by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1

There was a princess. Now this was not an ordinary princess. No, this was a very modern and savvy young lady who knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be a writer…a published writer, indeed.

She learned the craft and honed her skills, even joined My Book Therapy…She was taught by the best. She entered contests, and paid attention to the critiques, learned what worked and what didn’t.

She queried and went to conferences, made appointments and smiled and nodded, gave editors one-sheets and elevator pitches. She even fetched water and coffee and carried their boxes and boxes of books.

Whew!

All to no avail.

Years passed. She fretted and frayed because no one wanted her book, her precious baby. They sent it back with words like Sorry this does not meet our editorial needs at this time…or loved the hero but your heroine simply didn’t do it for me.

They said her baby was ugly. But she continued to write and learn, made her heroine vulnerable and sassy and her hero noble and true.

After all her appointments and letters had failed, she had all but decided her writing ‘twas not meant to be. And low and behold a note dropped from the sky. ‘Twas from an editor she knew not from Adam, and certainly not an editor she’d queried.

Dear Princess,

Your story I must see for recommendation has come from on high….

She danced and frolicked, then quickly bundled her story and winged it the editor’s way. Oh joy, oh joy, the editor loved her hero…and heroine, too. Soon the princess held her book in her very own hands…

And the moral of this story is…

“Cease striving and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 NASB

Learn the craft, hone your skills, write the best story you know how for an audience of One. And pray. God did not give you a dream to snatch it away. Remember, it’s always in His timing. All we have to do is be ready.

Habakkuk 2:3- “But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” TLB

Leave a comment and let me know what dream you have. As for dreams, I am working on book 13 for Revell. And I’ve had two other books published by Harlequin. I’m also finishing up edits for Deception, the fourth and last book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series so dream big!

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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?

Award-winning author Patricia Bradley continues her Natchez Trace Park Rangers series with a story about how good must prevail when evil just won’t quit.

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.