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Christian Romantic Comedy: Check out The Cupcake Dilemma!
I had the most fun with this book. Not my normal–my work usually ends up at the deeper end of things (Like The Carpenter’s Daughter, for example), but sometimes we’ve just got to mix it up, right? I LOVED writing this Christian romantic comedy! So much so, that release day was quite a party. Please picture me squealing, dancing around the kitchen with my kids, who love this book as much as I did (except stop with the kissing! Heheheh. They secretly love it, I think.) My husband even bought me a dozen cupcakes. I thought I’d give you a little Ian and Kirstin teaser. A little kitchen disaster that…
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Great Christian Fiction Books for Teens, the tough middle grades edition
This week we’re doing a twist… Christian books for tweens. I’m late this week… so sorry! Traveling. Christmas gathering. Momming. You know… But we’re back with more great Christian fiction for teens! And we’ve gathered our thoughts, prepared our selections. This time, we decided to focus on Christian books for tweens–those tough middle years… I’m going to define that as 10-12 years old. I know others define it more broadly, but for our purposes here, we were thinking specifically of books that we felt like hit the sweet spot in that awkward, hard to pin down age group. So, without more wordiness from me, here we go… this week’s list…
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Great Fiction Books for Christian Teens, Part 2
Books for Christian Teens Another week closer to Christmas… and we have more books for Christian teens! As I sift through the options, I keep wondering why it can be such a challenge to find great fiction books for Christian teens? It seems like it’s a little bit of a vicious cycle. Books stores often don’t carry them–so publishers shy away from publishing them. Because we aren’t looking for them. But we don’t look for them because they can be so stinking hard to find, so publishers shy away from publishing them, thus, there aren’t many available for bookstores to carry. Does this sound about right? Speculation, on my part.…
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Great Christian Fiction Books for Teens
I’m a part of a large reading community, which also blurs into my smaller but thriving writing community. It’s fun. I learn stuff from both groups, and like I said, the information often seeps from one group to another. One of the perennial topics I see in both groups goes something like, “name some of the best Christian teenage books?” And then there’s a lull. And then… I’m quite honestly puzzled by some of the books tossed out there as recommends. Seriously, I’m not trying to be ugly here, but my sweet ladies (and gentlemen, because I know there are a few out there) by-and-large, our teenagers aren’t into the…
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Why Kale?
So….Kale. Yeah, the character in Ordinary Snowflakes. That girl. I’m getting some interesting responses to her. Her name, actually. Some of the reviews are actually quite hilarious as they rant about this “hipster” name I’ve pegged this otherwise lovable character with. Super funny, because, well, they’re just funny. And also because if you know me at all, I’m the last woman you’d peg as a “hipster.” No kidding. So, for the sake of clarification, (and hey, something fun to talk about!) I thought I’d just share why I chose Kale for Ordinary Snowflakes. I wasn’t trying to be trendy (I’ve actually never met a person named Kale (or Cale), so…
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The Snowflake Hunt
I find myself in search of snowflake ornaments now. This is the first year I’ve experienced this obsession. Honestly, I don’t think I currently own even one of said decorations. But this woman—her name is Kale Brennan—has put into my heart a need to collect these things. Her story, which involves snowflakes, and hot cocoa, and sledding, and all sorts of other wonderful wintry things, also points to the amazing uniqueness of an ordinary snowflake. And how much we can see the extraordinary love of our great God in everyday, ordinary ways. In the words of her daughter Sydney, “There is no such thing as an ordinary snowflake… And we’re…
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No Escape
Fiction… that imaginary place of story that becomes an escape. True. Sometimes. Not always. I live an ordinary life. We juggle the norm…joys, fears, tears, and the expected struggle to figure out this living thing so that we may do it well. If you were a fly on my wall, and you managed to escape my nylon swatter, you’d probably wonder why I write what I write. Sometimes, I do too. I just past the 1/3 mark on the rough draft of my current project. Usually that’s where it gets hard. Sadly, I get bored. I go looking in my imagination for new people to meet, a new story to…
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Stuck In Pessimism? Look up. Try God-centered focus.
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Imaginary Friends and Real Life Lessons
Know what I love? Learning. Truly, I do. I miss school. When my kids were younger, I signed up for correspondence courses, because I just needed to use my brain, to stretch my knowledge. To know that my life skills went beyond the laundry room. (Those skills aren’t very good, to be honest, so, yes, please! Let me be useful past the clean clothes journey!) I love research. I love trying things. I love discovering. What does this have to do with anything? Here’s what I love most about writing: I learn. These imaginary friends who live in my head, open their wounded souls to me, they teach me things…