2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. I’m happy to report that I was a first time attendee—and a satisfied customer.
For those of you who’ve never heard of Mount Hermon, the conference center itself is nestled in the small town of Mount Hermon, or Felton, California, about forty minutes south of San Jose. The encampment is surrounded by towering Sequoias and magnificent foliage. And because it is on a “mountain” and located on such a large plot of land, you find yourself doing quite a bit of walking—and hiking. Did I mention that my cabin was at the bottom of one of those mountains? But I digress.
Mount Hermon was a veritable treasure trove of editors, agents, publicists and even the rare published Christian author. I had the pleasure to meet Sue Brower, Acquisitions Editor for Zondervan, and Bob Irvin, Acquisitions Editor for Standard Publishing as well as Vicki Crumpton, Executive Editor for Revell, and Jesse Florea, Clubhouse Editor for Focus On The Family. I also met with Rachel Zurakowski, agent for Books & Such Literary Agency and had lunch with agents, Jonathan Clements of the Nashville Agency and Natasha Kern, founder of Natasha Kern Agency. Good feedback was received on my work from Shannon Hill Marchese of WaterBrook Publishing and author, Randy Ingermanson. Let’s see… I also met and took classes from a few famous Christian authors: Mona Hodgson, Curt Iles, Anita Higman, Brandilyn Collins, John Olson, DiAnn Mills, Mary DeMuth and Tosca Lee.
One great part of the conference was guest speaker, Bill Butterworth, author and speaker extraordinaire. The man had us literally aching from laughing so hard at his wonderful stories on raising five children, his own childhood and his career as a speaker to dozens of NFL football teams. Another wonderful thing about the conference is the man who has been the emcee for the past 33 years, Dave Talbot. As a concert pianist, Dave led worship at the conference with music played on a grand piano and an impressive old organ—you know the ones with lots of knobs and buttons.
Yes Mount Hermon is over and in its wake; much was left imprinted on my heart. I can truly say I took much away from the conference. There are the publishing connections, a deeper publishing knowledge, friendships, a closer walk with my Lord, and last but not least…astute familiarity with leg muscles I never knew existed.
In closing I'll say, the food was great, the people running the encampment as well as the locals were overtly hospitable and there really was a sweet spirit about everyone in attendance. Will I go back? I'll give it a very probable yes!
