Happy 50th Anniversary, BRMCWC!

The blog posts you read each week are a result of God opening a door. I had no idea this door existed, nor did I know I could or even wanted to write. Oh, I’d dabbled in little things—poems to teach our boys how to pass the poetry unit in high school or simple little stories for our granddaughters when they came along. This post is about where all that began.

Back in 2014, I attended my first Christian writing conference. Because my sweet sister Bobbie Foshee told me about Lorraine Snelling’s website (I didn’t know authors had websites), I was able to find a link to the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writing Conference, BRMCWC. A God-incidence, it was being held the same week we had to be in Asheville for a final walk-through of a home we were building in the area.

Hubby told me to sign up right away.

LIFE-CHANGING EVENT AND PEOPLE

That conference changed my life.

People stepped into my life who, to this day, have had a lasting impact even though they may not even know it. A standout is the lovely unknown prayer warrior who followed me out of the large gathering, my heart in pieces over a burden far too heavy for me to carry alone. She put her arm around my shoulders which shook with each sob and simply began to pray over me.

Then there is Yvonne Lehman, who invited me to join her writing group. “Sugar, you need to come join our group.” I honestly thought she was kidding until the next year when she asked me again to join them. This time, I took her seriously. We gathered at her home on Saturday afternoons for a few years. Here I met Cindy Sproles, Denise Locke, Diana Flegal, Joni Vance, Lori Marett, Sarah Loudon Thomas, Debbie Presnell, and many others who have become dear friends. (I apologize if I didn’t mention you.)

Edie Melson, the co-director of the conference became my first ever social media coach. Y’all she has the patience of a saint because I’m one of the most tech-challenged souls on the face of the earth. She helped me set up my blog, Relatively Southern, and I’ve been blogging almost every week since 2015.

DiAnn Mills co-directed BRMCWC and related conferences with Edie for many years. She is an excellent teacher, and I thank her for the encouragement and help she poured into me at all these conferences.

Eva Marie Everson, author, teacher, conference director (Florida Christian Writers Conference), Word Weavers International President, and friend, edited my first novel. Let me assure you, I would not have been published without her help.

Eddie Jones, former owner of Light House Publishing of the Carolinas, took a chance on an unpublished author, and picked up my book, Grave Consequences, A Charlotte Graves Mystery in January of 2019. I was published in 2020 after he sold to Iron Stream Media. I am forever in debt to these two publishing houses. If I told you the connections at ISM, you wouldn’t believe such a thing could even happen, were it not for God.

Andrea Merrell edited my second novel, Grave Decisions, A Charlotte Graves Mystery. If you see her, ask her about how I introduced myself to her in the cafeteria at BRMCWC. I think she’s still trying to recover from that. Andrea, you turned my pitiful, mess of a manuscript (talk about Murder of a Manuscript) into something that I could never have done without you. Thank you!

Happy 50th Anniversary BRMCWC! @DDuPreeWilliams #writing #BRMCWC #YvonneLehman Share on X

STILL WRITING AND LEARNING

I still blog and attend conferences, and I’ve won a few awards along the way. I’m so thankful.

All of this to say, you never know what kind of impact attending a writing conference will have on your life. Be brave. Put yourself out there. It isn’t too late to enter the Foundations contests. They cover just about any genre you can name.

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the founding of this conference by the unforgettable, and so-loved Yvonne Lehman. The conference is one of the biggest and best out there for the Christian writer.

I’d like to thank all the people who’ve led, taught, keynoted, or prayed for this conference over the years. You may never know the impact you’ve had on someone’s life. Someone like me. A simple girl from south Alabama, who never even thought about becoming a published author prior to the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.

Happy Anniversary, BRMCWC. Here’s to the next fifty years!

AN INVITATION TO YOU

Come join us, and your life can be changed, too.

Blessings, y’all!

We’ve seen Guy in person twice and he has blessed us abundantly. Love his album, Breathe! Sooo good.