Milestones

This month I came to a milestone in my life. One that I seriously doubted I'd ever reach, and most certainly not this year. I'm still waiting for the reality of it to descend, and gradually, as July has progressed, it is.

I have an agent.

It still makes me shake my head in wonder because I was on the verge of putting those thoughts off for another year or two. To make it better, I'm especially tickled with who my agent is and how God worked it out.

Last year, when I volunteered to teach a workshop at the Faithwriters conference, I didn't realize I was trading the Faithwriters conference for attending the ACFW conference. It's the way things go though, and I was thrilled to be able to give back to Faithwriters—the place that helped me overcome so much fear, and doubt and taught me so many things about writing. So, I went to the Faithwriters conference and got to room with Linda Glaz, who was there representing Terry Burns of Hartline Literary. She was one of his assistants and was teaching a couple of sessions and fielding pitches for Terry. Linda is a gem. She didn't bat an eyelash at the group she ended up with at Red Robin, and that's saying something because if I remember right, we were all fairly loopy at that point.

I am not a people person. In fact, it's work for me to be with people I don't know well, and conference totally exhausts me, even with some of my best friends being there. By the time it was my turn to pitch to Linda, my brain was... well, it felt like yesterday's oatmeal, and functioned about as well. Ideal for making a professional impression on someone. Not. But Linda didn't choke on my mush-for-brains, she took it in stride, which, now that I know her better doesn't surprise me a bit.

Over the next ten months we kept in touch as we worked together at The Barn Door and in regard to my manuscript as it was volleyed back and forth for changes. The surprising result is that Linda's now my agent. I had no idea things were falling into place for her becoming an agent with Hartline—I didn't even know it was in the works, simply that she was busy working on “some things.” When she emailed me last month it took a bit to sink in. I had to leave the computer, do some work around the house and come back to read the email...about five times because I was so caught off guard and surprised.

I couldn't be happier.
Who better to have in your corner than a friend?

Come back tomorrow for Friendly Friday and meet Linda—my friend, my agent.

10 comments:

  1. Patty, I am so thrilled for you! I know you as woman with a huge heart for God! So while I find this news spectacular, I'm not at all surprised by the way God brought you and Linda together! I SO look forward to holding your book in my hands! Love you!

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  2. YAY!! BOUNCE! BOUNCE! BOUNCE!

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  3. You KNOW how thrilled I am for BOTH of you. What else can I say??? LOVE you!

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  4. I'm so happy for you! Its amazingly fun to see how all the pieces fit together for you.

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  5. So delighted for you, Patty! Sorry I won't get to meet you at the ACFW conference, but glad you attended Faithwriters instead since this was the happy result! Thanks for sharing your story; it's an encouragement. God is good!

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  6. Wow, Patty! No surprise here. Just so happy for you. It's always wonderful to see good things happen to nice ... no, incredibly nice people. And we can say "We knew you when ... "

    Congratulations and God Bless.

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  7. I just saw this when I came to post links to my (late) J post and (even later) I post.

    A HUGE congratulations! (And I relate completely to conferences, even though we love them, being totally exhausting to an introvert personality. I decided to "treat" myself to a room by myself for FW's for that very reason...gives me the alone time I need to recharge! :-))

    I'm so happy for you, and know this is the start of a great author / agent partnership!

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  8. Anonymous8:11 PM

    Awesome!You're an inspiration!

    Dan

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  9. Just read your news on the FaithWriters blog. SO SO SO happy for you!!!

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  10. Congratulations! Hartline is a good agency. Having an agent makes life so much easier.
    Diana
    www.werenotblended.oom

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