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!

What's up in 2024?

It's hard to believe but 2023 is fast coming to an end. In just a few days we will have a new year laid out before us with all of its opportunities, ups, and downs. Every year at this time, I look ahead and give you a glimpse of what the new year looks like in my writing world. This is only an abbreviated list of the writings that I know at this time will be published in 2024. Many more writing opportunities will come up as the days go by. 

January:

·        A memoir article looking at my brief involvement with the Miss West Virginia pageant titled, "Musings on my Pageant Days" will be published in Goldenseal , West Virginia's state magazine.

·        Two devotions I wrote will be published online in Arise Daily .

·        A devotion I wrote will be in The Secret Place magazine.  

February:

·        My co-writer, Shirley Crowder and I will be up to our neck in edits for our new devotional book that will be releasing soon. Also, I will have hand surgery. (I have arthritis in my fingers which have required numerous surgeries already and now another. This one will replace the knuckle in my left index finger.) 

·        Two devotions I wrote will be published online in Arise Daily

March / April: 

·        An Article titled, “Sometimes All You Need Is Ice Cream” will be published in Blue Ridge Country Magazine . This magazine is a regional magazine that sells in about ten states in the Blueridge Mountain area and Eastern Seaboard.

·        Shirley and my new book, “Wonder and Worship” will release from Entrusted Books . We do not have a release date or cover yet but I will share these with you as soon as we do.

·      Midsouth Christian Writers Conference  MSCWC is happening in mid-March. Though I am on the board and had been slated to be on the faculty as a mentor, I will likely have to miss it this year due to my hand surgery recovery. It’s my favorite writers conference and I hate to miss it!

·        Selah Finalists are announced.

May / June

·        Seven Devotions I wrote will be published in “The Quiet Hour” June 3-9

·        Selah Awards in late May

July / August:

·        My first children’s book, “Made for the Middle” will release from Elk Lake Publishing . When I know the exact release date and have a cover to share, I will. 

·        An article I wrote titled, “How God Works” is tentatively slated to be published in Bible Advocate magazine.

*This is as far as I can see ahead, but in addition to what is listed, I will have devotions in Arise Daily at least monthly, and probably will have more published in “The Secret Place”. They only notify me quarterly of the next quarter but have published one of my devotions every quarter for over ten years. Also, I have a contracted article that will be published in Answers in Genesis but I do not have a publication date yet.

 

Writing Updates

 

A few things have happened in my writing life since my last post. 

The big news is that Shirley and I will be writing a second book in a new two-book devotional series that will be coming out next year. We contracted with Entrusted Books in '22 for the first one. That manuscript is now written and turned into our publisher. We pitched a follow up book to that one making it a two-book series and our publisher gave us the green light to move forward. Though we have not signed the contract yet, our publisher did give us tentative release dates. The first will come out in March of '23 and the second in either fall of '23 or spring of '24. You will be hearing much more about these two books in days to come. 

The second news is that I will be teaching a workshop on magazine writing at the MidSouth Christian Writers Conference on Friday March 17th. The conference should be great, and I am so looking forward to attending an in-person conference again.

And speaking of writing for magazines, I got word that an article I wrote about Louisville baseball player, Felton Snow, will be published in the Kentucky Monthly magazine in April. Felton was a player and coach in the Negro League in the 1930's and '40's. In his years as a coach, he coached some of baseball's greats including Satchel Page, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella to name just three. After he retired from baseball, he worked in a barber shop in Louisville until his death in 1974 and was then buried in an unmarked grave. Last summer the city of Louisville along with certain sponsors, gave him a beautiful marker as well as a celebration of his accomplishments which included the Louisville miner team, the Bats, retiring his number and hanging a jersey with his number in his honor at the stadium. In writing that article I went to the cemetery where he is buried and snapped a picture of his new marker. That is the picture at the top of this post. 

What's Ahead for 2021?

A new year has dawned. I know we're all thankful 2020 has moved on and given way to a new year. I, like most of you, am praying this year brings good surprises and not bad ones. For starters, I pray this year brings a decrease in the Covid virus, so that cases, hospitalizations, and especially deaths drop significantly and we can get back to a more normal life that might even include the ability to travel again. This virus wrecked havoc among my family and friends like I'm sure it has many of you. My older sister's entire family caught it last spring but none needed hospitalization, my brother and father caught it in the summer and both ended up hospitalized. We thought we were going to lose my then 91 year old dad but by God's grace he pulled through. A friend from my college days was not as lucky. She lost her son to the virus in the summer. And the virus rages on still. *sigh*

So yes, that is my number one hope and prayer for 2021. I have many writing things to keep me busy and to look forward to in the coming year. Here are some of them:

My first devotional assignment for "The Quiet Hour" published by David C. Cook is included in their current winter issue and I have another coming out in an issue later this year. I just submitted my third seven-day assignment for them that will be in their summer '22 issue. I am a regular with them now and love it! I also have individual devotions in the winter and upcoming spring issues of "The Secret Place".  

