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 …
Three Ways to Keep Your Writing on Track
By Lisa Jordan Recently I bought a new train set for my childcare program. One of my Little Darlings waited patiently while I assembled it, then proceeded to move the three-car train along the tracks. If he pushed too hard or too fast, the small train derailed. As I watched him, I realized his actions resonated with how I’ve been …
Making Conversation
By Linda W. Yezak Ever since our vocabulary extended beyond “Mama” and “Dada,” most of us have been engaged in verbal communication, although true communication is rarely limited to voice alone. Human dialogue, human interaction, is a complex series of mechanisms that dictate how information is communicated and received. It isn’t as simple as one person talking and another listening. …
Writing What You Don’t Know
By Deborah Raney My novels Beneath a Southern Sky and its sequel, After the Rains, are set in the Amazon rain forests of Colombia, South American. Beneath a Southern Sky was a RITA Award winner and went on to win several other awards, as did the sequel. My novel Over the Waters is set in Haiti. That book also won …
“Isn’t that an oxymoron?”
By Davalynn Spencer “No, you moron. It isn’t.” I’d like to say the above response to the title question is from a salty character in one of my novels. It’s not. It’s from a pile of words in the back of my brain that didn’t make it past my teeth because I was biting my tongue. Good thing. Last year …
Write Your Own Book
By Lorraine Beatty If you’ve been writing for a while, you’ve probably collected dozens of books on writing, and stacks of notes, handouts and pamphlets with even more advice and instruction. Each book holds valuable insights on improving your craft. They each have something that clicked with you, or gave you that aha moment. But others may have left you …
Writing with Children – For Moms and Dads
By Preslaysa Williams I once told another mom about my writing “hobby,” and she advised I put the writing on hold until my children were out of the house for good. I refused to put my dreams on hold, but the realities of writing with children had ballooned into a huge challenge I had to face. I needed a plan. …
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 …