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Top Ten Ways to Find Ten Minutes to Write
No one should have to remind us that life is short. The Bible says it “fades quickly like grass.” In fact, the book of Proverbs is full of encouragement to make use of our time, to be wise with our gifts. If this is true, that we should, in fact, use every day wisely, then…
How to Write a Hallelujah Chorus-Worthy First Chapter
“Without a great first chapter your reader will never move onto to chapter two.” That reality is beat into us at writer conferences, on blogs, and in writing email loops. But before a reader can love your first chapter, you need to believe in your first chapter and love it. But, let’s face it. How…
A Life Interrupted by Illness
Did anyone ever tell you, “Be careful what you wish for or you may get it?” A few years ago, I stared at the wall and wondered what it would be like to be able to write all the time. I complained to God how I had all these stories and no time to tell…
You Want Me to Speak? But I’m a Writer…
Everyone has their calling. For as long as God deems it, mine is writing and encouraging women in their faith. Some people are gifted at doing multiple things – such as writing and speaking. I don’t enjoy speaking. Yet for whatever reasons, God seems to keep pulling me out of my comfort zone. It started…
How to Homeschool and Write
I’ve always marveled at writers who homeschooled and did both successfully, mainly because I struggled in to do both at the same time. In my quest to learn how to write and homeschool, I had the privilege to interview those who proved it could be done. With the start of the new homeschool year, I…
What Percentage of Your Social Networking Should Be Promotional?
Several years ago, a marketing firm revealed what many already knew: 40% of Tweets are pointless babble. That’s “babble” as in tweeting about What you’re eating, What you’re wearing, What you’re watching, and What time you go beddy-bye. Of course, what constitutes “pointless babble” is mostly determined by the follower’s interest in the Tweeter. I…
Vision Trouble
by Tammy Nischan On the way to work one day I kept thinking, ‘My right eye seems blurry. I must have my contact lens in upside down.” When I arrived at school, I went straight to the restroom and discovered that there is actually no lens in my right eye! I don’t know how I…
Oh, My Aching Muscles!
After prolonged neglect, muscles tend to let us know when they are not pleased with a sudden change in activity. Surely, you have experienced this. You set a goal, gather up some motivation, and head to the gym. Thinking you can pick up right where you left off, you crank out a 60 minutes workout…
Whose Point of View
Psalm 37:30 – The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just. The greatest jolt for a reader is to be absorbed into a story, sensing the urgency of the dangers, feeling the onset of emotions, being carried away by the events, when all of a sudden, the story…
Ape House by Sara Gruen
In Ape House, Sara Gruen’s follow-up novel to Water for Elephants, Gruen again finds a unique setting: a lab where scientists work with bonobo apes on interspecies communication. The scientists, led by Isabel Duncan, teach the bonobos English and sign language so that the apes can understand English and respond with sign language. John Thigpen,…