I’m starting to get emails from the local NaNoWriMo organizers, and writers like you should be too. If you aren’t, go on over to nanowrimo.org and sign up. Somebody decided to make November into National Novel Writing Month and set up this national nonprofit organization to provide local structure–write ins, email support, writing buddies, and more. […]
Get into Your Character’s Head
Hooking the reader–it’s the author’s goal from the first word to the last. This is why one of the best compliments a reader can give an author is, “I couldn’t put it down.” But how do you accomplish this goal? How do you keep the readers flipping through hundreds of pages? Much is taught about hooking readers […]
Behind the Scenes: Researching the Amish by Sci-Fi Author Kerry Nietz
Author Kerry Nietz gave himself the challenge of bringing to the printed page a jest about writing the ultimate cross-genre novel, to be titled Amish Vampires in Space. He did a great job; his book that has won some awards. Sci-fi he could handle. Vampires, same. But Amish romance? Find out how he researched it here: http://www.speculativefaith.com/amish-eye-for-the-sci-fi-guy-part-1/
The Ambiance of a Writing Conference Makes a Difference
The co-owners of Castle Gate Press, Phyllis Wheeler and Suzanne Hartmann, attended the Realm Makers Writing Conference for Christian Speculative Fiction this past weekend. While they are both exhausted, the atmosphere of sharing and the sense of family energized and renewed them. Sensing these qualities–which Castle Gate Press also promotes–poured out in a larger arena and touching every attendee, […]
How to draw readers to Christ, gently
C.S. Lewis was one of the great evangelists. He used story to draw people to the faith, stories that showed the spine-tingling presence of God in a way that pulls us in like moths to the flame. As I said in a previous blog post, his prayer for his readers was that “they will fall […]
Realm Makers – A Premier Writers’ Conference
Since its foundation, Realm Makers has billed itself as the premier symposium for people of faith who write science fiction and fantasy. It may seem like a stretch of the truth since they had no track record, but if you look back at the landscape of Christian fiction and the conferences for those who write it, you […]
Behind the Scenes: the tale of the tipple by Jo Huddleston
My college friend’s daddy owned a coal mine in West Virginia. When visiting there, my friend took me to her daddy’s company store, the miners’ only source to buy all supplies for their families. Her daddy also owned the miners’ homes, school, and church. While on the store’s porch I saw a structure standing on […]
The Story Behind My Novel, by Ada Brownell
The Minnie Shepherd I knew moved with rhythm in her bouncing step, her white curly head bobbing up and down. Her almost-five-foot frame leaned forward as she walked, the result of back problems. Wrinkles etched her wide smile, decorated with white false teeth. Minnie was my grandmother. At age 90, she still performed for family […]
What C.S. Lewis’s story means for you, a writer
The conversation that finally led to the conversion of writer and evangelist C.S. Lewis to Christianity wasn’t about hellfire. It wasn’t about holiness. It was about stories. Lewis, 33, was talking to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien and one other person, taking a walk in the woods near Oxford one evening in 1931. Here is the […]