Newsletters

WE NEED YOUR BIO AND .JPG

Every year we compile a roster for your benefit. It has a dual purpose. 1) It allows our prayer warriors to pray specifically for you and 2) it becomes your introduction and networking tool for your peers at ACWC.  I understand what it is like to be new to a conference and that's why we work to compile this list. I want you to be able to put faces with names so when you walk in the door at ACWC, you feel your family - not like you're a stranger. Cindy Saab has graciously volunteered to do our roster. It's a massive job. So I encourage you to send her your bio and .jpg.

I'll include the link for the bio form along with Cindy's email address in this letter. And here's a hint that will help us. We don't need a life history. Keep your bio at 75 or less words, include your email address.  When you send your ,jpg of yourself (for those who do not know what that is, it's a photo file of yourself. If you don't have one, ask a friend or a teenager to take your photo and help you email it) PLEASE DON'T SEND A FAMILY PHOTO.  If that is all you have, crop everyone else out of the photo. We love your families, but we only want your face. (There are security reasons for this - trust us).
Attach the .jpg and the bio form and email it to: [email protected]
Click here ->Directory_Form 4 (This should download to your computer or you can go to www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com and click forms and newsletters. ) 

This roster is so important. Please be sure and send us the bio and .jpg.

___________
 

Our Business Stuff - 

If you think a friend who is coming to ACWC is NOT receiving these newsletters, forward it to them. Have them contact me. Because we use MailChimp sometimes emails will go to your spam. Go to your internet security, click for us to be approved as safe. If your browser updates, you may have to do this a second time. But these newsletters are your source of information. So if you think that a friend is not getting these, take time to ask...forward the email and then have them mark us as safe.

On Campus housing is sold out. There's plenty of housing off campus. Again, there is plenty of OFF CAMPUS housing available at the three hotels just outside the gates of the Cove. Below are the links for final payment. You're going to see this every newsletter. Pay close attention to the links and pay according to your room choice. I have sent some of you notes about roommates. If you have not responded, please do. I have to nail down the reservations in November. Your promptness on this will be so helpful.  

God has instructed us to be good stewards of His provision, and that means paying our bills ON TIME if not sooner. He has blessed us at the end of each conference to be debt free and that happens because you are gracious enough to pay your conference registrations on time. Thank you for that.

If you have paid a deposit of $95 - Here is your link for final payments.  Choose your room and click and make your payment by November 1. All links have a $6.50 PayPal surcharge added. Sorry but processing costs continue to rise and we cannot absorb it - it will show as SHIPPING. 

Triple Room - (Please do not choose a triple unless you have roommates in line and have contacted me) - I know we have some writers groups and families who attend so I have you already. But it's those new ones that throw me for a loop).
Click here for a triple room less $95 deposit

Double Room - If you have paid $95 against your reservation for a double room 
Click here for double room less $95 deposit

Single Room - If you have paid $95 against your reservation for a single room
Click here for single room less $95 deposit

IF YOU PAID $25 deposit at Boot Camp 2016  these are your payment links.

Triple less $25 deposit
Click here for triple room less $25 deposit

Double less $25 deposit
Click here for double room less $25 deposit

Single less $25 deposit
Click here for single room less $25 deposit


Remember FINAL PAYMENTS ARE DUE NOVEMBER 1, 2016.


Website reminders. . .
WE HAVE A BLOG. 
Go to our site and read our blog. If you are an experienced writer and you have some good writing tips, time management ideas, networking ideas, blogging ideas, or general information that is helpful for writers, send it to me at [email protected]. You may just end up on the blog.

Visit our website www.ashevillechristianwritersconference. We have a new look. Take a few minutes and look over the site.  Check out the contests, the faculty and the classes. You will see our 2017 schedule is up and you can get a feel for tight timing we have. The schedule is simply the listing of times for each class, meals, etc. I promise to be getting the classes finalized soon. 

I would ask for grace on my tardiness of getting the classes finalized.  The truth is, I've been very sick with a severe sinus infection and inner ear infection since August. The headaches are completely debilitating and though I am under a doctors care, things are slow for me. I would ask your prayers specifically for healing. I'm three months with this rascal and I'm honestly done with it. If you know me at all, you know that I answer emails promptly. But over the last two months that has been a task I've just not been able to accomplish due to the headaches. I literally can't see when the headaches hit, not to mention the vertigo.  I will get the classes finalized - I promise. So I plead for grace.

CRITIQUES -
I can't begin to encourage you enough to work on a project, be it large or small, and submit for a professional critique. This is so important for your extended learning. Yes, it costs you a small fee...but your feedback is amazing. You learn about the things that immediately jump out at editors and publishers which you can fix. It's something everyone should do. Check out the site http://ashevillechristianwritersconference.com/critiques/.

