OCTOBER Newsletter

OCTOBER Newsletter
Saturday, October 6, 2018 by Cindy Sproles

Happy October!

Monthly you will see some information repeated over and over. There is a reason so don't trash the email just because you have seen some of it. Remember, we have new conferees registrating on a daily basis. They don't have this info and they need it. BUT, all that to say, there is probably some new info as well. Remember to check the site regularly. Click the Conference Update tab. You'll see every news letter posted. I am trying to send links via regular email which is double work, but some of you do not mark our email as safe and your browser throws us in spam or the trash. Do remember to mark us as a safe email so that you receive this communication. And if you don't - there will be monthly emails listed on the site until January and Jan 1 they will begin weekly. You will begin getting blog posts that you can use as additional training. So stay tuned.

THE BUSINESS AT HAND!
Thank so much for responding and making your payments. This helps me so much since I am required to pay a portion for registration confirmation. There are still a few who have not responded. PLEASE, PLEASE, do you part. Our conference is small and we need everyone to pony up for what is due. I am grateful for your help. Rooms are a premium on campus at the Cove. We have 2 rooms left on campus. I have shut down on campus housing request. If you know someone who may want to room on campus, please have them email me at [email protected]. I will send them a line to pay. We have folks who want to stay on campus but cannot because those few have paid a $25 deposit. I really want to hold those rooms but I need some sort of response. If I do not hear from you by October 15, the rooms will be opened for others to take advantage. In other words, RESPOND or you'll lose your spot on campus! You can still attend the conference, you'll just have to secure housing off campus. We want you at ACWC.

All that to say, HURRY! And thank you in advance.

We have 2 on-campus rooms left and 44 open conferee spots. That means there is plenty of off campus housing available and still plenty of room for new conferees to attend. We're filling quickly. And as you know, God sells this conference out every year.

Should you have friends who want to attend, the off campus housing is literally a few hundred feet from the entrance to the Cove. You will pay the off-campus registration which includes your meals and conference fees, and you will book your own housing. There are hotels listed on the registration page.

THE SCHEDULE AND CLASSES
We have a temporary schedule and classes on the site. Please note we are still developing these so keep checking the pages. We'll let you know when everything is locked in. We are reworking some additional class work and needless to say, this is tedious when you are not a detail oriented person. (Well, I am to an extent...but numbers are not my strength.) Continue to check the site for those classes and updates. They will be nailed down by end of November.

TO FACULTY - You will be receiving your contracts after Sept 25. HA! Did I say Sept 25? Silly me. Hurricane Florence completely messed up any possible schedule I had. So I am working on those contracts as we speak. Also we'll be sending info on the bookstore. Be gathering your handout pages. I would like to have these IN A WORD DOCUMENT by October 27. Please do not send PDF's. We cannot extract them for the designer. You can check the site to remind you of the classes you will be teaching. It's been awhile since you sent those classes and you've only attended 20 or so conferences since that time! So you can find them listed on the Schedule page of the website. FACULTY - YOUR HOUSING IS PROVIDED AND BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU...WE'LL EVEN PROVIDE YOUR MEALS. There's no need for you to worry. We have all your needs covered.

I will need to know if you want to do paid critiques. See the section in your contract.

TO CONFEREES
SCHOLARSHIPS
Scholarships open to apply from September 30 through November 24. Visit https://www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com/scholarships if you have friends who may want to attend but cannot financially make it happen. Our scholarships are chosen by a panel who have no vested interest in attending. We have a few scholarships available and folks are beginning to respond to those. We'll have that aspect complete soon.

Contests
Each year we offer contests for our conferees to enter. It's great practice for you to 1) invest a little skin in your work and 2) learn how to participate, win or lose. Check out the contest pagehttps://www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com/bookcontest. Get ready to enter NOW! We want to see your work.

HERE I GO...REPEATING MYSELF...
Mark our email as safe so it does not go to your trash or spam.
These emails are one of two ways to keep you informed of updates, changes, and additions. If you are not receiving the emails, please mark our address as safe so we don't go to your spam or trash. If you still do not receive the emails, every newsletter will be posted on the website Under Conference Updates - Newsletters. You should check that page on a regular basis so you do not miss out on important information. ESPECIALLY beginning in January when our additional teaching emails begin. You won't want to miss those.

Also, keep in mind if you feel it necessary to contact me regarding one of these emails
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.
Instead, reply to [email protected]
If you respond to these emails the thread becomes LONG - WAY LONGER THAN I AM TALL! Often I will not see your email, so if you need an answer...respond to [email protected].

ROSTER
If you are new to our ranks then send me a short bio (50 words and include your website and email in that). Also send, AS AN ATTACHMENT, a photo of yourself. We put together a roster yearly to serve as your networking tool. You'll be glad to have this on the first day of the conference because it will not only serve as your networking tool, but it will help you recognize faces. That, in and of itself, is valuable.

Even if we had your SHORT bio last year, resend it along with a photo. Attach your photo as an attachment not in the body of the email. Short means 50 words. You can do it. Remember, we don't need your life history, just a snapshot of who you are for the roster. Send it to [email protected] (This one says bio and photo! )

You're going to see me repeat a few things OVER AND OVER. It's because there is always someone who misses something. Bear with me!

MENTORING and PAID CRITIQUES
Just because we are small does not mean we will not offer you multiple opportunities. Paid critiques are always available. You will hear this over and over. It's because it's important. Part of the writing journey means stepping out to make improvements in your work. Paid critiques offer you just that. You will have a 15 min. appointment (just like the big conferences) and in that appointment, the professional of your choice will look over your work, help you make some changes, suggest ideas, etc. This is something you will come to value in your writing career. DO IT. See the critique page on the site for information. Remember, the names will change for those doing critiques. So bear with us as we update those professionals.

