Brilliant

Box Office

House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker

Before I knew the difference between Christian fiction and mainstream fiction, before I knew anything about genre or fiction craft, my brother came home with Frank Peretti’s novel This Present Darkness. I had never read anything that vivid or dynamic before. I loved every page of it and have since devoured anything and everything with Frank Peretti’s name on it.

Author By Night

Author by Night (or in reality Gail is an Author by Day, Accountant by Night)

Midnight strikes . . . the coach turns back into a pumpkin, and some of us turn into...writers! (Or accountants, if you’re like me and have found a different way to accomplish my writing goals.)

The day job. Sometimes ya gotta have one. Money isn’t everything, but love doesn’t pay the rent.

Write Real

The Mark

For those of us who have survived sexual abuse, life twists and turns in alleys of confusion. Thank God, He picks us up thousands of times, dusts us off, heals us, and enables us to continue walking. That’s been my story. I was sexually abused by neighborhood boys throughout my kindergarten year. That was nearly forty years ago, but the mark they left on me, though faded, is still there.

Making A Scene

When To Use Speaker Attributes

Bottom line, I use speakers attributes (e.g., he said, she said) as little as possible.

Some writers argue that readers skip right over “he said,” so why worry about using it? It informs us who is speaking, and other than that, readers just don’t notice it. My response? Would you rather use a technique whose sole raison d’etre is to inform, and otherwise adds nothing to the dialogue, or would you rather use one that...

For Writers

Time For A Change?

You’re thinking about changing genres. What could be easier, right? Just shed your current one like a snake sheds its skin, slide on out, and ta-da, a brand-new career! If only it were that easy. In a previous writing life, I wrote humorous contemporary romance (the genre formerly known as chick-lit). In my current incarnation, I write historical romance. If I could do it all over, would I do it all over?

Short Stories

I first saw her in the fragile moments before sunset, when the sky’s illumination cast its line out into the lake, fishing for the pinks and oranges sparkling from the...

“Remember when you’d pretend you were a tour guide on that raft Dad made?” The heat of the day inspires beads of sweat on her forehead. My sister’s hair sticks to her cheek.