Not only is the grass NOT greener on the other side of the publishing fence, there IS no grass. It’s just a long arid plain with occasional watering holes. This week, for me, is a few of those watering holes. Sorta. First off, The Telling is now available! This is my second novel and you [...]

Over at Pub Rants, Agent Kristin posed this dilemma. In Why 50 Shades of Grey Makes Agent Lives Harder, she writes: We agents go to conferences and really drive home the fact that writers need to master their craft. Wow us with masterfully written opening pages. Stop butchering the English language. Then a work comes [...]

In my last post, I argued that competing in the marketplace of ideas sometimes requires that Christians use “non-religious” arguments. Rather than citing Scripture, it can be advantageous to cite medical, historical, scientific, or sociological evidence, even evoke more primal, existential yearnings. If “All truth is God’s truth,” then using “general truth” is not only [...]

How do you know there’s a God? Simple question. Everyone’s grappled with it in some form. But can you answer it without a religious argument, without using religious lingo? Apparently, a lot of believers can’t. How many times have you heard (or even used) these lines of reasoning: SKEPTIC: How do you know there’s a [...]

A regular commenter on my blog once cautioned me: “For your sake, you really need to let this go.” He was referring to my ongoing criticism of the Christian fiction industry. I privately emailed the author and asked if the CBA mafia had a hit on me or something. Luckily, it was a groundless threat, [...]

Today, I was surprised to receive my first actual print copy of The Telling. I tend to downplay such events, the perpetual wet blanket that I am. But holding the finalized, physical product reminded me how very hard, and very rewarding, this journey’s been. Anyway, I rummaged through some stuff until I located the very [...]

Christian readers aren’t the only ones guilty of biased reviews. But boy are we guilty! In rendering indiscriminate praise, however, we often ignore the possible backlash… biased one-star reviews. Yes, we are partly responsible for the dreaded one-star monster. I was reminded of this recently while reading a one-star review of a fellow Christian author’s [...]

I decided against making a book trailer for The Telling. Sort of. Not so for The Resurrection. It was my first published novel and I almost felt obligated to go all in. Which I did. But rather than assemble my own video, a common practice for many authors, I really wanted to put my best [...]

I was at our local Barnes and Noble this weekend, finalizing some details for next month’s Book Release Party. As I was leaving, I went to the Bargain Books, aimed straight for THIS BOOK. I’m a sucker for arcana and this massive, 500-plus page tome is full of trivia on symbols and signs from the [...]