 |
| Twila Belk, The Gotta Tell Somebody Gal |
Elizabethtown, KY, June 21, 2012. Imagine you are Barbara Wells, coordinator of Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. The keynote speaker, a popular Christian comedienne and author Chonda Pierce, has a family crisis and is forced to cancel. Her mother is hospitalized and not doing well. Chonda's husband, David, was scheduled to lead workshops. He couldn't come, either, because he was in the hospital, too. A conference director's worst nightmare is upon you. What will you do?
Barbara didn't panic. She called Twila
Belk, nationally known speaker-writer, who was
on the conference faculty and in town already. Barbara asked her to
fill in for all three keynote addresses. Twila wanted to pray about
it. Barbara asked, “Well, how long do you think that will take?”
She didn’t have to wait long because Twila rose to the occasion.
The conference director's nightmare became a successful conference in
spite of everything. Jesse
Florea, of Focus on the Family, helped out with
the closing keynote, too. Barbara said she didn't need a backup plan
because God had one already.
KCWC 2012 spanned two-days and included a diverse
faculty with opportunity for workshops, private
appointments, and plenty of networking. Meeting people is as
important as any other activity at conference because you can learn a
lot from the other attendees. Informal discussions with faculty at
meals and breaks give you insights about them and their approach to
publishing. Visiting with other writers helps you realize that we all
face the same challenges.
As for me, I found a critique partner, Harriet
Michael. I've been writing for 12 years, and
she's been at it for three. We both write devotionals and short
pieces, so we have planned to start out with just the two of us and
add others once we get organized. I met Ann
Knowles, a member of a couple of my online
groups, “in the flesh.” I had an appointment with Jim Stafford of
The Upper Room where he critiqued some of my devotionals. I also met
with Twila Belk about my humor piece and sought her opinion on
Blog4Writers.
The conference that might have been a nightmare
for the coordinator was a dream come true for many attendees. Indeed,
the Lord’s purpose prevailed in spite of all the difficulties.
This
article first appeared on Emily Akin's Blog4Writers (information and
inspiration on writing, blogging, marketing). Link
to Blog4Writers and
sign up to get weekly updates by e-mail.
No comments:
Post a Comment