Walking into the room ten minutes ahead of the mass was interesting in itself, but that wasn’t the most significant part of this whole experience. That started a week earlier and would culminate in the best occurrence in approximately an hour and a half.

But let’s get back to walking in ahead of most of the others. Being one of the early birds signified something special. I was an American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) finalist. A step up from the ACFW semi-finalist I’d arrived as three days earlier.