By Anne Baxter Campbell I’m not a really patient person. I want the shortest line at the store, gas that pumps in excess of the speed limit, and meals I can prepare in fifteen minutes or less. Worst of all, perhaps, I want to go from “Once Upon a Time” to “The End” to “Released” in sixty seconds flat. If …
To Fight or Be Still
by Brenda S. Anderson The writing life is a battle. Raise your hand if you feel like you’ve been fighting hard at this writing business. You’re doing everything the right way, but still you’re getting nowhere, and you’re losing. You’re going to conferences, taking classes, getting critiques, yet no publisher or agent wants you. Or you’ve written a fabulous book, …
Invest in Your Writing Dreams
By Donna K. Rice My other career is as an estate planning attorney. In that capacity, I’ve spent many hours visiting with clients about what will happen when they pass away. To me, the personal matters, family values, and legacy development are most important, but money is what most people think about when considering estate planning. With that in mind, …
Stimulus Plan: Five Tips for Re-Igniting Your Writing Career
By Janice Hanna Thompson Many writers-even published ones-go through career stalls. Things fizzle out. Interest (among editor, agents or readers) wanes. Some authors face tough times, even after experiencing great success with a first or second novel. Still others feel the downward spiral after being on the best-seller’s list. I know, from personal experience, that these seasons can be discouraging. …
A Time to Write
By Loretta Eidson God must think our time is extremely important for the Bible to reference it with such repetition. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV), a brief explanation of time is mentioned twenty-nine times, and thirteen of those are found in the first four verses: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time …
When No Becomes Yes
by Davalynn Spencer During my first fiction-writer’s conference, I didn’t know what I was doing and I’m sure it showed. Hoo boy, but I did not want to be a rookie in a new field-a freshman-especially as a seasoned journalist with a master’s degree in my back pocket, two grown children, and the ability to parallel park and back up …
Life Happens
by Melinda Inman I didn’t want this gig. I didn’t want to write about how life is messy and complicated as we pursue our publishing dreams. Rather, I wanted to write about how the sun shone, the birds sang, the flowers bloomed, and all was right with the world. But life happened. Cancer, hospice, death, Epstein Barr, and now Chronic …
Courage for your Journey
by Cynthia Herron If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you’ve grown accustomed to hearing words like thick-skinned. Tough-as-nails. Not-for-the-fainthearted. Resilient. We may not like their connotation, but unless we approach our craft with a realistic mindset, those words can propel us forward or freeze us in our tracks. Writers on the publishing journey understand the road is …
Are You Being Tossed About by Every Wind?
By Henry McLaughlin Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Ephesians 4:14 NLT In my small group recently, we were discussing critiques. One member had …
Every book deserves a party
By Judy Christie With the launch of my eighth novel, I’m in the mood for fried pies. Make that chocolate fried pies. That’s what the protagonist cooks–and what I’ll serve to say thanks at my upcoming book party at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in northwest Louisiana. As authors, we spend lots of time talking about the serious business of writing …