Good morning (well, at least when I write this, it’s morning)! So many of you participated in the Christian Authors Network Spring Scavenger Hunt that, now that it has officially ended, I wanted to make sure and announce the results of my drawing this morning.  You can still follow the Hunt and read most of the posts, but the time to enter the associated contests has now expired. How did it work? I entered all the names of those who commented on my Scavenger Hunt post on an Excel spreadsheet. If you subscribed to my blog, you received two entries, so I put your name down twice. I ended up with 57 entries in all, so I entered those parameters on random.org. The number it chose was 42, which means the lovely Pam D has won a copy of Escape the Lie: Journey to Freedom from the Orphan Heart, my May release with Dr. Walker Moore (you can read more about it at Stop #13 here). Pam, I will email you for your mailing address and send you a copy when the book becomes available. You’ll also win a bonus book (I’ll send some choices). Thanks to all who participated, and thank you for joining me here at Read. Write. Pray. Weekend...

Where am I today? You can find me right here at the Christian Authors Network blog, where I’ve posted an interview with author Miralee Ferrell. Miraelle and I are both participating in the Catch Me If You CAN:  Spring Scavenger Hunt, which ends today. If you haven’t yet checked it out, start here. There are lots of wonderful prizes, including a first prize that includes a $200 gift card and 29 great books from the participating authors.  I hope you enjoy both the interview and the Scavenger Hunt, brought to you by the ever-inspiring Christian Authors...

The initial announcement came via text message: “Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.” Not long after that, the prime minister spoke to gathered relatives—and to the world. After the long wait, the news may not have come as a surprise. But to families clinging to hope, its finality was shocking. And although few of us have lost family members to a plane crash, we all know the face of heartbreak. Let’s pray together: Father, we come to you on behalf of the heartbroken. We think of those hurt by the widening rings of this Malaysia Air tragedy. We think of those broken by long-term illness, divorce, or the woundedness of past or present abuse. We think of those too weak to cry out, too afraid to pray. We think of those without strength to take the next step. We think of the least of these. And right now, because they cannot pray for themselves, we lift them before you, O God. You are Almighty. You are holy. You are perfect in wisdom and power, awesome in might. You know the end from the beginning because You are the beginning and the end. Always. Lord, come to us, Your brokenhearted. Bind up our wounds. Heal our disease. Wipe our tears and bring us to You. Invade the lives of those who don’t know You in such a way that they cannot help but see. Comfort each one with the powerful sense of Your presence. Surround them with the soothing grace of Your peace. When the day comes, Father, the day when they love and trust and hope again, Father, remind them that You are our reason to hope. You are our reason to worship. We lift our hands as we praise You through the tears, through the storm. Hold us close. Keep us always in Your name, the mighty name of Jesus in which we pray this day and always—AMEN. Thank you for joining your prayers with mine today. I’d love to pray for someone you know who is brokenhearted. Feel free to share your prayer need via a comment below or in a personal email. I understand brokenhearted. Because I’ve been there,...

    UPDATE: The Spring Scavenger Hunt has ended, but feel free to follow the links (some will disappear after a while, but you can go to the Resources page to find the next one) and read about your favorite authors and their work! The winner on my blog for the drawing of Escape the Lie and a bonus book is PAM D., and she has been notified. CONGRATULATIONS!  WELCOME to the CATCH US IF YOU CAN: SPRING SCAVENGER HUNT sponsored by the Christian Authors Network. I’m delighted to welcome you to Stop #14, Marti Pieper’s blog.      Here are the CAN Hunt’s official guidelines: We hope you enjoy meeting Christian Author Network members as you chase down clues for the chance to win our grand prize: $200 in gift cards from CBD, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, plus 30 free books, one from each participating CAN author!   2nd & 3rd Prizes: $50 Amazon, B&N, or CBD gift certificate! Catch us on this hunt beginning at Noon on Friday, 03/21/14 and ending at Midnight on Thursday, 03/27/14. No need to hurry as you search for clues—you have almost an entire week! If you need help at any time during the hunt, check in at our SCAVENGER HUNT RESOURCE PAGE. Enjoy 30 stops, each featuring a different CAN author! Gather the clues from each post, beginning at STOP # 1 and ending at Stop #30. Follow the directions and fill out the Rafflecopter form. Be ready to provide the complete clue in sentence form, gathered from all 30 stops, within 2 days of email notification or another winner will be randomly drawn. There is no need to email/submit the clue, unless you are notified by 03/29/14. Sorry, due to international regulations and postage costs, prizes will be awarded to US Residents only. Individual contests within the hunt may vary, so please read rules presented with each giveaway. (Note: I have an individual contest at the end of this post, so be sure to check it out!) MEET AUTHOR WINNIE GRIGGS Welcome, hunters! I’m pleased to introduce my new friend, author Winnie Griggs, at this stop. Winnie is not only an award-winning author, but she’s also a sought-after teacher at writers conferences. Her 2012 release, The Handpicked Husband, won a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Here’s a bit more about Winnie: Winnie grew up in south Louisiana in an undeveloped area her friends thought of as the back of beyond.  She and her two younger siblings spent many an hour exploring the overgrown land around her home, cutting jungle trails, building forts and frontier camps, and looking for pirate ships on the nearby bayou.   She filled notebooks with scribblings about the imaginary friends she met there, and somewhere along the...

