Writing Opportunity _ Life Changing Miracles

Life Changing Miracles: True Stories of How God Miraculously Transforms Lives

The editor emailed to say stories are due by August 15, 2016. Send submissions to email address below. Do not reply to this email. From James Stuart Bell: You may recall my role as editor for story collections such as: A Cup of Comfort, Extraordinary Answers to Prayer, Love is a Verb, and a number of books related toAngels, Miracles, and Heavenly Encounters.  I am now compiling a story volume for Bethany House Publishers with a working title of Life-Changing Miracles: True Stories of How God Miraculously Transforms Lives.    In the past five “supernatural story” volumes I have compiled, the focus has been on events and circumstances that had a supernatural element demonstrating God’s power.  In this volume I want you, the writer, to share how supernatural encounters brought you as an individual into a state of freedom from past sins of many kinds to walking in the grace and power of God.  In other words, how did a supernatural experience transform you into a new person conformed to the image of Christ?   We would like the reader to see “walking miracles”—people who have a new strength to follow God’s will and overcome the aspects of their old nature that were holding them back from receiving all of God’s blessings.   We’ll consider original, unpublished stories of up to 2,000 words and they must be at least 1,000 words.  The stories should have a creative title, an attention-grabbing introduction, main body with a conflict or challenge, and a clear, satisfying resolution.  They need to be descriptive, rooted in time and place, with a realistic portrayal of the characters involved.   They also need to be substantive stories rather than mere testimonies or teachings, and the focus should not be just on the supernatural realm alone, but rather the spiritual lesson learned.  Please include a personal biography of 30 words or less at the end of each manuscript.    Stories are due by August 15, 2015. Please send your manuscript attached to the e-mail rather than pasting text in the email window.  Send your manuscript in normal manuscript formatting in Times New Roman, 12-point, with your full contact information--name, address, phone number, and e-mail address at the top of the first page.  We are offering a one-time fee of $50 for stories 1,500 words and over, and $25 for stories under that word count.                              We will send you contracts upon the publisher’s acceptance and would need them back promptly.  Payment will be made after all contracts have been received.  Please direct all inquiries and manuscript submissions to my colleague, Jeanette Littleton, at supernaturalstories2@earthlink.net.  If this e-mail has been forwarded to you, and you can’t submit to this call, but would like to hear about other editorial needs as they arise, please send us your e-mail address and we’ll add you to our notification list.   Blessings to you and yours,   James Stuart Bell

Meeting this Saturday

Don't miss our last meeting of the season!

Saturday, June 4, 10 am to noon

High Mountain Church of the Nazarene

Come prepared to share your summer writing goals -

and if you don't have any, we'll help you set some!

Also share the writing challenges you face and a growth plan.

If you bring work to critique, please follow the instructions on our website.

See you Saturday, as we encourage each other to "Write for Him",

Barbara

barbarahigbyhope.com

Last month's Focus Point:

Our Best Effort

In Matthew 25, we find a man who is about to leave on a journey. In preparation for his absence, he gathers his servants & entrusts his property to them. To one, he gave five talents, to the next two talents, and to the last, one talent.

When their master leaves, the first two servants invested their talents. The third one played it safe; he buried his talent because he was afraid to use it.

The returning master was pleased with the servants who invested their talents, but disappointed and even angry with the one who buried his talent.

These are his concluding words: “Everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.” In other words, those who use what they’ve been given will receive more, to the point of abundance.

This parable underscores that what we are given is an entrustment from God and His expectation is not that we merely protect our gifts, but increase them through investment. That is the goal of NJCWG - to give us an opportunity to invest in and thereby increase our gift of writing.

It is not enough for us to write raw, without honing, editing, and improving our work. As we cultivate our talent, we multiply its value and extend its effectiveness. Like the servants in the parable who invested their talents, we increase our talents’ worth through investment.

To that end, we meet with our writing group; we allow our work to be critiqued; we edit and edit again; we attend writing conferences and webinars; we subscribe to writing blogs; we read about writing and we study techniques.

Let’s be encouraged to learn and grow, spending time and effort to increase our talents.

Next month we will share three things for the summer: our goals, our challenges to writing, and a growth plan. What one investment can you make to multiply your talents?

Take away thought: My talent is a gift to nurture and develop because, as a servant of the Lord, He has entrusted me with the gift of writing.