by Deborah Rather I write contemporary Christian romance. As soon as people find out that I have written numerous novels (nearly 80 now), they almost always ask the same question. “Where do you get your ideas?” This bewilders me. I always want to come back with something pithy like, “Don’t you pay attention to what goes on around you?” Most …
On the Road
by Kathleen Y’Barbo I’ve had a love affair with long, aimless drives well before I found love with a man who shared that passion. Sliding behind the wheel, plugging in the iPod or adjusting Pandora radio, and then pointing the car toward an unknown destination has long been my idea of a grand day. If the weather’s nice, the top …
To Err is Human
by Marcia Gruver While teaching a creative writing class, I passed a little card around the room and instructed the students to read aloud the following sentence: Now is the time for all good men to come to the the aid of their country. One by one, the eager scholars misread it. Until I pointed out each word on a …
Off To A Strong Start
by Maureen Lang Sometimes the place your story starts isn’t always the place to open your novel. There are three choices: •Just Before the major problem/conflict comes up, with a hint of the iceberg ahead. •Just As the conflict arises. •Just After the hero or heroine has a first glimpse of that looming iceberg in their path. Just-before openings allow …
Book Review: A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California
Title: A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California Author: Keli Gwyn Publisher: Barbour Books Date: July 2012 ISBN: 978-1616265830 Genre: Historical Romance Reviewed by: Holly Weiss Delightful Old West Romance Widow Elenora Watkins relocates with her daughter, Tildy, to California’s Sierra foothills to be an associate in a mercantile. When he finds out she is a woman, prospective partner …
ACFW Rewind: Keeping an Emotional Journal
It’s ACFW Rewind time. Today we’ve picked a blog from May, 2010. Enjoy this post on emotional writing. by Cathy Bryant Emotions. They run the gamut from elation to depression, overwhelming joy to unspeakable sorrow, hatred to love. Need more? How about anxiety, tenderness, compassion, apathy, sympathy, confusion, suspicion, curiosity, surprise, excitement, guilt, fear, restlessness, gratitude, and loneliness? The stories …
Practice Makes Perfect
by Fay Lamb My son was once an accomplished violinist, but when he first started to play, his tutor, a first string with the local symphony orchestra, struggled with keeping him on task. One day my son Corey walked into practice. “Igor, I don’t want to play violin. I want to learn to fiddle.” Igor stood back in his old …
ACFW Book Club
Have you heard about our ACFW Bookclub? Each month the club chooses two ACFW members’ books that have been submitted by the authors. I run the giveaway where the chosen authors (from our monthly poll) donate 4 copies of their books to Bookclub members. Then, we have announcements on upcoming discussions with blurbs about each chosen book. We do our …
Ten Tips For Better Characterization
by Maureen Lang 1) Realistic, natural dialogue. Like a musician with an ear for notes, be a writer with an ear for conversational rhythm. Read your dialogue aloud to be sure it sounds like what you hear around you-only better! Real life might afford extraneous “ums,” repetitions, and unclear meaning but the written word allows only clarity and tight communication. …
Conflicted Hearts
by Laurie Alice Eakes Recently, a writer asked why conflict so often seemed to be understood as sniping and snarky comments between the hero and heroine. She knew that conflict had to arise from something more than attitudes verging on hostility, but how? I promised her a blog post on the subject. Mind you, this is targeted at romance-oriented stories, …