Law enforcement in the old Wild West was spotty at best, and the line between lawman and outlaw often blurred. Peacekeepers were frequently paid very little or nothing and needed to have a regular (full-time) job to eat and put a roof over their heads. For this reason—and others—those in charge of upholding the law…
As working moms, it’s never easy juggling time between our children and work. But what is it like choosing our children first? Significantly, there are three essential factors to consider.
What’s something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t? Maybe it’s learning a new language. Maybe it’s getting up on those tricky water skis. Or maybe it’s writing the novel that’s been brewing within you. For me, it was learning the violin. My small-town school didn’t have an orchestra, so the clarinet and piano were…
“They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” (Psalm 92:14 NIV) Late last spring, like a lot of other people during the pandemic, I experimented with container gardening. Conditions were far from ideal when I took the last, wrinkled grape tomato from the basket and just stuck it in…
I never wanted to be a writer. The written word was for people whose brains operated differently than mine. Much of college was dodging professors who assigned papers in favor of those who leaned on exams. Grad school was an exercise in getting papers finished as efficiently and quickly as possible. Being an analytical thinker…
My husband and I live in an apartment across from a farmer’s field (it’s one of those situations where the city has inched outwards: parking lots and residential neighbourhoods on one side of the road, farmland on the other). I love looking out the window and seeing open space instead of traffic lights, and the…
It’s award season in the Christian literary world. Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with writing contests. Being named a finalist or winner is wonderful for promotion, affirmation, celebrating great writing, and receiving helpful feedback from judges. For those reasons, I do enter a book into one or more contests most years that I have…
We wanted to take a break from our usual blog posts to highlight some news from our authors. Our authors continue to impress us with their growing lists of awards, both with their MBI books and those not published with us. (You can see the list of their MBI awards here.) This year, we have…
[Alyssa Roat] Hold Fast to Dreams
I started my debut novel, Wraithwood, at sixteen. I finished the first draft at seventeen and brought that unpolished manuscript with me to college. I was pursuing a degree in Professional Writing. I’d been promised I’d be published within my first semester. I knew other graduates had gotten their books published in college. This was…
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