By Amy Clipston People often ask me, “How do you work a full-time job and write books?” I resist the urge to roll my eyes, and instead reply, “I just make it work.” Unlike some authors, I work full-time for a local government, in addition to writing four or more books per year for HarperCollins Christian Publishing. In fact, in …
Blog Humor
By Stephanie Prichard I love making people laugh, so I aim to elicit a chuckle in my blog devotionals too. Here’s an example of how I combine laughter with the seriousness of Scriptural truth: Mistaken Restroom Yep, I did it. Walked smack dab into a men’s restroom. I was in such a hurry I raced straight to a stall and …
A New Novelist’s Journey to Publication
By Frank DiBianca Believing we all learn from our fellow travelers’ writing experiences, I thought I’d outline mine in hopes that they may be useful to other new fiction writers. I remember publishing in my school’s fourth-grade “newspaper” a flash sci-fi story, The Unknown Element, about a new atomic element with mysterious properties. When the teachers said they didn’t understand …
Altar Envy
By Terri Gillespie “When you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it from cut stone, for if you use a tool on it, you will have profaned it.” Exodus 20:25, TLV Despite my smile and enthusiastic congratulations, the familiar funk of envy settled on me like slime. That adage to “fake it until you make it” …
Resurrecting Righteousness
By Christine Sunderland Angel Mountain is a resurrection story, so I was pleased the novel was released shortly after Easter last year by Wipf and Stock Publishers. One of my main characters is Abram Levin, a Jewish refugee who converts to Christianity in his later years. He spends his last days in a sandstone cave as a hermit, singing, praying, …
Finding My Purpose in Writing
By KD Holmberg Over a decade ago, my five children slowly began to drift into their own lives. I knew my time as a full-time mom was coming to an end, but the days passed quicker than expected. Before I knew it, I was helping my baby move into a college dorm. Honestly, I left her school feeling a bit …
Using Setting as a Spiritual Takeaway
By Sally Jo Pitts Last night while watching this sunset with my grandson and daughter-in-law, she commented, “God created amazing scenery for us to enjoy.” God’s first setting was the Garden of Eden—the environment intended for us … until the fall of man. But did you know there are places in the world in which people have low rates of …
Capturing Gems
I’m in my 75th year of life, so believe me when I say there’s been a lot. A lot of joy. Sorrow. Pain. Fear. Success and failure. Faith and doubt. You name it; I’ve probably experienced it. It hasn’t been hard to remember the gems—those events so laced with emotion that I can feel them now. But all these years …
Tips for Fighting the Dreaded Writer’s Block
By Amy Clipston Through the years I’ve found that my book projects fall into two categories—they either write themselves or writing them feels like having my teeth drilled. In other words, the characters either tell me the story or I push them through the story as if they were dead weight. My novella “Bundles of Blessings” included in the collection …
Using Secrets in our Stories
By Darlene L. Turner Have you ever kept a secret from your mom as a kid? I did one time… “Don’t tell Mom,” I said to my brother Murray. “She’ll kill me!” Once again, I didn’t listen to my mom and decided to take our friend’s 5-speed bike for a ride. We had pleaded with Mom, but she wasn’t ready …