Faith, Fiction and a Whole Lot More

This past weekend I participated in the Faith & Fiction Retreat in Orlando, Florida. It was a well-planned, well-executed event that I truly enjoyed, thanks to Tiffany & Brent Warren and the F&F staff.

I made plans to attend as soon as the conference info was released, but up until last week, my attendance was seriously in doubt. But God has a way of opening doors that I cannot see! Angela Benson needed to find a roommate to take her place since her mom was joining her at the conference. That meant I could afford the hotel costs! My uncle came up with the airplane ticket at the last minute and off I went!

After landing in Florida, the first person I met on the shuttle to the hotel was Rhonda McKnight. Though we’d never met in person, we’ve chatted online for months. Rhonda is so sweet and knowledgeable and we talked the whole trip to the hotel. She was so kind to introduce me to some of the other participants at the meet and greet. (Praying for you Rhonda!!!)

After checking into the Villas of Grand Cypress (which is an amazing and elegant resort), I headed for the Meet & Greet in our hospitality suite. There I reconnected with Daphine Glenn Robinson (my BWRC friend) and met my roommate, Linda Leigh Hargrove. Linda is a an author and such a down to earth, sweet person with a terrific sense of humor. (Okay, she thought I was funny, but that’s not saying much.) I also met Angela Benson (first time in person) and other authors and readers. Tiffany and her staff made us all feel so welcome, and we spent time getting to know each other and share in our love of reading and writing (among other things).

The next day, I overslept and nearly missed the first session. But the entire day was filled with wonderful discussions. Authors Angela Benson, Pat G-org Walker, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Tiffany Warren, Tia McCollors, along with Linda, Daphine and Rhonda were all excellent presenters with so much information to share. Our book discussions with Tiffany, ReShonda, Angela and Tia were so much fun.

Lunch and dinner allowed for us to just enjoy each other’s company in informal settings. All the authors were funny and kind and willing to share everything about the writing process and the industry itself. (The Author Mentoring Q & A  was my favorite session.) We had spoken word by Stella and Ashe, which was another highlight.

Sharing with the book club reps was also a treat, as we were able to introduce them to new works and they in turn shared how they choose new books and were able to tell us what they enjoyed about our writing.

The only hiccup was the book orders that did not come through. This was in no way the fault of Tiffany and Brent (who were so apologetic and upset themselves) but in the book chain they had worked with who failed to do their job properly. (It’s a national chain that I’m not going to call out, but if you want to know, email me.)

I left with a renewed sense of purpose and energy in my spirit to continue writing what and how I do. Now if I can just get my body to cooperate!

I’m going to post a more detailed account as soon as I can get my energy up!

The time of my life

I just sat through “Dirty Dancing.”

Not the Broadway musical, but the original movie starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. I haven’t seen it from the begining to end in a long time, though I know it by heart now. I’ve seen parts of it so many times, I can quote lines. I know the backstory of the filming and the fighting between the two leads. The movie is over 20 years old.

And yet, sitting through it, I still want to get up and dance. I want Johnny to come up to my table and say, “Nobody puts Donna in a corner.” Then we go up and do the incredible dance at the end, including the lift. You know the lift – the one she’s too afraid to do. The line that makes it for me is, “You will hurt me if you don’t trust me.” Johnny says that while they’re practicing the lifts in the lake. But in the end, that’s the real point of the movie’s theme: until she trusted him completely, everything she did would hurt him. But when she did – confessing to her father about their relationship – it was wonderful.

But that’s not what makes this movie so special to me.

When the movie first premiered in 1987, I went with my college roommates, Patti and Kimberly, for Kimby’s birthday. We argued about who used whom (I was Switzerland; I thought they used each other). But after that, practically every Friday night, we piled into cars and headed to the Bremen movie theater and watched it fo $1.00. We tried to do “dirty dancing” in our dorm suite, which was pretty pitiful since we were all girls. We convinced a friend of ours (another Patti) to do a lift in the stairwell. We also debated the themes of abortion, premarital sex, lying, etc. (we were at a Christian college). But we loved the movie and the music.

So I watched the movie again tonight. And for a few moments, I was transported back to those wonderful Friday nights at the Bremen theater with my roommates and best friends. I remembered the fun, the laughter, the dancing.

We’ve all grown up and moved on. Most of us are married; some of us have kids. “Dirty Dancing” was pretty tame considering what’s out there now. And I wonder how our kids will react to the movie (especially the boys). We’re scattered across the globe and rarely keep in touch these days. And somewhere, wherever they are, “Dirty Dancing” is proably being shown on television.

And I hope that Patti, Kimby, Sherry, Wendy and Heather will sit down and watch it again. And I hope they’ll remember that wonderful time in our lives.