By Kathleen Y’Barbo Turner @KathleenYBarbo When my daughter was in kindergarten, her teacher asked the children to interview an adult about his or her job and come back to class the next day with a report on what they learned. Hannah grilled me about my job as a writer, and I answered her questions about how I constructed my stories. …
What is that to You?
By Sara Davison As writers, I believe we wrestle with many of the same issues: self-doubt, lack of confidence, times of being blocked creatively, discouragement. Most of us also have a tendency to compare ourselves to other writers, worrying more about what they are doing or achieving than focusing on our own lives and work. Peter struggled with this. When Jesus …
The Practice of Perseverance
By Lisa Kelley @LisaKelleyWrite Waiting to be published can be daunting as well as disappointing. I closed out 2022 empty. I had semi-finaled in a writing contest but didn’t progress. One judge suggested I shouldn’t have made it to the semi-finals. I had a manuscript rejected, and I’d finished my fifth novel only to discover, after one of those hard …
Use Those Negative Reviews
By B.D. Lawrence @BDLawrence3 We’ve all received less than positive reviews. For me, when I published my first book, An Angel and a One-Armed Man, I started seeing four and five-star reviews with the occasional three-star review. But then it happened. I received a two-star review. It wasn’t the star count that gave me the pit in my stomach, it …
Research Can Teach You a Hard (if Useful) Lesson
by Glynn Young I learned a very hard lesson while writing a historical novel. I learned how hard it can be, and it’s hard for both the research you do and for the research you have to ignore. I’m writing a novel that takes place in two historical periods – the Civil War and its immediate aftermath, and 50 years …
Is a Small Press Right for You?
by Linda Fulkerson @lindafulkerson) You’ve finished your novel, passed it around the Beta reader circuit, received feedback from contests, revised and self-edited ad nauseam, and completed the final read-through. Your story sings! Now what? It’s obviously time to submit. So, the better question is “Now where?” The path to publication forms a Y that leaves would-be authors two choices: traditional …
Ready, Set, Sell-ebrate
By Barbara M. Britton @BarbaraMBritton Over the years, I have attended book events. Initially, I went as a reader, but since 2016 I have attended as an author. I love to meet readers, and sign and sell books. I also enjoy meeting authors who I know online but have never met in person. Book events usually occur on a single …
Writing During Hardship
By Cynthia Herron @C_Herronauthor If I’d known several years ago the hardships I’d face before and after publication, I’m almost certain I would have thrown up my hands in immediate defeat. There’s a reason why God doesn’t allow us to see the future. Giving up before starting negates possibility. Never facing adversity doesn’t develop our mettle. Merely existing on this …
Plotter or “Pantser” – Is One Better than the Other?
By Lori Domingo @LoriDomingo22 If someone had asked me that question a year ago, I would have proudly declared, “I’m a pantser. I never write from a plot outline. It’s too confining.” I had managed to complete one manuscript without it, and was hard-pressed when I was required to write one for one of my MA classes. It was something …
Martha and Martha: A Lesson in Learning and Writing
By Kathleen Y’Barbo @KathleenYBarbo We all know about Martha from the Bible. Biblical Martha was the Martha Stewart of her day, bustling around showing Jesus her devotion to Him with hospitality without any help from her sister Mary. From this story, we learn that sitting at the feet of Jesus—literally for these biblical sisters and figuratively for us in modern …