Exploring the ACFW Merry-Go-Round

Raise your hand if you've logged in to the ACFW website lately. Daily? Once a week? Once a month? Until I became president of the Indiana chapter, I have to admit I rarely used acfw.com. Even now, I still don't avail myself of all its treasures.

 

 

Note to self: check what's new at ACFW on a regular basis. 

Meanwhile, I'll explore several options with you, kind of hopping on and off this merry-go-round called ACFW.

First, let's visit the CONFERENCE tab since it's just around the corner. Click on that and you'll find everything you need to know from registration instructions to the schedule, to hotel info, even who to contact if you want an author photo taken. My photo is now six or seven years old, so I signed up!

The CONTEST tab is one you'll want to study. Submissions open for First Impressions next month. Guidelines and rules for submission are available there. Some of you love entering contests; others find them discouraging--they're so subjective. Genesis and First Impressions are no different, but the feedback received from the wiser judges is priceless.

Moving? The CHAPTERS tab can show you the chapter nearest to your new home.

STORYFEST is a new tab. Geared more for readers than writers, anyone can register for this mini-conference side by side with the annual conference in St. Louis. ACFW has lined up several authors who will give readings from their books, then meet with their audience for some Q&A, and I assume book signing.

 

 All of the above is available for web browsing for the whole world, but wait until you log in as a member!

 

 

If you're published, you can ask for an interview or apply to have your novel accepted into the ACFW Book Club under AUTHOR OPPORTUNITIES. Any of us can join the book club and see the latest releases from ACFW authors, or we can join  a small group to read and discuss a selection.

CONNECTIONS means what it says. You can connect with email loops (plural) and critique groups. You can take online courses for free. Attend a webinar, also free. Do want to be held accountable for your writing progress? Join "Novel Tracks." You can listen to podcasts. The last time I checked, Brandilyn Collins was offering a booklet on personalizing your characters.Check it out near the bottom of the connections page.

Under MY MEMBERSHIP you can connect with anyone in the membership directory. (That's how I find some of your email addresses. 💁) This is where you'll also find opportunities to volunteer.

If you click on MEMBER RESOURCES, you'll find all kinds of help from research to marketing. Now that my web designer has retired, I'll be using the link on the right side of the page to interview other web design companies within ACFW.

Do you want to know who's operating this merry-go-round? Click on BOARD, STAFF, AND VOLUNTEERS, or check out the BY-LAWS.

As you get comfortable with ACFW, consider judging one of the contests.  First round is open for member volunteers, and information is available on the CONTEST JUDGES DASHBOARD. (If you haven't been a judge, I'm not sure that button shows up, but the email loop always puts out a general call for judges, which will get you started.)  Before you judge a contest though, enter one of them yourself. It will give you a much better idea of what it's like on the receiving side of comments. You'll know which criticisms to take to heart as well as which praises hold the most merit.

 

 

So, join me on the merry-go-round called ACFW.

You can take things slow, hopping on and off at will, or you can hang on for a wild ride of activity. If you're planning to be in St. Louis for the conference, please contact me, through this blog or ACFW Indiana's Facebook page, via my website or my email, and we can figure out a place to meet other than the Zone Breakfast. So far, I know five of us plan to attend. Are there more? Hop on and enjoy the ride!

 

Linda Sammaritan writes realistic fiction, mostly for kids ages ten to fourteen. She has completed a  middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own experiences growing up with a deaf sister and is currently working on a women’s fiction series.

Linda had always figured she’d teach middle-graders until school authorities presented her with a retirement wheelchair at the overripe age of eighty-five. However, God changed those plans when He gave her a growing passion for writing fiction. In May of 2016, she blew goodbye kisses to her students and dedicated her work hours to learning the craft.

A wife, mother of three, and grandmother to eight, Linda regales the youngest grandchildren with “Nona Stories,” tales of her childhood. Maybe one day those stories will be in picture books!

Where Linda can be found on the web:

www.lindasammaritan.com

www.facebook.com/lindasammaritan

www.twitter.com/LindaSammaritan

 

The ACFW Conference Meets the 2020 Pandemic

 

I will always remember my first national ACFW Conference—St. Louis, 2011.

I will never, ever forget my second national ACFW Conference—Indianapolis, 2013—where seven of the eight critique buddies/writing partners/dear friends that made up the Scriblerians shared time and space in-person for the very first time. One of the very best experiences of my life!

