Welcome 2025

2025 has come in with a blast! A blast of snow, that is. Here in Louisville where I live, we just had an historic snowstorm that dropped over ten inched on the ground. I've been pretty much stuck in my house for going on five days now. I did get out yesterday to make a grocery run. This short stay at home gives me time to look ahead at what 2025 will bring to my writing world. 

January: My contributor copies of Chicken Soup's newest book, "Laughter's the Best Medicine" should arrive, though they haven't yet. I have a devotion in "The Secret Place".

February: "Laughter's the Best Medicine" releases and is available for sale in stores and on Amazon.

March: The MidSouth Christian Writers Conference will be held in Memphis March14-15. I will not only be attending, I'll be co-teaching a three-hour workshop on devotional writing on Friday afternoon the 14th. Also, my newest devotional book, a 2nd in the "Wonder & Worship" series will be releasing sometime this spring. I don't have a release date yet but think it will be sometime in March.

April: The annual EPA Evangelical Press Association conference will be held in Branson MO, I don't think I will be able to attend this year, but I sure enjoyed attending last year!

May: May has a lot of things happening, the main one being that my debut children's book will be releasing from Mt. Zion Ridge Press! I can't wait to share more with you about both of my upcoming releases! Also in May I will have a blog post in the EPA Freelancers blog and at the end of May are the Selah awards.

June: in early June the Southern Christian Writers Conference will be held. I may be participating in it this year. 

And as if that isn't enough to keep me busy, I am always writing articles and devotions that may get published at any time. I have two-three devos published on the online site, Arise Daily every month, usually have a devotion in "The Secret Place" quarterly, and am usually asked to write seven for "The Quiet Hour" once or twice a year. 

As far as books go, here are all the irons I have in the fire:

"Wonder & Worship through the Year" (devotional book I co-wrote with Shirley Crowder) releasing from "Entrusted Books" this spring. It's turned in but we haven't gotten our edits back to work on or our cover.

"Stuck in the Middle" (children's book) releasing from Mt. Zion Ridge Press in May. (Turned in, edited, illustrations turned in, just waiting for the final touches.)

"Savannah Sunrise" (historical romance that I co-wrote with my son, Trapier Michael) is finished but not contracted yet.

"Boston Dawn" (tentative title, historical romance) is a sequel to "Savannah Sunrise" so far, my son and I have only the first two chapters of it written but its plotted and pretty well researched, I am giving us til June to work on it and then will need to put it aside to start on another devo book with my friend, Shirley.

"Catch the Fire" (tentative title, a missions-based devotional I want to co-write with Shirley)

And finally, I have several more children's books written that I need to pull out and polish up, one at a time.

Did I mention that I love writing? lol! Here's to a successful 2025!

The Kentucky Christian Writers Conference

 At the start of my writing journey, way back in 2009, I attended the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and it jumpstarted my writing. At that time I had a full length manuscript written but not published. 

That was it. 

That manuscript, which later became my book, Prayer: It's Not About You was the only thing I had ever written at the time and it was just a document sitting on my computer back then. But at the KCWC I took a class on freelance writing taught by Lettie K. Whisman that changed my life. I went home and tried my hand at freelance writing devotions and articles and within just a few months the contracts started coming in. 

This year the KCWC will be virtual so anyone can attend from anywhere. It is set for next weekend; Oct 17-19 and I will be there once again but this time as faculty. I will be teaching three workshops on the following topics: writing for magazines, devotional writing, and the pros and cons of co-writing. Sometimes in life things come full circle. I am so looking forward to being a part of this wonderful conference again!

Happy Fall!

How did it get to be autumn already? My family always takes a beach trip in early September that makes the summer last a little bit longer for me every year. We just came back from that so now there’s no getting around it—fall is here! Are you happy that the weather is or will be cooling down soon? Or do you miss those longer warm summer days? Maybe a good autumn devotional will help you get in the fall mood. 

The Long and Short of It

 

What is my most memorable experience in Christian writing?

Two come to my mind and together they taught me a lesson. These two constitute the quickest acceptance, I ever received from a magazine editor and the slowest. The slow one ended up getting picked up by a secular magazine, so in terms of experiences in Christian writing, I guess I haven’t received a “yes” on it yet.

“Mom, I’m pregnant. I’ve made one mistake but I’m not going to make more. I am not going to marry the father, at least not yet, and I’m not going to abort my child.” This is how the fastest acceptance article began.

My daughter, a sophomore in college on a volleyball scholarship at a Christian college, woke me with a late-night phone call with these words. The article went on to share her story, a story of bravery in the face of adversity and shame. With me beside her, supporting her, my brave daughter explained her situation to the dean of students at her school. I will always remember how this woman responded. After saying my daughter would not be expelled, she said, “At this school we do not believe in premarital sex, but we are pro-life. And to be prolife, you have to be pro-unwed mothers because they are the ones who abort most often.”