MENTORING
Each year these one-hour appointments sell out. Trust me, they are valuable. For example, when I began my writing career, I would have paid double to sit one-on-one with Yvonne Lehman and learn from her. Our professionals will spend 1.25 hours with you...and only you, going over your work, guiding you, teaching you. Oh people...this is golden time.
Our mentors for 2019 are as follows:

Edie Melson - Blogs and Social Media
Linda Gilden - Non-fiction and also speaking
LaTan Murphy - Speaking and Ministry
Larry Leech - Memoirs and fiction
Yvonne Lehman - Fiction
Les Stobbe - Non-fiction, Christian Living

If you are clipping along on your novel or non-fiction, take the time and invest in a mentor. Last year, ( I heard through the grapevine) two of our writers landed an agent after their mentoring. There are only a few spots per person so if this is something you want to do...hurry and get your name in the pot.

VISIT THE SITE!
Go to our site www.ashevillechristianwritersconference.com and read through. Everything you need is on the site. INCLUDING THE SCHEDULE. It may have some tweaks as we move along, but basically it's good. We want you to be comfortable when you arrive so spend some time on the site and get to know the faculty. As time progresses we'll talk more about paid critiques and mentoring. If you want some amazing one-on-one time, then consider a mentoring session. It will be money well spent as an investment in your career.

Additional charges
Every conference offers add-ons for their conferees. They are not required but they are certainly well worth your time and money. We encourage you to learn to prepare for a conference by knowing you will want to take advantage of of these additonal items. Start now investing in your writing career. You will be glad you did. Here are a few optional things: MP3 recordings of the entire conference. Individual mentoring. Critiques. Contests.

We can't wait to see you so gear up and get ready to step up and step out!

Our Bookstore
Unfortunately, our bookstore will only sell faculty books. There is a reason. 1) The Cove is gracious enough to allow us to NOT run these through their bookstore simply because of our location in the building. This is oh, so kind, since their bookstore is on the lower level and we are on the top level. 2) This is what we can do for our faculty. Conferences try to pay faculty but peanuts rarely do the trick. We sell only faculty books to help supplement funds for our faculty. Everytime you purchase a book you are saying thank you to the faculty for taking time out of their busy schedules to work for peanuts. :) They do this because they love their jobs and teaching. 3) We are very limited on space. We just don't have the space to sell everyone's books. 4) and probably the biggest...I don't want to manage the sales tax. So there you have it. Support our faculty by shopping in our bookstore. They appreciate it when I give them their checks and bags of peanuts.

Begin to pray that God will send those He would have attend. This is first and foremost, the most important task.

Here's your Spiritual takeaway:

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. - Isaiah 26:4 NIV

      I was a blubbering mess and though I am far from being "well-published", the gift of my third contract with a large publisher, brought me to tears.
      "Why are you crying? This is a wonderful thing?" My husband handed me a tissue.
      "I'm always touched when God answers my prayers. I ask Him to work through me to write this story and to use it to His glory, not mine and everytime He answers, it is incrediablly humbling. Writing for me is a matter of trust."

          I must have read that contract three or four times...not the full thing, but the part that named my book and me as AUTHOR. The part of me that wanted to believe the lie that I didn't deserve this, fought hard against the joy of the gift. When God hears and answers, it reminds me of the trust involved.

        Why trust? It's easy. I'm going to be very transparent here. If you can see I have weaknesses then you can see you are not alone.

         I'm a person who is weak. Fear and lack of self-esteem will often illude me. Writing for me involves great trust. Like most writers, I fall under INTROVERT. Don't laugh. Introverts make great teachers because we thrive on what we love and that is writing. When you love something, you're willing to step out of your comfort zone to do new and different things. (But in the evenings, we crawl into bed and assume the fetal position to recharge.) It's a spiritual growing process for me. God walks me through a growing trust and because of that, I am able to do the same for others.

       Isaiah hit the nail on the head when he said, not only to trust the Lord, but to trust Him forever. That's a long time of being vulernable, afraid, or to suffer low self-esteem. Still, Isaiah knew what he was talking about. Gosd is our eternal rock. He never changes. Never moves away. Always listens. Always hears. Always takes the best for His children to the forefront. To that, I say, thanks for the reminder Isaiah!

       We all have weaknesses. Some will openly share those while others tuck them under their jacket and keep them hidden away. What is amazing, God already knows who we are. He already knows HOW He plans to use the words we write. We simply have to trust. Be the tool He uses and step out of the way so He can do His work through us. We spend a lot of time telling God how to do His job instead of relinquishing to Him and allowing Him the opportunity.
      As you prepare to write, learn to truly trust. Understand that God's timing is a far cry different than ours. Don't run ahead of Him because you think things should move faster. Wanna know a secret? It took 8 years for me to land my first novel contract. EIGHT YEARS. But I kept trusting. I kept praying, Lord work through me and in His timing, He did. Eleven non-fiction devotionals, and compilations, and now 3 novels later, I am still practicing trust. Yet, God, despite my weakness, is faithful. Remember Paul told us, in his weakness he is strong.
       We ARE praying for you daily. We are trusting God will do amazing things through the words you write. He will too. Trust the Lord forever, for He is your rock.

Blessings,
CIN

Cindy Sproles
Director, Asheville Christian Writers Conference