Can Bunnies Pray?

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Children’s authors often use animals as the main characters in their stories. Anthropomorphism, also known as personification, is attributing human characteristics to anything other than a human being.

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Tips from the Pros: Jackie M. Johnson

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Greetings from Sarah Sundin in California, where we’re actually praying for rain for a change. Whether we’re enduring ice storms or drought, medical issues or family drama, we all need to pray. Today’s featured author, Jackie M. Johnson, has made a name for herself with books on prayer and comfort. In addition, Jackie uses her experience in working for a literary agency and for a publishing house to coach aspiring authors. Jackie, how did you get into writing? I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was in junior high. I loved to read and enjoyed spelling class…

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Christian Authors Network Blesses Retailers at the Christian Product Expo in Hershey

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Three retailers won a total of $2400 in CAN (Christian Author’s Network) authored books at the Munce Christian Product Expo (CPE) in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Karen Whiting   Leslie Vernick signing her new release The event began Sunday, January 19th, with training and a personality party where authors signed copies of their books. CAN author, Leslie Vernick, signed her newest release The Emotionally Destructive Marriage: How to Find Your Voice and Reclaim Your Hope; Linda J. White signed advance reader copies of Words of Conviction

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Love Finds Faith by Martha Rogers

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Hannah Dyer has just moved to Texas to help her brother-in-law in his medical practice. Despite her handicap of having one leg much shorter than the other, she is a great nurse whose skills help make the practice the most successful in the area.   When Micah Gordon returns home after some shady escapades, his father hopes he will settle down to ranch life…

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Sometimes It’s How You Frame It

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Greetings and Happy New Year! Maureen Pratt here with my monthly CAN blog on the craft of writing. Today, I'm going to offer one technique to help you find the right angle and tone for your story. Sometimes, fine-tuning these so that your intent is clear and your storytelling is compelling isn't a matter of vocabulary or sentence structure, or even pacing or flow. Sometimes, it's how you frame your story that gives it its best final form. Recently, I took two lovely watercolors to a frame shop. I'd purchased them awhile ago, and never liked the plain frames they'd…

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Tips from the Pros: Twila Belk

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Almost six years ago, I had the privilege of meeting the wonderful Twila Belk and her partner in crime, Cecil Murphey, at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Orlando. Since then, I've come to count both Twila and Cec as good friends. That's why I'm delighted to introduce Cec's much-maligned sidekick to you today. Not only does Twila serve as Cec's manager, protector, and as Cec would say, "mother," but she is a talented speaker, writer, and the “GottaTellSomebody Gal.”  She was also brave enough to invite me to teach at my first writer's conference in 2009. So without…

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Getting Agent Ready: 7 Steps to Prepare for Success

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Greetings from Jackie!  ___________________________________________________________________________________ Do you want to get published—or get published again? If your goal is to get a book deal from a traditional publisher, it’s important to know what literary agents are looking for. Why? Because in today’s publishing environment writers can no longer send unsolicited manuscripts directly to publishers (at least, about 99% of the time), so it is essential to have a literary agent to represent your ideas to publishers. 

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The Quilted Heart Omnibus by Mona Hodgson

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The Quilted Heart Omnibus—3 Novellas in one—Dandelions on the Wind, Bending Toward the Sun, and Ripples Along the Shore Like a beautiful patchwork quilt, the three novellas in The Quilted Heart tell stories of lives stitched together with love and God’s unending grace.   Once a week, Elsa Brantenberg hosts the Saint Charles Quilting Circle at her farmhouse on the outskirts of the riverside town of St. Charles, Missouri. The ladies who gather there have all experienced heartache related to the intense hardships of the Civil War, and together, they are facing their painful circumstances with friendship and prayer. Can…

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WRITERS WHO SPEAK – SPEAKER DO’S & DON’TS

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Greetings from Golden Keyes Parsons here in East Texas on a drizzly, cold January day. I am always delighted and excited when I am on my way to a speaking engagement, but with the weather we’ve had the past few weeks, along with the rest of the country, I’m rather relieved I don’t have to travel anytime soon. So let’s continue with the last of our Speaker Don’t’s:

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