By Catherine Stuart As we hit the reset button with the New Year my notebook filled up with goals. Goals that were very different from each other, and I realized prioritizing was the key to success. This year for me is different, as I find myself on a bridge of change. I wish to get to the other side, yet …
Making A Statement
By Cynthia Ruchti Let’s start a protest. A noisy, raucous protest with banners and signs and eardrum- piercing loud speakers blasting the clever quips of our cause: • Make books, not war! • An author’s child goes hungry tonight. Fair pay! • Hope can’t reach anyone from the back corner of a store! • God told stories. So do we. …
Lingering in His Presence
By Ian Acheson Word for the year? Huh? Explain that to me. That was me a few years ago. Here I was in my late forties and I’d never heard of the thing. Why limit your year to a single word? A few of you might be having the exact same reaction this very moment. I read a little about …
God’s Plan for You
By Patricia Bradley “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 God has a plan for each of us, a pathway for us to walk, and it doesn’t always include what we think it should. That thought …
Who Needs You Today?
By Molly Jebber In “Two Suitors for Anna,” I show an Amish woman, Anna, who loves God and has a good life, until her world turns upside down when the love of her life, Noah, leaves their community instead of marrying her. She meets a newcomer, Daniel, who sparks her interest. Anna’s life changed in an instant. Noah broke her …
Is Today Really Necessary?
By Mary Manners My dad’s birthday is today. He would be turning eighty. It’s amazing, looking back over the memories, how quickly the time has passed since he first encouraged me to pursue my love of writing. Dad has always been my hugest inspiration. Long ago, when I was barely a teenager in the early days of my middle school …
What Is Given Him From Heaven
by Elizabeth Musser Recently, the Lord whispered encouragement (and conviction) to me through a verse from the third chapter of the Gospel of John. We all know that chapter and that verse. But actually it’s not the one to which I’m referring. As I read the scene after Jesus with Nicodemus, so many things jumped out at me. First, the …
First Chapters Syndrome
By Rondi Bauer Olson Last year my nebulous-but-fantastic-sounding goal was to “write every day.” I did a pretty good job. Five or six days a week I opened my laptop and typed a few hundred to a few thousand words. After twelve months, my word count was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, my useful output wasn’t. The first project I started working …
Combating the Doldrums
By Linda Brooks Davis Ever find your enthusiasm for a writing project flagging? I have. Have you figured out what to do about it? I pull out this photo of Ella, my granddaughter. And remember. My daughter called me in the fall of 2004 with news that rocked our family. After years of failure and disappointment, she was pregnant with …
Take the Stage
By Shirley E. Gould I’ve heard it said that “Life is what happens when you have other plans.” I totally agree. Interruptions and distractions plague the writer’s life. When you mix in events such as weddings, birthdays and anniversaries and blend those with holiday celebrations, the opportunities to write a novel dwindles. This is true no matter where you find …