Posts
Back to School … and Work
FROM THE ARCHIVES Something absolutely amazing happened this week. My youngest child started preschool. For the first time in over eleven years of stay-home momhood, I have the house to myself. The dog and cats are outside. The TV is off, radio is off. I can hear the refrigerator running as I type. And that…
Scheduling Your Family: How Do You Choose?
I hate to bid farewell to summer, the season of flexibility and spontaneity. Eventually, though, summer schedule gives way to fall, and the freedom to be flexible is replaced by appointments, deadlines, expectations. The whole family shifts to a more disciplined, scheduled life. And the hardest part, I think, is the time of transition when…
The Top Five Reasons to PreOrder My Book Now!
5. Because I’ve given you the link, and it’s quick, easy, and painless. Think “set it and forget it!” 4. Because if you do, then you’ll forget about it, and it’ll be like getting another Christmas present in January! 3. Because at this price you can get ALL of your Christmas shopping done! 😉 2.…
My ACFW Conference Journey
Since I started writing fiction seriously and pursuing publication in 2005, I never missed an ACFW conference…except last year. Each year my motivation to attend ACFW was different. Each year I had new goals and dreams. Each year I grew as a writer and took home something specific I would need on my journey ahead.…
Coffee Cup Ministry
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples–when they see the love you have for each other.” (John 13:34-35 – The Message) I remember a number of years ago when I…
Pattern of Wounds by J. Mark Bertrand
Roland March, Houston homicide detective, responds to a call about a stab victim. The victim lies face down, half in a pool, killed by a knife through the heart. Something about the scene strikes March as odd: it mimics a crime scene photo of a case he closed ten years ago. The only difference is…
Motivation to Keep Going
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 What gets you out of bed on a lazy, rainy morning to brave a day of errands? What keeps you going when nothing you’ve planned is working? When your kids are defiant and your spouse just…
The Teacher Becomes The Student
It’s much easier to assign writing than to teach writing. That epiphany in my profession as a high school English teacher was a blessing and a curse. . .for me and for my students. It meant I stopped bombarding them with the alphabet soup of essays (analysis, biography, comparison, definition, exemplification, etc.), and started devoting…
Finish the Book
by Kathleen Y Barbo A Procrastinator’s Guide to Getting to THE END and Hitting Send Some people have no trouble writing books. Words flow and contracts arrive almost as frequently as 747s land at LAX. Life is good and so are the royalty checks. Is this your idea of the writing life? Guess what? That’s…
What Really Keeps Me From Writing
Life must be lived at one speed. But Sheri and I have noticed many try to speed it up. Maybe they simply don’t realize they’re doing it and the result is they push out peace and make those around them play at their speed. Others want it to slow down. And some people wish they…