Women write the great majority of Amish fiction, and the stories tend to be light-hearted romances that work out in the end just because the characters are Amish. But light-hearted romance has never been my cup of tea. For me, from a man’s point of view, writing has always been about strong characters facing desperate […]
Behind the Scenes: Quirky challenges from Author Jodie Bailey’s cousin
When I wrote my first book, my cousin posted this random thing on Facebook about radiative transfer. It stuck in my head apparently, because one of my characters brought it up later. Very random thing totally unrelated to the book. Out of that grew “the challenge.” Before I start a new book, I let my […]
For writers: Conflict is the root of your story
The root of a good story is always conflict. The more, the better. But you don’t like conflict in your own life. No one does. You’d like to be nice to your characters. Give them easy lives. Get over it. You’ve got to have conflict to keep people turning pages. How to set up conflict? […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Julie Arduini and the book that fell into her lap(top)
I was about two-thirds done revising my first Adirondack romance. The heroine, Jenna Anderson, was a strong character with a great surrender message to tell about trusting God with fears about change and wanting to belong. Helping Jenna was her new best friend, Sheriff Carla Rowling. The more Jenna and Carla hung out, the more […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Dawn Cahill cooks up a plot as part of a class
Picture this: Author wannabe just received professional feedback on her first novel. Not good! Wannabe feels downcast, and thinks, Maybe I just need to take a class. So she signs up for an online Fiction Writing course from Fiction Master himself, Jerry Jenkins. In Assignment 1 she’s told to list a half-dozen ideas for novels […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Linda Wood Rondeau remembers a childhood full of music
I love music. Always have. Whether classical, country, gospel, or rock, if it has a beat, soothes me, brings me joy or moves me to tears, I’ll play it again and again. Probably one of the reasons music permeates my books. I knew I’d never be a rock star. But, growing up in a small […]
Behind the Scenes: Where do those marvelous ideas come from? By Linda Rondeau
For me? Ideas come from life. It took many years for me to comprehend what kind of writer I wanted to be when I grew up. I imagined myself another Sue Monk Kidd, stories that reflect real life. (The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair). But what should I write about? I didn’t […]