The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1 REVIEW Annette Whipple certainly demonstrates this Bible verse in new devotional book for children. Annette, one of Write2Ignite's former Master Class instructors, is a...
I agree. Not all hard topics can (or really should) be written for kids. Some things are best to wait until they get older and are more mature to handle it. But does this mean that all difficult problems need to be taken out of middle grade books? Personally, I don't...
In conjunction with our Master Class on Saturday, I plan to share reviews of other YA or MG fantasy novels. Some may have explicit Christian content such as Amy Earls' FORBIDDEN REIGN, but others like today's book, MAGGIE AND THE MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT by Mark Snoad, might...
Listen Up by Monarch Publishing Author Abbie Crank, is a young adult novel that will help readers learn to look beyond outward appearances and appreciate the value of individuals under the surface. Sometimes we find true blue friends when we take the time to crack a...
REVIEW Pero Moshe hears a mysterious voice singing from the underground tunnels in the palace ofBeijing, and a prophecy says she’s the one to answer the call. But when she does and istrapped in the Forbidden City with Dr. Carper, the journey uncovers more than the...
I received an email from a friend wanting to know how to find his target audience. He stated that he didn’t know who his target audience was, because he wanted to market to everybody. I sent him an email telling him that when you market to everybody, you market to...
Are there separate areas or shelves in your home for books? Is there a “no touch” zone or are all items to read available for everyone? Perhaps there are softcover and hardcover books in the playroom or home office. Children and adults can enjoy reading in different...
REVIEW Escape From Sin’s Curse by Erin Greneaux is an “escape room in a box” card game. You play as part of a team of scientists living in the year 2911. The world around you is desolate spiritually and physically. You and your team are trying to figure out how the...
The Enchanted Garden , by Erin Greneaux, with illustrations by Taisiia Kolisnyk is about two sisters who discover a magical garden in the woods behind their backyard. The fantastic garden is filled with mystical plants and a garden fairy. The garden is...
I’ve been writing for over fifty years now, if I count my grade school tour de force, which includes a poem about raccoons and a Nancy Drew style mystery. Of course, I’m still a Work-In-Process, and I cannot give enough credit to all the various workshops and critique...
Stories grow from key elements: Setting, character, inciting incident, rising action, climax, surprise, conclusion.
One writer’s journey to writing and publishing her first educational book.
A few weeks ago, I completed an interview for an online magazine. One significant question referred to the essential skills needed as a writer. I concluded that the list of important abilities that exist could be endless. So, I decided to emphasize...
Everyone likes a good party, especially one that gives you a personalized invitation in the shape of a puzzle piece. This is how Tim Tebow's debut picture book, "Bronco and Friends: A Party to Remember," begins. The animals in the story each receive their own unique...
2022 Theme: Exalt the Lord who has Established UsCOLOSSIANS 2:6-7 I can remember the first time I became aware of the National Day of Prayer. I was driving to work and as I passed by a church, I noticed their reader board message. It stated: 2...
Terri B. Kelly encourages Christian writers on how to write devotionals that children will understand.
Tex Brooks provides 5 tips on getting your devotion published.
Award-winning nonfiction author, Annette Whipple, discusses writing inspirtaiton.
Book review of The Sky So Heavy by Kathryn Dover
Guest blogger Esther Bandy recommends several books for middle grade readers and young adults.
Everyone struggles at some point to distinguish fact from fiction. When you’re a young book-and-movie lover, distinguishing between fact and fiction is a challenge. I didn’t fully understand that movies aren’t real until I was about ten. For years, my brother tried to...
“Isn’t it common for Christians to talk about Jesus with far less interest than we show for our favorite team, music, or food?” (22) If God doesn’t speak to you in any other quote from God Breathed by Rut Etheridge III, He will through this one. At least, Etheridge’s...
Two young adult readers review BEAUTIFUL by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma and share why they recommend it.
Kim Peterson provides three more trends in writing for young adults.
Kim Peterson shares two trends in writing for young adults.
What do you think of when you hear the title Purple Moon ? I didn’t know what to expect when I purchased this novel by Tessa Emily Hall at the Write2Ignite conference in 2018. Purple Moon is full of plot twists and keeps you in suspense. The reader is constantly...
Tessa Emily Hall, Write2Ignite’s YA Master Class instructor, provides hope for Christians writing in this genre.
