at Catholic Media Review<\/a>.)<\/p>\nMy life changed that week. I\u2019d dreamed about being a published author since I was seven years old. All along the way I doubted if that dream would ever actually be fulfilled. I was so uninterested in learning how to get a book published that I suspected it would never work out. I wanted to write stories and reviews, not book proposals.<\/p>\n
But God had other ideas. And the way publication for Auralia\u2019s Colors<\/em> and Through a Screen Darkly<\/em> came about is a wilder, crazier story than anything I\u2019ve written.<\/p>\nYou\u2019ve probably heard the story. If you haven\u2019t\u2026 well\u2026 here\u2019s the short version.<\/p>\n
I began writing Auralia\u2019s Colors <\/em>in 1996, but I didn\u2019t do anything to get it published. I was discouraged by what I\u2019d read about the hard work of agent-seeking, proposal writing, and publisher-seeking. The process of pursuing a publisher seemed almost as time-consuming as\u2026 well\u2026 writing a novel<\/em>, so I was discouraged. With my busy schedule, I needed to spend my free time doing what I love best: imagining new stories.<\/p>\nBetween 1996 and 2003, the novella called Auralia\u2019s Colors <\/em>grew up into a four-book series. And I wrote several more stories besides. (My favorite characters are still sitting in boxes in my study, waiting for a chance.) But the larger those piles of paper became, the more I began to feel sad that Auralia would probably never find a larger audience.<\/p>\nOne day, Anne and I walked around our neighborhood saying quiet prayers about our futures as writers. I wanted God to give me a sign. I wanted to know if I should invest my time and energy in the search for a publisher or not. \u00a0I remember saying, \u201cLord, if you want this story to be published, you may have to drop somebody out of the sky with a golden ticket.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\nA few days later, I received an email from a flight attendant \u2014 yes, a flight attendant \u2014 in Atlanta. I thought it was a porn email, because the subject line read, \u201cI WANT TO MEET YOU\u201d and it was from someone named \u201cmarsha\u201d at AOL.<\/p>\n
I was using AOL at the time. I knew that they blocked SPAM from originating at AOL addresses rather effectively (at the time). So I thought, \u201cHmmm, maybe this Marsha person is responding to a Looking Closer movie review.\u201d I opened the message.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the writer said that she had enjoyed one of my movie reviews, and she had noticed that my bio mentioned some \u201cnovels-in-progress.\u201d Being a flight attendant, she could fly all over the country for free. She was coming to Seattle for, of all things, a dentist\u2019s appointmen. Would I be willing to meet her for lunch? Would I tell her about my novels?<\/p>\n
I thought this was highly unusual. But I was curious.<\/p>\n
We met for lunch in Edmonds, Washington, near her dentist\u2019s office, at one of my favorite restaurants. Marsha read a few pages of Auralia\u2019s Colors, <\/em>and a few from another novel, one I\u2019ve written for younger readers.<\/p>\nThen she dialed a few numbers of people she knew in publishing. And then she told me that I would receive an important phone call the next day.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t sure what to believe.<\/p>\n
And then I found out that one of the reasons she wanted to meet with me was to hear about Robert Duvall. (I had interviewed Duvall for that movie review she liked.) So I told her all about Robert Duvall, and I thanked her for the lovely chat. We went our separate ways, and I had no expectations.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I got a phone call from the head of Random House\u2019s WaterBrook Press.<\/p>\n
He and I had a great conversation. We talked about Auralia\u2019s Colors<\/em>. We talked about Through a Screen Darkly<\/em>. I sent in proposals for both.<\/p>\nOne thing led to another. He eventually made a career change, leaving WaterBrook Press to start a new endeavor as an agent. My agent. A couple of weeks later, I was offered a two-book contract by WaterBrook Press\u2026 for Auralia\u2019s Colors<\/em> and Cyndere\u2019s Midnight<\/em>.<\/p>\nI am still in a state of shock about all of this. I keep waiting for somebody to say \u201cJoke!\u201d<\/p>\n
In short: Somebody dropped out of the sky and gave me a golden ticket<\/em>. And when I tell this story, I feel a trembling sense of gratitude and near-disbelief.<\/p>\nNow, ask me\u2026 do I believe in prayer?<\/p>\n
But wait. There\u2019s more.<\/p>\n
What made things even more exciting was the fact that one week <\/em>after WaterBrook said \u201cyes\u201d to Auralia\u2019s Colors<\/em>, Regal Books surprised my agent by mailing him a contract offer for Through a Screen Darkly<\/em>. And it was published several months before Auralia\u2019s Colors <\/em>hit the shelves.<\/p>\nThrough a Screen Darkly <\/em>has gone on to become a popular textbook in classes about film interpretation and Christian perspective at several universities and colleges. And I continue to hear from readers every week.<\/p>\n(I\u2019ve been so busy developing The Auralia Thread for WaterBrook that I haven\u2019t had time to write the follow-up to Darkly<\/em>. But I will. Soon, I hope.)<\/p>\nI am so grateful\u2026 to Regal Books (especially Alex Field), and to my first agent Don Pape, both of whom took a gamble with Darkly<\/em>. And to my second agent, Lee Hough, who has been the project\u2019s guardian angel since Don moved on another opportunity.<\/p>\nAnd I\u2019m thankful to WaterBrook too, for believing in The Auralia Thread.<\/p>\n
What a year it has been. I\u2019m grateful to everyone who endorsed the book, reviewed it, read it, responded to it, and encouraged me along the way. And I\u2019m grateful to Marsha the Magic Flight Attendant.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to start considering the \u201csequel.\u201d If you have any ideas about what you\u2019d like to read about in Through a Screen Darkly 2: More Darker <\/em>(or something like that), hey, I\u2019m open to suggestions. But I\u2019ve got a lot of ideas already. Now, I\u2019ve just got to find the time to write them down\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been an interesting week. On Tuesday, I submitted Cyndere\u2019s Midnight, the sequel to Auralia\u2019s Colors, to the editors at WaterBrook Press. There\u2019s still some \u201ctrimming\u201d and editing to do, but it\u2019s almost ready to go. Time flies when you\u2019re working a full-time desk job, writing movie reviews, and then spending six-to-seven hours in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,198],"class_list":["post-32132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-books-by-jeffrey-overstreet","tag-looking-closer-classic"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n