God has blessed me with a large, close family. Between my mom and dad’s brothers and sisters, I have a total of seventeen aunts and uncles. And that’s not including their husbands and wives. The number of cousins I have, that include second cousins who are actually my age, would take a while to count. If I see one of …
What Influenced You to Become a Writer?
By Patricia Bradley Most of us are writers here on the ACFW blog, but first we were readers, at least I was. I’ve read several blog posts lately that talked about what our favorite books as children were, and when I come across a book that was a favorite of mine, I’ve had a delightful stroll down memory lane. Every …
The Amish and Foster Care
By Suzanne Woods Fisher As I was researching the foster care system for a book called Stitches in Time, I came across all kinds of troubling statistics. Some you’d expect: In recent years, a surge of children in the foster care system that state officials attribute to the opioid crisis in our country. The average age of a child in …
ACFW New Releases: June 2019
June 2019 New Releases More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website. Contemporary Romance: The Art of Rivers by Janet Ferguson — Can a woman whose life has been damaged by addiction trust her heart to a man in recovery? (Contemporary Romance, Independently Published) Cross My Heart by Robin Lee Hatcher — Horse …
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, …
The Power of Happy Moments
By Grace Hitchcock Sometimes it is tempting to allow drama and heartache to swamp our stories. Years ago, a favorite professor of mine would say over and over how “only trouble is interesting.” Today, I’d like to talk about how happiness can be just as moving/interesting as tragedy and that it is okay to let our characters be happy. Trouble …
Create While You Wait
By Kariss Lynch We’ve all experienced these seasons: the endless waiting for a dream to come true. We wonder if God hears, or if we heard him wrong when He called us to this crazy writing gig. Wait—the word that can make us squirm with anxiety and doubt our stories and our skill. Or it can make us hope. I’ve …
Of Brides and Books
By Laurel Blount My daughter is getting married in October, so our family’s immersed in a chaotic whirl of wedding planning. Coincidentally, while I’m launching my oldest child into her “happily-ever-after,” I’m also celebrating the launch of an entirely different sort of “baby”! Love Inspired released my newest “book baby,” (aptly titled A Baby for the Minister), in September. So, …
If I Could Start Again Writing Christian Fiction
By H.L. Wegley A few months ago I was asked what I would do differently, as a novelist, if I could start again—a complete do-over. In answering this question, most of us would include starting to learn the craft at an earlier age. Now that I am beyond my three-score and ten and into those years Moses called “labor and …
What Do You Do in the Calm After the Storm?
By Glynn Young It’s the calm after the storm. For months, it’s been days and weeks of intense writing, rewriting, editing, re-editing, adding to, and subtracting from. I thought novel #4 would be a relative slam dunk, since large chunks of it have existed for more than a decade. All I had to do was add a few thousand words …