Watch – 3:42 minutes Listen – 17:24 minutes I’ve delivered countless presentations through Toastmasters, my various jobs, and at volunteer events. I’ve headed zillions of meetings and dealt with the media. But never have I ever had such a case of nerves as before Bob Crittenden interviewed me on Faith Radio. I’d spent a good…
Tag: #acfwcommunity
Teens need our collective prayers
We’re always praying for our kids. Right? We worry a lot. There’s so much that can go wrong in an instant. Our worry levels escalate toward the end of Spring Semester, especially with our seniors. What if they fail a class? What if something awful happens during or after a senior party? What if the…
An Interview with Candice Yamnitz
I’m so blessed that Candice Yamnitz is a member of my American Christian Fiction Writers online critique group, the Storyteller Squad. A Chicago native, this strong Christian mom of three gives gentle but honest critiques and generously shares her vast knowledge of social media. She has 6,200 Instagram followers! Her beautiful debut YA novel, Unbetrothed,…
Counting Blessings
At this time last year, we couldn’t wait for 2020 to end. It had been such a strange, challenging season of our lives. We couldn’t wait for the bright sparkles promised with 2021. Then when COVID continued to rage, our hopes faded. We sighed with regret as vacations got cancelled, supply chain issues kept essentials…
Biting my nails…
Last month the unwitting members of the North Georgia Chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) elected me as their 2022 president. I tried to explain that online technology baffles me and I’ll be unable to lead those highly popular hybrid online meetings. They firmly replied that the vice president ALWAYS ascends to the…
A Perk and a Privilege
After I posted that Redemption Press had published The Demons Among Us, a flood of calls… and emails… and texts… and social media messages washed into my smart devices. It’s been overwhelming and wonderful. I’ve heard from people I haven’t spoken to in years—people whom I thought had forgotten all about me and my writing…
Deep breaths
During a Bible study, my teacher cautioned the class about praying for patience. “Since God answers our prayers, but not always in the way we expect,” she said, “He might place us in a situation that tries our patience in order to teach us a lesson.” Over the years I’ve found that advice to be…
Scripture to pray over teens
I’ve never prayed harder than I did during my children’s teenage years. Not only did I pray for them, I prayed for my husband and me. I asked God to strengthen and instill trust in our relationships, keep our children from harm, grant all of us patience and understanding, and . . . the list…
Large print a huge help
My 84-year-old mother loves to read. She’d much rather keep her nose in a book than play BINGO, watch TV, or participate in craft classes with the ladies in her independent living center. She’ll read fiction or non-fiction, really anything within her grasp, even a cereal box. She keeps her local librarian hopping with requests…
5 Steps to Creating a Book Trailer
A book trailer! All the marketing gurus advised me of its merits to authors of young adult books: teens love visuals, they love YouTube, and they click on the buy links more often than after they read book summaries. I sighed and rolled up my sleeves. I’d created employee communications videos in a former job,…