It is such a simple thing to do but people seem to have a real resistance to it. There are ways to get reviews. Amazon does not allow a person to pay for a review but they do allow an author to pay for a blog tour where the bloggers signed up to participate agree to review the book. I have never participated in a blog tour but am scheduled for my first one in December after the prayer anthology is released. This is a book I am super excited about and am willing to pay for the blog tour in exchange for the exposure the tour will give it.

Social Media: There are numerous social media outlits that authors can participate in to help get exposure for their books. At this time, I have only a Facebook author page. My page currently has 387 "likes" but every one is what is known as an organic like, which means, again, I did not pay to get new likes on my page. Everyone who has liked it has chosen to like it. I probably will not pay to gain new likes because though it might look better to the public (as though my page is more popular than it really is) the people who really notice anything I put on that page will likely only be the organic "likes" anyway and the purpose of my page is not to impress, but to share with my readers.

And finally …
There are so many other writing related things I could share and may overtime, but to keep the blog post from being too long, I will stop with these except to tell you my best-selling book so far, a question I am often asked. Drum roll please …
My best-selling book, so far, is my first book, "Prayer: It's Not About You." This book has been sold in groups many times, however, when church groups and community groups choose to study it in their group Bible studies and I'm sure that helps in the over-all number that has been sold to date. My other books are also selling well, for which I am glad. Here's a link to my author page where my books can be found: Harriet;s Amazon Page
 

Change of Plans

Well, things don't always work out the way we think. That has proven to be true with the book, "A Stand for Truth" that my husband and I co-wrote.

We did receive that long-awaited contract from Founders Press but it differed from what he had discussed on the phone, several weeks earlier, in ways that we simply could not agree with. We had discussed a royalty percentage but the contract offered an honorarium instead. Though it was significant, it was less than we would have received in a royalty percentage if all the books in the first printing sold. We preferred the royalty, but this was not a deal breaker. The deal breaker came in the way the contract dealt with the book's copyright.

Contrary to what we had agreed upon on the phone, the contract stated that we would assign the copyright over to them "completely and forever". We just could not agree to this, no matter how nice the honorarium offer. So, we declined it and are now back to square one.

We are pursuing other publishers and waiting to see what doors God opens.

In the meantime, I'm staying quite busy. My friend and co-writer in the devotional books and I have completed the 2nd manuscript of the 5-book contract and sent it off to Pix-N-Pens, our publisher. Now, on to writing the 3rd! My summer has also been filled with editing, editing, and editing. We have so many books in various stages of publishing and they all require several rounds of edits. We are mostly caught up until next spring but still have galley edits on the anthology to go.

We have two books releasing this fall. "Glimpses of the Savior" is set to be re-released Sept 4. It has been updated and will have 50 devotions instead of 30. And the anthology, "Prayer Warrior Confessions" is set to be released in late fall, probably early November.

School has started up again, so my work as a substitute will resume and my youngest child will be heading off to college again. I have enjoyed the happy summer days but am about ready for the temperatures to move down and the leaves to start showing off their fall colors.

Sitting on Go

I have been waiting to write another post because my husband and I are expecting a contract on our book, "A Stand for Truth" any day. I had thought I would just wait and post signing pictures. But since that contract has not arrived in our inbox yet, I will go ahead and bring everyone up to speed on things in my writing world.

Founders Press has picked up "A Stand for Truth" and will be sending that publishing contract any time now. They called us a few weeks ago and let us know of their decision to publish it and said they will send that (long-awaited / so happy to finally have coming) contract in a few weeks. I will post those pictures when it happens. We are excited and happy this book has found a home! They said they are hoping for a spring 2019 release. In the meantime, we are working on some edits to it and on gathering endorsements for it, so that when they are ready to receive our final manuscript, we will have it in the best shape we can. (It will still go through several rounds of edits by them, though.)

So, with regards to that book, we are sitting on go, ready and waiting to sign that contract. Meanwhile, the rest of my writing world is hopping as always. My PNP co-writer and I just finished reading and approving 1st edits on two books that will release soon, one in early fall, and the other in late fall. We have a 3rd manuscript almost ready to send to our publisher and things look good for meeting that late Aug deadline, and we have started writing on the 4th manuscript which is due to our publisher next February. This leaves us two that are not even started yet, but we have plenty of time and are actually ahead of the game right now.

