By Davalynn Spencer Today I’m enjoying the seclusion of a Rocky Mountain hideaway tucked into a shaded bend of the roaring Arkansas River. The occasion? My wedding anniversary. A few days off from the demands of full-time writing and full-time life help me focus on the important person and unique event that changed the course of my path. “I do” …
Re-membering Memory
By Christine Sunderland Writers are the bearers of memory, the shepherds of our culture’s past. In my novels, I have worked to call that past into our present, so that we may protect it in the fold of words, words that carefully curate the stories of Western Civilization. In The Fire Trail (eLectio, 2016) I tried to pull together the …
Inspiration in the Writing Life from D-Day
By Sarah Sundin This week we’re commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-day, the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. As I’ve studied D-day from the sea, the air, and the ground for my Sunrise at Normandy series, I’ve become impressed with the scope and magnitude of Operation Overlord. Obviously, writing novels is a less complicated and far less …
Lessons in Resilience
By Laurel Blount Sometimes God uses unlikely people to teach us valuable lessons. For example I learned most of what I know about resilience from a seven-year-old boy who knew only three words of English. Resilience is usually defined as “the ability to recover quickly from difficulties,” and as every author knows, that’s a much-needed trait in the writing business. …
Do’s vs. Donuts
by Kathy Harris To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time. ~ Leonard Bernstein After several years of neglecting exercise, I joined a gym. Life had come between me and something I actually enjoyed. I didn’t have time. Or so I’d told myself. With family, office work, and “home” work, the day didn’t …
Have We Slept Through a Harvest?
by Terri Gillespie Have we slept through a harvest? He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. Proverbs 10:5, TLV Crops and harvests. Commitments. Follow-through. Seeing a writing project through to completion. Sowing into our craft and reaping success in publishing. When we live these guidelines we are …
Writing What You Don’t Know—Research
By Gail Gaymer Martin Writers are so often told ‘write what you know.’ Yet sometimes ideas hit us that encompass things we do not know. This happens to me, and though I always research details in my books even if I have some knowledge, sometimes story ideas are far from my usual story line knowledge. Recently moving from Michigan to …
Lots of Digging…
by Kimberley Woodhouse I’ve talked a lot about research on my blogs for ACFW before. But as an author, that’s a huge amount of what we do isn’t it? I teach at a lot of writer’s conferences and groups about research and I get asked a lot of questions about it. How to streamline it… how to do it faster… …
In Praise of Reading
By Glynn Young I was an early reader. I don’t recall how early, but I do remember riding my red bicycle to the dime store when I was six, to spend 59 cents to buy Trixie Belden and the Secret of the Mansion. It was the first of many such trips, for more Trixie Belden mysteries, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, …
When to Invest in Your Writing Career
By Carol Alwood Writers have far too many decisions to make. I’m not saying we’re the only professionals bogged down by options and the pressing need for results. Other professions have too many choices to make too. Besides being a writer, I’m an elementary school teacher. They say teachers make 1,500 decisions in a day. This turns out to be …