Leah Abraham

April 9, 2015April 9, 2015

A Letter from FCWC Director

by Cornelia Becker Seigneur

On behalf of the entire Faith & Culture Writers Conference Leadership Team, I want to welcome you to the Expanded 2015 Faith & Culture Writers Conference – Rough Draft: From Blank To Beautiful. Last year you spoke, saying you wanted more time for fellowship and legroom — in short, more breathing space — and we listened. We added our Friday Mini-Retreat experience; we also have Art Stations in McGuire, where you can reflect on the conference visually. In addition, we will have a prayer room available to ponder your creative God-given calling. We truly hope and pray that you find inspiration, courage, and community during your experience with us. We need in-person connection and we intentionally want to be a creative community where everyone belongs and feels as though their story matters. Because it does!

After my life-changing accident in January, this amazing team that I serve alongside continued to move this conference forward, and without them there would be no conference! I am incredibly and humbly grateful for their service and friendship. Bethany Jackson has been so faithful, keeping us on task as our Executive Administrator; Marc Schelske serves as our Scribe and (new!) Launch Coordinator and all-around get-things done guy; Taylor Smith returns as the warm and amazing Communications Coordinator of our speakers (as you all know!); and Brooke Nicole Perry is once again our expert matching attendees with their Agents|Editor|Mentor; a big nod goes to Tony Kriz, one of our visionaries and Advisory Board Members; Leah Abraham, is our awesome Website Administrator; Matthew O’Connell, organizes our Faith & Culture Writing Contest; and Jody Collins, is our Volunteer Coordinator|Administrative Assistant. And, Committee members include: Kim Hunt, social media coordinator, Cayla Pruett and Rachael Metzger, creative space coordinators; Faye Strudler our Prayer Team Coordinator; and Stephen Carter, Writing Contest|Social Media Assistant. And, a huge thank you goes to Bethany Sundstrom-Smith for re-designing our website this year. Be sure to see our “Acknowledgments” page in your folder for complete list of thank you’s. So many folks are making this conference possible. We are also thankful to Warner Pacific College for their hospitality as our sponsoring host. Grace Kim and Melody Burton have made us feel very welcome, as they have worked behind the scenes with logistics and details. Thank you to Mimi Fonseca for coordinating our bookstore and Joel Santana, our meals.

Once again, we are honored that Martin French created our beautiful WORDS logo shown at the top of this letter; and Aaron Esparza returns as our photographer; Brad Ediger is recording all talks and sessions for you to purchase. And, we give a shout-out to the judges of our Writing Contest as well as Scrivener and Bedlam Magazine.

I do have a couple of notes to make you aware of. We are sorry to say that due to a family situation, Amber Haines and Erika Morrison are no longer able to be with us. And Nish Weiseth has to leave early so she will not be leading the afternoon mini-retreat small groups. But, Micah J. Murray and Karen Zacharias Spear are stepping in to join the co-led groups of Seth Haines and Brooke Perry and Tony Kriz and Romal Tune

We serve a creative God who carved something beautiful out of nothing; and now He calls us to create, to fill the blank pages of our lives with our WORDS, our stories. We pray that you find a place of community and belonging here, and that you sense that you matter. May Christ be honored this weekend; may He give you the WORDS to share the stories that change lives.

Happy Writing and stay connected,

Cornelia Becker Seigneur
Faith & Culture Writers Conference Founding Director

www.corneliaseigneur.com

April 7, 2015

Beauty and the Book Deal

by Esther Emery

Click here to read the original post.

The first time I dreamed of being a writer I was fifteen years old. I wrote about it secretly, in my journal with a striped, padded cover.

I wrote about it in full-throated despair.

The dead-last child in a family of brilliant minds — mother writer, father poet, siblings singer/songwriter, ballet dancer, circus artist and would-be novelist — I had already swallowed this whisper, “There is not enough room. There is not enough room. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH ROOM.”

Twenty years later, I have a book deal. Take that, you nasty little whisper.

///

My first break came at the Faith and Culture Writer’s conference. Natalie Trust invited me, and she prayed for me. I was weak-kneed for all the reasons. I sweated out my pretty blouse and had to change my shirt before my pitch session, which was the last appointment of the afternoon. I paced a path in the carpet, asked twice if there was any chance of getting in earlier, heaved myself in and out of lounge chairs. Finally I walked in and laid my mostly finished manuscript, a work of years, on a tiny college classroom desk in front of professional literary agent, Blair Jacobson.

