Anyone who appreciates great musical harmonies and heartfelt lyrics in a country mix grieved the recent death of singer Naomi Judd. But we who live in the Tri-State Area encompassed by eastern Kentucky, southern Ohio, and western West Virginia felt the loss closely. Not because we knew the Ashland, Kentucky native personally; that number was…
Read more
Were many of my extended family members alive, no one would be more horrified about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than my aunt and uncle. They owned a small apartment building on Chicago’s Near North Side. Before shifting demographics changed the neighborhood, they lived in an area largely populated by Eastern European immigrants, whether Ukrainians, Poles,…
Read more
Even though he wrote seven books, his name isn’t in the annals of best-selling authors. Yet when Romey Swanson died in late March at the age of 82, I lost a great friend. We got to know each other 30 years ago at a banquet he organized for contributors to Hands Extended. This crisis pregnancy…
Read more
13th in a series: Read Part 12 or Go to Beginning Recently, I got one of those “I’d love to write for a career” inquiries. While I would never discourage anyone from following their passion, my standard reply begins: “Don’t quit your day job.” That may sound like I’m being sarcastic, but I’m quite serious. As…
Read more
12th in a series: Read Part 11 or Go to Beginning At the first major Christian writers conference I ever attended, author Jerry Jenkins made a comment I’ve never forgotten: “I’m the most famous writer you never heard of.” Back then, Jerry had already written a number of New York Times best-sellers, working with some famous…
Read more
11th in a series: Read Part 10 or Go to Beginning After more than 30 years on the roller coaster of freelancing, you’d think I’d be used to the ups and downs. Which is why, just three months ago, I was surprised when I battled a case of nerves like I hadn’t experienced in years. It…
Read more
10th in a series: Read Part Nine or Go to Beginning My fortuitous trip to California for the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference landed the first contract for a book I had coauthored that was released by a traditional publisher. While that felt good, a couple of months prior to this trip, I experienced a separate…
Read more
Ninth in a series: Read Part Eight or Go to Beginning In my last post, I talked about how God made it possible for us to move to Louisville. A month after our relocation, a brochure showed up in the mail for the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. Until the pandemic temporarily killed it (it…
Read more
Eighth in a series: Read Part Seven or Go to Beginning The late Jamie Buckingham was a prolific author who used to write a monthly column in Charisma. (I’ve been reading the magazine for 35-plus years—and wound up writing for it for 23 of them). So when I received a flyer in the mail about a…
Read more
Seventh in a series: Read part six Among my fondest memories of my early freelancing days is the time I tried to help our pastor get published. He had seen an issue of a military-oriented magazine and wondered about submitting an article. “Well, don’t spend a lot of time working on it,” I said. “Let…
Read more
