By Pat Bradley If you are a writer, published or unpublished, you have deadlines. True, they might be self-imposed, but they are still deadlines you take seriously. And since you can’t schedule emergencies, what do you do with those deadlines when you have to deal with a serious illness or something unexpected that can’t be put off? I found myself …
Unpublished and on Social Media as an Author? Why?
By Tamela Hancock Murray It’s hard to get through a week without seeing at least one article on platform. Well, here’s yours for the week! We agents ask authors for a platform, but I have found that unpublished authors wonder how and why they should show a professional presence on social media. That question is understandable. Without a book, what …
The Power of the Word…
By Kathy Parish “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 (NIV) You know how your mind sometimes gets hold of a concept, an idea, and you can’t let it go, but you can’t really put that thought pattern into a coherent sentence? I think I’m there, folks. It …
Writing a Novel for Film
By Lenora Livingston Typically, a book is written prior to being adapted to a screenplay. However, I chose to do the reverse because of how my story developed. When I experienced the greatest miracle of my life, it triggered a long series of flashbacks about certain events that occurred during the three preceding decades. It was if I was watching …
Why Am I Doing This?
By Sharlene MacLaren “Hey, God, why am I doing this?” Tell the truth now. Haven’t you asked this very question? Writing is hard work, and it’s no sin to expect some recompense. Right? After all, we spend months crafting our novels; first, researching; second, plotting; third, drafting outlines and constructing storyboards; and, fourth, drawing up character sketches, always striving to …
Requested Material
By Lorraine Beatty It’s the end of October. Two months since the ACFW conference and the point at which editors are back on track with reading submissions. How many of you sent in the proposals or full manuscripts that were requested? If you have, three cheers. It a scary thing to do but you can’t get published if you don’t …
Words of Wisdom
by Mary Manners “If you’re going to do something, then do it right.” Those words, spoken by my father, came to me the winter of my thirteenth year as I delivered newspapers along my route on the streets of Elmwood Park, a suburb of Chicago. It was the winter of 1976 and we were in the clutch of a terrific, …
Precious Endurance
By Tanara McCauley This month marks the one year anniversary since we rescued our dog Charlie from an animal shelter. Having grown up with dogs, I thought Charlie would be a perfect addition to our family and a source of great memories for our kids. He would play with them, rest his head on their laps whenever they felt down, …
No Profanity
By Lynn Hobbs About a month ago, I tried to read a book where every other word from the main character was a curse word. Annoying? Yes. It distracted me from the story…and I really liked the story. More important, I admired the author. Excerpts from the book had been placed on social media for weeks. Momentum mounted. I looked …
Plastic Flowers
By Shirley E. Gould I hated the plastic flowers that were popular when I was young. They looked cheap, artificial and were hard to the touch. I informed my family that when I die, I don’t want any plastic flowers. My brother-in-law, bless his soul, made it his mission to find plastic flowers to give me every Christmas. It made …