Celebrating Freedom

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Happy Day after Independence Day from Dianne Neal Matthews. Since the 4th came on a Sunday, many people get today off from work. But I’m sure there are plenty of writers out there like me—chained to a desk because of a tight deadline. That hasn’t stopped me from thinking about freedom, though…

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ICRS News from the Industry

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Aloha from Karen, treasurer of CAN,   I’m at the International Christian Retail Show in St Louis, MO this week. This is where store owners, publishers, editors, authors, and agents come together to show case new books and products and interact.

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Who You Are as Interviewer

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Hi! Jan here continuing the conversation about interviewing. And yes, let’s make this a conversation. Join in! In my last post, in sharing interview tips, I included the following two: – Treat each person you interview as a person, with compassion and dignity. – Be aware when some aspect of their story may be a struggle for them to tell. What about those?

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There’s Only One Superman

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Happy summer greetings from Bonnie Leon   I just finished a manuscript and turned it into my publisher. The usual rush toward a deadline plus unexpected adventures from life wiped me out. I’m still trying to recover. I have a new book, Touching the Clouds, releasing, so now comes the book launch and all that it entails. I’m feeling exhausted just thinking about it. There is so much to do.

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Story Part I: What Is It?

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Happy Friday from Gail  Gaymer Martin at www.gailmartin.com Story is what sells the book and attracts readers, Donald Maass, a top agent and novelist, says in Writing the Breakout Novel. An author can have exciting characters, unique setting, tremendous dialogue, but if he doesn’t have a good story, he has nothing. Story is taking an idea and bringing it to life by transporting the reader from one world to another through the experiences of a character on a mission—striving to reach a goal with a purpose. A story has the power to capture readers and allow them to experience the journey….

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Deeper Into the Interview

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Jan here. Over this summer, for my two monthly contributions to the CAN blog, I’d like to explore the interview. On the first Friday of the month, today, I’m supposed to address writing craft. On the fourth Monday, writer encouragement is my assigned category. I plan to use both, craft and encouragement, to talk about the interview as part of our writing. To begin my summer series on interviewing I’ll share a post I wrote in 2007 when I was a year into writing the Live Free series. I had discovered that interviewing had a whole lot more to it than simply getting information for my…

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Introducing, the Next Generation of Writers

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Happy Monday from Jeanette. Today I walked into one of the 2nd grade classrooms at my youngest son’s school and handed the teacher a stack of books that I’d just finished spiral-binding. “I’ll let you make the announcement,” Miss Anne whispered. She got her class’s attention. Before I could say a word a little girl named Myra squealed, “Our books!” “That’s right. You’re authors!” The King’s Academy 2nd graders had worked hard for weeks on stories about a dog named Ace (inspired by Miss Anne’s dog who gained fame when he had to have his tail amputated—long story), based on…

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Renewed Passion

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I love being a writer, but lately I’d been feeling stressed-out, burned-out, just plain bummed-out. So I did the only thing I knew to do: I asked God to renew my passion for my calling and for my current WIP. He answered my prayer, but in an interesting way….

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Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail

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  Tracy (T.L.) Higley here, posting another marketing lesson I’ve learned from my years in online retail sales. As I’ve mentioned in previous months, I’m currently in the midst of an experimental year, applying principles from my retail business to the marketing of my fiction. If you’ve missed earlier posts, and would like a better explanation of my background and what these posts are about, please see Principles #1-#9 here.   So, on to Principle #10… Give yourself a reality check.   Writing is hard. Making money at writing is even harder. There is considerable discussion and debate these days…

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In the Trenches, Part 2

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Hey, writers! Jan here, writing once again with a focus on nonfiction–though the topic today could apply to fiction writers as well. Last month I offered In the Trenches, Part 1, where we looked at how crucial it is to get into our reader’s skin and keep them in mind while we write. We looked at ways we can get closer to our reader—intentional about knowing who they are from multiple angles, including through real conversations. We’re going to take that deeper in this post. Begin by imagining being trapped in a room . . .

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