I had a great time when Linda Samaritoni and I trekked to Nashville in 2016 for my third national ACFW encounter.

I’ve said it a hundred times at least: there is nothing like spending time with other writers. Absolutely nothing inspires me and infuses my heart, mind, and soul with fresh enthusiasm for writing as does sharing time with people who are also passionate about writing.  

Well, 2020 has punched a huge hole in the opportunity for such encounters, now hasn’t it? Disappointment welled within me as one event after another suffered the hatchet’s blow due to COVID-19. Oh, how I missed my local writing buddies and mourned for the conference experiences that would not happen.

While nothing completely replaces those in-person connections, I’ve been very thankful for and have benefited from a number of virtual opportunities to connect with fellow authors. In fact, I may well have lost my mind if not for those online occasions to feed my need for writerly companionship.

Chalk up the 2020 ACFW Conference as another victim of the pandemic. I’m sure many tears were shed by faithful, longtime conference attendees as well as those hoping to soak up writerly vibes at their very first ACFW national event.

Thankfully, the conference will be virtually hosted next month, on September 18-19. Via Zoom meetings, conference workshops and virtual appointments will fill Friday and Saturday. The event will culminate with the Awards Gala.

Check out the conference schedule and registration details before September 1 to take advantage of this as-good-as-it-gets compilation of camaraderie, craft-sharpening, and writing business know-how.   

I’m pondering the idea of making my way to a safe location away from home and the dailiness of life, where I can immerse myself in the conference experience more fully. A sort of virtual conference meets personal retreat. Sounds like a good way to add the 2020 ACFW Conference to my list of memorable, beneficial learning experiences.

Comment below if you'll be "attending" the virtual conference. And please share any ideas you have for making the two-day event a more complete conference event. 

2020 Annual Conference

“The Premier Christian Fiction Conference”

ACFW’s First Ever VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
via Zoom
September 18th & 19, 2020

 

 

The Man in the Arena

President Theodore Roosevelt was a man who pressed on in spite of his critics. He was as controversial for his times as Lincoln was earlier in the nineteenth century and as our President is today. He was a soldier, an adventurer, a policeman, and much more. He was brash, bold, and biased.

If he were active in politics today, I would oppose many of the policies he fought for. And if I voiced my criticisms of him, he wouldn’t care.

How do you deal with the critics in your life?

 

Not only those who review your writing. Think back over a lifetime, and the various critics you’ve come across. Individuals in your church. In your extended family. Your boss. Fellow employees. Your professors in college. That know-it-all in fifth grade. Your siblings. Your parents.

Yourself.

We each have different coping mechanisms in response to criticism. Some of us can cheer ourselves on if we’re personally discouraged, but we’ll fold at the first hint of dissent from someone whose opinion matters to us. Others of us can confront our outside critics, but will toss any flawed efforts into a figurative trash can if we can’t meet our own high standards. And then there are those who cave at any negative comment by anyone.

Regardless of the category that fits you best, if you quit an endeavor because someone, yourself included, pointed out the imperfections, you lose.

I love the following quote from Roosevelt. Generations who have followed him title this passage, “The Man in the Arena.:

                "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

                 "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

                

                "But who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause,

                "Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

 

I don’t want to be one of those “cold and timid souls.” The fact that you’re a member of ACFW tells me you share the same feelings.

We write because God put it on our hearts to do so. And if God put it on our hearts, then it's worth the struggle of sharing that message, of learning this craft of writing, of practicing to get better, and of opening ourselves to the vulnerable position of the public’s opinion—agents, editors, critique partners, reviewers—with heads held high.

Maybe you have a bestseller. Maybe no publisher ever wanted your work. But you haven’t quit. Win or lose, you stand in the arena.

Linda Sammaritan writes realistic fiction, mostly for kids ages ten to fourteen. She is currently working on a middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own experiences growing up with a deaf sister.

Linda had always figured she’d teach middle-graders until school authorities presented her with a retirement wheelchair at the overripe age of eighty-five. However, God changed those plans when He gave her a growing passion for writing fiction. In May of 2016, she blew goodbye kisses to her students and dedicated her work hours to learning the craft.

A wife, mother of three, grandmother to seven, Linda regales the youngest grandchildren with “Nona Stories,” tales of her childhood. Maybe one day those stories will be in picture books!

Where Linda can be found on the web:

www.lindasammaritan.com

www.scriblerians.com

www.thescriblerians.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/lindasammaritan

www.twitter.com/LindaSammaritan