done!!!

Today I’m excited. Because today I have finally finished (that is the first draft) of Bible Drive-Thru. During my morning writing session this very day I completed the last of 366 daily devotions taking kids through the Bible.

This doesn’t mean that every chapter and verse of the Bible is covered at all. Rather, it is “through” in the sense that each book has at least one reading from it. Also “through” in that it is chronological. This means that the readings don’t take one through the Bible books in the order they appear in our Bibles but (as close as I could figure out) as they happened or were written. For example, readings from the prophets are interspersed within the stories of the kings and the last readings from the Old Testament section are from Nehemiah.

This has been a long project. I first started working on it in 2003. In the spring of 2004 I finished the New Testament section. Two years ago (March 16, 2005) I wrote this in my blog:

“At the moment I am working on a second book of children’s devotions. I started this project about two years ago, after praying for a book idea (up to that time I’d only written articles and stories).

My plans grew from making it a book of only a few devotions, to one for each day of the year plus February 29th = 366. The sheer scope of it discouraged me, however––my vision was to take kids through the whole Bible, extracting lessons from the Bible texts. Finally I completed one third of it (122 devotions) in the spring of last year. It goes through the New Testament.

Since completing that part of the project, I’ve been restless. I delayed doing more work on it, though, waiting for a response on the first part. But I found it was hard to go back to doing just small things after doing book-length. A few weeks ago, I was whining to God about this –– as I’d done before –– and asking him for the fire in my belly to start something book-length and new. Then I heard this: You already have a project. You just need to finish it.

So now, even though I’m going about it all wrong (conventional wisdom says I should have queried book publishers until I found someone interested in taking a look at the finished project, and then written it up) and am still often tempted to wonder whether this is really how I should spend my days, all I need to do is recall my little interchange with God and observe the quiet writing afternoons I’ve been given, to know... I’m supposed to be writing this book.”

Even after that, my dedication to it was on-and-off. I’d write three or four entries a week and then also work on other stuff.

Finally after completing about sixty entries in the Old Testament section, I settled on a new approach. Since I knew I wanted the devotional to fill a whole year, I decided to spend time mapping out the remainder of the book before writing any more. Thus for several hours a week last January to March, I made my outline.

Then came the spring crisis of last year when both Ernie’s and my mothers got sick – and died. I did a little on the book during that time but was pretty distracted. Winding down my home-based medical transcription business last May helped, though.

Fall of 2006 saw me make some new writing resolutions. I decided, for one, to stop being ‘double-minded.’ I would devote my writing time to only this (and blogging and book reviews and a poetry column I write for FellowScript and my poetry book. Yikes - I wasn’t as single-minded as I thought!). I also made it my goal to write ten entries per week. I didn’t always meet that goal but came pretty close. The end in sight motivated me too. That end was reached today.

Now, what’s next for this monstrosity (three binders of manuscript!)? After taking a little break from it, I need to go through the whole thing again, checking on the accuracy of the references, answers to questions/quizzes (there’s lots of interaction), as well as editing for wordiness, continuity, focus, simplicity of language etc.

As for getting it published ... I don’t know. I’ve shopped it around a fair bit but so far there are no takers. The most interest I’ve had is from Creation House, an imprint of Charisma. But Creation House is basically self-publish (they edit, publish and do some marketing, I pay the bill). This is not exactly what I had in mind.

There are other options – making it into an e-book, putting it up as a blog, trying to find an agent who will push it for me. That decision, bathed in prayer and more prayer, will be made in due course. Right now, though, I’m basking in the glow of getting it done!