What Are We Holding Onto?

Right before Christmas of 2022, two of our family members passed away. It put the holiday season in a strange and dimmed light. As I contemplated the far-reaching effects of what had happened, I found enormous solace in the reminder that God is still sovereign, still above it all. And yet I found myself asking

In Which the Hare Won the Race

Who won, the tortoise or the hare? Of course, the tortoise won, and we all know the moral of the story. But what do you suppose the hare was thinking while the spectators were congratulating the tortoise on his astonishing and inimitable victory? Mr. Hare could have handled the defeat in two ways. He could

What Makes You a Writer?

What makes you (or me) a writer? News Flash: It’s not the number of followers you have on Instagram. It’s not the amount of sales you’ve made on Amazon. It’s not the reviews you plead with readers to leave, or the glowing report from your grandmother. It’s not the comments on your blog. It’s not

The Fine Art of Sticking With It

“Sticking with it” is an art I haven’t mastered yet. But I’m way better than I used to be! 😂 Seriously, though, I was thinking today about when I first came up with the idea for Fate of a Prince, my upcoming YA fantasy. I spent so much time outlining it, I was afraid I’d

To Save the Shire

WARNING: This post contains excessive Lord of the Rings content guaranteed to make your day better. 😉 If you’re like me, looking at the state of our world right now can be pretty overwhelming. And, unfortunately, it’s easy to become jaded and callous as a result. I don’t ever want to stop finding wonder and

RIGHT HERE.

I wrote this short story for a contest recently, but ended up not being able to submit it. So instead, I’m letting you all read it! Remember: the Caption Contest is still open for entries. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I laid the paper face down on

Dream Small.

Reminder: You only have TWO more days to enter the Caption Contest! Don’t miss out – let your imagination have fun. Dream big. The world tells us to dream big. Imagine how far you could go, how much you could achieve. This mantra comes as something of a problem when you realize the dream that

A Beautiful Discovery . . .

One morning, I woke up early, around 5:15, and I didn’t want to fall back asleep for fear I would oversleep. So, after lying there for a while, debating what would keep me awake for the next forty-five minutes, I got up and started writing. And I have done the same every morning since then.

Finding Confidence After Defeat

I was a 17-year-old passionate about service dogs. More than anything, I wanted to be an assistance dog trainer. People like Bonnie Bergen were my heroes. I planned to attend the certificate program at Bergen University. So what happened? I witnessed a conflict between a service dog handler and a store manager in which the

Why We Need Fantasy

I wrote a post a while ago on why I write fantasy, but someone’s recent question to me about a TV series I love got me thinking: Why do we, as humans, like fantasy? I touched on this in that post on writing fantasy, but I’m going to take it  in a slightly different direction