Seeking Excellence & Adhering to Christian Values

About Lee Desmond

Lee Desmond is Managing Director for RHEMA Publishing House. She lives in Colorado with her husband and two of her five children—all of whom may be scattered around the globe at any given time; has too many pets, is blessed to be called Nonni by her grandsons, and loves for people to visit when they travel to Colorado. Always thankful!

Never Give Up

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." When my children were school age and were in the throes of writing and reading, we drove a couple of hours away so they could take part in a writing workshop, given by authors who had written children's and youth literature—and who had been fairly successful. During one of the sessions about publishing (these were the days before self-publishing), the teacher commented that sometimes it takes awhile to get books published, but to never give up hope. He then mentioned a book we all knew very well; for ten years the author sent it to publisher after publisher, until one publishing house finally decided to take a chance. If he had not persevered, we might have never had Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness. Mr. Peretti may not have known at the time that his book would be a best-selling novel, but he did believe in the words he'd written—enough to have the courage to keep trying. Never give up. Greatness might be just around the corner. I have a friend who once wrote a curriculum for a class she was teaching. She asked several friends to read it so she could get feedback, because she was considering putting it into book format, hoping to sell it to a wider audience. The content wasn't something I would have ever considered reading for pleasure or even education. But one [...]

By |2018-04-09T14:11:52+00:00April 18th, 2017|How to Publish Your Work, The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on Never Give Up

Words = Power

Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Proverbs 16:24 I love words—reading them, writing them, teaching them, saying them. Words have power, and with them we bless or we curse. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire...  James 3:5b I teach writing to junior high and high school students, and one thing I stress to them is just how powerful words can be—that we should always measure what we say to others, whether in person, in a letter or email, when using social media, or whatever the situation. We should always use our to encourage and build up—never to bully or tear down—because we can't take them back. Like Thumper and our mothers taught us, "If we can't say something nice, it's better to say nothing at all." God's words Scripture tells us that God spoke the universe and all that is in it into existence! God's words created us! God's words are powerful! He also has given some of that creative power to us; and as writers, we have a great responsibility to speak/write into people's lives messages of grace and truth. But I'd take it a step further; we also have that responsibility as readers. Words are so powerful—what we write affects others and what we read affects us. How many times have you read something that stirred up emotion, made you angry or brought tears? The written word [...]

By |2018-04-09T13:58:29+00:00December 26th, 2016|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on Words = Power
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