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Eclipses and transfigurations

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Image by Steffan Lewis from Pixabay Two nice things happened to me recently – well, not just two nice things, but things relevant to writing. I submitted four prayers for a prayer handbook and was delighted to hear from the editors that all four have been accepted for publication. The editors edited all but one of my poem-prayers, and I have to admit that their versions were better than my originals. Which just goes to show that we all need beta readers and editors! I’m gratified, though, that one of my prayers remains virgin and pristine – the editors were satisfied and didn’t think it needed any more work. Last Saturday I went to a Lenten Quiet Day at St Benedict’s Retreat Centre in West Malling, Kent. Our retreat leader, Gilly Fenner, who writes beautiful poetry, led us in meditation on two Bible passages, one of which was the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1–8, cf Mark 9:2–13, Luke 9:28–36). We were given plenty of space to be alone with God during the day. I sat in...
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From dead skin cells, we came

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                                                                                            Picture credit: BBC This morning, an invasion of dust got repelled from our home. I deployed the vacuum in anger and my better half showed the dusters some serious front-line action. I’m pleased to report we won the battle, if not the war. The last job was to empty the dust canister into the bin to be disposed of. Dust that gathers in our homes is a disgusting mix of dead skin cells, bacteria, the remains of insects and other delights. Yuck. Yet, according to Genesis 2, God formed us from nothing but dust before pumping some air into our lungs. Maybe dust isn’t meant in the literal sense here, I don’t know, but it shows God ...
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Procrastination

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During this time of Lent, I listened to a Sermon just a couple of days ago to do with looking at ourselves with regard to procrastination.     The Pastor asked us to think about the things we have been putting off, and try to put them into action this week.     Not all at once of course, but just pick out one or two things that have been on our hearts. One of the main things I could think about, was something that God spoke to me about quite a few years ago to do with starting a small business, using the gift he had given me.  I have come to understand that God speaks to us in many different ways, sometimes it can be with His still, quite voice, other times it’s a strong feeling that you just go with straight away, and that is how it was at the time I am talking about, it was so quick and positive, I just knew it was God talking because, for one, I had asked Him a question, and He gave me an answer there and then. He even gave me the name of the business to use....
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Sometimes Less Is More

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  A few years ago, I was tasked with compiling and editing a newsletter for a Christian charity, and I asked someone to provide a story of 100-150 words, so when the piece I received was 300 words long, my first reaction was frustration.       However, once I began editing, it was a surprisingly easy task. As I condensed several words into one or deleted entire sentences which seemed superfluous, I felt a real sense of satisfaction. Without very much effort, I got the piece down to under 150 words without losing any of the meaning, and it was a much better and tighter story.       A lot of my writing time this month has been spent in a similar fashion, although this time with my own writing, which has been much more difficult, but still very satisfying.       I have been working on a children’s Bible reading resource , and the format has fixed word counts for each section – mostly 20-30 words, though in one section I...
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Writer seeks attention (or What matters to your reader?) by Elaine Langford

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  As writers, we’d all like to think our readers hang on our every word. In fact, we often have to work hard to get their attention. This is particularly true for news stories which are the chip paper of the future. Though health and safety may interfere with that cliché. After writing for the Christian Writer magazine, I was reminded that we’ve all got skills and knowledge from our past that we can use in our writing, and not always in the ways we’d expect. Last month I covered how to make your writing more visible for Search Engines , using my limited website design experience. In this post, I’ll expand on tips gained when writing news articles and press releases as a freelance writer. Even if you’re more into writing fiction, these tips may be useful for your next author event or to promote a new book, poets may want to highlight an appearance at an Open Mic event. It may be a useful angle for a short story or a plot line. If your writing is more Bible-based then maybe try w...
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