• WAMs Writing Devotions
• Progress Report on Devotion Book
• Writing Festival at Luther College
• Remembering Jim Tozer
• Seminar 2007: Say the Word
• A Mother-Daughter Adventure
• WAMs Win Contests
• Academy News Briefs

WAMs Writing Devotions

The book--called Daily Devotions for Writers: By Members of The Writing Academy and other Christian writers--will be available in time for Writer's Weekend in 2008, the Academy's 30th anniversary. A foundation managed by Cecil Murphey contributed the money for publishing fees. Cover art is being designed by Mary Koepke and her daughter ChrisAnn Goossen.

How did this project come together so incredibly fast? Read the special report by Patricia Lorenz below. . . .

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Progress Report on Devotion Book

How to Birth a Book in 90 Days
Thanks to Email

A Special Report by Patricia Lorenz

One of my goals when I accepted the Daily Devotions for Writers book project as my first pro bono writing activity was to show the WAMS just how it was possible to get a book organized and off to a publisher in, hopefully, 6-8 months time. Little did I know that we could pull it off in just 90 days. But now you know. It can be done. And you, too, can do it. You can write your own books, perhaps even an anthology like Daily Devotions for Writers.

How did we do it in three months? E-mail, pure and simple, that’s how. Let me tell you…without e-mail, this book would have taken years to put together. When it comes right down to it, e-mail did 90% of the real work of putting this book together. It just takes a reasonably-new computer (less than four years old, I’d say) to pull it off.

1. The guidelines I wrote and e-mailed to the WAMS and to all my writing acquaintances spread like wildfire, thanks to e-mail. Writers e-mailed their other writer friends and those friends e-mailed their entire writer’s groups, clubs, organizations. Exponentially, we practically covered the world in a few weeks, all because of e-mail.
2. Nearly three hundred writers actually responded with devotions. (So imagine how many people read the guidelines!) A third of those had to be put in the “thanks but no thanks” e-mail file folder because the quality of the devotions simply wasn’t good enough for this book. We do have our standards, after all.
3. After a few e-mails back and forth to each of the 198 contributing writers making rewrite suggestions, I simply cut-and-pasted the finished product into the book and then did my own editing work on it. Oh how I love the cut-and-paste feature on the computer.

The first week of working on this project I typed the 366 dates at the top of each page in the book which was done in WORD, of course. Then, after I accepted a devotion, I placed it in one of the empty pages. I simply cut-and-pasted each one to fill up the pages, making sure that writers who had more than one devotion were scattered throughout the book and not clumped up in one month. I kept track of that in a spiral notebook (the only thing that wasn’t done on the computer.) Then, the serious editing began, as well as the work on the 40-50 word bio’s at the end of the book.

Here are the actual stats for our book Daily Devotions for Writers.

1750 = The number of e-mails in my sent folder that I wrote to the 198 writers during this three-month process. That’s an average of almost nine e-mails per person. How many did you receive from me during the past three months? Hmmmm? Now you know why they were short and sweet.

106 = The number of e-mails in my rejections folder.

1184 = The number of e-mails in my Writing Academy Book folder, e-mails received from the writers during this process.

98 = The number of days from start to finish before I turned the book over to Melanie Rigney for her final editing and formatting for the publisher. August 7 thru November 15th, 2007.

90 = The number of days that I actually worked on this project before turning it over to Melanie. (I missed eight days when I was out of state.)

It’s amazing, that we did this book in 90 days. Remember when “around the world in 90 days" was a big deal? I bet you never dreamed The Writing Academy could do an entire book in 90 days, did you? I know I didn’t. My faith has been boosted by this project you can be sure. And for that I thank you from the bottom of my e-mail inbox.

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Writing Festival at Luther College

Margaret Garrison and Chris and Dick Hefte of the Writing Academy attended the Festival of Writing at Luther College, the weekend of November 4th -- 6th. The theme was "Called to Create," and the conference featured writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry who have been shaped by the Lutheran tradition, including Gracia Grindal, Marilyn Nelson, Heidi Newmark, and Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Writing Academy members were introduced to Walt Wangerin in 1980 when he was keynote speaker at our conference, the same year he won the National Book Award for The Book of the Dun Cow. He returned in 1986 and again for our 25th anniversary celebration in 2003. Margaret said that Walter "paced the stage like a restless animal, microphone steady in his hand, and delivered a brilliant opening speech that brought the crowd to its feet." Poet and hymn writer Gracia Grindal, another favorite among Academy presenters, last spoke at our conference in 2000. At the Luther College weekend, Gracia gave a message in Chapel.

Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Gracia Grindal

Chris and Margaret enjoyed the conference immensely and hope it will be repeated on a regular basis. Founded in 1861 by Norwegian immigrants, Luther is a liberal arts college located in Decorah, Iowa. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

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Remembering Jim Tozer

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Seminar 2007: Say the Word

Writer's Weekend 2007

We look forward to Writer's Weekend for a whole year, and then it's over too quickly. Seminar 2007 was no exception.

Highlights of the weekend are many. . . .

• Opening night coffee house, with readings from the talented Writing Academy writers
• Patricia Lorenz sharing her yellow shirt story and how it became a publishing phenomenon

• Patricia's keynote address on "The Top Ten Ways to Make Your Writing Life Sizzle"
• Shirley Stevens reading Owl Moon, with sound effects provided by the audience
• Experiencing poems for two voices
• Writing a story in just six words

• Hearing the winning contest entries: 3rd- Mary Koepke, 2nd - Kathy Bolduc; 1st - Margaret Garrison
• Devotions by Kay Clark and music by Margaret Steinacker
• Welcoming new officers: President Lonni Docter; First V-P Kay J. Clark

• Honoring President Emeritus Jerry Elsea with a book of remembrance
• Learning the craft of writing from Patricia Lorenz, Shirley Stevens, Jerry Elsea, Kathy Bolduc, and NancyE James

• Banquet night program of our performance pieces, including Connie Sharlau as Mary Magdalene, Olga Williams as Nehemiah, and the hilarious duo of Mar Korman and Kay Clark as Sarah and Hagar
• The exciting beginning of our new devotion project
• Closing communion led by Pastor Mar Korman

Kay Clark worship leader

Olga Williams former Executive Director

Our thanks to Kathy Bolduc and Bill Menter for providing these pictures of the seminar. If you would like to see more of Kathy's seminar pix, visit this link. You can even order prints.

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A Mother-Daugher Adventure

Under the Tea Leaves

The concept is simple. Sheryl and Sherry visited tea rooms in their home state of Iowa and wrote about the experience and their relationship. Sherry, a latch-key kid, was sent to live with the Van Weeldens the summer before she turned seventeen. Her new parents were busy and involved in church and community, but Sheryl still made time for Sherry. Looking back over the years of their relationship, Sherry says, "I see my mother as a woman of wisdom with her own story, too. Our roles as mother and daugher have seasoned from well-meaning titles to reality as we've grown together."

This is a book for tea lovers. It's a book for mothers and daughters. It's a book for all who like to pause now and then to reflect on the journey of life.

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WAMs Win Contests

Margaret took first place in the Scenic Division Adult category with "Shadowed Dogwoods," a picture of spring blooms in her side yard.

Shadowed Dogwoods

She also took second place in the same category with a picture of Winamac Town Park's View of Tippecanoe River.

Spring's Greenage

Her picture of a bee on a coreopsis took 2nd place in the Wildlife Division Adult.

Bee on Coreopsis

And finally, she won an honorable mention for Princess Spirea.

Princess Sprirea