Fantasy Fiction Tour Day One

The Meet and Greet of the Fantasy Tour.

Although I'd met Bryan four or five years earlier at Mount Hermon, and had emailed for months with Christopher and Wayne, this was my first chance to meet them all in person.

Once we'd thanked John Cooper for the excellent swords and shields, visited with the Tsaba house folks who were graciously hosting the event, and handed out bookmarks to curious passersby, I had to hurry back to the NavPress booth. It was hard to pull away, but I knew I'd soon have many hours in the van to get to know each of the fine authors.

They each had their own agenda of meetings, media, and signings during ICRS, but we already felt a sense of "we're in this together."

That afternoon, I had my next cool "God gift."

I was in line to support my friend, Camy Tang, as she signed her awesome Asian Chick-lit novel, Sushi for One? A woman next to me, from Australia, chatted with me to pass the time. She kept looking at my name tag. "I think I know you from somewhere..."

Then she saw my shoulder bag (which has my book covers displayed in clear pockets).

"You wrote The Secret Life of Becky Miller! I love that book! I read it while on a mission trip in Nairobi. Each night I'd go back to my tent and it was the right mix of humor and inspiration after a tough day training humanitarian aid workers about stress and trauma."

Turns out this amazing woman (who spends a lot of time doing BIG THINGS for God) is also an acclaimed author, Lisa McKay.

I'll be honest. I often find the writing life very discouraging. I question the value of what I do, my skill to do it, and God's purposes. That's okay. Being full of questions and doubts comes from the same part of me that wrestles things out through stories. But I thrive on those moments of reassurance that God is using the books to bless others. My conversation with Lisa was a HUGE gift from God to me. For my little story to serve someone on the "front lines" of hard-core ministry...it doesn't get better than that. Lisa told me she's hanging on to Renovating Becky Miller to read on her next mission trip. And in that huge crowd at the convention, what are the odds we would end up next to each other in a line long enough to have a good chat? It's a GOD thing.