I recently finalized my plans to attend Ted Dekker’s The Gathering in June in Nashville. Ted is an amazing writer and truly one of my favorite novelists. His books have been a huge influence on my decision to pursue writing. The Gathering is basically a one-day conference for his fans, but it’s a little more than that.
Ted’s going to be talking a lot about what it takes to get published, his thoughts on the Christian Fiction market, and answering questions about his books. Apparently there will be some big wig publishing folks there answering questions as well. There’s also going to be a panel of some other writers (I know Eric Wilson will be there…another one of my favorites. He is releasing a brand new trilogy this fall featuring vampires, which is really unheard of in the Christian Fiction world). Ted’s book, House, has been made into a film and it was scheduled to release in theaters last fall. For some reason it was held up and is now scheduled to open this fall. I’m really excited because at The Gathering they are showing a sneak preview of the movie! Currently it is rated R because of the violence and the intensity, so I’m real interested to see what that’s all about. All the participants will receive an advanced copy of his upcoming book, Sinner, as well.
This is a great opportunity for me and something I hope will give me some more inspiration and insight into being a novelist. I’m still very passionate about wanting to write, but I have really struggled with finding the time and motivation. I have really wanted to give up a few times, but something always happens to encourage me to keep going. Just last week Randy Singer emailed me to thank me for a review and to encourage me in my writing. I’ve never emailed him before so I was really blown away that he contacted me and took the time to give me some helpful advice. I’m also so thankful for Angie and how supportive she is. I was really hoping she could go to The Gathering with me, but we just couldn’t work that out. She’s been super great about encouraging me to go anyway. She is so understanding and so good to me. I am blessed!
After the trip I will try to give a little report here on what it was like. Hopefully I will have some cool pictures of me and Ted to share and some exciting Dekker news about his future books. Maybe I can even write about the movie. Stay tuned!
