By Sarah Hamaker As writers, we work with tension all the time—without tension, our stories would sag and our heroes and heroines would have very boring relationships. But this blog is about the tension we experience between what we want to work on and what we have to work on. For many of us, writing is not our fulltime job. …
Courage in the Battle
By Sarah Sundin The writing life takes courage. Courage to declare yourself a writer when the world tells you to do something “useful.” Courage to set your words before strangers. Courage to speak to professionals who could make your dreams come true or dash them to pieces. Most writers are sensitive souls, and courage does not come naturally to many …
Naysayers In Your Life? One Way to Deal With Them
By Patricia Bradley Today Justice Betrayed, my seventh book with Revell (9 books altogether) releases, and I’m super excited. It’s my “Elvis” book. I mean, you can’t write about Memphis and not have an Elvis book! It also has scenes set in Elmwood Cemetery, the oldest active cemetery in Memphis. Oldest, active cemetery. There’s just something about those words that …
ACFW New Releases: June 2018
June 2018 New Releases More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website. Contemporary Romance: The Sleuth’s Miscalculation by Kimberly Rose Johnson — Librarian Nancy Daley loves a good mystery and enjoys moonlighting as a consultant for the sheriff’s department. When license plates go missing in Tipton County, she’s on the case. But …
Writers and People Who Write
By JPC Allen There is a difference between writers and people who write. One of my favorite writers, Patrick F. McManus, brought this home to me in his humorous essay, “People Who Hunt”, from the book Kerplunk! Mr. McManus writes that hunters and people who hunt are two different species. People who hunt love the sport, but they have other …
What’s Your Season?
By Kathy Parish My birthday is May 29th. I’ll not mention the year of my birth, but be assured that for all of those Facebook posts about “Share if you remember this” or “Do you know what this is?” I can answer affirmatively. (I don’t share, though. After all, who needs to know that I remember days pre-microwave and DVD …
Defining
By Christine Sunderland Writing a novel of ideas is not for the faint of heart. In the writing of my novel-in-progress, Angel Mountain, I find that I have too many stories to tell. The files containing what I don’t use are far fatter than the wee little file containing what I end up using. How does a writer abandon some …
The Miracle of Hope
By Catherine West Today I’m celebrating the release of my sixth novel! My third published book through Harper Collins Christian Publishing, and since the title is Where Hope Begins, I thought hope would be the perfect topic for today’s post. “Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right …
Goals You CAN Achieve
By Cindy Patterson I’ve been thinking about Goal Setting and how it could change the success of many aspects of our life. Especially writing. But where do you start? Where do you WANT to see yourself tomorrow, in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? The biggest challenge in setting goals is Fear Of Failure. What if it doesn’t work? What if …
Springing into the Next Story
by Jan Drexler Spring is here, and it’s time to start my next book! With this new beginning, I’ve already spent hours of preparation. I’ve cultivated the bed of ideas, throwing out stones and stray roots. I’ve poured over research materials as if they were seed catalogs, each with their own versions of the standard offerings. I’ve studied maps, terrain, …