By Elizabeth Ludwig My husband and I recently made a trip to Sugarcreek, Ohio, to visit the setting for my latest series of cozy mysteries from Guideposts. One of things I loved about the experience was sampling the authentic Amish cooking. I even found several Amish cookbooks to add to my treasure trove of books. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever used …
Does Social Media Sell Books?
By DiAnn Mills Whenever I speak about the value of social media, writers groan, frown, and complain. Too many writers are not willing to get past the learning curve needed to develop their brand. My response is always a focus on a writer’s life requiring flexibility to learn craft, marketing, publishing, and branding. If a new technique in the writing …
Men Need Romance, Too
By Glynn Young I recently reread David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, a work I had first read in high school. It was every bit as good as I remembered it. The most autobiographical of all of Dickens’s novels, it is full of intrigue, suspense, betrayal, meanness, kindness, and love. I would even go so far as to call it a …
Teaching Tools for Writers: 4 Steps to Building a Public Speaking Platform
By Hannah R. Conway As a teacher, I speak on a daily basis, all day, five days a week–and I truly love it. Speaking comes natural to me, as does public speaking, but it may not to others. Building a public speaking platform can be a valuable asset to authors in many ways, but what’s the key to getting started? …
Destroy to Create?
By Dennis Ricci “In the creative process, the whole idea is to destroy ninety percent of your work.” I heard those words eight weeks ago at the Robert McKee Story Seminar in Los Angeles. At first his principle struck me as a brute-force approach–produce one hundred pounds of ore from which you extract ten pounds of story gold. Then I …
Recalculating
By Ane Mulligan I love GPS. When I grew up in Southern California, everything was laid out in a grid; streets ran north and south or east and west. There would be an odd diagonal street, too. If you missed your turn, you simply went around the block and came at it again. Not so when I moved to Georgia; …
Conference Season Is Upon Us
by Deb Haggerty ‘Tis Spring and the conference season is upon us. The advent of this time of the year brings both anticipation and dread to both attendees and faculty alike. Having been an attendee and having served on various faculties, I thought I’d give you some tips from “both sides of the aisle.” Attendees: 1. Be prepared. Know what …
Conference Takeaway
By Donna K. Rice Spring brings a busy conference season for both the writing and ministry arenas. In April, I attended Mount Hermon Writers Conference, came home and repacked, then headed for our ministerial fellowship’s women’s conference. The first weekend in May, I’m off again for another ministerial conference. Since many of us are prepping for ACFW’s conference in September, …
Who Am I?
By Darlene L. Turner But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” – Exodus 3:11 (NIV) “I can’t!” Murray shoved his hands into his pockets and kicked a stone, sending it flying across the gravel yard. “Who am I, but a measly worker?” The boss let out …
Rough Drafts are Like Mud Pies
By Hannah Conway How rough can a rough draft be? The answer makes me wince, turn my head to the side, and look down at the freshly printed version of my work in progress, which happens to be the definition of a rough draft. I stare at it, grimace growing on my face. Look at it, y’all. It’s so, so, …