He said it sounded interesting. He’d look at it when he had the time. About ten days later my phone rang and it was him and he said, “This is really good.”

My heart broke out in song. Like this. “AAAAAAAAAHH….” I thought, “I’m the best writer ever in the world!!!”

Then a couple of days later I hit the ground and thought, “Oh, no. I’m a fraud. I’m terrible. They’ve got the wrong person.”

Then I switched back and forth a few more times before I remembered that this isn’t actually the part that really matters.

What REALLY matters is…how much am I willing, to see and be seen? How much am I willing to peel back this skin and reveal the beating human heart beneath?

///

I’ve been on the slow boat. Chugga chugga chugga. I’ve had work to do on the inside and the outside. It was a shock to me — some days it is still a shock to me — to realize that I have somehow become a Christian writer. Somehow I am writing for the Christian writer’s market. I think someday everybody’s going to notice that this is me, ordinary old sinner me, who just slipped in to touch the Holy of Holies and then the whole game will be over.

But that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening. What seems to be happening is that I am being called forward to testify. In print. In a hardcover book published by Zondervan, next spring. I am being called forward to give spiritual nourishment and encouragement, and to lay out grace and hope.

///

It was a Thursday, when I received the offer. At my favorite coffee shop, with a warmed up cinnamon roll on a plate on the round, wooden table. I heard this whisper, “There is enough room. There is enough room. THERE IS ENOUGH ROOM.”

In the kingdom there are enough words to say what needs to be said. In the kingdom there are prayers enough to walk on. There are plenty of extra shirts to change into if need be. And the voice of scarcity and insecurity doesn’t win.

I still feel the temptation to put my head under the covers, one more time. I still feel whipped by the winds of ego, fame in one direction, failure in the other. But in this story, that isn’t how it ends.

Look out for my words on bookstore shelves, in 2016. Because I said “Yes.”

March 10, 2015March 11, 2015

God moving in the heart via writing

By Jane Halton

I felt like a bit of a fraud when I signed up to attend the Faith & Culture Writers Conference last year. I had recently started blogging and openly confessed it was more for my coaching business than my love of writing. I knew I had to ‘get my name out there’ to grow my business so I started blogging. However, I was surprised by how quickly my love of writing grew! Blogging and tweeting connected me to a world of wonderful people. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet them in person. So I signed up for the conference with fairly low expectations and mainly to learn from others.

I was thrilled with my experience! The conference drew a unique, beautiful and gifted group of people together. It was clear by the ethos, speakers, and conversations taking place, that there was more going on here than just “networking” and “skill obtaining improving.” People were making deep connections with each other and the connections previously made on line were being lived out in the flesh. Writing is such a heart-felt enterprise that it makes sense people would be deeply moved when hearing speakers like Sarah Bessey and Deidra Riggs while sitting in the company of fellow writers.

In addition to the depth, it was downright fun. I read a tweet by Tamara Rice describing it as “One big awkward blind date” and another person was commenting on how we should write our twitter handles on our nametags because we are often more familiar with them. Although I laughed in every session, I also witnessed deep transformation.

For example, so many of the conversations I had while waiting for a session to start involved people telling me they came to hear Sarah Bessey. Now I am a Jesus Feminist, I read Sarah’s blog and appreciate her voice but I always found her words encouraging and similar to the way I’ve thought for a while. I met more women at this conference whose lives were deeply changed by Jesus Feminist (and Sarah’s blog). People were finding their voice for the first time because someone told them they mattered. Strangers welled up in tears as they talked about how writing had changed their life. I knew I would be back the next year and began to wonder about it.

As I continued to blog and coach (and coach bloggers), I grew in my understanding of how important the practice of writing and sharing your words means to people. Our passions, frustrations, encouragements and challenges all come out when we write. The more writers I coach the more this rings true.

Because writing is so vulnerable, our identity is put on the table.

What will people think of this writing? What does it say about me if I write this or that? I want to be successful. I don’t want to be one of “those” writers. The list goes on. Our identity is wrapped up in what we write, for good or bad. And when you put a bunch of writers together this only gets heightened.

But the Faith & Culture Writers Conference seemed to be taking strides to approach this differently. Instead of competition and comparison, there was a spirit of camaraderie and encouragement. It made me want to get more involved!

I sent an email to Cornelia Seigneur, the conference director, with some ideas about how I would love to further serve this creative crew. I was quick to tell her that I’m not a prolific writer or even that serious of a blogger. I don’t know anything about professional editing or finding an agent. But I know that there is so much more going on with these writers than their need to find an agent or publish a book.

