When I sent out a newsletter recently, I invited readers to share a story about a special way they celebrate Christmas or favorite ornament or gift they remember. I love hearing your stories and I hope you’ll enjoy these I’m sharing with you. First Paty and her family have a very special Christmas tradition that helps them remember the …
A Christmas Story from Sassy Creek
Hope you all will give Shelia Stovall a fond welcome as she visits One Writer’s Journal today to tell you about her Christmas novella, A Sassy Creek Christmas, and her inspiration for her town of Sassy Creek, Kentucky. I met Shelia several years ago at a book event. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of visiting her library and getting to go …
Zooming with Appalachian Writers
One of the nicest things about writing for the inspirational market is making friends with other writers who are ready to cheer you on and tell their reading friends about your books. While some writers are very prolific and can put out several books a year, most of us are more like one or two books a year writers. Thanks …
E-book Sale on a Christmas Story from Harmony Hill
What fun to see that my Shaker Christmas novel, Christmas at Harmony Hill, is on special e-book sale right now at most internet sites for the very low price of 99 cents or less! That gives me the chance to offer you a very inexpensive gift of a story for Christmas. The book is set at the end of the Civil …
An Appalachian Christmas
Have you ever wanted to attend a book event hosted by an author you’ve wanted to meet? Well, now’s your chance to meet at least three authors, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Cindy Sproles, and me. All of us have written stories set in the Appalachian Mountains. Sarah has set all her books somewhere in the mountains. Her new release, The …
Cover Reveal – Along a Storied Trail
“Good cover design is not only about beauty… it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis.” ― Eeva Lancaster I just sent out a newsletter with a …
Blessings Only Come to Those Who Notice
May your troubles be less, your blessings more and may nothing but happiness come through your door. –Irish Blessing Blessings only come to those who notice . An unthankful heart is like a finger trying to sift the sand for iron–it doesn’t discover God’s mercies. But a thankful heart, just like the magnet, sweeps through life’s circumstances and finds daily …
No Smiles for the Camera
Have you ever eaten at Cracker Barrel and noticed all the old pictures hanging on their walls? Those stern ancestors of some family that didn’t care enough to keep their pictures? They are always large framed photographs. Poster sized. No small eight by ten photos for them. The men nearly always have long beards and look like the father or …
Are You a Little Bit Famous?
Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful. – John Wooden Some years ago at a book fair a young man who might have been twenty, give or take a year or two, came up to my book table and asked, “Are you famous?” I remember first being a bit surprised by the …
Slaying the Dragon to Win Fair Maiden
Take it from a guy: If you’re in love with somebody, you will swim the stream, you will climb the mountain, you will slay the dragon. You’re going to get to her somehow, some way. ~Phil McGraw Slaying the dragon for your true love – now, that sounds romantic. And a bit dangerous, I have to admit. Dragons are big …









