by Alycia Morales @AlyciaMorales Coming up with blogging topics on a regular basis can be difficult, even for those of us who are passionate about our chosen blog theme, whether it be writing, DIY, cooking, etc. Some days we just sit and stare at the screen, wondering what to post…

by Larry J. Leech II @LarryJLeechII Sun. Sand. If not sand, maybe a pool instead. Or maybe a nice, quiet cabin in the woods. Whatever your pleasure, a good book, or books, is necessary. With summertime is here, compiling a summer reading list might be near the top of your…

By Aaron Gansky @ADGansky Charles Baxter, in Burning Down the House, Essays on Fiction, devotes an entire chapter to a principle he calls “Stillness.” To paraphrase a rather lengthy and well documented argument, he proposes that stillness, a moment in fiction where action subsides and characters/narrators focus on the minutiae of their…

by Cindy Sproles @CindyDevoted I opened the manuscript and began to read. Nice description, story seemed interesting but two chapters in, I still knew nothing about the protagonist. What happened? The writer had laid some good building blocks, but what happened to the protagonist. The best way I can explain…

By Tammy Karasek @tickledpinktam Writing conferences are in full swing already this year and the last few weeks we saw at least two conferences spoken about throughout social media. With classes of all the writerly kind, encouraging keynotes, the agent/publisher/editor appointments to give us homework, we need to remember to…

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson It's been about a week and a half since the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. It's always one of the high points of my year, but it's also an exhausting experience. And that exhaustion isn't limited just to those directing a conference or on staff. It…