Anyway, my calendar was clear and lucky for me just the day before a message had come through my email notifying me of a writer's group meeting not too far from my home. I was totally excited! First you have to understand that every other writer's group that I know of meets on the 2nd Saturday of the month. One of the first that joined, Motown Writer's Network, meets at 10am and the other, The Called and Ready Writers meets 1pm and the last one, The Detroit Writer's Guild meets at noon. Seriously??? A writer shouldn't have to choose. I'd love to attend all of these meetings but that just wasn't possible. Second Saturday is also the day off my sorority meeting. I don't always make it to that either, but you can understand how overwhelming it could be knowing all of that is happening on the same day.
So, yes, I was excited that the Lord orchestrated a way for me to network with a group of writers. It may not be on my vision board for 2016 but the desire to meet with other writers on a regular basis has been in my heart. Networking and getting and giving support to and from other writers is a piece of the puzzle to a writer's success. Writing may be a solitary activity but the support and encouragement of other writers is a key component in most writers' success. And I want mine!
Scribes for Christ is a group of writers who right for the lifting up and glorifying of God. The group meets at Greater Grace Temple, a humongous house of God, which boasts a membership in the thousands! I'm just glad that it was on my side of town and didn't require me to drive to downtown Detroit where I have to drive everyday for work--a hindrance to me attending the Motown Writers Network meetings.
My current book projects are not Christian in nature, but with the start of my very first book, over 10 years ago, God was whispering in my ear about my responsibility to write for Him. I'm ready to be obedient to that call.
I arrived at the meeting about 10 mins late--I recently added a clock to my vision board to represent timeliness in all things. A powerful prayer was being led by an apparent prayer warrior. God's annointing was called into the place. and then the meeting was called to order. I'm glad that I've been involved in enough writers' functions that I wasn't a total stranger to the proceedings of the meeting. Nevertheless, as I was driving to the meeting I experienced a similar nervousness that was present when I attended my very first writers' meeting back in 2004 or 2005. Plus, there were a couple of familiar faces. One, in fact, a writer/professional editor that I'd been intending to reconnect with for a mentor/mentee, friendship relationship. God was aware of this desire too!
Prayer was the first distinction that I'd noticed with this group but that was expected--Scribes for Christ. However, the next distinction was not.
Writing exercises. Group Exercises.
"You mean we're not just going to listen to a speaker talk about a certain topic with the opportunity to ask questions?" I thought to myself.
"Uh-oh. This meeting was going to pull me out of my comfort zone in more than one way." But I was excited!
By the time I left that meeting, I'd written a vision of who L.A. Jefferson was 5 yrs from now, which included millions of books sold across the country and beyond, books translated into multiple languages, movie options, Oprah book club selection, and a nationally syndicated column.
Oh yes! I was blessed during that meeting and left it knowing that I would be back!
Of course I went home fired up to write. It may have taken me all day to do it in between housecleaning, preparing dinner, and entertaining my 5 yr old niece who insisted on wrapping me up like a present and painting each other's nails, but I composed one blog posts for the upcoming week and started on a few more in my head.
Til next time...
Author L.A.
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