When I first started writing, I chomped at the bit to get published. It was all I thought of, other than writing. I sent my “babies” out into the world to any agent or editor who indicated they were open to submissions.

Unfortunately Fortunately, they were sent back to me, sometimes so fast my head whipped. Here are a few of them:

As my writing improved, some were very encouraging:

In the earlier paragraph, I alluded to the rejections being fortunate. That’s because my work wasn’t ready to be published, and if it had been, I would have been terribly embarrassed now. Thank goodness for those wise editors and agents!

And thankfully, I was investing in my craft by attending conferences with good workshops, reading craft books, finding a mentor and a really good critique group. I joined My Book Therapy and attended four Deep Thinker retreats with Susan May Warren and Rachel Hauck (which was as good as any college course in creative writing). By the fourth one I had acquired an agent and a publisher.

But I had also acquired something else—God had me in a season of learning and when the time was right, he would open the doors that needed to be opened. I just needed to be ready to walk through with a good, completed manuscript.

So, I want to encourage you to slow down and enjoy the journey. Enjoy the learning and writing process while you don’t have a deadline breathing down your neck. Because once you get that contract, everything changes. That’s not to say I don’t still enjoy the journey, but now other people are depending on me to do what I said I’d do and turn in a clean manuscript by my deadline.

I have the verse by Emily Dickinson above my computer– “Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops—at all.

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

Crosshairs (Natchez Trace Park Rangers Book #3)

Investigative Services Branch (ISB) ranger Ainsley Beaumont arrives in her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, to investigate the murder of a three-month-pregnant teenager. While she wishes the visit was under better circumstances, she never imagined that she would become the killer’s next target–nor that she’d have to work alongside an old flame.

After he almost killed a child, former FBI sniper Lincoln Steele couldn’t bring himself to fire a gun, which had deadly and unforeseen consequences for his best friend. Crushed beneath a load of guilt, Linc is working at Melrose Estate as an interpretive ranger. But as danger closes in on Ainsley during her murder investigation, Linc will have to find the courage to protect her. The only question is, will it be too little, too late?

Patricia Bradley is a Carol finalist and winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense, and three anthologies that included her stories debuted on the USA Today Best Seller List. She and her two cats call Northeast Mississippi home–the South is also where she sets most of her books. Her romantic suspense novels include the Logan Point series and the Memphis Cold Case Novels. Obsession, the second book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series, released Februrary 2, 2021. She is now hard at work on the third book, Crosshairs.

Writing workshops include American Christian Fiction Writers online courses, workshops at the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference, the KenTen Retreat where she was also the keynote, Memphis American Christian Fiction Writer group, and the Bartlett Christian Writers group. When she has time, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.