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You’re Not Alone
Scenario #1: You’re reading a faith-based book with the words God and faith in the title. When you put the book down, you’re careful to lay it face down so the title’s not obvious. Or better yet, you stuff it in the drawer you know your spouse never goes into. Scenario #2: Your Bible, it…
My review of Blessed are the Uncool by Paul Grant
I read this book in small segments. It’s a lot of meat to digest. The subtitle of Blessed are the Uncool is “Living Authentically in a World of Show.” It describes the gist of the book very well. No one likes fake people; yet, we as Christians all struggle with being authentic. We’ve grown up…
Accelerating Your Writing Career
The 6 Cs of Professional Writing 1. Colorful – Making sure your writing is colorful does not mean filling your story with flowery description and boring description. It means making sure every aspect of your writing contains sensory perception. Try using all of the senses in every scene. Blend this tool with the natural flow…
Book Making Addicts
My kids love to make books. In fact, I don’t even try to conserve paper anymore. What’s 500 sheets a month compared to cultivating a love of creative writing, right? (relax, 500 is a slight exaggeration!) Since they were little, my girls have been putting picture books together–letting me write the captions till they were…
Using the Internet to Network
For several years now I have been on the Internet connecting with readers and writers, promoting my books. I sometimes wonder what it would be like without the Internet. It certainly has changed things for the writer from researching to promoting to networking. I know of some writers who aren’t on the Internet, but the…
Pens Should Be Mightier than Toilet Plungers
Martin Espada wrote this advice to young poets in The Republic of Poetry, but it applies to all writers, Christian bloggers included. Advice to Young Poets Never pretend to be a unicorn by sticking a plunger on your head. Let me just extract a few editorial lessons here. 1) “Never pretend.” Good words are always…
Procrastinators… I feel your pain
It’s National Procrastination Month. Like I need another excuse to put off… (you fill in the blank coz I’ve probably put it off). We’ve all been guilty of that “I’ll do it later” mentality. And let’s face it– there are lots of reasons for procrastinating. Some of them are even good reasons. For example… …the…
I should be doing something else…
Kids are in be early, husband is working late at the office. I really should be plotting my cozy, or folding mounds of laundry, but instead I’m catching up on my blog reading. Learning new things about old friends and realizing I miss a lot of them and I’m wondering how in the world I…
Staying on Target: Chapter after Chapter
“Why is that lady shooting a bow and arrow?” my youngest son asked me yesterday, holding my copy of Heather Sellers’ Chapter after Chapter. “Because she’s aiming for a target,” I told him. “But where’s the target? I can’t see it.” He turned the book over and looked at me puzzled. “Well, she’s writing a…
Go See This Movie THIS Weekend
I may be biased because I know the author of the book, Jim Stoval and the screenwriter, Rene Guttewridge, but the Ultimate Gift is the kind of film I can feel comfortable bringing my kids t. It’s the kind of film we need more of. But we won’t get more films like this unless it…