MOUNT HERMON CAREER TRACK

I just returned from the Mount Hermon Christian Writers' Conference where I oversee their Career Track. For those of you not familiar with the Track, I'll give a little more information. It is held during the regular conference, but is run almost like a separate conference. If you attend the regular conference, you go to the same Major Morning Session on a topic of your choice every morning. Then in the afternoon you have your choice of several workshops. In the Career Track, the participants spend both the Major Morning time and the workshop hours in the same track.

The Career Track is for "career writers" who have contracts for at least two books--at least one of which has gone through the complete publishing process. This year some of our authors had up to 40 books published. We were delighted to have such authors as Patsy Clairmont, Debbie Macomber, Karen Young, DiAnn Mills, and Robin Jones Gunn as participants in the class--as well as many other names you would recognize. The class focuses on the topics of interest to career writers--offering help, networking, and instruction at a level not covered at any other conference.

Although I oversee the track, the energy and creativity come from the rest of my team: Karen Ball, fiction editor at B & H Publishing; and Janet Kobobel Grant and Wendy Lawton from the Books and Such Literary Agency. These are people who know the industry inside and out and offer their expertise to the track as well.

This year's track exceeded even our expectations. Here are a couple of quotes from the evaluation sheets:

"These sessions have deepened my spiritual and professional outlook--and a renewed commitment to promote God through my books."

"This was so amazing, and I was so honored to be a part of this group. I learned SO much--and feel equipped and prepared as I move forward. I will always want to be in this group now--everything was so worthwhile. I loved it!"

Each year the track gets better, so we hope you will put this on your calendar for next year if you qualify. Dates for next year's conference are April 3-7. You must apply to attend this track, but you can do that (as well as seeing the full schedule for next year)starting December 1, 2008, on the Mount Hermon Website: www.mounthermon.org/writers. This conference does not send out a printed brochure--all info is on the Website.