October 2011
Safe place or stronghold? →
by Niki Turner
Strongholds are places and/or things in which we place our confidence outside of God and His Word; things we build up in our minds that represent safety, security,…
I confess. For this week’s a2z4u&me post I had to revert to flipping through the “V” section for the Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary on my desk. Yep. I ran out of steam, or juice, or creative Viagra, or whatever it is that keeps us writers going, this week. In fact, my only personal blog post last week was for this meme. Ouch. I feel like a slacker. My eyes...
Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery →
by Dina Sleiman
Okay, so I guess today won’t be one of those light posts. Week after week we look at current events. Some comical, some light, and some serious. When we…
Growing More Like Christ →
by Gina Welborn
A couple years ago my now-3rd-grade-daughter, Rhyinn, gave me a plant for Mother’s Day. She had started it from a seed. For a month or so, not much happened, but…
Murder in Hum Harbour →
by Barbara Early
A few years back,things were rather bleak and stressful in my life. I homeschooled my daughter,served as a pastor’s wife, and suffered from insomnia, all while…
Like a Medicine →
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Proverbs 17:22 KJV Sometimes I get overwhelmed. When my boss and my writing and my household…
What a Difference the Cross Makes →
by C.J. ChaseLast week I got to see first hand some of the best and worst of humanity. My family and I had traveled to Central America. We stayed at a nice hotel in the…
Narrative Nonfiction and Exciting Announcement →
By Dina Sleiman
Technically Wednesday is fiction day. But since the header there says “The Prose Garden,” I’m going to look at a different style of prose today that you…
Follow Your Heart, Follow Your God →
by Suzie Johnson Royalty, Legend, and Martyr
Royalty
Marrying without permission of the king was dangerous business for a possible heir to…
Faith in 1492 →
by Niki Turner
It’s Columbus Day. (In case you forgot, like my hubby did, there will be no mail delivery today, and the bank is closed.) In the U.S., the second Monday in October is…
Guest Reviewer Michelle Sutton for Dance of the... →
Join the Inkies in welcoming Author and Super Reviewer Michelle Sutton!
I’m pretty sure she has a clone. Beside being an Author of over a dozen novels, Michelle reads and reviews…
7 tags
Teaching Our Daughters →
A self-help post by Barbara Early
One of the ways I judge a book is by the way it makes me feel when I turn the last page and set it down. Some books make me glad to be finished so I…
Love, Dandelions and, of course, a Country Song. →
A Faith Post by Debra E. Marvin
I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Searching your eyes, looking for traces
Of…
The Real Scoop on Dina Sleiman →
By Lisa Karon Richardson Finally! I’ve been anticipating the Week of Dina for a long time. I’m so excited that it’s finally here and that we get to celebrate this beautiful woman and…
Colorado’s first winter storm for the 2011-2012 season is due tomorrow. That means goodbye garden. After a few weeks of running outside at dusk to drape blankets and sheets over my plants to protect them from frost (we’ve already had a few), today I determined it was time to put the garden to bed. I picked the remaining pumpkins and squash and green tomatoes in the rain this afternoon,...
Going Medieval →
For this glorious Week of Dina, I had the pleasure of chatting with the Dina herself about one of my favorite topics – the middle ages. Her new book, Dance of the…
Introducing Author Dina Sleiman →
It’s always exciting here at the Inkwell when one of our own has a debut novel and we get to spend the week celebrating. I am so excited to be part of the…
Are your wells stopped up? →
You’ve got a well – a spiritual well – on the inside of you if you’re a Christian. From that well, Jesus said, “living water” springs forth and becomes a fountain, “springing up into…
2011 ACFW Choir →
by Anita Mae Draper
Some of my favorite events while attending the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference are the worship sessions. Sunday mornings are especially…
September 2011
Some of My Favorite Things →
by Barbara Early
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens… or so the songgoes. Julie Andrews sang about her favorite things in a delightful littlesong-and-dance number….
Welcome Author Mary Moore! →
But without faith it is impossible to please him…
Hebrews 11:6
The very first time I was confronted with faith in my new found faith, I didn’t have a clue!…
Romance or Love Story??? →
by Dina Sleiman
Last week at the ACFW conference was filled with wonderful memories. One of the great conversations I had was…well, more of an argument really…with Gina…
Sesame Street will celebrate 42 years of children’s television broadcasting in November. I like to think that Kermit the Frog and Big Bird and Grover and Cookie Monster and Bert and Ernie are just eight months older than me. Of course, that’s not why I’m thinking about Sesame Street today. THIS is why… Grandbaby Talen, 5 months old and already fascinated by Sesame...
