Making Your Readers Care About Your Characters

Who would steal the pennies from a dead man’s eyes? The movie A Christmas Carol begins with Ebenezer Scrooge, (fabulous name!), removing the pennies from the eyes of his dead business partner, Marley. “A penny is a penny,” he says, by way of justification. Right off, we know what kind of person we are dealing […]

How a Christian Writer Should Research Topics

Good research is a science, really. There are clear steps to take and key things you do in performing good research. Then it becomes an art; knowing what bits and pieces to keep and which ones to throw out and how to fit all the pieces together to make the picture. It is important to […]

When Is It Okay To Step Away From Your Work?

That blinking cursor taunts me. Having a work in progress can be very draining. As much fun as it is to work on it, sometimes I just want it done. My current work in progress is a memoir about worship; how important it is and how I struggle with it. I’m putting a lot of […]

Citations In Non-Fiction Writing — Yes? No?

When No Higher Power was released, the advertising summary led me to believe it would be dead center in my writing niche – living Christian faith in a secular world. As soon as I received it I dived in. The content was everything I could have hoped for. The book is well-organized. The ideas are […]

The Risky Business Of Writing About Culture Conflict

My call is to write about living Christian in a secular world. That puts me on a sharp edge. The cultural conflict between Christian thinkers and secular thinkers hones a fine edge. Anyone trying to walk on a knife edge wants to find a broad, flat, comfortable place to walk and get away from the […]

The Christian Book You’re Praying About Whether Or Not To Write

I bet you’re writing a book right now. You’re nearly half-way finished and you’ve been writing it for about two or three years now.  But you probably also haven’t touched it very much in the last few months.  Am I right? Or maybe you haven’t started writing “your book” yet…but you’ve been considering it.  Maybe even praying […]