Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Margaret Feinberg penned her first work of fiction 18 years ago.

The 128-page book, filled with handmade drawings, was inspired by family trips to the Bahamas.

The occasional getaways promised her parents a well-deserved break from running a small business in Florida.

For a fourth-grade girl intrigued with words and pictures, the mini-vacations were perfect material for an epic tale about family expeditions down south.

Today Feinberg, 28, can add another book to her repertoire.

"God Whispers: Learning to Hear His Voice" was published in May.

The book is Feinberg's first work in print.

Off the Beaten Path Bookstore and Coffeehouse is hosting a book signing for the local author from 5 to 6 p.m. today.

She looks forward to sharing her book with the people in her hometown, she said, as well as a much larger audience.

Feinberg moved with her family to Steamboat Springs in the eighth grade. Despite obligations that take her away from time to time, she has called it home since.

A college internship with a Christian magazine peaked her interest in publishing a book.

The path to publishing "God Whispers," however, proved to be harder than she anticipated.

It took five years to get a book published.

But she would do it all again, she said.

Relevant Books, a publishing company in Florida, released "God Whispers" and has published two other books Feinberg co-authored, "Enjoying God" and "I Am Relevant."

She has also contributed more than 500 articles to several nationally recognized magazines.

"God Whispers" brings to light ways in which people can connect with God in a hectic world that might otherwise seem to drown out his voice.

"So many people are too busy to recognize how and when God answers," she said.

People who try to listen for God often don't hear anything, she said, because they don't recognize his response.

They are straining their ears for a shout.

But God takes a more subtle approach.

"Instead of shouting, he whispers," she said.

Feinberg said she hopes her book opens readers' eyes to sensing God in a new way.

She doesn't plan to stop with "God Whispers" either.

The newly published author has several pieces in the works and expects to share many more stories with her readers.

She should have plenty of future material.

She's leaving in four days for a one-month trip to Alaska.