Writing is tough work. It takes learning and practice, and more learning and practice. Added to that, writing a book is a solitary activity, with few attaboys and many disappointments. It can be a recipe for writer’s block…or even just a stall. Yet we will run into plot issues. We will get frustrated with the rules. We […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Sandra Orchard finds it takes a village to raise a character
It takes a real-life village to raise a child character. For my character Serena Jones, a plucky FBI agent on the trail of a hot painting in A Fool and His Monet, it took a couple of FBI agents; a friend who is single; a retired police officer; a longtime resident of St. Louis; and […]
Behind the Scenes: Tell us about what’s behind YOUR work
Our Behind the Scenes blog post today is by you, in the comments. Please tell us about the inspiration for one of your stories! We’ve got people waiting to read all about it!
Behind the Scenes: Author Phyllis Wheeler talks of Boo Radley’s house
Our family moved to the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves about ten years ago, just a couple of years after I had taken up (again) a goal I’d had years ago: to write a novel for children. I had to learn the craft of writing novels, and in addition I needed inspiration. We walked […]
Behind the scenes: Why author Eleanor Gustafson writes
BOOK GIVEAWAY! See bottom of page. I write story. That’s what I do. Find a crisis from ordinary life and write about it. Divorce, illness, tragedy. Story picks up these raw ingredients and offers a recipe for healing. I write with a dual purpose in mind: I aim for page-turners that will engage readers with […]
Cathy Elliott’s creativity grew from a wonderful opportunity …
by author Cathy Elliott I remember the day my writing career formally began. My daughter had just called with happy news, announcing her engagement. We chatted for a while about how the lucky man proposed. And about her beautiful ring, of course. Then I hung up the phone and a curious notion came into my […]
What inspires author Jerusha Agen?
My relationship with stories began before I can remember. Looking back at my childhood, I’ve realized that I seem to have been wired to think of the world and everything in it in terms of story. While my siblings tended to notice more practical details of the world, I got swept up imagining what life […]
An encouraging teacher pushed Janet K. Brown, and …
English was my favorite course in school until Mrs. Machir taught me in ninth grade at Stockard Junior High in Dallas, Texas. She pushed me. Her red pencil decimated my papers. She seemed to dislike anything I wrote. Near the end of school, I worked up the courage to ask why she picked on me. […]
What sparks stories from author Paula Mowery?
Looking back, there’s not a time I didn’t enjoy writing. I began writing in a journal/diary in which I didn’t just jot down the day’s happenings but would pen letters and poems and parts of stories. Reading Christian fiction continued to motivate me toward writing longer works. When my daughter got into her middle grade […]
Author Eleanor Gustafson, inspired by adversity …
I started writing in kindergarten. Or was that bit of pencil work just a matter of learning to draw inside the lines? Actually, though I didn’t actually write anything in kindergarten, I was busily making up stories at the time, some of which required the heroine to start having babies when she was two years […]