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Jessica Ferguson

Author, Writing Coach, Speaker

IWSG: The Mentor

February 2, 2022 By Jessica Ferguson 7 Comments

It’s IWSG DAY! 

We post the first Wednesday of every month and our purpose is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds.

 Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

Our awesome co-hosts for the February 2 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler,Jacqui Murray, Sandra Cox, and Lee Lowery!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post—always optional.

February 2 question – Is there someone who supported or influenced you that perhaps isn’t around anymore? Anyone you miss? 

There is one person very dear to my heart who encouraged my writing—my English/creative writing teacher at Stephen F. Austin University. I took several classes from him and wrote my first novel in an independent studies class for him. He never failed to encourage me, tell me the truth and ask what I was working on. Sometimes I’d go to his office to talk writing with him and share rejection slips because he was a writer too, with poems and short fiction published. I guess you could say I trusted him with the voices in my head that wanted to be on paper.

To this very day, I hear Dr. Fred A. Rodewald’s voice in my head. Mainly, he’s telling my characters to, “Think! Think! Think!”

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When he read my first novel he pointed out that I had failed with what was called back then the action, reaction thing. When my main character acted, she needed to think afterwards. After all, one doesn’t shoot someone, or push a man over a ledge without thinking afterwards? Right?

I think my character went through 150 pages without much introspection. I finally mastered it, but later in my writing life so many of my contest judges criticized my introspection. Too much, too much, too much! they often said. I suppose there’s a happy balance in everything, even thinking.

I’ve studied writing just about all my life. Even back in the 70s I knew that one never sent out a messy manuscript that had strike-overs. Don’t know what that is? We old folks typed our books on typewriters. Every correction and rewrite was like starting from scratch. Invariably, corrections usually changed the page numbers by pushing a paragraph onto another page. Writing in the “old” days was a chore. Only those who truly loved it stuck with it.

My friend and mentor, Fred, would strike over the letters to correct the typo; he wouldn’t erase it or use whiteout. I often wondered if he mailed out his short fiction with those strike-overs, but I never asked. Do we know how blessed we are that we don’t have to do that any more–or deal with Whiteout? Boy! I do!

Dr. Rodewald and I traded letters for a good number of years, keeping each other informed of failures and successes. He’s been retired for a number of years but he still lives in Nacogdoches, Texas. He no longer writes. I like to visualize him sitting on his back porch creating poems and short stories (even novels) in his head because a real writer never quits writing. He always considered me a real writer, and I appreciated that. That was the greatest encouragement of all. In my eyes, he was a real writer too.

Fred gave me his one and only mystery novel to do with what I please. It’s about a man searching for his daughter. I still have it—somewhere.

To do with what I please.

What does one do with someone else’s novel?

Filed Under: IWSG Tagged With: Dr. Fred A. Rodewald, encouragement, IWSG, Mentor, real writer, writer

IWSG Day: ETBU Conference Part II

November 3, 2015 By Jessica Ferguson 18 Comments

Today is IWSG day because it’s the first Wednesday of the month. InsecureWritersSupportGroupIWSG stands for Insecure Writers Support Group and was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh.  Our purpose is to share and encourage. You can follow other IWSG members here or on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG. We also have a Facebook page.

Monday I blogged about my trek to Marshall, Texas, to attend the ETBU Conference. If you’re interested you can backtrack and read Part I but each post stands alone—as they say in the world of series writing.

ben carson bookpiper bookWhen I registered for the conference, I signed up for an appointment with one of my favorite guys in the entire realm of Christian writing and publishing. Yes, you guessed it—Cecil Murphey. Cec is author of a whole slew of books but two you might recognize are Gifted Hands: the Ben Carson Story, and 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life.

I’d never met Cec but I’ve read his blog and I’m on a couple writing loops with him. I’ve emailed him with questions through the years, and he’s always been generous with answers. I think that’s unusual. There are other authors I’ve emailed with questions who say they don’t have time or that they’ll get back with me, and never do.

cecil_writercecil_writer2My appointment with Cec was at ten o’clock sharp on Saturday morning, and my session with Caleb Pirtle III (The Magic of Storytelling) ended at exactly ten 0’clock. One of my pet peeves is people coming and going during writing sessions; it’s disruptive. So what did I do? Well, uh, I skipped my appointment. Crazy, huh? It surprised me too, but you know, face to face Cec might not be as kind as online Cec. (Yes, that actually crossed my mind. Insecurity is an ugly thing!)

I felt so guilty. I visualized Cec sitting there waiting, looking at his watch, wondering why I didn’t show.

In my next session, all of a sudden I got a text message from Elizabeth Hoyer who handled the conference paperwork: “Jessica, Cecil Murphey is trying to get in touch with you.”

Whaaaat? Never in all my days have I had an appointment track me down. Not that I miss a lot of appointments—actually not Cecilany, but I’d bet good money all those agents and editors I’ve met with over the years wouldn’t have missed me, much less tracked me down. I texted Elizabeth back, apologized, and told her I’d be in Cec’s 2:45 session and not to worry about the appointment. In her next text Cec2she gave me his cell phone number. He wanted me to call him.

Call Cecil Murphey—THE Cecil Murphey—on the phone?

I didn’t call. I texted Elizabeth: “It’s not necessary to put himself out. Sorry for the trouble.”

Elizabeth responded: “No, it’s fine. He gave me his number for you, he has appointments before and after his class so you can set up another time to meet.”

What pressure!

I still didn’t call Cec, but I texted him and we set up an appointment for 2:30–EXACTLY when my session with Kristen Clark (How to Write and Publish Your Inspirational Short Story) was supposed to begin.

I know what you’re thinking and you’re right. Sometimes my elevator stops between floors. Here I was at a conference especially to meet Cecil Murphey, but I seemed to be running from him. Was it nerves? What was going on with me?

Hubby went to Kristen’s workshop and promised to take good notes and save me a seat. I had no idea how long my appointment with Cec would be–probably no longer than five or ten minutes. I trekked off to find him.

The moment our eyes met–haha–actually, the moment he read my name-tag, he apologized for the mix-up. Mix-up? You’ll be proud to know I took full responsibility and confessed to standing him up.

We walked outside, the sun peeked from behind the clouds. No, really, it did. It had rained all night and part of the morning. Sitting on a bench in the sun, we talked. And talked. And talked. For thirty minutes!

He told me I was the only one of his appointments that didn’t send him something to critique. I told him I just wanted to meet him, to thank him, to tell him how much he’d meant to me over the years. That he would take the time to answer questions in detail from someone he didn’t know … He’d been a mentor—and didn’t know it.

Cec and JessWas I too gushy? Too forward? Do you think I scared him? (I still have his cell number in my phone and I do have stalker tendencies. Not to worry. He probably used a conference throw-away.)

We talked about everything from writing to praying. He advised me on some things I had questions about and shared some of his writing plans. That thirty minutes was worth the price of the entire conference–doubled!

Have you ever read someone’s book, their blog and just known deep down in your gut that you have a connection with that person? That you share something? That’s the way I’ve always felt about Cecil Murphey. And after meeting him, I thank God he was exactly as I’ve always imagined.

On Friday, I’ll tell you about my last three sessions at the ETBU Conference.

Filed Under: Conferences, IWSG Tagged With: conference, encouragement, IWSG, Mentor

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Acts 4:20

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