Send, Submit, Publish, Print

When I first started writing, I had no idea who my audience would be.  I only new one other blogger personally. Kim and I were college friends, and I learned about blogging through her.  From then on, I searched out and read other blogs for two reasons:

1. To read
2. To be read

My thinking was a that if I visited other blogs and left comments, that maybe those people would visit my blog and share it others.

As time passed, I came across Wives of Faith, an online community for military spouses.  As a new military spouse, I fell in love with WoF and made some fabulous online friends.  I've written a couple of blog posts that have been published on the website.  You can read them HERE.  It was exciting to write something that could possibly be published somewhere other than my blog.  However, it was nerve wrecking waiting to hear whether or not my blog post was good enough.  I felt like it it wasn't, then I wasn't a good writer.  I've overcome that to a point and realize that my topic of choice may not be what they were looking for at that time.

Eventually, I joined a Bible study group through WoF.  Not to study the Bible, but to write a Bible study.  I felt this was an amazing opportunity.  My topic was close to my heart because it related to the deployment my family was experiencing.  Unfortunately, it took longer than I anticipated to write the study.  I was new at this type of writing, my husband was home from deployment, and I became pregnant and had a miscarriage.  I finally got my study completed and turned in.  However, I don't know what's happened with it.  I never heard back from anyone in the group. I didn't get feedback on it.  Needless to say, I was quite disappointed.  I'm still hoping that it's in the archives somewhere and will make it online or in print sometime.  As a military spouse, I realize that things happen, priorities change, and sometimes things just don't work out the way we planned.

Later, I was fortunate enough to complete the Olive Drab Pom Poms Bible study with Kori Yates.  Shortly after that, Kori launched a new online community called Planting Roots.  I was also given the opportunity to submit blog post for this blog as well.  Feel free to read them HERE.  One of my favorite submissions was chosen to publish.  Because Planting Roots is also a Christian military community, I was really nervous about this piece. It related more to love and marriage than military topics.  However, I was pleasantly pleased with how it turned out because it connected my love of love songs with the love of Christ.  You can read Living a Love Song HERE.

These are the only two places I have submitted work to.  I became a bit giddy when I saw that my favorite Christian radio station had an online blog.  My brain got to work thinking of possibilities, but I have yet to submit anything.

My wish is to have the time (unlimited time) to really dive into writing.  To put my heart and God's heart together and write.  Although I'd love to publish a book, I'm content with this little space.  It's working for me right now.  I do have a desire for more though, and maybe I will recognize the time for more, but not force that time to come sooner.  I am looking for opportunities to write; it's just difficult working full time and raising little ones.  I tell my husband all the time to just get rich so I can write.  He says I need to write a book and then get rich, that way we can both do the other things we desire.

Whatever happens, I've discovered that writing is a part of me. I will write whether I'm sending, submitting, publishing, printing, or holding on to my words.  I'm grateful for the opportunities that online communities provide for women like me.