My critique partner, Christina Berry, is on the threshold of selling her first novel--a manuscript she cowrote with her mom.  ON THE THRESHOLD goes to committee tomorrow.  You can join me in praying for the acquisitions meeting to lead to a sale.  And believe me, her work should be published.  

Christina's second novel UNDISCOVERED is a finalist in the Genesis Contest through American Christian Fiction Writers.  This is one author you want to watch out for.  To sign up for her newsletter, go to www.ashberrylane.net.    

I want to be Melody Carlson when I grow up.  She has written over 200 books, from picture books to young adult to chick lit.  I got to take her coaching class at the Oregon Christian Writer's Conference--awesome.  

Melody was so encouraging.  She's even endorsing my novel, Lighten Up, as "Delightful.  Witty.  Funny."  Beats the endorsement I got from Judy Cox for my middle grade novel, The Water Fight Professional: "More fun than licking a slug."  (That's actually a good thing--you have to read the book to understand.)

It's a best-seller.  It's controversial.  It might be a best-seller because it's controversial.  Or maybe people are talking about The Shack by William P. Young because it's changing lives.

I'm not going to tell you about the story.  But I will tell you the story behind the story.  William P. Young was once suicidal.  He went to a counselor named Scott and basically said, "Either you help me out or I'll shoot myself."  William got the help he needed and then wrote The Shack to help his kids.

After The Shack came out, William got a letter from a woman who said, "Thank you for writing The Shack.  It helped me heal after my husband was shot by our son when our son was high on drugs and mistook his father for an undercover cop."  William wrote back to this woman and asked for her phone number because he wanted to call and talk about her husband.  Why?  Because her husband was the counselor who helped him so many years before.

And even crazier...Scott was my marital counselor.  Scott changed my life and now he is changing many more through his influence in The Shack.  

William couldn't bring himself to attend Scott's funeral, but my husband flew back to Portland to attend.  He said there were probably a thousand people there.  Scott was buried in the ground that day, but his legacy lives on.