I was not surprised when Cornelia (and Jody Collins, the conference Volunteer Coordinator) replied with confirmation of what I was thinking. They explained they were adding to their mentor options additional one-on-one support for conference attendees by way of “spiritual mentors.”

Deeply moved by how God is working on matters of the heart in writing, the Faith & Culture Writers Conference planners wanted to give attendees an opportunity to debrief, process, and perhaps pray with someone.

I was thrilled when they asked me if I would be willing to return as one of the spiritual mentors.

There will be an opportunity to meet privately with a spiritual mentor during the Saturday morning, April 11 session. The mentors will ask questions, listen well and give attendees an opportunity to process their experience at the conference and/or as writers in general. Often times this type of conversation is just what someone needs to get unstuck or find inspiration.

If this sounds helpful, please sign up for a spiritual mentor appointment when you sign in at the conference on April 10, 2015!

Jane Halton is one of our new Spiritual Mentors at the 2015 Faith & Culture Writers Conference. A certified coach, writer and speaker. She describes her coaching work as pastoral care meets your to-do list (or sometimes ‘blowing up evangelical baggage’). Using her coaching skills, an MDiv, wit and thought provoking questions she not only helps people figure out what really matters to them but also, what they’re going to do about it. Jane is a Canadian who got lost in California for half her life (there is sadly no good Mexican food in all of Canada). She lives with her husband Dane and their two young and extremely chatty boys in Vancouver, BC. She loves reading, swimming and officiates creative weddings as a side gig. Sign up for an appointment with her when you check in at the conference this year. For more info visit: janehalton.com, Twitter or Facebook.

December 30, 2014January 9, 2015

The Quest for Epiphany

by Tony Kriz

There is something that happens when pen hits the page, when pixels populate the screen. It is like the unknown becomes known. It doesn’t always happen that way. In fact it is the categorical opposite of predictable, of formulaic, but when it happens, it is magic.

Writing transcends consciousness.

I am not a genius writer. Far from it. I have a simple formula that guides the majority of the chapters of my long form writing (books). It goes like this (I can’t believe that I am admitting this):

You start with a story. The magic of a story is not its drama. It is not its otherworldliness. It is not that it is exceptional. The magic of a story is found in its meaningfulness. You may ask, “Meaningfulness for the reader?”

No. The magical element is the meaningfulness for the author. Magic and meaningfulness exist in a delicate marriage. When a writer writes out of their own visceral meaningfulness and into honest expression there is the real hope that magic will happen.

One more thing… When I write a book, I am essentially asking myself one formative question. When I wrote Neighbors and Wise Men, I was asking myself “What are my formative memories when non-Christians taught me how to follow Jesus?” In my current book, Aloof, I was asking myself “What are my formative memories about God’s presence and God’s troubling absence?”

Once a story is identified, I often don’t actually know exactly WHY it is formative, I simply know that it is. I begin the chapter by teasing my best guess as to what the stories formative lesson might be; that is my introduction.

Next I tell the story. I write very existentially. If you were to happen upon me writing a chapter in a corner booth at a local pub or coffee shop, odds are you would see my face contorting with the emotions of the story I am writing. You might see my eyes filled with moisture or a hotly furrowed brow. That is how I write.

When the story is fully told, including a well-imagined setting, sympathetic characters and a believable conflict and climax, I move to the chapter’s conclusion.

This is where the magic happens. It does not happen every time, but when it does, it is one of the great endorphin cocktails. Suddenly, as if I am an observer and the chapter itself is a seducing character sitting across the table, the true meaning of the story blossoms right before my eyes.

I rarely see it coming. How could I? And the surprising frequency that this newly realized meaning is harmonious with my spackled-together introduction (bringing new meaning I could not have predicted) is soothing, comforting and arousing.

If we were to flip together through the pages of my books, both of us would probably be surprised by how many chapters I would admit “I did not know where this chapter was going to end when I started it.”

Keep writing. Write viscerally… existentially… and dare the magic.

Let the epiphanies come. That’s how we move from the blank page to something beautiful.

Tony is the Writer in Residence at Warner Pacific College, the sponsoring host for the 2015 Conference; Tony is also on the Faith & Culture Writers Conference advisory board, and a speaker at this year’s event. He has been at every single Faith & Culture Writers Conference, either as an attender, speaker, keynote speaker, advisor, or leader. His new book Aloof: Figuring Out Life with a God Who Hides is coming out in January, 2015. Tony writes at www.tonykriz.com.