I’ve always been a writer — or rather, I’ve always had the capability to write. I’ve never met a thesis I didn’t like. Technical jargon and marketing content are my business. SEO is my second language (because let’s just be real, Spanish was not my forte). Resulting from my innate technical ability to string a sentence, I spent many years writing purely for function. I wrote to make the “A.” I wrote to get the job. I wrote to build a business and then I wrote to keep the business. All along the way, for what I’m sorry to say was far too long, my why was purely practical.
When I started Vertu Marketing in 2012, my why took on new life. Suddenly, I was helping people. Clients, yes, but I’m not talking about them — I’m talking about my Vertu family. I love them. I love that they love what they do. I truly believe everything about that journey was God ordained. And though I poured everything I had into growing a company, inside, I was fighting a different calling. I spent a long time telling other people to follow the dreams God placed in their hearts, to go for it so they could live without regrets. Meanwhile, I was silently, hypocritically, letting my fear of failure, and a fear of rejection, prevent me from following through on something I was supposed to do.
I knew definitively that I was called to write Christian fiction in 2014 (though my husband swears it was well before then). At the time, I told a handful of people I was going for it, but save for an outline of the story, and maybe two chapters of bad writing, that’s as far as it went for month, after month, after month.
At the beginning of this year, I found myself struggling with a rut — well, a chasm. I kept praying, “What’s next? What am I missing? What am I not doing?”
Each time I asked, I got the same answer, “You already know.” Finally, my lighting fast mind decided it was time to do things God’s way, so I faced my fears and finished my first Christian fiction novel.
Yes, I’m still running my company — that’s definitely not going to change. But now, I’m also doing something beyond myself. I’ve now given in to a new why.
I know you’re here to learn more about my writing, but I want to leave you with a message. Consider it a bonus “note from the author.” If you’re being called to something, no matter how scary, impractical or outside the box, don’t wait. Yes, people can be mean. Yes, stepping out in faith takes a lot of trust, but it’s so very worth it. After all is said and done, I am sorry it took me this long to be brave enough to actually publish my work. I could kick myself for letting fear win, because now I’m right where God wants me and it couldn’t be more right!