Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

Shhhh…. The “real” acceptance speech

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In Deb's post last week, she shared the story behind her accepting the Carol Award for my novel A Million Little Choices at this year's ACFW Conference. But have you seen the video of her reading that acceptance speech? If you didn't read Deb's post, here's a quick recap of events:* Earlier this summer, I'm notified I'm a finalist for a Carol Award and ask Deb if she'll accept the award for … [Read more...]

Theology by Kids

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I found this in a file and thought you might enjoy it as much as I did.   Judeo-Christian Theology As Explained By Children
  The following are answers given by students from Williamston
  Presbyterian Church, So. Carolina, to test questions on the Bible as
  printed in the 12/31/95 issue of "National Review":
 
   The first book of the Bible is Guinness’s, … [Read more...]

A Carol Award for Memory Lane (and a giveaway!)

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This past Saturday night, my book Memory Lane received a Carol Award in the romance category! That particular award is organized by American Christian Fiction Writers and judged by writers. This recognition means a lot to me. Memory Lane is the first novel I independently published. I hired my editor, I collaborated on the cover, I hand-picked the audiobook narrators, I formatted the … [Read more...]

2024 ACFW Recap

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The 2024 ACFW conference took place last week in New Orleans. It was my first time, and I really enjoyed connecting with my writing friends and getting a teeny-tiny glimpse of the city. I didn't make it to the French Quarter, because it rained four of the five days I was there, but I did slip out to the WWII Museum with my friend Tricia Goyer. I tend to be the person who attends everything when … [Read more...]

A New Move

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Hi friends, and happy Wednesday!  I’m writing this from my new office in our new home in Florida. Yep! We just made a big move from Maryland, where we’d lived for thirty-one years, to Florida. Let me tell you, you can accumulate A LOT of stuff being in the same house for thirty years. Yikes!  We had a purging party, decluttered, and sent a ton to Goodwill and the Veterans Pick … [Read more...]

Braced For Impact

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As a writer, I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. (I have the option to raise the platform my laptop sits on, but I concentrate better when sitting.) I’ve suffered from neck pain for many years, which long hours hunched over the keyboard don’t help!  I also experience some wrist pain after long writing sessions, and occasionally lower back pain as well. I know these are minor problems in … [Read more...]

ACFW 2024

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Ken and I just returned from the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in New Orleans a couple of hours ago and my heart is full. And the authors of Inspired by Life...and Fiction were very well-represented during the gala awards night at the conference! Angie, Becky, Cara, D'Ann, Karen and I were all in New Orleans, but Tammy and Dani won awards even though they weren't able to be … [Read more...]

A Head Full of Characters … and Confusion

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Writers who write and publish on a regular basis are often juggling more than one story at a time.  Readers may wonder why, when they say to an author, “I loved it when Character A did XYZ,” that the author stares back at them with a deer-in-the-headlights look. That’s because the author is searching desperately through the old memory bank for that book’s particular information. At … [Read more...]

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