How do you practice creativity, having been made in the image of God? What talents do you have in your hand? I have aspired to be a writer since the day I typed my first story in all caps on my mother’s typewriter. I was eight years old. I consumed fairy tales and wrote stories and poems all through high school. I attended every writing workshop taught by local authors in our public library, and tried submitting manuscripts for publication. I labored over literary fiction, a cumulative tale, and narrative poetry in graduate school…then married my best friend and traded writing aspirations for motherhood. Authorial ambitions were abandoned. Motherhood is…

Ladies, are you enjoying your chosen books for our Faith, Fiction, & Fellowship read-along? Faith, Fiction, & Fellowship Discussion, Week 1 If you’ve purchased the official reading guide, you’ll have plenty of questions to help you think about the themes and connections in the books. But to help get the conversation going, here are a couple of week one’s questions that work for any of the books. (Feel free to answer in the comment section! We’re also going to dive into these in the Facebook group for the read-along.) Question 1: Which characters in your book are struggling with physical needs? Does anyone in the book reach out to them, offering…

John Hendrix grew up in St. Louis, left home to advance his art career, and eventually returned.  Along the way he spent some time as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer for the New York Times, but returning home also gave him a chance to expand his first love into his current niche as an illustrator. His books have popped up on our radar several times, most notably with the recent, much-awarded The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler.  Earlier, we gave Miracle Man: the Story of Jesus a starred review.  At the time it seemed very unusual for a secular publisher to include an unabashedly Christian…

You Who: Why You Matter and How to Deal with It is a refreshing take on the “find yourself” messages blaring from our culture for teens and their parents. *You Who: Why You Matter and How to Deal With It by Rachel Jankovic. Canon Press, 2019. 246 pages. Reading Level: AdultRecommended For: Ages 12 and upIn other words, the more we try to build up an identity apart from God and apart from His Word, the less truly “us” we become. It doesn’t matter how long or thoughtful or detailed the story you are writing is. If it is written by a character in the story rather than the Author…