And I keep busy in other adventures too … maybe too busy. I am teaching a breakout session on missions next week at Women's Advance, a large, local women's conference, and staying as busy as ever freelancing, currently under a deadline for a few articles for SEEK and have some ideas floating around in my head for a couple other magazines. And I keep mentoring, something that brings me great joy! I just had the joy of reading and tweaking a delightful short book that a friend is self-publishing through Lulu.

Who said summer was a slow time of year?

Still Waiting

Today is the middle of April and here in Louisville, it is snowing outside, again. Snow! Will spring ever get here? I saw a funny post from a friend saying that this year we are experiencing spring by faith, not by sight.

And so we wait ...

We wait, fully believing that warm weather will actually arrive at some point. Gardens will grow again, people will enjoy outside activities again, and we will feel sunshine spilling over our sun-screened shoulders again.

I am also still waiting on word about the book my husband and I wrote called "A Stand for Truth", from that publishing company that does not seem to be in any hurry to communicate with us as to the status of the manuscript they have been reviewing since last November. We have heard in a round about way that they are quite interested and likely to send the long-awaited contract. If and when they do, I will post it here in a very happy, very excited post. :)

In the meantime, I keep on writing. Currently, I had a devotion that appeared in The Secret Place last Saturday, articles in SEEK in Feb, March, and again in June, a "Truth Pursuer" article in the current issue of Clubhouse Magazine, a couple of pieces in "War Cry" sometime this spring, and just received contracts from Purpose Magazine, SEEK, and Power for Living for articles that will appear in the fall and winter.

I juggle that freelancing with time spent working on the devotional books I'm co-writing with my friend. These will be released over the next couple of years.

This fall, PNP will re-release "Glimpses of the Savior" a holiday devotional, and release "Prayer Warrior Confessions" an anthology. Cover reveals for those will be coming sometime in the summer and fall. Next year they will release two of the Glimpses of God devotionals and the final two will come in 2020. These four will each have 50 devotions and will be for one of the four seasons, winter, spring, summer, and fall. So, I have plenty to keep me busy even without all that will need to be done if/ when we finally get a contract on "A Stand for Truth."

But I sure would love to hear from the publishing company. I can just picture it, I'm sitting outside in the warm sunshine checking my phone when that news comes in.

I like dreaming.

Learning Patience

George Orwell is quoted as saying, “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

This quote has always made me laugh because it strikes a chord with me. As an author / freelance writer I can relate to feeling driven to write. I laugh at myself because I find I am always giving myself a writing assignment just like a teacher would require of a student. Some of these assignments are short and I can complete them quickly and reap the satisfaction of seeing them published in some form but others take much longer. 

Prayer: It's Not About You took four years to write and about another five to get published, though some of my books have taken less time to write. But one that I co-wrote with my husband, tentatively named, "A Stand for Truth", about his time as a trustee at Southern Seminary, wins the award for taking the longest! 

It took us at least seven years to write and we have yet to secure a publisher, though we are close. We submitted it to a traditional, well respected, Christian publisher, in November who seemed eager to take a look at it. But we have yet to hear anything final from them, though a few days ago, a fascinating chance encounter revealed new information that gives us reason to be very optimistic that we should hear sooner rather than later. I will certainly keep everyone posted as soon as I know anything for sure. In the meantime, I am learning yet another lesson in patience as I wake up every morning thinking, "Maybe today we will get that book contract."

...something I have done nearly every day since the first of the year. :) 

                                                

The Publishing Process

Last week I was snowed in as jaw-droppingly low temps, snow, and ice gripped much of the nation. This week is much better and I'm loving it. Having spent my first decade in Africa, I'm still not used to cold weather, though I do think it's beautiful. The picture is of my back yard, early in the morning as the sun came up over the snow.

In my writing world, though, things are heating up. I've had developments on two different fronts and it makes for the perfect time to share a little about the process involved in book publishing.

