by Christine Sunderland @Chrisunderland As Christian storytellers, are we affecting our culture for good? Are we using the talents that God has given us? Are we making a difference? We live in an increasingly polarized culture, both national and international. As we watch civilization collapse around us, what part can we play and what responsibility do we own, for the …
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? A Rebel Writer’s Guide to Breaking the Rules of Writing
By Kathleen Y’Barbo Turner @KathleenYBarbo When my daughter was in kindergarten, her teacher asked the children to interview an adult about his or her job and come back to class the next day with a report on what they learned. Hannah grilled me about my job as a writer, and I answered her questions about how I constructed my stories. …
What is that to You?
By Sara Davison As writers, I believe we wrestle with many of the same issues: self-doubt, lack of confidence, times of being blocked creatively, discouragement. Most of us also have a tendency to compare ourselves to other writers, worrying more about what they are doing or achieving than focusing on our own lives and work. Peter struggled with this. When Jesus …
Standing Back-to-Back: New Writers Need Community
By Ashley Worrell Does your ignorance ever get the better of you? Mine gets me all the time. As a new writer I have made many decisions based on whether something sounds fun. This mentality has sometimes worked out well, sometimes not. This blog, for instance, sounded like a fun way to help me meet fellow writers, so I signed …
ACFW New Releases: September 2023
September 2023 New Releases More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW Fiction Finder website Contemporary Romance: A Louisiana Christmas to Remember by Morgan Tapley Smith, Betsy St. Amant, Lenora Worth — Three heartwarming, interconnected stories of faith, love, and restoration, brought to you by three Louisiana-native authors. Will a rare snowy Louisiana Christmas bring restoration …
The Practice of Perseverance
By Lisa Kelley @LisaKelleyWrite Waiting to be published can be daunting as well as disappointing. I closed out 2022 empty. I had semi-finaled in a writing contest but didn’t progress. One judge suggested I shouldn’t have made it to the semi-finals. I had a manuscript rejected, and I’d finished my fifth novel only to discover, after one of those hard …
ACFW’s 2023 Christian Fiction and Industry Awards
ACFW Announces 2023 Christian Fiction and Industry Awards Palm Bay, FL: The 2023 American Christian Fiction Writers conference at St. Louis, Missouri’s Hyatt Regency at the Arch included the much-anticipated Awards Gala spotlighting this year’s Christian fiction industry awards. Author, instructor, and writing craft resource expert James Scott Bell was honored with ACFW’s Lifetime Achievement Award. ACFW CEO Colleen …
The Most Difficult Writing Assignment of My Life
by Jenny Powell MD Back in the Dark Ages when I was in high school, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, required an essay for high school applicants. I was an aspiring journalism major at the time, and poured my heart into what I thought would be the most difficult writing assignment of my life. It must have been okay because …
ACFW Conference Prayer: That God’s Will be Accomplished at Conference (Day 1)
Please join us in today’s prayer for ACFW’s conference. Topic: That God’s Will be Accomplished at Conference (Day 1) Scripture: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. ~Psalm 115:1 Dear Lord, We pray that Your will be done at conference. All of us are going for different reasons, to learn, to pitch our …
ACFW Conference Prayer: Good Travel Weather (Day 2)
Please join us in today’s prayer for ACFW’s conference. Topic: Good Weather for Travel (Day 2) Scripture: And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. ~Luke 8:24b You sustain the stars, the sun, the moon, and the entire universe by your almighty power. The seasons and all the climatic …