By Emily Conrad Bats whirled through the air as I left the shelter of our car to walk the short path to the overlook. In pre-dawn Joshua Tree National Park, the fluttering creatures were the only movement I spotted. In a hazy blue distance, the lights of some small city glowed. Opposite that, a soft yellow preceded the sun. I …
Leaving Harran
By JPC Allen God has a lot of nerve. I thought of this when my kids and I were rereading the story of Abraham and Sarah. Actually, they were still Abram and Sarai at this point because we were reading the part in Genesis when God tells Abram to leave Harran and become a wanderer, living in tents for the …
Battling the Self-Doubt Virus
By Laurel Blount When I was in college, the local water supply became contaminated with a particularly unpleasant parasite. Soon the infirmary was jammed with moaning students, all of us dealing with the tummy bug to end all tummy bugs. Because the illness was linked to the water system, nobody was immune. Pretty much everybody got it. See where I’m …
Dancing
By Christine Sunderland It is said and it is written that Jacob dreamed of angels descending and ascending a ladder between Heaven and Earth, and that later he wrestled with an Angel of God. Just so the Christian writer dreams and the Christian writer wrestles. For we dream of Heaven but are rooted on earth; we wrestle with God’s spirit …
Surviving the Sophomore Slump
By Laurel Blount When I sold my debut novel A Family for the Farmer to Love Inspired in August of 2015, I was over the moon. I had finally stepped through the golden door of publication, and I felt sure from now on I’d be dividing my time between signing books, signing contracts and signing royalty checks. But then my …
Writing From Your Scars
by Tara Johnson I was recently asked to give an aspiring writer my best piece of writing advice. I could have told her to study the craft, told her the best blogs to follow, or given her a checklist of a thousand other steps to pursue her dream, but after much thought, I offered my best piece of advice: write …
Investing in Your Writing Career
By Carrie Stuart Parks When I embarked on this writing journey, one of the decisions I needed to make was how serious I was going to be. How much was I willing to invest and for what end result? I wasn’t one of those kids who was the editor of the school newspaper, nor one that found writing a necessity …
Writely Dividing
By Kathy Parish Come with me into a very small Sunday School room in a small country church. There are no catchy posters decorating the walls. There are no reference books and no dry erase board as a teaching aid. For we have traveled back in time to 1961. There are one or two fifth graders in the class, taught …
Instant in Season and Out
By Shirley E. Gould I love salt! I love salty chips and popcorn. I love salt on my watermelon! A touch of salt on my vegetables makes them better. One thing I don’t love is a bland dish with no seasoning at all. It’s not tasty—plain. But, going overboard with seasoning can make food inedible. Whether it’s Cajun seasoning in …
Writing on the Move
By Rondi Bauer Olson I have lived close to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for twenty-five years, but, despite being an avid backpacker, I had never hiked the forty-mile trail in the park that follows the coast of Lake Superior. Determined to check this goal off my bucket list, I set aside four days last month to tackle the trek. There …