By Terry Overton @TerryOverton6 There is no question our world needs books by Christian authors. We are called through the Great Commission to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Christian authors may teach the Gospel through stories of redemption. A review of books by Christian authors reveals redemption is incorporated into romance novels, …
Living the Story of America Rising
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Martha and Martha: A Lesson in Learning and Writing
By Kathleen Y’Barbo @KathleenYBarbo We all know about Martha from the Bible. Biblical Martha was the Martha Stewart of her day, bustling around showing Jesus her devotion to Him with hospitality without any help from her sister Mary. From this story, we learn that sitting at the feet of Jesus—literally for these biblical sisters and figuratively for us in modern …
Reflecting the Gospel Through Our Characters
by M.D. House @Real_HouseMD At first blush, this doesn’t seem like such a difficult task. But when we examine the recent success of The Chosen—and all of the painstaking work which has gone into not just the cinematography but the storytelling itself—we realize the steep challenge involved in securing the sweet promise of that goal. Such stories and their characters …
Fish-Belly Dreams: Encouragement for New Writers
by Ashley Worrell @byashleyworrell I’ll never forget the day I walked out of my HR career forever. With my dying anthurium plant in hand, I walked down the government building’s corridor, uncertain of my choice. I’d worked my whole adult life to achieve this ‘dream job’, making money I never thought I’d make, and having doors open to me I …
Where Do I Fit In?
By Marilyn Turk @MarilynTurk In this vast, unpredictable world of writing, do you ever wonder where you fit in? I do. Although we try to avoid labeling people, the publishing business does this for us. Here are some examples: 1. Prepublished? Published? Multi-published? 2. Are you with a major publisher? Small press? Independent? Hybrid publisher? 3. Are you an A-listed …
Living the Story of America’s Birth
by Christine Sunderland Today is Independence Day, our annual celebration of the Declaration of Independence, unanimously signed by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The second paragraph rings in our memory: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit …