by Kristi Holl Last fall I spent several weeks researching a mystery series set in a small village in the Yorkshire Dales. The locals who own the village shops depend on tourist trade from daily bus tours and mountain bike groups. Recently villagers sent out a plea for the tourists to please stay home during the coronavirus scare. Students and …
Are You a Lion? Or a Scaredy-Cat?
By JPC Allen I’ve never been very good at finding role models, except in fiction. A few years ago, I became interested in finding a role model in the Bible. Although Jesus is the perfect role model for believers, I wanted to find someone with my weaknesses—worry, self-doubt, timidity—and learn how God helped them overcome those faults. As I examined …
Writing Tips from Paul and Joshua
By Lana Christian From conception to conclusion, every step of writing takes us out of our comfort zone. As faith-based writers, we also strive for excellence that pleases God. Collectively, that takes strength and courage. Scriptures for both abound. While they certainly can help us weather our challenges, they also contain writing tips. STRENGTH: Paul on word order and word …
Are you Courageous?
By Molly Jebber Are you courageous? Are you struggling to find the courage to do something Jesus Christ is asking you to do? I can empathize. Courage is hard sometimes. I was a Director for Pharmaceutical Research, and I needed a change. Jesus Christ had been pricking my conscience to seek a new job for many reasons. But I was …
I Have a Voice!
by Kathy Harris If you’re going to get heard, you can’t just raise your voice. You’ve got to set yourself apart, showing you have something special to say, and that you have a unique way of saying it. — Jeff Goins, author, blogger, speaker I could barely squeak out my words much less raise my voice over the holidays after …
A Blurred Starting Line
By Shirley E. Gould According to the calendar, today is the first day of winter. With the variety of weather conditions across America you could have three feet of snow on the ground or be basking in the warm sunshine along the coast. We, in middle Tennessee, had an endless summer with a serious drought, basically two weeks of fall …
The Joy and Surprise of Writing With
By Chandra Lynn Smith A couple of years ago at the ACFW conference I was privileged to take Allen Arnold’s continuing session. It was a most amazing blessing! (That’s my exclamation point use for the day.) During our opening session he had a stack of spiral-bound notebooks. He walked around the room and gave a notebook to each of us. …
From Disaster to Discovery
By Kathryn Haueisen Until I retired, most of my writing was work-related non-fiction. Critique groups, beta readers, and launch teams were all new concepts to me. I wrote my first novel without a critique group; didn’t yet know what a beta reader was; and didn’t get help with a book launch until the book was at the printer. I had …
Skydiving – Shifting Our Writer Expectations
by Deborah Clack My stomach dropped, but my feet were still on the ground. Staring at a man who was four inches shorter than my five feet nine, all I could think to myself was, “This is not who I thought I would be jumping out of an airplane with.” When I initially decided to do the insane and go …
To Follow a Dream
By Chandra Lynn Smith I entered my first Genesis contest in 2002 before it was the Genesis Contest. I think about that pitiful entry now and feel very sorry for the judges who struggled through reading it. The thing is my brave move to enter the contest was the beginning of quite a journey. In August of 2003, I attended …