Writers Life | Guiding Questions

I recently ran a workshop on Guiding Questions for my teacher peers. While the aim was to teach fellow educators how to support English as Second Language (EAL) students across disciplines, I thought later that this tip may also be handy for writers. So, I dedicate this blog to teaching it to you. What is …

Tuesday Book Chat | 3 December 2024

Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week. Today’s question is: What authors are an automatic buy for you? We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in …

Biblical (era) fiction – a PR problem?

I said to a friend, “I’m going to write some Biblical fiction.”She looked at me. “If you do that, I won’t read them.”I was dumbfounded. This was a close friend who had been tremendously supportive of my contemporary Christian novels.“I don’t want to read anything that leads me away from the Bible,” she added.Therein lies …

New Release | A Wind in the Hebrides Coming Soon—30 years in the Making

I knew in 1995, as soon as I heard about the Lewis Awakening—a mighty movement of the Holy Spirit in the outermost corner of the Hebrides Islands after World War II—I needed to tell that story. In 2001 I set about my on-site research—taking one of the first planes to leave Boise after 9/11. I …

From Book Famine to Feast

I spent most of my high school years in an all-girls’ boarding school in Uganda, East Africa. The country was just coming out of years of civil war and the economy was in tatters. It was hard to get hold of interesting reading material, and fiction was a luxury. Our school library was full of …

Fiction Friday | Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble

Today for Fiction Friday I’m sharing my book recommendation for Fragile Designs, an excellent romantic suspense novel by Colleen Coble. Here’s the Book Description: There’s only one thing more dangerous than family secrets. Since her police-officer husband Eric’s mysterious murder, Carly Harris has been struggling to support herself and their infant son. Her career as …

Writers Life | Watch Those Deadlines Whoosh By

Deadlines. Love them or hate them, deadlines seem to define the life of a writer. For some, they’re a motivation. For others, they’re a source of dread. But whether we rush to meet them or let them whoosh by, deadlines shape our writing habits and productivity. A few weeks ago, I signed up for a …

Writers Life | The Spiritual Rewards of Writing

What are we doing this for, anyway? These are challenging times for authors. I’ve heard from many of my author friends about the frustrations of the past few months. So many are seeing downturns in the number of books sold, fewer Kindle Unlimited pages read, lower ROIs on paid advertising. Things that were working well …