By Frank DiBianca Knowing new authors have many questions about the publication process, I am relating my experience with Iron Stream Fiction, an imprint of Iron Stream Media. One of the questions on the forms my publisher asked me to fill out in preparation for the publication of my suspense novel, Laser Trap (LT), was “Do you want to work …
Act On It
By Davalynn Spencer “I’m drawing a blank,” said the caption beneath the girl’s empty cartoon frame. She smiled up at me. “Funny, huh?” I had to admit it was funny, but a cop-out, too. “The assignment is to draw a cartoon: single frame with caption below, or four-frame strip with bubbled dialogue inside.” What a great class, I thought as …
The Long but Happy Path of a Debut Suspense Novelist
By Frank DiBianca I decided to present the history of my debut fiction novel, Laser Trap, because I hope you will find it informative and helpful. My pre-retirement writing career started with a 9,000-word short story entitled The Love Coach about an insecure engineering grad student doing research with lasers and his platonic love coach. During the period 2013-2019, my …
Family History as a Source for Stories
By Glynn Young A single comment by my father nearly six decades ago led to a story idea. “Your great-grandfather was too young to enlist in the Civil War,” he said. “So, he signed up as a messenger boy when he looked old enough to get away with it. And then he had to walk home when the war was …
Treasuring People
By Barbara M. Britton Have you heard the word platform? Authors are told that they must have an electronic connection to readers in order to make their story a bestseller. Authors toil at increasing their newsletter followers, posting on several social media platforms, and are busy gathering these connections for reviews around launch day. There is reason behind this madness, …
Tithing Our Writing
By Susan Lyttek In the spring of 2020, I felt a nudge. Post your margin poems. Share them and expect nothing. It is the tithe of the talent I gave you. Uh, what? Was pretty much my response. My margin poems were personal responses to my Bible reading. Years ago, someone had given me a coloring Bible. Once I had colored …
Finding Your Story
By Diana Wallis Taylor Ideas for stories come in different ways. When I was writing Biblical Fiction, I felt the Lord impressed me each time with the name of my next subject. After Journey to the Well was published, I went on to Martha, Mary Magdalene, and Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate. That last title always sparked questions at my …
When Words Bring Life: It’s More than Your Story
By Tara Johnson “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” ~Proverbs 18:21 As writers, many of us crave that elusive book contract. We struggle to learn the craft. We go to conferences. We network, build a platform, grow social media…all with the idea that if our hard work pays …
New Covenant Testaments from Faithful Women
By M.D. House Someday we’ll see the countless testimonies recorded on scroll, tablet, or plate by the women who helped lead and nurture the early Christian church. All of it has been recorded in heaven, and can therefore be reproduced when the time comes. Mary the Mother of Jesus Gabriel, the angel who first visited Mary, called her “highly favored” …
My Writing Journey
By Diana Wallis Taylor Fifteen years ago, I had not even written my first novel. What I had worked on was an Easter musical. Now I’d written a lot of poetry, and published a book of poetry, “Wings of the Wind” but not songs. As a poet, I had no problem writing the words. Then the Lord gave me melodies …