Spark

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  Lord, today and every day, spark my writing; Make it electric. Inject it with life, and infuse it with flavor. Make my thoughts clear, my ideas sharp, my words strong, and their impact life-changing, in Jesus’ name, amen. Bob Hostetler is the author of fifty books, including The Bard and the Bible: A Shakespeare Devotional, and Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door (coauthored with Josh McDowell). He has won two Gold Medallion Awards, four Ohio Associated Press awards, and an Amy Foundation Award. He is the founding pastor of Cobblestone Community Church in Oxford, Ohio. He and his…

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Rejection

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  Lord Jesus, I guess if anyone knows how rejection feels, you do. I know it’s a part of being a writer, hearing “not right for us” and “not right for our audience” and “not a good time” or, worse, nothing at all. Sometimes it seems so few and far between acceptances. I know, I know: You set your face like a flint even when you knew what lay ahead. So, okay. I’m not trudging to Calvary. I’m not carrying a cross. I’m learning to do better, to write to the reader’s need, to study the editor’s requirements, to hone…

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A Writer’s Senses

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  Gracious God, thank you for the smell of pencil shavings, the elegance of a good fountain pen, and the click-clack of ancient typewriter keys… for the intoxication of creative juices, the sweetness of a well-turned phrase… for the creak of the office chair, and the surprise of a catch in the throat and the salty track of a tear on the cheek… for the hum of a computer, for the thrum of a printer, for the agony of the blank page, the ecstasy of the last line, the terror of hitting “send” and the fragrance of fresh ink on…

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Forgive My Little Efforts

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Bob Hostetler here, offering another prayer for writers: Father God Almighty, you inspired Moses, Samuel, and others to write when their best tools were papyrus and parchment, reed styli and ink made from crushed berries and plants. For millennia, your servants have recorded stirring and soaring works

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For Things Important to a Writer

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Bob Hostetler here, offering another prayer for writers: Abba, Father, Lord God, thank you that I can type so fast, that the internet makes research relatively easy (if dangerous), that I can work at home or in a coffee shop. Thank you that I can send manuscripts and galleys via email, that I can quickly search a document, that I can access, order, and download books online.

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A Weak Writer’s Prayer

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Bob Hostetler here, offering another prayer for writers: Abba, I am a weak writer: insecure, inadequate, in over my head. But you chose Ehud because of his weakness. You used him, not to mention Moses, David, Jeremiah, Paul, and others (though I did just mention them; see what I mean?). So grant me the faith to believe that you can choose me and use me too.

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The Return and The Chamberlain Key by Bob Hostetler

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The Return (Book #2 of The Northkill Amish) by Bob Hostetler and J. M. Hochstetler Publisher: Sheaf House (April 1, 2017) ISBN: 1936438445 ISBN-13: 9781936438440 Book description: Historical Novel After their home was destroyed and their family massacred, Jakob Hochstetler and his sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive, marched into the wilderness, and separated into separate clans and families. As their surviving family members in the Northkill Amish community try to learn where they are and have them returned to their homes, the captives wonder if they will ever see home again. Or if it even still exists.   The…

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The Return and The Chamberlain Key by Bob Hostetler

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The Return (Book #2 of The Northkill Amish) by Bob Hostetler and J. M. Hochstetler Publisher: Sheaf House (April 1, 2017) ISBN: 1936438445 ISBN-13: 9781936438440 Book description: Historical novel After their home was destroyed and their family massacred, Jakob Hochstetler and his sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive, marched into the wilderness, and separated into separate clans and families. As their surviving family members in the Northkill Amish community try to learn where they are and have them returned to their homes, the captives wonder if they will ever see home again. Or if it even still exists.   The…

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Nouns (A Prayer for Writers)

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Bob Hostetler here, offering another prayer for writers: I use too many adjectives and adverbs as I write; I want the lift a good noun gives to help a phrase take flight, like dandelion, balustrade, and cricket, poppy, trough, and foghorn, meadow, cannonade, assassin, scythe, and toff, and more, I pray, from You who gave each item, object, thing, and every single noun I have to make my writing sing. _________________ Bob’s latest book is The Bard and the Bible, available via www.bardandbible.com or at fine Christian retailers everywhere.

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