I will have two new books releasing this year--one in the spring and one in the fall. They are the last two books in the year-long Glimpses of God series. As soon as I have the spring cover, I’ll share it with you. 

And I will be teaching two workshops at the MidSouth Christian Writers Conference March 19-20. It will be all online this year. I encourage you to sign up if you are a writer or interested in becoming one. My workshops will cover devotional writing as well as freelance writing. 

In addition to these activities that I know of I'm sure more will pop up during the year. I am constantly writing and submitting things. Right now I have several partial books on my computer that I write on pretty consistently (switching from one to the other), I stay active with a couple of local writing groups, I have a few friends I mentor in some way or another, and I write and submit freelance articles, stories, and devotions regularly. 

Oh, and one more thing. The kindle version of my husband's memoir, A Stand for Truth that I co-wrote will go on sale in a week or two in honor of its one-year release anniversary. Stay tuned for that! 

Recovery and Writing

I'm writing this from my bed where I have been recovering from knee surgery. I had two meniscus tears in my right knee as well as arthritic changes so my doctor cleaned out my knee and did a partial meniscectomy. I'm five days post-op and seeing improvement every day. Today I graduated from crutches to a cane. Woohoo!

So, I'm using the time to catch up on some writing projects, one of which is to let you know what's happening in my writing life. I am still freelancing, as always. I had a short article in the Feb 23rd issue of "Power for Living" (published by David C. Cook), devotions in both the winter 2020 and in the upcoming spring issues of "The Secret Place" (Judson Press), a short piece of parental advice coming out later this spring in 'Thriving Family" (Focus on the Family), and I just received a devotional writing assignment for "The Quiet Hour" (David C. Cook). That last one is due back to the publisher at the end of April.

I love speaking as well. Last week I met with a senior citizen Sunday School class of a large Methodist church in my city who have been studying Prayer: It's Not About You. How humbling to see a room full of people all with a book  you authored in their hands. :) I just learned of another group of 14 people in Missouri who will soon begin studying that book too. I have two other speaking engagements in the not-so-distance future--I will lead two workshops at the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference in Memphis TN March 20-21 and a women's conference here in Louisville in May.

And another book in the year-around devotional series Shirley Crowder and I are co-writing will be released in May. We've gotten a peek at the cover and can't wait to show it to you! It's lovely!

Meanwhile, A Stand for Truth is now available in hardcover too. It continues to have strong sales and garners new reviews all the time.

Ooh, I do love the writing life. I better hurry up and heal so I can get back to it.

A Fresh Start

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives! And it’s the first day of a new year too.

Happy New Year!

As I look back at 2015 and forward to 2016, I realize how much I have to be thankful for. In my writing life, 2015 brought the publication of my first book and a publishing contract on my second book. That book should be released soon. Hopefully, I will be making a cover reveal and book announcement in the near future.

I also made many new writing friends within my publishing group, among a blog to which I have been asked to contribute Writing Prompts and Ideas ... Oh My!, in my new association with ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and at conferences I have attended. And of course I continue to treasure the other writer friends I have met in the past few years.

I am excited about 2016. There is much happening in my writing life. I continue to freelance devotions and articles and have many already contracted for publication this year—five articles will appear in SEEK Magazine (Standard Publishing), one that will appear in Now What, two devotions, so far, in The Secret Place (Judson Press), one in The Upper Room, and ten days of devotions slated to appear in Open Windows (Lifeway). My 2^nd book, “Prayer: It’s Not About You” should be released soon, and I am in the editing stages of my 3^rd book (my first fiction). I will tell you more about that book later, probably in a few months. Suffice it to say that I have fallen in love with fiction writing.

I also have some speaking engagements coming up in 2016. I will be speaking at Sweetwater Baptist Church’s women’s retreat in January on the topic of prayer. And will be speaking at the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference in March about devotional writing.

2016 … WELCOME!