Finding Mommy Bliss

Guest post by amazing mommy friend GennyHeikka Life is busy and motherhood is busier. It can be easy to function on auto-pilot, missing the moments that make parenting rich. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and isolated too. If you’re a mom, you know that parenting can be chaotic, stressful, and complicated. There are temper…

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The Write Attitude

by Ron Estrada A successful writer becomes a success long before the first book contract is signed. Success happens when you make the decision that it will happen. No, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that if you visualize it, it will happen. That’s T-shirt philosophy and I won’t insult your intelligence…

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Creating Quirky Characters

I started novel-writing when chick-lit was “the thing.” It’s not “the thing” anymore, but I miss those quirky characters. Bridget Jones in granny panties. The Finland-loving Rebecca Bloomwood. And, of course, Kristin Billerbeck’s Ashley Stockingdale. Why? Because I relate to them. I’m not angst-ridden like Bella Swan or strong and silent like Katniss. I’m more…

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A Writer’s Roller Coaster Life: Are You Ready to Ride?

Being a writer is like strapping yourself into a straight jacket and then jumping on a Rockin’ Roller Coaster. Once strapped in, you can’t get off and you have to trust that the operator will bring you safely to the end. In the meantime, you’re helpless, torn between the terror and the excitement as you’re…

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Writing is a Business

by Ron Estrada Yes, I know it’s Thursday, and my post is supposed to be one of encouragement. All butterflies and rainbows.  Not gonna happen today. As some of you may have heard, we’ve had some bad news in the world of Christian fiction this week. B&H has decided to close down its fiction division.…

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The Power in a Photograph to Tell a Story

Guest Post by Jeff Satterly It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think that saying a picture is “worth” any amount of words isn’t exactly true. Both images and written text have value for conveying information and providing insight and understanding into something, but some pictures, and photographs in…

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Why You Can’t Live on the Mountaintop

Mountaintops are beautiful. It’s there you feel free as if you have the world at your fingertips. You have a front row seat to God’s majestic sunrise and at night, an unobstructed view of  the vast  universe. It’s a wonderful place to experience, but you can’t stay up there forever. Though sometimes we wish we…

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Flashback Friday: Refreshing with Author Rene Gutteridge

Welcome to Flashback Fridays! For the summer and beyond, I’m going to run some nostalgic posts on parenting and writing from writing wannabes, newbies, and published authors. Many of these prepublished writing interviews are now published. So I encourage you to visit their sites and see what they’re up to today. Next up, author Rene…

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I, Writer

by Ron Estrada Something odd and unfortunate happened to western society over the last century. We forgot how to claim our profession. There was a time…in a galaxy right next to Chicago, when a young man or woman who had achieved the ripe old age of twelve came home one day and announced, “Father, Mother,…

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Making Room for Thankfulness in the Midst of Privation

God has been nudging me about memorizing Scripture. I have embarrassingly little of His Word committed to memory, so I started with the verses I have tape-flagged in my Bible, ones I wanted to keep close anyway. I practice each verse for a few minutes a day, adding a new one when I have the…

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