Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

My Long Lost Cousin

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Not long ago, I was scrolling through my facebook newsfeed.  There's no possible way that I can keep up with all of my friends' posts, so I tend to zoom through as many as I can for five minutes here and five minutes there.  I came upon this picture: I thought, Cute!  They must be twins.  I happened to read the caption, written by a lady named Kathie.  It read, "I find this such an … [Read more...]

Developing New Ideas

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Developing new ideas for books is an agony for me. I know many people who see ideas EVERYWHERE. I am not so blessed. Maybe it's because when I think of a book, I realize I am committing a minimum of two years of my life to that story. There's the research and proposal stage. Writing the proposal is truly my least favorite part of the process, but when I'm teachable and allow myself to be pushed … [Read more...]

The Clerihew and You

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I love words. I love playing with words. Some words are just fun to say. Some words have lovely meanings. I subscribe to several word-of-the-day lists and recently this one came into my inbox: CLERIHEW (KLER-uh-hyoo) noun: A humorous, pseudo-biographical verse of four lines of uneven length, with the rhyming scheme AABB, and the first line containing the name of the subject. Sometimes I … [Read more...]

Great Expectations… Meeting Dickens

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This weekend, a friend and I went to a one-man play starring Charles Dickens’s great-great grandson. Seeing him was the main draw, I admit. I went knowing little about the play itself, except that one of my writer friends (Michelle Griep) had loved it. Two other friends had also seen it, but warned me their husbands had nodded off during the show. So, I went with no “great expectations,” but … [Read more...]

Get Your Game Face On!

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One of our family’s favorite things to do when we all get together is to play games. Board games, card games, word games, puzzles… You name it, we probably have the game. We’ve always played table games since our kids could first hold a deck of cards in their chubby little fists, but when our daughter-in-law joined our family, she introduced us to a whole new collection of board games. I don’t … [Read more...]

The Plot Thickens|Richard Mabry

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Each Sunday "Inspired by Life...and Fiction" shares a Christian novelist's newest book and the garden spots where they find inspiration. A retired physician, Richard L. Mabry, M.D. began his writing career in non-fiction, but now writes medical thrillers and is a proud member of the International Thriller Writers. Richard serves on the board of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), … [Read more...]

Do You Talk to Your Kids About What They Read?

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This is a big week for me! My Young Adult medieval book, An Uncertain Choice, released! I'm thrilled that readers are already enjoying the book. One reader, JoJo Sutis, said this: "With so many mixed messages of young love in the world today... An Uncertain Choice is like a breath of fresh air. The world simply needs more books like this." JoJo's Corner Another of my readers, Cassie … [Read more...]

Cover Quirks

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It's always exciting to get your first look at a new cover. Even if it gives you an odd feeling of deja vu. That's what happened to me when my editor first sent me the cover art for my latest release, Love on the Mend. This is a novella that follows up with a character from Full Steam Ahead. In that story, the hero and heroine take in a runaway boy named Jacob. The full story of what led the … [Read more...]

Broken Things Made Beautiful

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I remember when my first novel From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation came out in 2003. I was so excited to share it with my friends who'd believed in my writing dreams. But out of all the people who read the novel, there was one person's comments that stand out the most. My friend Kathy had worked with me to start Hope Pregnancy Center in Kalispell, Montana. She's also been in the Bible Study … [Read more...]

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