By Kathleen Denly In 2012 my husband and I submitted our first application to adopt. After years of prayer and planning, we believed God had led us to pursue the adoption of a specific young girl in Russia. In December of that same year, Russia closed to adoptions by American families. To say we were heartbroken to be unable to …
Choose a Setting You Love
By H.L. Wegley Thirty-eight years ago, my wife and I and our three kids boxed up enough supplies for a week and headed for Lake Chelan in Central Washington, a glacier-fed lake, fifty-five miles long, nestled snugly between Cascade Mountain peaks. We rode the big boat, Lady of the Lake, and planned to camp in the wilderness, free from the …
Back Story – When & How
By Ane Mulligan When I first started writing, I did what most new writers do. Believing the reader couldn’t understand my story or like the heroine without knowing her back story, I loaded the first chapter with all that information. It didn’t take too many critiques to learn the error of my ways. But why is it not necessary? I’m …
Dealing with Ugly Envy
by Donna LH Smith Envy—according to Webster’s, it means feeling of discontent and ill will because of another’s advantages, possessions, etc., resentful disliked of another who has something that one desires. This goes back to Commandment #10: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…etc. It’s natural to want things for ourselves. When we’re unpublished, we want to be published. When …
Hurricane Harvey and the Pirate: Writing Through Storms
By Kathleen Y’Barbo April 1, 2018 is the book birthday for my swashbuckling historical romance, PIRATE BRIDE. As with traditional births, this book was approximately nine months in the making, give or take. So happy birthday to the book of my heart, the book I whose story people first came to me more than twenty years ago. The book that …
Designing
By Christine Sunderland In the early stages of writing a novel, in the choosing of themes and characters, research must be done to create a grand design. In my novel-in-progress, (working title) Angel Mountain, I have chosen to write about the creation of the world in terms of evolutionary theory and genome mapping. I became intrigued, more and more, with …
The Writer in the Corner
by Chandra Lynn Smith I’ve been a professional dog trainer since 1988. A few years ago I trained a German Shepherd dangerous fear issues. I stood at the kennel, leash in hand and greeted her. She growled. For those of you who read my opening sentence and thought what a fun job, well, not always. I opened entered the kennel. …
Penchant Toward Drama
By Shirley E. Gould As writers, we create drama, set the scene and allow it to play out to bring our characters through the circumstances that threaten their happily-ever-after ending. It’s what we do when we create stories that grip our readers and take them on a journey through our prose. We study our craft to perfect our work, giving …
Cauliflower Shortage
By Mary Lou Cheatham My family has always enjoyed cooking and eating cauliflower, a delicious and nutritious vegetable. It’s never been unavailable in the grocery store. Suddenly the cauliflower bin is empty. It is necessary to go from store to store to find it. This year’s popular diets—paleo and low-carb—contain copious amounts of cauliflower cooked in creative ways. One popular …
How to Write Synopses that Editors and Agents Want to Read
by Lara Helmling Synopsis. I imagine that some of you hear that word and decide you need to vacuum the living room. To reduce your beloved novel down to a 500-word summary is almost more than you can bear. I wish I could tell you that I have a magic pill to make synopsis writing less painful. I don’t. I …