My daughter chose to come home anyway and continued studying at a different school while living at home. She gave up her starting position on the volleyball team and faced personal embarrassment and judgement from others because she knew the life growing inside her was created by God and precious.

My grandson was born six weeks early. Both she and the baby became septic and nearly died. By God’s grace they both made full recoveries. A few weeks after the baby was born, I overheard her on the phone discussing abortion with a friend. She said, “Don’t talk to me about abortion. My baby was born at a gestational age when babies are still aborted. While others are killing their babies, I did everything I could to save mine. I gave up college life, volleyball, was sick the entire pregnancy, and both he and I nearly died afterwards. I know how precious life is!”

How I admired my brave little girl and oh how I love my grandchild. I asked her if I could write her story and she eagerly agreed. I titled it, “And Baby Makes Two; a Profile in Courage”. One morning I sat at my laptop and submitted it to a pro-life magazine. In less than thirty minutes I got a return email from the editor wanting to publish it. I went cold thinking this story would actually be made public. Did I really want this level of transparency for my daughter and my family?

Just then, my daughter came downstairs to the kitchen where I was and started pouring herself orange juice. I sheepishly told her I had just sold her story. I told her it wasn’t too late to change our minds. I could email the editor back and say on second thought we don’t want it published. She grinned from ear to ear and enthusiastically gave her permission once again. 

This story has been sold and resold many times. It is my most widely read article because of how many times it has sold but most importantly, it has blessed the lives of countless thousands. 

The slowest acceptance, on the other hand, is a short memoir I once wrote about my high school football team’s Cinderella run to a state championship. It’s a great story, sort in the “Hoosiers” vein. In fact, I think the story of that school and that year would make a great family-oriented high school sports film. It’s a treasured memory for me because I was a senior and a cheerleader that year.

That article sat unpublished for over four years. I submitted it many times but kept getting rejections. I realize it’s more of a human-interest story than one with a strong Christian message, but don’t Christians enjoy heartwarming human-interest stories too? Finally, it was picked up by a regional magazine with a large circulation and had a wonderful three-page spread with pictures. I was thrilled with the final result.

And my take-away from these two experiences? Like they used to say in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, “keep on keeping on”. Success in writing may come quickly or at a turtle’s pace, but if it’s your passion, keep learning the craft, keep writing what is on your heart, and keep submitting, however long or short it may take to reach your goal. 

 

Not so Lazy Summer

 

This is turning out to be a not-so-lazy summer. I kicked off the summer with finger surgery on May 30th (a joint replacement of my knuckle on my left index finger) It’s recovering well but I’ll be on a brace for another 6 weeks-2 months. I am plagued with arthritis in my hands and though this is surgery #8 in my hands, I’m pretty sure this is not the last of my hand surgeries. 

Meanwhile in my writing life, I have a lot going on as always. I’m juggling several writing projects at once. I just worked through the edits on my kid’s book that will be published by Mt. Zion Ridge Press next May and I love a couple of suggestions my editor made! I’ve also seen a couple of the illustrations my talented illustrator is doing and they are great. I’m so excited for this debut children’s book to release next year! Mt. Zion Ridge Press always publishes their books in both English and Spanish. So cool! I’m also working on a new article for Answers in Genesis kid’s magazine that I’m co-writing with a friend. I finished the historical novel (that has pirates in it) that I co-wrote with my oldest son and am printing it off to send to my first beta reader—my little sister. lol! It doesn’t have a publisher yet. Once I get it edited by both my husband and a friend, I’ll try to figure out what’s next on it. And after my son commented that we could write a sequel to this first novel with the child in it as the protagonist and I realized 20 years after this first story would be the American Revolution, in my spare time I’m brushing up on that time period and Revolutionary War history and plotting out that book. Whew! Oh, and I’m watching my mailbox for a complimentary copy of “Bible Advocate” (and check) that has an article I wrote in it. Whew! But I so love what I do!

Book Release and More Writing News

 

   

  

Today is release day for the new devotional by Shirley Crowder and me! We are so excited about this book! Here is the Amazon link: Wonder & Worship

But also in other writing news, I signed a contract yesterday with Mt. Zion Ridge Press for my children's book that is I titled, "Stuck in the Middle" but publishers sometimes change book titles, so this is subject to change. This is the same book that had formally been contracted for publication with Elk Lake, but they had to drop all of their contracted children's titles due to some internal company changes. This, my debut children's book, is now set to release sometime in 2025.

Coming in April!

I am so excited about the new devotional book Shirley Crowder and I co-wrote. It will be releasing from Entrusted Books in April. This book is a real treasure! It combines devotions based on Bible nuggets written by me and devotions based on hymns written by Shirley. Amazon links will be posted later when I have them.