by JPC Allen I couldn’t have heard that right. Last December I was talking to author and editor Michelle L. Levigne at the Faith and Fellowship Book Festival in Etna, Ohio. Michelle is also the co-founder of Mt. Zion Ridge Press. That afternoon, she said the deadline for submitting short stories for the press’s Christmas anthology was December 15. I’d …
The Doctor Is … In
by Jamie Chavez You’ve been there, I know. Those moments of extreme manuscript fatigue. You just want to walk away. I get these emails. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. You: I will never finish this book. And it doesn’t matter, because it’s no good! The writing’s crap! The plot’s crap! The dialogue’s crap! I think I’m just gonna …
Put Out to Pasture—Or Not?
By Kristi Holl I just returned from a research trip in the Yorkshire Dales in northern England, the setting of my historical work-in-progress. It was my second time to stay in this small village, whose buildings date back to the 1600’s. I wrote, I visited museums, and I hiked the hills two or three times each day. I will never …
Nine Things You Learn when You Write (That You May Not Learn if You Don’t)
by Kathy Harris If we study the craft of fiction, we can learn a lot of important things, from how to write proper point-of-view to how to format a manuscript. And, while each of these skills is vital to becoming a great writer, there are other important lessons we can learn only through writing, i.e. putting words on paper and …
Managing the Post-Conference Checklist
By Kariss Lynch Right about now, many of you are chugging coffee, staying up late, and stressing out over your post-conference checklist. Many of you may have met new writing partners or received requests from agents and editors. And some of you are madly googling “How to Write a Proposal” or considering rewriting your entire manuscript because it no longer …
All Things through Christ—Even Write
By Suzanne Bratcher Most of the writers I know personally are, like me, newly published. Almost all of us write in spite of daunting life challenges. One friend home schools her four small children. Another one works forty hours a week. A third friend provides full-time care for a grandmother suffering from dementia. My life challenge is medical: I live …
Called to Write
By Kathryn Haueisen I can still clearly remember one particular day when I was a teenager reading in a wingback chair. What I remember most clearly is that day I realized I want to be a writer. That idea planted a seed that has sprouted into a lifetime working with words in a wide range of contexts. At that point …
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 …
Building Back the Walls
By Elizabeth Musser Lord, reading Nehemiah 3 this morning has brought me to tears. It’s basically just a list of names of people that I don’t recognize. There are not many who are superstars in the Word of God. Just a lot of ordinary people. Oh, but what they are doing is extraordinary. They’re rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. The …
Are You a Scribe?
By Terri Gillespie These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied . . . Proverbs 25:1, TLV Why did King Hezekiah’s men transcribe King Solomon’s proverbs over two hundred years after Solomon’s death? As novelists, we know those seemingly obscure Bible verses can inspire incredible stories. They can also be great writing exercises. …