Christian Themes in YA books.
Writing Clean YA.
Write 2Ignite rarely posts two reviews of the same book. But, in a few weeks Helena George will be posting a great article on how to write a clean YA book and I thought I'd bring her book to your attention again. - Carol Baldwin, blog administrator. ***** Sarah...
5 reasons to use social media BEFORE you publish your book.
In my last post, I talked about one of the assigned essay collections for my creative nonfiction course: The World is on Fire by Joni Tevis. Although the book did not appeal to me at first, within the first pages, I was captivated by Tevis’ unique writing style:...
Helena George, a former conference attendee, has blogged for Write2Ignite several times. Her fantasy young adult novel, Ships, Secrets and Survivors was reviewed in September. In this post, she shares some thoughts on writing and music. ******** One thing I’ve noticed...
I have loved watching movie shorts since I was little but making one myself was harder than I expected. I quickly realized that I needed a grasp of basic storytelling, scriptwriting, filming, and editing in order to produce even a short, three-minute-long movie. My...
Suffer Strong: A Book Review by Kathryn Dover I reviewed Katherine and Jay Wolf’s first book, Hope Heals, a few months ago and have been looking forward to reading the sequel, Suffer Strong (Zondervan, 2020). Suffer Strong is different from its predecessor but...
Has anyone ever spoken over you and it felt prophetic? After talking through my writing path, someone said to me, “See, you are a writer.” It was a game-changer. In college, I wrote for the campus newspaper. As Teacher of the Year, I wrote articles for the system...
A survey of high-risk teens asked with whom did they feel safe and protected. The options the survey gave were: EMT’s, police officers, lawyers, doctors, and veterans. The troubled youth valued the veterans and said they respected them the most. Thus, mentoring...
Writing takes up a lot of alone time. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that many other writers are facing the same questions and struggles over the keyboard that you are. If you take the time to broaden your circle of writing peers, I guarantee that you and your...
When I received an email about Cracks in the Ice by Deanna K. Klingel , I could not wait to read it. While I enjoyed the novel, it was not what I expected. The synopsis on the back cover described the protagonist, Gina Mangalli, as a mafia princess, but the...
Ships, Secrets, and Survivors , the debut novel by Sarah Rodecker and Helena George, caught my eye when it was announced. It promised assassins on the run, swashbuckling pirates, and mysterious murders. As I had never read a pirate fantasy novel before, I didn’t know...
Comfort, the third book in Joyce Moyer Hostetter’s Bakers Mountain series, picks up almost exactly where the previous novel, Blue, left off. Ann Fay Honeycutt narrates this novel as well. The polio epidemic and World War II have left her family shattered, and Ann Fay...
One of the most boring books I ever read was about Jesus. Okay – to be honest, I mostly said that to get your attention – please don’t get mad and click over to Facebook! But, the truth is, I never actually finished reading Joshua by Joseph Girzone because...
I was excited to follow Junior Bledsoe’s journey in the second novel in the Baker Mountain series, Blue. Junior does not have as large a role in this novel as he does in the series’ previous novel, Aim, but his character is crucial because he helps his friend and...
I have been interested in reading the Bakers Mountain series by Joyce Moyer Hostetter since I first heard about it at Write2Ignite 2018. When I was offered this opportunity to review all four books in the series, I gladly accepted. I am beginning my reviews with Aim,...
Back around 1996, my friend, Dave told me that when he was fourteen, his father died. At the funeral, a woman said to him, “I guess you’ll have to be the man of the house now.” Dave said to me. “I did not want to be the man of the house. I wasn’t ready for that...
While a touch ponderous at times, Dennis Peterson’s Combat! Lessons on Spiritual Warfare from Military History gives a good overview of military history with a strong spiritual explanation of how God’s hand has shaped history. The book takes a deep look at historic...
The Land Beneath Us is the third and final novel in Sarah Sundin’s Sunrise at Normandy series. I have read numerous Sarah Sundin novels and enjoyed them all; her stories are the perfect balance of romance and mystery in a well-researched historical environment....
My mother and I were surprised to see Katherine Wolf at a Going Beyond Live conference we attended last summer; we had never heard of her. We had gone to see Priscilla Shirer and had not expected any other speakers. At this conference, Mrs. Wolf told a short version...
