At the Glorieta Christian Writers’ Conference in 2003, I met several men who had a profound influence on my entering the field of Christian writing.  The first of these was James Scott Bell. (www.jamesscottbell.com). I ended up in Jim’s class on writing fiction, and found it fascinating.  I’d always been a voracious reader, but had never really thought much about what it takes to put together a plot, bring the characters to life, and convey a message while holding the reader’s attention. Jim ended up becoming a friend and mentor. 

          I also took a class in writing “edgy fiction,” taught by another man who has meant a great deal to me, Alton Gansky (www.altongansky.com). Like Jim Bell, Al introduced me to many of the basics of Christian fiction.  He told us, “Once you try your hand at writing, you’ll never read in the same way again.” And he proved to be right. One of the benefits of the CWC was one-on-one time with writers and editors, and I decided to sign up with Al for some advice on what to do with my non-fiction work.  I still remember his encouraging words: “You know how to put the words together.”  Then he took me across the room, and introduced me to an editor, and the snowball kept rolling. 

          Al introduced me to Gary Terashita, who at that time was with Broadman & Holman.  After determining that B&H wasn’t in the market for the type of non-fiction book I was planning, he and I chatted. Gary’s a big baseball fan, and was interested to discover my baseball background: playing semi-pro, coaching, attending several major league fantasy camps.  He said, “Why don’t you try your hand at a novel? Something combining baseball and medicine. Send me a proposal when you’re done.”  

          Over the next six months, I knocked out a book with the working title of Full Count and sent a proposal to Gary. I was stunned to hear from him in a few weeks. He encouraged me to revise it and make it better, then resubmit it.  That version got all the way to the Publishing Board before it was rejected, but by then I was hooked.  I was so green that I thought that everyone’s first or second draft got that far, and it took me a while to find out how lucky I’d been.  

           I rewrote that first novel about three more times, and at present it is still in the hands of a couple of publishers. I put a lot more time into my second novel, which is being considered by a number of publishers. I’m working on the third. If you’d like to read a sample from my second novel, Caught In The Torrent, click on the link below. 

          Since that first experience, I’ve met lots of the “greats” in Christian fiction, and benefited from their tutelage. Folks like Gayle Roper, Karen Ball, Randy Ingermansen have all helped me along the road.  That’s what’s so nice about this thing called Christian writing.  We are truly brother and sisters, with a common goal, serving our Lord through the written word.

Sample pages from Caught In The Torrent