I have just had my end-of-year performance review at work (because it’s the end of our financial year). Last July, I sat down with my manager and we agreed my goals for the year. Yesterday, I prepared for my review by reviewing my year at work against those goals: what I’ve achieved, what I am …
Category Archives: Writers Life
Writers Life | Young Christian Writers as Esthers
Young Christian Writers as Esthers: The Power of Brazen Audacity It was Stephen King who said in his memoir, On Writing, “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” Reading On Writing some years ago, sat in my warm, humid West-African home, a cup of cold soda drink in one …
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Writers Life | Books in the Age of Distraction
I was standing in a bookshop last week. Two books in my hands. One had everything going for it—strong reviews, a compelling blurb, the kind of reputation that whispers this is worth your time. It’s even been adapted into a film. And yet… I turned to the first page. I read a paragraph. Then another. …
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Writers Life | Young Christian Writers as Pauls
Young Christian Writers as Pauls: The Power of Retaining One’s Voice. When I first started to write, I had a number of authors I aspired to be like. I loved their books so I subconsciously strove to sound like them. I even wanted to write in similar genres as they did. But I soon realised, …
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Devotional | One Way
Remember the fun Hillsong we used to sing in the mid-2000s? Or, if you’re old enough, the ’70s Jesus Movement hand signal and the big floppy Bible that went with it? Spanning the time between those tropes came a definite mindset of teaching. ‘This is the way, walk ye in it’ (Isaiah 30:21 KJV) gets …
Writers Life | Financial costs of self-publishing
Publishing is not for the faint-hearted. There are significant up-front costs. Below, I will list the ones I spent, but also give suggestions for how to avoid various costs. First, let’s differentiate between self-publishing/independent publishing and pay-to-play publishing (known as vanity publishing and now calling itself ‘hybrid’ publishing). Self-publishing is more like project-managing. You will …
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Launching Your Second Book
In today’s blog, Dienece would like to share her experience with launching a second book. Launching your second book might not go like the first one did. It might do better, or it might be worse. I ended up making more money off my second book, but I didn’t sell as many books. The lack …
Five Reasons to Enter a Writing Contest
(and five contests for unpublished fiction writers, plus a short story contest for Australian writers) There are any number of writing contests around for both published and unpublished writers. It’s easy to see why a published author would enter a writing contest: to get recognition for their writing, in the same way as actors enter …
Writers Life | From Books on Tape to the Voices in My Head
Anyone else remember when audiobooks were called books on tape? My first audiobook was Winnie-the-Pooh, narrated by Lionel Jeffries, on cassette. I wore that tape out. Literally. At some point it stretched and degraded so badly it stopped playing properly, and I remember opening the cassette to splice the tape and coax it back into …
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Devotional | Where does Jesus sit in your car?
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.” Jeremiah 17:7 It was a sunny Saturday afternoon at the end of October, and the garden was calling my name. I grabbed my gardening gloves, pulled on a hat and plastered on sunscreen. It was time to set to work mulching …
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