Well, I have been waiting for some time to receive word on if my article was accepted for this, and it has finally arrived. My submission was not accepted.
Yay! It’s my first rejection letter! While not the BEST news in the world, it’s one step closer to being published. Here is the email and list of those who made it through the selection process. Congratulations to you all!
- chris mooney
Hello!
I’m a couple of weeks late on getting the Love is a Verb/Love Lessons results to you. I am sorry for that.
Below I’ve listed the pieces that have been chosen for this book.
If your name is on the list (some titles have been changed), you will receive a contract in a few weeks. You have made it through Bethany House’s initial acceptance phase and will probably (though I can’t promise) be in the book.
If your name is not on the list, please read on: We had more than 300 stories submitted to this collection and I read every one from start to finish. So many of them were so good! Many of your stories even brought tears to my eyes or made me go “awww”–not an easy feat! So many touched my heart (even if not to the teary-eye stage).
There were many reasons why manuscripts didn’t fit into this compilation. I received many wonderful stories about loving people, but this compilation focused more on learning to love someone. We also had to deal a LOT with too many articles on several of the different topics. We had a lot of learning to love people through illnesses, a lot of learning to love parents stories, etc.
Many times, the reasons stories were not chosen had nothing to do with the actual quality of the story. In fact, as I read the stories and made initial choices, I also kept a second file–in it I put 80 stories I loved, but that didn’t fit in the Love Lessons (now called Love is a Verb) book. I wanted to look through those stories when it came time to choose stories for another book I was starting to work on for Jim Bell–God Sightings. Unfortunately, as you probably know, shortly after I finished the first selection process for Love Lessons, I lost all of my computer files in a hard drive crash, including that file. But I was so impressed that so many stories were so good.
So if your story did not make it into Love Lessons/Love is a Verb, please do not feel you did a poor job–please remember, as I’ve said, manuscripts did or did not make it into this book for many reasons besides quality.
If your manuscript is not in this book, please send it out again to another publisher (or feel free to submit it to me again if it may fit another project I put out a call for later–Jim has a couple of more in the works he’s asked me about doing). You’ve done the hard part–writing it–now keep getting it out there til it finds the right home!
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate each of you for being part of this compilation call. You have invested in a ministry, and you have taught me, challenged me, inspired me, and blessed me through your writing. Thank you so much.
(one last note: Because I lost all my submission files between July 26 and October 26, if you know of someone else who submitted to this project, will you please feel free to pass this along to them? Thanks!)
Jeanette
Jeanette Gardner Littleton
Editorial Associate
Love Is a Verb (formerly Love Lessons)
by Gary Chapman
A James Stuart Bell Project
Loving Lavishly — Tamara Vermeer
The Potato Fiasco — Eileen Roddy
The Changeling — Louise D. Flanders
A Simple Cup of Cheer – Steven L. Brown
Drinking Milk with a Spoon — Doris E. Clark
The Hug I’ll Never Forget — Rebecca Willman Gernon
Between Mountain Streams and Ferris Wheels — Sheila Farmer
The Little Girl Who Changed My Life — Laurie Perkins
Opposites Attract — Then What? — Emily Osburne
The New Love-Room — Betty Johnson Dalrymple
A Christmas Miracle — Loretta J. Eidson
Between the Baby and Basketball — Kevin Lucia
A Reason to Live — Sudha Kristmutki
Better than Chocolate — Midge DeSart
Who’s Winning the War? — Laura Bradford
Lost and Found: Four Sisters — Sarah B. Hawkins
My Knight Knows — Leslie Payne
The Heartbeat of Springfield — Jon Hopkins
A Wounded Heart Set Free — Amy Chanan
Entering Molly’s World — Elsi Dodge
Just Call Me Babe — Donna Smith
When Sara Taught Me Freedom — Nancy Sheek
The Good with the Bad — Sheila Farmer
Every Day Adventures with Mom — Faith Waters
Trials and Errors — William Cuchens
It’s Not About Me — Christine McNamara
Not the Girl for My Son? — Ann Varnum
Silver-Boxed Kindness — Pamela Dowd
A Spring Tulip in Frozen Ground — Gena Bradford
Losing a Brother, Gaining a Son — Pierre Eade
All She Needed was Time — Katherine J. Crawford
The Day My Husband Prayed I’d Die — LaQuita Havens
The Battle of the Dishwasher — Susan Stanley
The Weather Kitten — Nancy Farrier
Say Goodbye to Your Mistress — Jennifer Devlin
The 50/50 Proposition — Sandy Cathcart
For Richer or Poorer — Chris Wright
The Price is Worth It — Jackie Strange
Pulling Weeds on Blossom Trail — Connie Pombo
Love’s Doorway — Nora Peacock