God is really looking after me.

Wow, wow, wow. I am so in awe of God. 

This  morning I had on my heart that I needed to get 'out there' and find some outlets for my book. It had been suggested that I go to the local book shop and ask if I might be able to do a 'sale or return' option for my book. 

With a brand new printer set up, my laminator smelling of burning and the leaflets ready to be sent to the printer, I pressed print. Nothing happened! I scratched my head, looked at the laptop, checked the wires, connectors, print screen, but all looked in working order. My husband then suggested that I try the on switch! Okay so he does have some good ideas occasionally. After a few mishaps and wrong reversals the deed was done. 

Fired up and ready to go, I planned my route, book shop first, church offices next and finally the Co-op for some chocolate for my daughter!

I lugged ten copies of my book in a library hessian bag, along with the flyers, to the shop. My heart was thumping as I am not used to this sort of first contact. I rehearsed over in my mind what I wanted to say and felt more comfortable about the way I was going to act out this scene. I approached the lady at the counter who was looking at the books in front of her and finally she lifted her eyes to mine and asked if she could help me. I faltered and then bent down to take out my flyer and book. 

"I am a Christian author and I have recently had my first book published."

"Oh that is nice, I am just going through my 'God' books at the moment."  

"I wonder if you would be interested in selling them on a sale or return basis?"

"A Christian book you say." 

"Well it is a Christian novel actually."

Silence

"The cover isn't right for a Christian book, it would look out of place. It is too different, people don't like different!" 

(I looked at the other covers and they were all words and boring. None of them appealed to me.)

"It's mean't to look different as it is a novel."

"I don't think it will sell." 

"Um, I actually sold 50 in a week and a half."

"Leave it with me, I need to consult my partners about this, come back in a week as we will have made a decision by then."

I left the shop feeling deflated, that was not how I had written the script. It should have been more like, author enters shop, is greeted by smiling sales lady, gives brief account of book and lady agrees to sell copies. Lord, I had asked you to go before me to set this up - what happened did you get waylaid?

The Church offices were more helpful and seemed happy to give the book a go once they had got permission from their book stall representative. This meant a phone call back at some stage with a yes or no.

I remembered my daughter's chocolate and bought a pack each for my other two children. Everything has to be fair!

At home I contacted a friend of mine and told him what had happened at the book shop. He informed me of a new Christian Book shop, which I had actually walked past without even noticing on my way to the first bookshop! At this point I realized that I actually had not had anything to eat since last night. No wonder I was hungry, but this new information was too juicy to prevent me from going immediately back into town to it check out. This time I did not rehearse the words as I knew this was a 'God' moment. He was picking me up straight away and leading me to the well. I could almost taste the water of success, His success. This was where He wanted me to go, this was where He was. He had gone before me. I had just gone to the wrong place! 

As soon as I stepped over the threshold there was a smile, a lovely lady to receive my pitch and she said 'yes' immediately. And if that was not enough, she declared that she would organize a book signing for early December. How great is our God. How well he looks after us. 

The book shop is called 'Rainbow' and is in Wimborne, in Dorset (England). That too is an answer to prayer, as the locals have been longing and praying for a Christian book shop. But is not just a book shop, it is a place where you can talk and receive prayer as well. 

God is so awesome. If I had not had that reaction at the first book shop I would not have found the other one. Oh how He leads us.

Praise God.

Margaret