Anyone who reads my blog or posts with any degree of regularity knows I’m a huge fan of writers conferences. I’ve had the privilege of teaching and representing Sisterhood Magazine at several through the years. But today, I decided to take a different tack. I’ve seen plenty of posts, including my own, touting the advantages of one conference or another. So here are my top ten reasons not to attend the next conference where I’ll teach, the Colorado Christian Writers Conference May 14-17, 2014. 10. Extras: The Saturday Night hayride, bookstore packed with a writer’s dream library, and Early Bird (Wednesday, May 14) Workshops are all unneeded add-ons. Why trouble yourself with bonuses that add value to your conference investment? 9. Delicious, Varied Menu: The YMCA of the Rockies offers more variety (including vegetarian and gluten-free options) than any conference where I teach. Who wants to make choices? When it comes to meals, bland and boring is best. 8. Critique Me Not: The CCWC offers the opportunity for paid critiques with industry professionals. But why? “Critique” sounds like “criticism,” and you sure don’t want anyone evaluating your baby book or article. Let Mom do your critiquing. She likes everything! 7. Scholarships: Privacy, Please. Conferences cost. But you wouldn’t want anyone to know about a financial need, would you? And why take advantage of someone else’s generosity by applying for a scholarship? Besides, your ship will come in someday, and you can hire someone to push your wheelchair around the conference. 6. Continuing Sessions and Clinics: Don’t  get serious about your work when when you can just dabble instead. The continuing sessions and clinics push you to examine and evaluate your work under an expert’s personal tutelage. Why bother? 5. Workshops: Why? The CCWC offers more variety than ever, with workshops on topics ranging from Author Promo to Deep POV (point of view) to How to Book Speaking Engagements. But why improve your craft or writing business when the status quo feels so comfortable? 4. Teens Write (mini-conference for teens): Why challenge young people to write for God’s glory? They’re better off with their hands on their game controllers or taking selfies for social media. Who cares about the future of the publishing industry? 3. Agents and Editors. Mehhh. Every conference has them, but the CCWC has an abundance, offering four one-on-one appointments with faculty of your choice (five for the first 75 registrants). But why put your work in front of people who could publish it when hiding behind your computer is easier and safer? 2. Nature. Who Needs It? Anyone with a passion for the beauty of God’s creation will want to avoid the CCWC. We can only...

  Last week, I shared some highlights of the Florida Christian Writers Conference held Feb. 26-March 2, 2014. Travel and lack of wi-fi kept me from posting the next installment before today. So here are a few more blessings (besides the fact that it’s held in my central Florida backyard) that make this conference one of my favorites:   Teen Track: led by the indomitable Bryan Davis, the teen writers get more hours per dollar than anyone else at the conference. They work from early morning until early morning (no, that’s not a typo) to offer teaching, critique, companionship, and what looks like lots of fun. Bryan always invites brave adults to join the group  as well.  Balance and Variety of continuing classes and workshops. The offerings change each year, but the quality of instructors, experience, and teaching remains excellent. Conferees have the opportunity to study one topic for extended periods via the continuing classes and also to get shorter bites of information via individual workshops.   Keynotes: Can you say fantastic? That’s the quality of the keynoters who address the FCWC each year. I loved hearing from a real-life screenwriter, Brent McCorkle, about his process as well as having the opportunity to view his product, the film Unconditional, with his added commentary afterwards. Ellie Kay was nothing short of amazing in her hard-hitting, biblical approach to the life of those who seek to make a difference through their words. And although snowstorms kept FOX News commentator and author Todd Starnes away, this year’s loss is next year’s gain.  Word Weavers Connection: After twenty-five years under the capable leadership of Director Billie Wilson, the FCWC is now owned by Word Weavers International, LLC. The influence of this organization, dedicated to helping writers improve their craft, gives the conference a special focus on critique along with discounts for its members. Evening critique groups led by Word Weavers mentors allowed interested conferees the opportunity to participate in peer critique sessions. An extra first-page critique session in which the first pages of anonymous works were shown on a screen and critiqued by a team of experts added additional value.   Extras: The FCWC is planned and executed by experienced, working industry professionals. As a result, the conference offers a number of meaningful bonuses for writers of any level. These include: a Meet-and-Greet reception at the start of the conference; the opportunity to purchase a flash drive containing folders (bios, class and workshop handouts, extra information) from each faculty member; keynote breakfasts that afforeded extra opportunities to hear from our keynoters; and a Saturday night Banquet/Awards Ceremony honoring those who submitted in a variety of categories.   In case you can’t tell, I enjoyed my time at...