Mount Hermon’s New Director

Have you heard? The Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference has a new director. And it’s me!

I have loved this conference since I first attended in 1998, when Steve Laube encouraged me by telling me my writing was good. After attending four more years, and continuing to improve my craft (and in the meantime starting my freelance editing business), Gayle Roper invited me to serve on the manuscript critique team. The following year, Rachel Williams asked me to lead a fiction mentoring clinic as well, which I did for four years. In 2013, Rachel and Gayle honored me with the position of Critique Team Coordinator, which I’ve been enjoying tremendously ever since. Last year, I also taught a preconference Next Level Mentoring Clinic for beginning nonfiction writers.

When Mona Hodgson, who took over temporarily for Rachel a couple of years ago, told me she was ready to hand off the director job to someone else, I didn’t seriously consider it. After all, I have a lot of other things going on with my editing, my writing, the Christian Editor Network, and the new SoCal Christian Writers’ Conference! But when I read the job description on the Mount Hermon website, the qualifications seemed to fit me to a T. So I applied, figuring I should at least put my name in the hat on the off chance that this was what God wanted for me.

When I received a request for a phone interview, I wasn’t surprised. When they called a week later and offered me the position, I was! But knowing that every decision made by the Mount Hermon staff is bathed in prayer, I felt confident that if they chose me, it was ultimately God who chose me. And if He wanted me to do this job, I could be certain that He would provide whatever I needed to do it well.

The Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference has a long history of being an amazing place where aspiring, beginning, intermediate, and advanced writers can go to learn the craft, hone their skills, meet other authors, pitch projects to agents and publishers (and get personal feedback), explore publishing options, discover industry trends, work on their manuscripts, experience divine appointments, and be refreshed and inspired in the beautiful redwoods retreat setting. I love this year’s theme of “Writing as Worship,” because it espouses the very core of the Mount Hermon Writers Conference experience. I am deeply honored to have been chosen to direct this wonderful conference.

If you’ve never attended Mount Hermon, I hope you will prayerfully consider registering for 2017. You’ll find details on the impressive faculty and program that Mona Hodgson has already put together at http://writers.mounthermon.org/. (Thank you, Mona!) This conference is certain to be an incredible experience you won’t want to miss—wherever you are in your writing journey.

If you’ve attended Mount Hermon’s conference before, you know how awesome it is. I hope you will prayerfully consider coming back next year. Who knows what God may have in store for you there!

As you check out the details on the website, if you feel the Holy Spirit nudging you to consider the possibility of attending Mount Hermon 2017, take a step of faith and register. If you need help with the finances, you can apply for a scholarship during the registration process. But if this is what the Lord wants you to do, you can be assured that He will take care of all the details.

And you might be surprised at where God takes you next!