I was petrified!
Mary Cox-Bilz is a Christian writer who is also quadraplegic. Her disability has not prevented her obtaining two degrees and working professionally in several fields. She uses a mouth-stick to punch the keyboard: she says, "I know there is voice-activated software available, but it's too slow for me." She has published Love Aunt Alma, Your True Friend Always, Louisa, (a Christian Civil War Novel) and At The Gate Called Beautiful, a collection of stories of the Bible's men, women, and children with disabilities. The author has published work with international newspaper The Midnight Herald. Mary's article A Stranger Said was chosen by their editor to be included in a book of the newspaper's best articles of the past several years.
My name is Mary Cox-Bilz. I am a Christian author from Maryland, and recall the day I decided to become a writer. Born with a birth defect, I was sitting in my motorized wheelchair in Walden's Bookstore when I heard an inaudible Voice. "You should become a writer." No one was speaking to me. There was hardly a soul in the store. I couldn't believe the overpowering message in my heart! Was this really God? Then I heard the voice again. "If you write my Word, hearts will be encouraged." I looked around, felt intimidated, and struggled to reached for a book with my mouthstick, determined to ignore such nagging. But it didn't leave. Later that day two strangers, for no reason at all, said they believed I would be a good writer. Since I was a teen my family and friends urged me to pursue this work, but I didn't take them serious. "Not me! I'm not a skilled writer, I don't have time, and no publisher would even look at my work." These were my thoughts.
The Lord kept after me and I shared the bookstore experience and strangers' words with a close friend. "It's simple, Mary. Write fifteen minutes a day from your heart," she suggested. I slowly decided to take her advice and wrote from fifteen minutes to one hour every day, using the Microsoft Word program. The results of God's persistence was my first work, Love Aunt Alma, published through White Oaks Creations, Inc., in Virginia. I had found tons of opportunities for publication, by using search engines to surf the Internet for publishers' webpages. However, White Oaks Creations was my first preference for submission. I liked their choice of publications and noted they were seeking manuscripts. After querying WOCI through e-mail and forwarding attached files of my manuscript for the Editor's review, we signed a contract and I continue to write for them today. Through a process of circumstances, I relocated, quit my job, and now write full-time.
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