Hello, My Name is Camille, And I'm A Wordaholic

We met for our local ACFW chapter meeting the other night. I never liked going first when there's a round-the-room intro, I always think of what I should have said after I hear everyone else.

I might have said: Hello--my name is Camille, and I'm a wordaholic.

About a year ago, I was thinking about writing a novel. I'd never heard of acfw, pov, mru, or storyworld or scene and sequel. Goal-Conflict-Disaster was just another name for parenting teens. Definitely never heard of making a novel out of a snowflake. Head hoppers and pantsers could have been slang for the people I quit hanging around after I got saved.

A year ago the thought never entered my mind to quit making homestyle dinners and cleaning toilets, to join a critque group, to spend hours and hours into the night pounding at the keyboard, to sign up for feeds from writing blogs and leave posts everywhere like a puppy in training, to attend writing workshops, to read stacks of books on writing craft, to download a fiction writing course, to think about how to market myself, or to attend a writer's conference. Or to whine to gracious, wise ones for extra help in getting it right. When I look at the bio I am crafting for my upcoming proposal, I see someone who didn't exist a year ago. Pretty weird when I think about it.

I'm counting down the days until the MT HERMON CHRISTIAN WRITER'S CONFERENCE in March. Lately I've been glued to a few pages of a proposal and the first few of my story that keeps shedding skin and emerging a tiny bit tighter each time, and talking about little else besides pre-subbing and morning tracks and elevator pitches and agent panels and the one thing to never include on the business card when you're unpublished. A year ago, this would have been a foreign language. To family and friends, it still is.

I wonder where I'd be today if a year ago someone told me what writing a novel actually takes.

I'd like to think . . . I'd be right here. In a maniacal frenzy to get ready for MT Hermon.


Oh, here's that bio.

Qualifications: Camille has a PhD in Learning Things the Hard Way. She’s acquainted with dysfunction, pain, despair, and the hope that comes from knowing Christ. She’s a cynic saved by grace who simply wants to encourage herself and others to turn that amazing grace around and use it on those other pesky people.

Camille lives with her family in Oregon. She has been relentlessly pursuing the craft of writing. She is an active member of the Oregon Christian Writers, The American Christian Fiction Writers and her local ACFW chapter where she serves on the board of directors. Camille is a member of The Writer’s View2 and other quality Christian online writing communities that encourage and cultivate literary excellence. She meets with a local critique group. Her past writing credits include two published newspaper articles; she also produces church newsletters and scripts used in drama presentations.

Love Worth Fire is her first novel.