In What I Wish I Had Known about the Writing Process recently, I said that I didn't think about seeking a mentor when I struggled to begin and shape my first book that was published in the UK in 1996.
Yet, I had had two mentors, women who encouraged me often, and I later I realized how important their input has remained.
They were sisters, unmarried, at least fifteen years older than I, and they served in the church I attended. The younger sister was the most sincere and faithful greeter that any church could hope to have. Greeting, in a church, is an art and a gift, I think, as a lot of people enter for the first time smiling, yet feeling confused or deeply hurt.
The other sister led the missions outreach of the church for a long time. She cared deeply that others be able to go wherever God called them, whether to teach in seminaries or Bible schools, to practice medicine, or to help local pastors.
The sister who greeted at the front door of the church on Sundays was Sadye, and it was her sister Grace who learned of my interest in writing. One Sunday she recommended I read a book by an author named Eugenia Price.
"A copy is in the library," she said, offering to go there with me. It was waiting: St. Simon's Memoir. I grew so attached to it that I eventually bought my own copy, which I still have.
That book led me to Eugenia Price's St. Simon's trilogy of books based on the Georgia island's history and its connections with the prosperous Gould family of New York.
I still wish I could write with the emotional impact of Eugenia Price, who made it look easy in spite of the "stubborn words," as she called them, that fought her when writing a novel.
I think of all three women--Sadye, Grace, and Eugenia--as among the best mentors I could have had. It was the personal, warm attention in the sisters, and the expressiveness of the St. Simons author, that helped me believe I might be able to finish a book.
Whether in the flesh or in their words on pages, writing mentors give to us the caring of their hearts. They want to see us succeed.
I think that is why I value so much now the art that I work to develop, use, and refine daily, the heart that I believe belongs within the art of mentoring.
Yet, I had had two mentors, women who encouraged me often, and I later I realized how important their input has remained.
They were sisters, unmarried, at least fifteen years older than I, and they served in the church I attended. The younger sister was the most sincere and faithful greeter that any church could hope to have. Greeting, in a church, is an art and a gift, I think, as a lot of people enter for the first time smiling, yet feeling confused or deeply hurt.
The other sister led the missions outreach of the church for a long time. She cared deeply that others be able to go wherever God called them, whether to teach in seminaries or Bible schools, to practice medicine, or to help local pastors.
The sister who greeted at the front door of the church on Sundays was Sadye, and it was her sister Grace who learned of my interest in writing. One Sunday she recommended I read a book by an author named Eugenia Price.
"A copy is in the library," she said, offering to go there with me. It was waiting: St. Simon's Memoir. I grew so attached to it that I eventually bought my own copy, which I still have.
That book led me to Eugenia Price's St. Simon's trilogy of books based on the Georgia island's history and its connections with the prosperous Gould family of New York.
I still wish I could write with the emotional impact of Eugenia Price, who made it look easy in spite of the "stubborn words," as she called them, that fought her when writing a novel.
I think of all three women--Sadye, Grace, and Eugenia--as among the best mentors I could have had. It was the personal, warm attention in the sisters, and the expressiveness of the St. Simons author, that helped me believe I might be able to finish a book.
Whether in the flesh or in their words on pages, writing mentors give to us the caring of their hearts. They want to see us succeed.
I think that is why I value so much now the art that I work to develop, use, and refine daily, the heart that I believe belongs within the art of mentoring.
No comments:
Post a Comment