Carol Raj – author of The Curious Prayer Life Of Muriel Smith

I decided to become a writer in second grade, wrote my first novel in sixth grade, and hoped to make a living at it. A good living. But life kept interfering. Jobs, marriage, children.             Over the years, I sold a few articles to various magazines and started selling…

I decided to become a writer in second grade, wrote my first novel in sixth grade, and hoped to make a living at it. A good living. But life kept interfering. Jobs, marriage, children.

            Over the years, I sold a few articles to various magazines and started selling one or two short stories every year to one particular children’s magazine. But no book publisher wanted the manuscripts I sent out. Discouragement set in. Was it time to quit?

            Because I worked at a school, I asked God to guide me at the start of one summer vacation. If I hadn’t sold anything by Labor Day, I would give up writing altogether. Scrap the years I’d wasted. More on to an easier line of endeavor. It was my Gideon’s fleece.

But that Gideon’s fleece was too easy. I upped the ante. I had no submissions out when I asked direction. I would send out nothing the rest of the summer. Not one poem, not one article, not one story. Not even a letter to an editor.

            The summer progressed and every day I felt more liberated from what seemed like an obsession. Then, two days before Labor Day, a contract came in the mail from the children’s magazine I had sold several stories to. They wanted to reprint a story they had published a few years before. Would I please sign the enclosed contract so they could send me a check?

            That magazine has never before or since asked to reprint one of my stories.

            Thank You, Lord.

            Some people might say a Gideon’s fleece is of no more significance than flipping a coin. They don’t realize the extent God is involved in our lives. James 1:3 says if we ask for wisdom, God will give it. And Proverbs 16:33 says “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”

            So I keep on writing.

Carol Raj

 

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September Kindle Monthly Deals

September Kindle Monthly Deals

We're back! Pelican Book Group has more books selected by Amazon to be included in Kindle Deals, just like last month! All books listed in this post will be on sale for the whole month of September for only $1.99! A Time for Singing by James, Carol All or Nothing...

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