There are actually different ways to get a book published. An author can self-publish, also known as independent publishing, or she can be published through a traditional publisher, either via small press or larger press. If traditionally published, the author does not pay anything involved in the publishing of her books and splits the royalties with the publisher. (If indie published, they absorb all costs but do not split commissions.) If traditionally published, usually small press books do not end up on shelves in book stores while larger press books do. Both can be ordered online.

I am contracted with a small press, PixNPens, a company based in Texas. PNP is the nonfiction arm of Write Integrity Press. They have published two of my books, Prayer: It's Not About You and Glimpses of Prayer and they have plans to publish more. Several of these books are and will be co-written by my childhood friend, Shirley Crowder. In that part of my writing world, things are going well and we just sent our latest manuscript to them. They will put it on their publishing schedule, will edit it, format it, and eventually publish it sometime next fall.

I also have a manuscript I co-wrote with my husband that is currently being considered by a larger traditional company. It's hard to get in the door of larger publishing companies. Usually it takes an agent. In our case, a friend connected us with a man who had been an agent but is no longer one. Nonetheless, after reading the manuscript, he agreed to help us and made the contact with the company that is currently considering it. That company, who will remain unnamed at this point, has had our manuscript since Nov. 1. We heard from them yesterday saying they are still considering it and are currently doing some market research. They also said asked if we would willing to reduce its length if their publication committee gives a favorable response. Of course, we said yes! At this point we're still in a waiting game on that manuscript.

So, there's a snapshot of some of the many things that go into getting a book published. It involves so much--getting a contract from the traditional publishing company, whether large or small press, writing and turning in the completed manuscript, then months of work on the part of the publisher before the book is finally released and ready for sale.

Welcome 2018!

I love the look of fresh fallen snow ... as long as I am safely inside a warm house when I'm looking at it. Growing up in Africa, snow took some getting used to but I have grown to love it (as long as I don't have to drive in it.)

As a writer, seeing a scene like this pulls at me the way a blank page does--it almost begs for me to venture out there and leave my mark.

2017 was a busy year for my writing endeavors and 2018 looks to be just as busy. Here's what it looks like so far:

Magazines:
I have three articles coming out it "The War Cry" (Salvation Army's magazine) in 2018, the first being in January. I will author articles in several issues of SEEK in 2018, and The Secret Place, and those are the ones I have already been contracted for. Hopefully there will be others too.

Blogs:
Along with keeping up two blogs of my own, I will be guest blogging on Inspired Prompts Blog, as well as occasionally contributing to my publisher's blog: Write Integrity Press

Books:
I will have at least one new book released in 2018--an anthology compiled by my friend Shirley Crowder and me. I will say more about that in the days to come. At the moment we are working feverishly to have the finished manuscript to our publisher by mid-Feb. We are hoping for a summer release. Shirley and I are also working on some other book ideas and hope to make more announcements in the days to come about those. And a manuscript I co-wrote with my husband is currently under consideration by an large, traditional, press. I will share more about that if and when we know more. For now suffice it to say that this is a book we have poured our hearts and lives into and we covet your prayers that God will see us through the publishing process and land it with the right publisher.

Teaching/ Speaking:
I am excited to have been asked to teach two workshops at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference in June. Though that seems like a long time away, the committee has been working hard for some time to put together a great conference and I am humbled and honored to have been asked serve on the faculty this year.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. (I realize, as I write this, that the calendar still says October and we haven't even had Halloween yet. But I don't celebrate Halloween and the weather here has turned much colder, so I'm in the mood for Thanksgiving.)

What am I thankful for this year? In particular, what about my writing journey do I have to be thankful for? 

The answer to that is myriad. The ability to write is a gift God gave me which I enjoy "playing" with daily. I told God once that I feel like a child whose Father gave her the greatest gift ever and she loves to take it out and play with it every chance she has. And I play with it in so many ways--writing blog posts, articles, devotions, and books (both fiction and nonfiction).

