Overcoming Discouragement

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  Discouragement can stop us from accomplishing the tasks God has, in His infinite wisdom, given us to do. As a freelance author, editor, and writers’ conference speaker and director, I’ve learned that staying motivated can sometimes be a struggle. You see, most people think writing a book is easy … until they actually try to write for publication. It’s such a long process, filled with discouragements and distractions, setbacks and rejections. Sometimes it would be a lot easier to quit writing than to keep at it. But when God has called you to do something, you can’t quit. His…

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Important Questions for Seasoned Authors

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Important Questions for Seasoned Authors by Judith Couchman In the early stages of a writing life, every publishing opportunity thrills us. We accept almost anything we can authentically create, and hope for much more. We’re excited to exercise our writing gift, and sense we’re stepping in the impressions of God’s footsteps. Anything seems possible. A decade or so later, if we’re still writing, we can effuse these same joys. Or not. As circumstances morph, we do, too. When we explore and transform spiritually, we might uncover fresh ways of thinking and serving. Or we could lose enthusiasm for our publishing…

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My Love-Hate Relationship with Flossing

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Hi from Kathy Collard Miller in the hot desert of Southern California near Palm Springs. But don’t worry, it’s a dry heat. I have a love-hate relationship with flossing. Or is it a hate-love relationship? I don’t know. Sometimes I hate it more than I love it and other times I love it more than I hate it. I hate it when I’m about to do it and I love it when I’m done. And that happens twice a day. I’m motivated because my teeth are so ripe for cavities that I want to avoid the pain. Plus, I have spaces between…

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Surprise! God Is Sovereign!

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Hello from Kathy Collard Miller in the desert of Southern California! Have you ever been surprised by God’s sovereignty? Early in my writing and speaking ministry in the 1980’s, I felt the need to make things happen. It felt like I needed to force things to happen. I even seemed to hear from the publishing world that it was up to me to make things happen. And within a decade or two, I began to learn that I needed a platform and it was all up to me. I felt tense.

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Why waste time with a book proposal?

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My current nonfiction project is a book on writing that was solicited by a publisher. Since I have already been given a contract for the book, and I have a tight deadline, you may be surprised to hear that one of my earliest steps in the process is writing a proposal. What?

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Great Expectations!

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Happy Thanksgiving, Friends! Susie Larson here… I doubt very many of you will be visiting this blog in light of the holiday but it’s my day to post and I hope to encourage whoever stops by! I’m scheduled to post on the fourth Thursday of every month. I apologize for being AWOL last month. Between my travels and my work load, I just couldn’t get it done. So sorry. Today I want to explore the idea of expectations. By definition, expectation is a belief that someone will or should achieve something. We’ve all felt the pain of disappointment when someone…

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A Writer’s Spiritual Well

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Jan, writing to you from my desk in the foothills of the California Sierras. As I’m enjoying a cooler day after an unseasonably warm weekend, I’m thinking about the writer’s spiritual wells. When I hover my mouse over my word-processing icon on my computer desktop, it says, “Abide in me and I in you for apart from Me you can do nothing”–from John 15:5. Sometimes I chase ahead in my busyness without abiding; it’s not long before I feel the drain. As writers we fill our wells in many ways. Over the years, I have either bought or been given books that help fill my…

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