Oct 16, 2022 | Biblical Fiction, Faith, Happenings, My Life, On Writing, Technique
I completed the chapter, with Jesus at the well, marveling in that amazing conversation between Jesus and the woman, who I named Marah (bitterness). I think it’s one of the most profound portions of the Scriptures. I turned off my computer for the night and the next...
Oct 16, 2022 | Biblical Fiction, Faith, Happenings, My Life, On Writing, Technique
The story of the woman of Samaria who met Jesus at the well fascinated me. What was her life like in those days? Why did she have five husbands? Why didn’t she marry the sixth man? In many ways her life paralleled mine. Not in husbands but in ill chosen relationships....
Apr 3, 2017 | Biblical Fiction, Faith, On Writing, Technique
Sometimes I think I write better when I am facing a deadline. When Whitaker House told me they had agreed to my latest idea, a book on Lydia, they had to give me a shorter time to write in order to fit it into their schedule. Back in October it didn’t seem like a...
Mar 13, 2017 | On Writing, Technique
In all my books I have been able to incorporate real life people and situations I’ve come across. A friend’s mother was in a wheelchair many years ago, paralyzed on one side due to a stroke and having to speak with difficulty out of the side of her mouth. In one of...
Mar 15, 2016 | On Writing, Technique
A reader has asked me about critique groups again. Since 1978, I have belonged to a writer’s critique group. The first one included Dr. Sherwood (Woody) Wirt, the founder of our San Diego Christian Writer’s Guild. Woody was the editor of Decision magazine...
Jan 29, 2016 | On Writing, Technique
Someone came up to me recently and mentioned they had been wanting to write a book. I asked them the subject of the book and they weren’t sure. They just thought it would be great to write a book. Sometimes well-meaning would-be writers have no idea of the blood,...
