by Jeanne Takenaka, @JeanneTakenaka I’ve lost track of how many times, in my heart of hearts, I’ve yearned to make a difference in our world. As a teen, I was sure I had big things ahead of me. I just needed to discover them and do them. Now, decades later, there are still times when I wish I could make an impact …
Filling Your Well with Fall Reading
by Katherine Reay, @Katherine_Reay After finishing a manuscript, I feel dry. All my creativity has been spent and I’m a little tired. We all have times in which we need to recharge and that moment is always mine. I believe writers need to be voracious readers. We need to be inundated with stories. But in the last days of writing something new, …
Jesus Wore a Dress: Reactionary Ideas in Our Novels
by Peter Leavell, @PeterLeavell I met a girl, Tonya. Yowzers. I liked her, and on our first date, I could do no wrong. However, the next time we got together, I couldn’t seem to say anything right. Appropriately annoyed, she challenged me. I had two options—react and defend myself, or dig deep, consider her comments, and give a true account …
How to Prepare for a Virtual Writers Conference
by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt I attended my first writers conference of 2020 last weekend. It was a virtual conference, with all the attendees and speakers “zooming in” from all over the world. The technical glitches were few – and I’m certain that’s because of the many prayers that were prayed during the two days, as well as the hard work …
The Fear Trap
by Andrea Christenson, @andrea143 As writers we often joke about finding ourselves doing anything to avoid writing. We do the laundry, clean out the fridge, scrub at the grout in the bathroom with an old toothbrush. Anything! Lately, I’ve been finding myself in the trap more and more often. “Just wash the dishes, then you can get a page of writing …
What Would You Tell Your Pre-published Self?
by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1 As I stare at the cursor blinking on the first page of my thirteenth novel, my mind searches for anything to write except what I know I must. I have a deadline looming and I only have one chapter written. The beginning of a book is the hardest for me. I don’t know my characters nearly well …