Keep Believing

If you've heard me speak about my road to publication, you know I took a looooooong and painful route to my current career as a published author. You've heard me tell about collecting 147 rejection letters (yes - I still have every single one of them!) before my first acceptance. And no doubt you've heard someone ask, "How in the world did you keep going? Why didn't you give up?"

Well, I have to thank God and my mom for that. God, because I was convinced that He gave me the desire to write, and I believe He is a good God who doesn't put desires in our hearts that He doesn't want to fulfill.

Mom, because she believed in me from the very beginning. Seriously. From the very first fictional paragraphs I wrote, Mom was an enthusiastic fan. She believed in me, and in my gift of writing. She entrusted me with her stories, the ones she had dreamed up but never finished. (Read The Days of Noah!) She encouraged me through ever story I wrote, and there were a lot of them. And she refused to give up on my dream of becoming a published author, even when I was ready to throw in the towel.

She once gave me a postcard, one of those long ones that really aren't postcards so much as cardboard placards. I taped it to the wall above my computer monitor where I could see it every time I sat down to write. I can't tell you how many times I looked at that card and thought, "Yes. I can keep going."

I was cleaning out my closet recently and found it. Here it is:

I have just signed the contract for my 35th published novel, and yet, I can still remember the longing and hope I felt when I gazed at that card. 

Thanks, Mom. You believed in me even when I didn't. I owe you so much more than you'll ever know.