Currently, I am juggling many things, as usual. I have magazine articles coming out in the next few months in "War Cry" and "Seek", devotions coming out in "Reflections" (7 days of devos) and "The Secret Place" (both fall and winter issues), more themes lists I am perusing, writing, and submitting to, and three books I am juggling. One of the books (a devotional I co-wrote) will be released by PNP in Dec, another (an anthology I am compiling & writing many stories for) will be released from PNP next summer, (that manuscript is due to my publisher in mid-Feb) and we are still looking for a publisher for a completed nonfiction I co-wrote with my husband. I also just submitted proposals for two more books. Whew!

But right now, I have something else I am rejoicing over. Several people I have mentored or helped in some way have seen their work contracted in just the last few months! This warms my heart like nothing else! One has her first published devotion coming out in the winter issue of The Secret Place, another has been notified that his devotion is being held by The Upper Room, a third just received his first contract from SEEK, and a fourth also just got a contract from SEEK, though not his first (I started helping him a few years ago. He also just recently had a story published in Chicken Soup for the Soul that I helped him tweak and submit.)

That makes me happiest of all!   

Writing Quotes

A lot of people like to collect things--I collect quotes. Here are a few for the writers out there:

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” --Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”  --George Orwell, “Why I Write”, 1947

"Success comes to a writer, as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed." --P.G. Wodehouse


“Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with him.” --Mel Brooks


“That’s what we story tellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.”  --Walt Disney character in the movie, “Saving Mr. Banks”


"...once I began writing, it became clear to me: This is not a foreign language; this is my native tongue." --Elizabeth Gilbert 


"...don't demand that your art supports your life. Instead, make a promise that your life will always support your art." --Elizabeth Gilbert 

Book Excerpt

This week saw the first day of autumn. How could it be fall already? Time has a way of flying by. I have stayed busy trying to get two books launched as well as continuing to write short pieces. One of the books that will soon be released is a short, seasonal devotional book I co-wrote with a friend I grew up with on the mission field. This is an ex co-wrote with a friend I grew up with on the mission field. Here is an excerpt from that book. 

Life’s Ripples

Read: Psalm 74:13-17 

The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.

Psalm 74:16-17 (NIV)

Autumn was once an enigma to me. As a little girl growing up beneath the hot tropical sun, I had no memory of autumn. Oh, I had experienced it when my parents were in America on furlough but I was too young to really remember what it was like. 

Nonetheless, even in tropical Nigeria, I learned to love the autumn season. Why did I love it as a child when I had not experienced it? Where did I get my love for this season of cooler weather, colorful scenery, scurrying squirrels, crunchy leaves, and frosty mornings? I think the credit goes to a missionary aunt who taught my school—my Aunt Lil Wasson.   

Because she had a teaching degree and several children of her own in need of an education, Aunt Lil bravely took on the job of elementary school teacher to all the missionary kids on the compound. Ogbomoso, the Nigerian town where we lived, had both a hospital and seminary with about a half a dozen missionary families working in each. All together these missionaries had at least a dozen or more elementary age children depending on who was on furlough in any given year. Aunt Lil taught all of us in her garage which had been made into a one-room school house. She was a brave woman, indeed.  

Aunt Lil loved autumn. She grew up in Arkansas where trees are abundant and autumns are glorious. Nigeria had only two seasons. Half the year it rained some everyday and the other half it did not rain at all. America’s autumn months fell at the end of rainy season.

Aunt Lil always decorated her schoolroom with pictures representative of autumn and had her American citizen students learn about their homeland. I can still remember sitting in her garage classroom looking at the decorations all around me—bright orange pumpkins, brown squirrels, and trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves.    

She had a large poster-size picture of Jack Frost painting a leaf with an artist palette of fall colors which always intrigued me. One hand held the palette and the other held a paintbrush. Of course, we all knew Jack Frost was not real, but my imagination went wild just the same with thoughts of a magical place where the world turned bright with colors, where shiny, frosty crystals formed on the ground, and a little elf painted the leaves when children were not looking.  

Today, I thank God for my missionary aunt’s enthusiasm over the world He made, both tropical and temperate. And I realize how everything people do can have a lasting ripple effect on those around them.