Wake of Echoes

It's November first again, the official start to National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. Are you already feeling the pressure to hit those daily word-count goals? Create something magical? Write that masterpiece? Get up, Get up, pressure, pressure... Paint the scene for me, Paint it bright and clear... So, maybe Bastille isn't talking about the pressure to write a great novel in their song "Lethargy" but, nonetheless, it plays in my head when I sit down in front of a blank page. So how do we keep going when we're weighed down with pressure, almost before we've even begun?  Here are my tips for tackling your writing goals, whether you participate in NaNoWriMo or not: 1. Write Now. Some people will make excuses. Others will write. Those excuses might be valid, by the way, and there are many great writers who completely ignore NaNoWriMo. That's fine. But if YOU want to participate, then don't make excuses. Go Write. 2. ...

Please enjoy my latest blog post, written by an author friend who wished to remain anonymous: Want to stay healthy? Youthful? Full of energy? The first step is writing that book review! Okay, okay. So I'm really bad at writing click-bait headlines. (And I can't even commit to a good falsehood for, like, five seconds!) But, I'm kind of desperate. Because, you know that author who keeps begging you to review her book? (Me.) She doesn't just want your reviews. She needs them. (Also me.) Seriously. Not to put too fine a point on it, but here's the truth: She will never, ever be able to make a living as a writer if you don't post that review. Here's why. Even though she has spent years writing quality novels that readers seem to enjoy, and even though... She spends hours each week marketing Her reviews are good She advertises She promotes on social media She maintains a blog She builds a mailing list She keeps writing more books She hosts g...

Stealing Liberty on Amazon STEALING LIBERTY  comes out today and I am SO excited! I hope you buy it, read it, love it, review it and tell all your friends so they can buy it, read it, love it and tell all their friends too. But even if you don't, I want to tell you the story of how it was almost never published. Last year, after my literary agent, Cyle Young of Hartline Literary, had contacted all the big name publishers, inviting them to offer us a contract for Stealing Liberty , he heard back from very few. That's not at all unusual. But the ones who did respond declined to publish it. They liked the concept and the writing , they indicated, but the story was "too Christian." "Too Christian?" I asked. "Really?" Cyle was baffled too. Two things confused us most: First: a couple of these publishers have a long history of publishing  Christian  fiction.  Second:  STEALING LIBERTY  isn't even really a Christian ...

SLAVERY & NAZIS In 1787, Constitutional Convention delegates came to a " Three-Fifths " compromise when deciding how many representatives each state should be allowed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Southern states wanted to count their slaves. Northern states didn't think they should. Thus the three-fifths rule that said each slave could be counted as three-fifths of a human being . Seventy years later, in 1857, a slave named Dred Scott petitioned to buy his freedom because his owners had moved from a slavery state to a free state. In what is largely seen as the most horrendous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the court said that residing in a free state did not entitle Scott to his freedom and that, furthermore, African Americans were not and never could be citizens of the United States .  Roughly seventy years after that, Adolf Hitler was rising to power in Germany, espousing the idea that some races are inferior to others, including blacks and Je...

"Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns—30,000." -- President Obama President Obama said that during a speech he gave on January 5, 2016 , when he announced a new executive order to tighten gun control. I have no doubt he believed what he said -- that he believed in what he was doing. First, because Obama's personality has always been unequivocal. During his eight years in office, I never saw him waffle on what he believed. One of Obama's defining characteristics was his fondness for standing ankle-deep in the hardened cement of his progressive ideas while demanding that others "compromise" by coming around to his way of thinking. Second, because Obama shed tears while he made  his speech , and as much as I disagreed with him on ... well, almost everything, I  DO  believe he was sincerely moved by the issue of gun violence in America -- or at least his own righteous indignation in it. I really don't fault him...

Last week, I told you a little known fact about roadway deaths in America, which accumulated to more than 75,000 people in 2015 and 2016 combined. But the media has been mostly silent about those tragic deaths. Why is that? I shared my ideas (and my disgust) in part one of a series on the value of LIFE in the American Media. Today I continue that series with part two: Do All Lives Matter? War & Peace George Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze "My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war , banished from the earth." -- George Washington Just reading our first president's words brings tears to my eyes. First, because I've read extensively about Washington and what he went through to bring this great nation into being. The Revolutionary War was at the same time horrific and glorious, characterized by both needless deaths and deaths that bought liberty so precious, we who are Americans can barely comprehend life w...

Let's make that question personal: Do all lives matter to YOU? Do all lives matter to ME? I ask because I stumbled across a lonely article last year, which I can't seem to find now. So I went to the source: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which reported that approximately 40,000 people lost their lives on American roadways during 2016. That estimate is up six percent from the 2015 numbers , when 35,092 people died on American roadways. Together, 2015 and 2016 mark the most drastic two-year escalation in roadway deaths in 53 years. But you haven't heard about that on the news, have you? No, there hasn't been time for the media to dwell on 75,000 Americans losing their lives. They were too busy talking about important deaths. You know, like the ones in Ferguson, Baltimore and San Francisco. And those other deaths caused by someone who shouldn't have a gun, or someone else with a pre-existing condition. Seventy-five thousand Americans, de...