Author Interview

Meet Liz Curtis Higgs

Liz Curtis Higgs is the author of twenty-six books. With more than three million copies in print, she breathes new life into ancient tales about the most infamous—and intriguing—women in scriptural history, from Jezebel to Mary Magdalene. Biblically sound and cutting-edge fresh, these popular titles have helped more than one million women around the world experience God’s grace anew. Her nonfiction book Embrace Grace, winner of a 2007 Retailers Choice Award, presents her message of hope in an engaging and personal way, speaking directly to the hearts of her...

Read more

Spine Chiller Thrillers

Motivated For Mayhem

What makes a straight-laced, never-rocks-the-boat, always-follows-the-rules gal like me want to write inspirational suspense novels? Two reasons: I find it boring to write anything predictable. And the suspense genre is the perfect arena for creating chaos that needs a biblical solution.

Characters who are oppressed on all sides must cope with stress, sorrow, and sin. And it’s through their choices that I seek to inspire and challenge the reader without being preachy.

I guess it’s not surprising that I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer who doesn’t follow an outline. Even my method of story writing is suspenseful. I love being surprised when my characters do something I didn’t plan and take the story in a better direction. Granted, not knowing what will happen...

Read more

Genre Happenings

Fighting Bad Guys With Jack And Hutch

I have a friend named Jack. We get together only about once a year, but when we do, man, we have fun. We’ve saved a woman from her abusive, murderous husband; beat a murder rap ourselves when we tried to find out who killed Jack’s brother; and rescued an FBI agent from the clutches of a drug lord. Sometimes, rarely, our adventures are more mundane, like when we hung out in Key West, digging pools and bouncing drunks out of a bar.

You might know Jack, too; he gets around. His last name is Reacher, and he happens to appear in the best-selling novels of Lee Child. None of Child’s thirteen books are sequels, but Reacher’s in every one. The phenomenon of a protagonist (and often supporting characters and even villains) making repeat appearances in more than one novel is called “recurring character stories.” Each novel is a standalone, in that...

Read more

Multicultural Fiction

What Are Our Kids Reading?

Three years ago, students at Redan High School in Stone Mountain, Georgia, were required to have parental permission to check out from the school library books with explicit material. But, according to a Redan student, the safeguard was subverted by forgery and parents who willingly gave permission for their teens to read material written for adult audiences.

Read more

Reviewers Corner

This month's featured reviewer:

Lena Nelson Dooley

Lena Nelson Dooley is a multi-published author who enjoys promoting other authors through blog interviews and posting reviews of their books on her site. She writes:

“As an author, my main purpose is two-fold--to write good fiction and to help my publishing companies continue to be successful.

Read more

Devotional

Emptying Our Hands

I am a multitasker. I never just watch TV: I knit, pay bills, needlepoint, or even read. I never just go on errands: I listen to audio books, brainstorm ideas, make mental lists, and think through problems.

I pride myself on efficiency. I rarely leave a room without taking something with me that needs to go elsewhere. I rarely have one thought at a time, but two.

This morning I began to reconsider my ways.

Read more