What's That Song You're Singing? →
LET MY LIFE SONG SING TO YOU, LORD! So may the words I say And the things I do Make my lifesong sing Bring a smile to You
And The Winner Is... →
Image via WikipediaStay tuned, and find out! It’s time for the ACFW (Amercian Christian Fiction Writers) Awards Banquet, “live from St. Louis”! Listed first are the…
I love time management systems and methods and plans. But they have to be simple. Really simple. If it involves color-coded tabs or little symbols or sorting tasks into boxes, I will fail. For me, time management has to be flexible, functional, and feasible. In the past month I stumbled upon a new method that sounds promising. I’ve even gone so far as to download the desktop gadget for...
Left Behind! →
…From ACFW Conference, that is.
by Susanne Dietze
If you’re reading this, I can guess you’re not in St. Louis for the 2011 American Christian Fiction Writers…
A Time to Retreat →
by Suzie JohnsonHave you ever been to a women’s church retreat?
I was twenty-four years old the first time I went and I’d never been to anything like it. I was in…
I’m in recovery. Merriam Webster: the act, process, or an instance of recovering… (Don’t you hate those definitions within a definition?) “To recover” means:
1: to get back : regain
2a : to bring back to normal position or condition recovered himself>,> b archaic : rescue
3a : to make up for <recover increased costs through higher prices> b...
When God Doesn't Seem Good →
by Barbara Early
Courtesy WikipediaI’ve wondered at times whether theancient Greeks might have had an easier time explaining their gods to…
Remember PE class? That horrific nightmare of the educational system designed to expose every flaw and weakness, destroy self-esteem, and stigmatize you for life? I learned (early) how to get out of PE. All I needed was a note from my mother. On the days we were scheduled to do REALLY awful activities, like dodgeball (AKA kill the nerdy kid), I’d get a note to “sit out” of PE,...
Crazy or Brilliant: I'm Having a Yard Sale →
by Susanne Dietze
Ye olde Yard Sale (alas, not mine)I’ll be honest: I do not enjoy hosting yard sales. They’re a lot of work and people show up at my…
Prayer Series Wrap-up and Giveaway →
by Dina Sleiman
Today I’m wrapping up my series on prayer. If you’ve been following throughout the summer, you might have noticed that I used the…
This has to be quick. Quick. REALLY quick! It seems like there’s never quite enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do, need to do, should do, have to do, ought to do. My want-to’s (working on my WIP, craft projects piling up in the back bedroom, plucking my eyebrows so I don’t look like Bert from Sesame Street) get shoved down below the have-to’s (gotta...
Media Hype & How To Combat It →
by Niki Turner
My hubby took away my TV. No, it’s not like it sounds. He cancelled our current satellite subscription, and left it up to me to call, or not call, another provider….
photo by *~Dawn~*
via PhotoRee
In my last post about spiritual seasons I said I would do a little research about what happens to trees and plants during autumn and winter. I knew trees and grass and other perennials don’t actually die during the winter. What I didn’t know is how important the processes are to the health and well-being of the plant/tree the importance of fall and...
Fear Not! →
by C.J. ChaseDo you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news on 9/11? My story is so mundane for someone who lived so near to the events. I’d…
From Super Bowl Parties to Christmas . . . and... →
by Gina Welborn
I am a shopaholic. Really, I am, and I’m not to proud of it. Superman has his kryptonite. I have credit cards. Not to mention I can’t balance a budget (or…
Sometimes, just when you think you’re really “losing it” (like maybe you took a wrong turn and are now limping down an endless stretch of deserted country road) you stumble upon another traveler on the same path, one with greater wisdom about the journey or just in the same place, and you’re comforted. That happened to me today. Bonnie Gray’s “What Season of...
Gotta have Faith-a, Faith-a, Faith. →
@font-face { font-family: “Times New Roman”;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size:…
My P for a2z could have been PAT, for my hubby, or procrastination, purpose, presence; even popcorn or peanuts or personality. Instead I’ve opted to venture out on a hormonal limb… my P is for PREMENSTRUAL. (If you wish to run away screaming now, go ahead. No hard feelings.) I didn’t even realize I’d developed a problem until I had baby #3 (the one who started his senior...
Literary One Hit Wonders →
By Lisa Karon RichardsonThe other day my husband was scraping the bottom of the entertainment barrel. He found a show counting down the best music of the 90s. And I have to admit…
The Changing Face of Labor Day →
by Barbara Early
The unofficial endto summer? A day off?
Even growing up ina blue collar home, I never was all that into Labor Day. It usually meant onemore barbecue before…
No Biting! →
by Niki Turner
My youngest child was a biter. It was a brief phase, thankfully, but one of the most embarrassing experiences I had as a parent. The day he bit one of his…
This sunflower bloomed yesterday. It’s not a wild sunflower, nor is it planted in a flower bed. The seed from which this flower sprang started out in the bird feeder, on its way to being bird food. Birds, however, are messy eaters, and have managed to drop enough seeds to generate a little patch of grass below their feeder. And this solitary flower. In the course of life, many of us...
1 tag
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so...”
– J.K. Rowling (via danseurs)