by Cathy Liggett This morning when I received a reminder about my scheduled date to blog, I initially thought about asking to postpone. My 90-year-old dad passed away last week and my mind has been as unfocused as a garden hose gone haywire, spraying out in all directions. But then I started thinking (and please forgive me ahead of time …
Dressing the Dog
by Ane Mulligan Who started this fashion trend? I can remember dressing the cat when I was a little girl. I still have the scars to show for it. But a dog dressed not for play but for real? I was watching House Hunters on HGTV the other night and this woman had her dog dressed in a different outfit …
Research Can Be Fun
by Lena Nelson Dooley Does researching a subject sound boring to you? I used to feel that way, too. Now research is a mainstay of my writing, whether I’m writing a contemporary or a historical novel. When I started writing Maggie’s Journey, book one of my McKenna’s Daughters series, I had a hard time picturing Seattle in 1885. That hindered …
Formatting a Manuscript
by Jill Williamson When I started writing, I didn’t know anything about how to properly format a manuscript. I gathered this information over the years from books and lectures and online and eventually figured it all out. But I’m a visual learner, and I had always wished that someone could have simply shown me how to do these things. A …
Working (And Laughing) With a Critique Partner
By Victoria Bylin This past year, I decided to stretch my wings. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH, I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to …
Writer Interrupted
By Deborah K. Anderson Have you ever felt as though someone, or something, tries to stop you from writing? You know, an evil force on a perverse mission hinders you from finishing an article, a short story, or perhaps even that next novel? It may sound crazy, but I’ve encountered this more times than I can count. Several years ago, …
A Thousand Words a Day?
by Donna L. Rich “But, let’s just stop and ask for directions,” I plead. “I don’t need directions.” “Honey, come on, I feel like Moses’ wife, here. We’ve been wandering for an hour now, and I want to get out in that sun. There’s a gas station on the corner. Let’s stop, please.” “I don’t need directions. I feel like …
Congratulations Christy Award Finalists
ACFW sends our congratulations to the 2012 finalists for the Christy Awards, especially to the many ACFW members! The 2012 Christy Award nominees are: CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE My Foolish Heart by Susan May Warren* (Tyndale House Publishers) Larkspur Cove by Lisa Wingate* (Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group) Wolfsbane by Ronie Kendig* (Barbour Publishing) CONTEMPORARY SERIES, SEQUELS, AND NOVELLAS …
Revising My View of Rewriting
by Beth K. Vogt It’s often said that writing is rewriting. And I’ve often said how much I love rewriting. But if you’d seen me a few weeks ago as I rewrote the fast draft of my second novel, you would have doubted not only my love of rewriting-but my emotional stability as well. Over the course of three days, …
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
by Richard Mabry When I began writing, I had an idea-just one-and wondered if I could turn it into a novel. My idea involved a young man who wanted more than anything to play professional baseball. He never made it past the minors, so he decided to make his father happy by going to medical school. Then he had one …