Blog
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…
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…
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…
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…
Reorganization: The Cost of Starting Over
Maybe it’s the writer in me. Or the perfectionist. Possibly the perfectionist writer. In any case, when it comes to organizational systems, I’m forever revising, producing new drafts of my methods, and occasionally scrapping what I’ve got and starting over. If necessity is the mother of invention, then annoyance is its kooky uncle. (TWEET THIS BY…
How to Start your Writing Business: Famous Writer, Inc.
by Ron Estrada Every writer has uttered the words “I want to write full time someday!” Unless you are the child of Donald and (insert bride name here) Trump, you probably don’t have the luxury of buying a beach-house in the Keys and living out your Hemingwayesque fantasy. You have bills, a mortgage, car payments,…
When the Bomb Counts Down to Zero: Writing Honest Through the Pain
Guest Article by Shelly Beach and giveaway Over the past few weeks, a friend and I have been plowing our way through all six seasons of the television series Lost. If you’re not familiar with the show, it rose to the forefront American pop culture from 2004 to 2010, gaining critical acclaim and popular success.…
The Lonely Writer: No Writer Left Behind
by Ron Estrada Gina Conroy, who shall henceforth be known as Super G on this here blog, posted in Writer…Interrupted this week about her struggles as a “left behind” writer. She and I have shared this same lonely writer experience. We began writing years ago and found other newbies to hang out with (albeit electronically)…
Chemistry in Christian Romance
I once got a bad review claiming my novel LOVE FINDS YOU IN SUN VALLEY, IDAHO “awoke love too early.” And I couldn’t help being proud of it. Because, hey, that means I’m good at creating chemistry, right? There’s nothing worse than reading (or watching) a story where there’s no chemistry between the characters. This…
Dallas Writers University One Day Intensive with Agent Chip MacGregor
So it’s Monday and I’m behind in blogging again. This week’s excuse? A successful run of The Little Mermaid. So instead of banging out a post, I’m passing on a great deal on an awesome One Day Intensive with my agent Chip MacGregor. It’s May 4th in Dallas and seating is limited to 30…