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.
For more posts about Diana and her book, click HERE.
in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book?
Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book?
Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25)
and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.
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