November Musings
How would our lives change if we made gratitude a habit?
Tough Times . . .
Let’s see if you’ve heard any of these. “Tough times never last, but tough people do. ~Robert H. Schuller “You’ve got to stay strong to be strong in tough times.” ~Tilman J. Fertita “I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times.” ~Willie Nelson I’ll bet you can think of a few more to add to this list. …
A Shade Tree, A Creek, & A Book
Raise your hand if you were raised in the south with no air conditioning. Haha. I’m sure I’m not the only one. We didn’t have air conditioning at home–or at school–or in the car. I think about that at least once a day, since Texas is currently melting under 100+ temperatures. We survived though. Somehow. And mom wouldn’t let us …
Back to the Classroom
It’s true. I’ve accepted a half-time teaching position. Beach time is over my friends. Okay, I was only at the beach for 4 days, but you get my meaning. Life is about to get busy! So am I still going to write books? You bet, I am! I’ll still have half a day. What do you think I’d spend that …
Virtual Book Store
As an author, I’m always searching for new ways to connect with readers. One thing I’ve heard again and again is that you’d like to be able to purchase autographed, print copies. Voila! May I present the VC Book Store. Of course, I don’t have all 40+ books in my personal warehouse, but I do have a few of them …
Creating Fictional Families
How do writers go about creating fictional families? I suppose there are a lot of ways, but I start by looking at MY family, and I go from there. (Yes, this is a picture of me and my siblings. I’m the youngest. The cutest, right?) When I submitted a 6 book series to Love Inspired, I knew that I wanted …
Writing, Deadlines and Stress
I see a lot of writers talking about deadlines and stress. In fact, I see and hear a lot of people admitting to feeling stressed in general, so I thought we’d talk about that for a minute. I don’t mind deadlines personally. They give me a date to finish something, which is good. Otherwise I might take forever. One way …
The Amish and Minimalism
I recently wrote a guest blog for my friend Joshua Becker. You can read the blog here. Joshua is a big minimalism proponent. I’ve taken his classes and read his books. He’s awesome. I like his perspective on things. I like that he says “minimalism looks different for everyone.” Most of Joshua’s readers are not familiar with the Amish, but …
Proposal Writing
Just so you know that being an author isn’t all about book releases and eating chocolate bars, I thought that I’d give you a peek into the world of writing a proposal. Generally, when you write a proposal you write the first 3 chapters (about 50 pages) and a rather detailed synopsis. I want you to picture a ROOT CANAL …
Writing Retreats
Today I thought I’d share with you about writing retreats. They come in all shapes and forms. More formal retreats are at hotels or retreat centers. For the retreat I went to earlier this month, we rented an AirBnB and split the cost (which ended up being about $80 for two nights–a real deal). So what do you do at …