Posts
Writer Interrupted by…Unemployment
by Ron Estrada You’re fired. It’s not just a catchy phrase worthy of copywrite protection by billionaires turned reality show stars. It happens to all of us at least once in our professional lives. When it happens to the part-time writer, our first response may be, “The heck with it, now’s my chance to write…
Words of Power
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. James 3:9-10 Words are powerful. Like a bit or a rudder, they can turn large objects by one small uttering, one small sentence. As…
Dare to Dream
The world pushes you to be sensible. Make choices that are normal, ordinary and expected. Do what has to be done and fall in line with the rest of the world. It doesn’t dare you to dream. Dreams live beyond that place. They catch a rainbow and ride into the clouds. Dreams are beyond the…
A Sound Among the Trees Book Giveaway!
I love the way Susan Meissner weaves history with present day in an engaging tale relevant to both time periods! If you would like to win this book, tell me what is your favorite time period OR who you’d most like to BE in history! Contest open to US residents only! It is time for…
Where Do You Autograph a Book?
I love autographed books from the author and keep them on my shelves for years. In yesterday’s mail, I received a new book. The author and I corresponded about it through email and I asked her to autograph it. I was surprised at where she signed my book—on the inside of the front cover. In…
Ways To Keep Writing When Caregiving Needs Increase
by Kayne Swain “Honey, I don’t feel so well. My heart feels like it’s going a hundred miles a minute and…I feel so short of breath. Can you check my blood pressure?” the elderly mother said. “Mom, I have to take the kids to the specialist and he wants to run several tests. We’ll be…
Don’t Let Anyone Steal the Music of Your Soul!
Last weekend I saw the musical Memphis, and I was blown away. The music, the dancing, the story… By the end I was in tears. Sure, the storyline took me on an emotional journey of two star-crossed lovers in Memphis, a segregated, racist city, in the 1950s, a time when blacks and whites didn’t mix. It…
Homeschooling, Homesteading and Living to Write About It
by Mary L. Allen Cold weather has arrived in the mid-west! Usually this means fewer outside chores for yours truly, but this fall on our homestead, I still have pastured poultry field pens to move and a hundred chickens to feed. Then it’s time to tote wood from the shed up to the house for…
Constant Dialogue
“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17(KJV) Dialogue is a vital part of novels. Writers can certainly add depth to characters through their actions, but the heart of the character is revealed through the words he or she speaks. At the same time, a novel with only dialogue would be exhausting. The silence within scenes, when…
Write About What Disturbs You
If you haven’t read The Help by Kathryn Stockett yet, let me encourage you to do so. Stockett writes of an editor giving the main character this advice: “Don’t waste your time on the obvious things. Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.” This is good advice. What disturbs you? I tend…