You're Never too Old! Introducing Ane Milligan's debut novel, Chapel Springs Revival! Plus a giveaway!!

Today, I'd like you all to welcome my friend and fellow writer Ane Milligan! 
Please congratulate her on her debut novel, Chapel Springs Revival.  To help her celebrate this great achievement, I'm giving away a copy to one lucky winner. Simply leave a comment below related to Ane's article (be sure to include your email address)  and I'll pick a winner next Friday. (Ebook if international, paperback withing the US!)  

I met Ane at an ACFW conference long ago. I've never told Ane this but when I attended that conference I was scared out of my wits. I didn't know anyone and felt so out of place. Ane immediately came up to me and called me by name then helped me find my name tag. She really made me feel welcome. She is a loving and Godly woman and I hope you'll go out and buy her book and support her ministry. 

Chapel Springs Revival

With a friend like Claire, you'll need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel. 

Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It's impossible not to, what with Claire's zany antics and Patsy's self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is personal.

With their marriages in as much disarray as the town, Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives. That is if they can convince their husbands and the town council, led by two curmudgeons who would prefer to see Chapel Springs left in the fifties and closed to traffic.

Links to purchase

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, Ane has worn many different ones: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), business manager, drama director and author. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction (try saying that three times fast). A multi-published playwright, humor columnist, Ane's debut book, Chapel Springs Revival, releases Sept 8th. She resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband, their Chef son, and two dogs of Biblical proportion.

Find Ane on
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You're never too old!

Don't let anyone ever tell you you're too old to dream a new dream or start a new career. After all, Sarah was 90-plus when she became a mother. Noah was over a hundred when he became a shipbuilder. Moses was a card-carrying member of AARP when he led the nation of Israel out of Egypt.

So, why not me?

God called me to writing in December 2002, using Hubs to say the words, and I put pen to paper—okay, fingers to keyboard—on January 1^st, 2003 just four days before my 56^th birthday.

I had a long way to go before realizing that dream with a publishing contract. It took a few years to learn the craft of novel writing. I'd been a published playwright for seven years, but scripts are all dialogue and a few stage directions.

However, since I stepped out in faith and answered His call, God put mentors in my path, who taught me so much. POV? Never heard the term. Omniscient? That's what God was. Show don't tell? How do I tell a story without telling? Yikes! Yet, with each critique, I absorbed a new concept. I bought books on the craft of fiction writing my mentors recommended, read and committed to memory all I was taught.

Did I mention all the new technology I had to learn like Blogging and Social Media? Good gravy, it was a whole new language, and to this technically challenged brain? Well, it might as well have been Sanskrit. But once again, God brought savvy people into my world to help.

Along my journey, I often got discouraged, but each time, God sent something to encourage me. Sometimes it was a contest win or an acquisitions editor, who took my manuscript to committee. Still, the door to a contract remained tightly closed.

What I learned during these years is God is trustworthy with our dreams, no matter what they are. When we commit our ways to Him, He's faithful. We just need to factor in His time and place to our dreams.

I'd always wanted sisters, but only had an adopted brother. We were both adopted as infants. In 2009, God fulfilled that dream and my five birth sisters found me. That's another story and can be read on my website under Adoption Share—and yes, Heaven help them, they're just like me.

In 2013, the Lord finally opened the door to a publishing contract for me. I knew the time and publisher were right.

So no matter if you're over 50, it's never to late to dream or to follow those dreams.

MaryLu here: Thank you Ane! I can so relate to your journey. I was in my mid-40s when God called me to write, so I'm a late bloomer too.. or maybe like you said an in-God's-time bloomer!! 

Please leave a comment with your email to win a copy of this fabulous book!!



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