Mentoring services are available again by popular demand. So check out those as well. If you qualify for one the 1 to 11/2 hours session is only $45 and it's just you and your professional mentor working specifically on your project. This is valuable. We have Yvonne Lehman, Vonda Skelton, Linda Gilden, and Edie Melson heading up our mentoring this year. Wow - try to get your head around 1-11/2 hours of personal, one-on-one, mentoring. Yvonne will be leading those with novels, Vonda will help with novels and speaking, Linda Gilden will help with non-fiction, and Edie will work with social media and website overviews. Your mentor will decide, according to your work, whether one hour or 11/2 hours will benefit you.

MP3's - As usual, we will record all the sessions and the keynotes so you have those available to purchase for $35. ONCE AGAIN, here's my story: When I drove 9.5 hours to Philadelphia, I put all of my Blue Ridge MP3s on a thumb drive and listened to classes all the way there and back. Conference MP3s are a tool you can refer back to over and over and it's the ENTIRE CONFERENCE. $35 is a small price and the money goes to provide scholarships for the next year. So plan ahead, prepare to purchase your MP3s at the conference.

ACWC Bookstore will again be open. It will have faculty books for your purchase. I'm sorry that we cannot include conferee books here.  You'll be able to purchase MP3's, books, and pre-register for 2018. The greatest compliment you can give our faculty it to purchase their books and once you purchase and read...WRITE A REVIEW. 

A reminder about the BOB BOWL - We will again accept donations to support  Bob Hostetler's two grand children who deal with Cystic Fibrosis. Bob does a yearly fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in honor of his two grandchildren who fight the CF battle daily.  We'd love to surprise Bob again with support. From January of last year until January of this year, a new injectable  medication was developed that is changing lives of CF patients. In our own family a niece is now able to function due to this medication.  For Bob's grandchildren, the injection will be available any day for his granddaughter and hopefully available for his younger grandson by spring of next year. Your gifts helped bring that about. So I hope you'll come prepared to offer a little contribution to the BOB BOWL and help us help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Bob's grandchildren.  We'll place a Bob Bowl on our Bookstore table again, and forward the monies collected to Bob for his campaign drive in the spring. (By the way, Bob will be back with us in 2018).

Class Schedule - Check the website from time to time. www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com.

Contests
Check the site for our contests. We have the Badge of Honor Contest. Contest entries will be judged and a winner chosen. That winner is then presented to the proper acquisitions editor at LPC and if the manuscript is ready for publication, it will be sent to the publication board for a shot at a contract. (Keep in mind, manuscripts must meet board criteria). So get to work on that manuscript. Enter the contest. You never know!

Devotions contest:  Each year we choose a winner from our devotions entries as well. Step out. Make the effort and enter.

Work is progressing along on the conference. We want it filled to the brim. So encourage your peers to attend.

Travel Insurance - If you worry about bad weather in February, we have added a link for travel insurance with AIG Insurance. This is found on the registration page of our website http://ashevillechristianwritersconference.com/registration/ . Just scroll down to TRAVEL INSURANCE. The rates depend on where you live. It's important you know that once January 5 passes, we no longer have the ability to refund conference funds and housing. If you are one who fears the weather, then take a minute, check out AIG Insurance for the travel insurance. This way, if you feel you cannot make the conference with the weather, you can contact them for a claim and get a good portion of your money refunded. Christian Devotions or the Asheville Christian Writers Conference cannot refund monies due to weather. The conference goes on.

THE CALL FROM GOD
Each year I ask God for inspiration as to a theme for our conference. What would He have us focus on?  This year the timeless story of David and Goliath kept coming to mind. Read 1 Samuel 17 for the full story, but quickly let's look at the call from God. For forty days Goliath stomped onto the battlefield taunting the Israelites. "This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”

They stood in fear, paralyzed by the giant man's threats. Then came the boy, David. Innocent. Faithful. Chosen by God. CALLED by God, who in his simple faith, grabbed 5 stones (he only needed one), and ran onto the battlefield as Goliath charged him.

Here's what scripture tells us:

"He (Goliath)  said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.  “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel."

David, in his youthful trust, stood larger than the entire Israelite army. He trusted in the call God had impressed on his life. Not to kill a giant, but to follow close to the Lord, trust Him, and know nothing was impossible with the God of Israel. David stepped out with 5 stones, but it only took one to take down the enemy.

God has blessed you with the gift and passion to write with a Christian worldview. The enemy stands before you, shouting and taunting - "You can't do that! Writing is not a profession. There's no money in writing. Who's gonna read that anyway?" But you, in your own faith, must come to realize God is mighty. You may not be a best selling author, but you may write a devotion that changes a person's life. Your words may be the ones that causes the unbeliever to believe. 

I believe, Eddie believes, our faculty believes, that you are called to this conference because God has beckoned you. He knows your ability. He sees past your fear and imperfections and He guides your one stone straight into the target. 

Our theme for ACWC this year is the Youthful Faith of David. You have your sling (the pen). Pick up your stones (your ideas and stories) and throw a rock. Then watch where God lands the stone.

Much love,

Cindy Sproles
Director