A Writer’s Prayer

A Writer’s Prayer

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayers and writing these past few years. I’ve always loved that ACFW has a prayer room staffed with volunteers during the conference, and I’ve taken advantage of both praying and volunteering. Prayer is also top of mind because CCWF recently published an anthology of prayers for writers, which we…

Prayers for Writers

Prayers for Writers

I believe writers enjoy their own writing twice. As writers, they enjoy wrestling to give birth to their vision in words. Then as readers, they rediscover their own words with a certain surprise: “Wow! Did I write that?” Words and language and writing have power. Writing preserves our best thoughts and gives them a life…

My Ideal Reader

My Ideal Reader

By Sarah Hamaker, CCWF President Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my ideal reader. Who is she? What does she like to do? What does she read? Where does she live? What is her family life like? What draws her to pick up a book? What does she like to feel after reading a…

Guest Blog: Jeanette Windle, Prepare to Publish Conference Speaker

Guest Blog: Jeanette Windle, Prepare to Publish Conference Speaker

Award-winning novelist, investigative journalist, editor, and collaborative writer Jeanette Windle grew up in the Amazon’s guerrilla hot zones, has lived in six countries and traveled in more than 30. Those experiences have birthed 16 fiction titles, including bestselling Veiled Freedom (2010 ECPA Christian Book Award/Christy Award finalist) and Freedom’s Stand, (2012 ECPA Christian Book Award/Carol…

Resolving Tension

Resolving Tension

By Sarah Hamaker. CCWF president As writers, we work with tension all the time—without tension, our stories would sag and our heroes and heroines would have very boring relationships. But this blog is about the tension we experience between what we want to work on and what we have to work on. For many of…

Guest Blog: CJ Brightley, Prepare to Publish Conference Speaker

Guest Blog: CJ Brightley, Prepare to Publish Conference Speaker

CJ (Cecilia) Brightely grew up in Georgia and attended Clemson University in South Carolina, where she met her husband. They went to graduate school at Texas A&M, then moved to the DC area for jobs. After a few years in the national security world, they had their daughter in 2011; Cecilia stayed home with their…

Guest Blog: Patricia Durgin, Prepare to Publish Conference Speaker

Guest Blog: Patricia Durgin, Prepare to Publish Conference Speaker

Patricia Durgin is the founder of Marketers On a Mission, the FB Live program offering tutorials and interviews by and for Christian writers and speakers. She’s hosted more than 300 60-minute episodes as of May 2019, and she’s still going strong! She dissects complex online marketing tasks, moving learners from “I’ll never be able to…

UPDATE: Call for Submissions – 2020 CCWF Publishing Project

Prayer for Writers a handbook of prayers for your writing life The anthology CCWF will publish in 2020 is Prayers for Writers. Do you pray over your writing projects? As Christian writers, we know that should be a priority, but deadlines and responsibilities can distract us. To help make this a focus in your writing…