Sweat drips down my back. I can actually see the heat rising in a misty line from the asphalt of the streets. But we have to keep going. I hike my backpack higher on my shoulders, hoping for some relief from the weight of the water bottles inside it and turn to...
Last week our teen reviewer, Kathryn Cover, reviewed Penny Reeve's book, CAMP MAX. This week, we welcome Penny back to our blog for an inside look at being a Christian children's writer in Australia. I am a Christian children’s and YA author living and writing in...
How can a social-distancing writer focus on 1) writing progress and 2) spiritual wellbeing? If you’re getting plenty of alone time, writing should be easy, right? But you’re still living in unfamiliar circumstances, perhaps removed from routines or places that inspire...
I enjoyed reading the delightful children’s story, Camp Max by Penny Reeve. The illustrations drew me into the book. The first page is an illustration of the main character, Tania Abbey, and several more exist throughout the book. Camp Max goes beyond being a simple...
Welcome to my fifth grade RtI group. Seated at this table are four students who have spent most of their academic careers cycling in and out of various levels of reading intervention. Seated at this table is Sara, the girl who spent last year traveling the states in...
This past year has been a special one for the books (pun intended) because I published my first book! As you know, the process is anything but quick, but you can bet that the experience has been rich with lessons that will carry on into my future projects. My...
I was instantly drawn to this book by the beautiful illustrations of animals on the cover and the interior pages. Since I am an animal lover, the stories of exotic animals kept my attention. Himalayan Adventures by Penny Reeve is a unique book. As the name implies,...
It’s 2020! Never has it been so clear that we are living in a completely different world with a completely different set of rules. Each generation is reared up with other influences, more distractions, and a whole new set of problems. Since we have accepted the call...
Ultimately, to have a productive writing session, you need to have self-control. I can give you all the best tips in the world, but unless you have zero self-control, it won't help. Here's my tip: open your document and write. And don't stop. Need something more...
The high seas of the writing industry are tumultuous at best with raging competition and a strong current of marketing demands. Within the last few years, one of these waves has taken the Christian fiction market to a low. As a result, publishing houses are...
I enjoyed reading The Heart Changer by Jarm Del Boccio. Before I even started reading the story, I noticed on the copyright page the use of King James Version text as the basis for the story. This is rare and instantly caught my attention. This biblical basis is...
Before I interned at South Carolina Public Radio, “intimate” and “people-oriented” were the last words I’d use to describe the broadcasting organization. My picture of public radio included stuffed shirts, pressed pants, and dull voices. All news reports were robotic,...
So you think you can sit alone in your room or your local coffee shop and hammer out a book on your laptop and call it done? Nope. You need a community of writers, and here’s why.[spacer height="20px"] Accountability Writing is hard. And because it’s hard, it’s easy...
I graduated in May of 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and immediately transitioned into a career in marketing. I’m still learning the ropes of copywriting, but many of the principles I learned in journalism school apply to both copywriting and creative...
As a writer, I can get caught up in FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. Each time a new blog post or newsletter alerts me of a webinar I must attend, a book I should be reading, or a social media task I need to engage in, I get panicky. Which is the most important? What if I...
Fast is fashionable. The all-consuming lust for speed, however, caters to instant gratification and undermines weighty pursuits. It carries a hidden cost, a price tag that few would be willing to pay in many situations. And we know it. We understand that gaining...
Bringing out holiness. Perhaps we artists would prefer to describe the concept as "drawing out holiness." What does it mean to "bring--or draw--out holiness"? And how on earth could our writing affect holiness? Guest blogger, J.G. Spires, invites us to consider this...
Please welcome Deanna Kustas, our guest blogger today. How many times have heard the saying, “It’s not just what you say, but how you say it”? Words matter. Writing a great story matters. But how you share a story will change depending on where you are telling it...
Today we welcome guest blogger Maddy Wilson, Write2Ignite's new social media adviser specializing in Instagram. Instagram, in my humble opinion, is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to access a teenage audience. But upon first glance, if you haven’t grown up...
Today's guest blogger, Celeste Hawkins, shares her first experience attending a Write2Ignite Conference. As I opened the doors to check into my first writers' conference, I held a print-out of my book draft in one arm and the parking-line-yellow purse that makes me...
Ryan Hendrick's guest post introduces the Bible's use of parable and its impact. He follows this discussion with his original example. A parable intrigues me because its brevity often conceals its power until it blindsides its audience. In this sense, parable...