The Story behind the Book: GodSway (Keathley)


 

Today's book back story is about Diana Keathley's book, GodSway.


From the author -- 


GodSway: My Anecdotes with God as a book has had its own journey. Obviously, the interactions

with God were special when they happened. I treasured them in my heart even as a child. They

continued to happen the more I pursued Him, and I cherished each encounter. The idea of a book

didn’t cross my mind, however, until one year when I was prepping my Spanish Immersion 4 th -

graders for Spring testing. They were confusing the word anecdote with antidote. To illustrate the

difference I used a short true story from my own life about when my family had a house fire. [No

spoiler alerts here. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happened!] At the end of the

story, the children were quiet. One wide-eyed girl expressed what they were all thinking. “ Ms.

Keathley, did that really happen?!” In the middle of my matter-of-fact answer that yes, it was all

quite true, I felt that nudge from the Spirit as if He were telling me ‘remember this moment- note

their reaction.’


Thinking later about how enrapt my 4th-graders were, and their eagerness to know that it was a

true story, the Spirit clearly impressed upon me that people can be inspired and have their faith

built up by these true stories; that I needed to write down the events from my life of God’s

extraordinary goodness, impeccable timing, and intimate presence.


The following summer I first began making lists of the encounters with one line descriptions to

remind myself later. Next I began writing out a few of the more salient ones in individual story

form, and started entering them into contests. I was almost immediately validated when “A

Father’s Answer” won an award and cash prize from the Arizona Literary Association, and was

published in the Centennial issue of their Arizona Literary Magazine. Shortly thereafter, the

same story won a $1000 cash prize in the Amy Writing Awards and was published along with the

other winners in their Foundation’s publication and featured on their website for a year.

Once I retired from Tulsa Public Schools, I was submitting more individual stories to a wide

variety of contests but the awards and accolades had trailed off and things seemed to be bogged

down. I never actually decided to stop submitting, but the private school where I taught part-time

closed, and I became preoccupied with finding steady work again. About that time Nowlin saw

an ad in the Sunday newspaper which he handed to me saying emphatically, “you need to see

this!”


I read the YWCA Tulsa ad about their full time position for Language Services Manager. After

mentally checking off every qualification requirement: Fluent in Spanish, current OK teaching

certificate, Masters degree, management experience preferred, experience working with

immigrant families a plus, I realized, “This has my name written all over it!”


Implicit in my almost 8-year stay at YWCA Tulsa Immigrant and Refugee Services was an equal

length hiatus from my own writing goals. I was utterly absorbed in my I&R work as the

Language Services Manager, and in that position I acquired many skills I would later use to

advance those goals once I resumed their pursuit.


When COVID-19 hit, I was no less passionate about the work at I&R, but I was exhausted, and

began to doubt that I was the right person to lead our department through lock-downs and online

classes. The world of education and learning was changing quickly, including the grant testing

requirements, and it seemed a mountain impossible to climb for me. I sensed it was time to retire

again.


It took me the first year of full retirement to wean myself away from eating, sleeping, and

breathing YWCA I&R. But after a while, I began to feel the writing urge again. I knew it was

time to work on a cohesive manuscript. I happened to get an email from Marilyn Collins, an

author/speaker/publisher who specializes in memoirs, about a 3-week training she was doing. It

was Marilyn who helped me recognize the place where I had dumped everything but the kitchen

sink into one chapter, and how to separate the threads out into smaller strands and make them

more understandable.


With the tips I’d picked up from that workshop it was time to go back through the manuscript

with a fine-toothed comb and make it one whole cohesive unit. I spent many months rereading

and refining. I broke up long paragraphs, and simplified complicated sentences, improving

appearance on the page and readability. I looked for places where I reintroduced a character that

was already known – a lingering side effect of the individual story phase – I rewrote ending and

beginning paragraphs to make sure the chapters flowed together better.


By mid-2022, I was satisfied that the manuscript was as good as I could make it on my own, and

began to think and pray about how to get it in the hands of the right people. I bought a writer’s

guide with lists of publishers, and tips of all kinds. I learned how to write a non-fiction book

proposal and a good query letter. I studied and prioritized the publishers which published in the

categories where I thought GodSway would fit: memoirs, religion, and spirituality. I made a

spreadsheet of information (a skill I acquired during my time at YWCA) for that prioritized

group of publishers, to see in one place and be able to compare them, according to their

submission process, the response time, royalties paid, and many other variables. The first group

of publishers I planned to submit to had all three of GodSway’s categories in common. I

narrowed it to 4 who responded to queries within a few months or less. There was one in

particular that caught my eye – MSI Press responded to query by email within two weeks!

After receiving my query email, the editor, Betty Leaver, bypassed the proposal stage; she

wanted to see the whole manuscript. Sometime in September we signed the contract, and the rest,

as they say, is history.


New York Book Festival finalist
Hollywood Book Festival finalist

For more posts about Diana and her book, click HERE.

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