By Edie Melson @EdieMelson So often we make things harder than they have to be. Sometimes we do it because we’re used to doing things a certain way, or because it’s the only way we know how. But things change quickly these days, and it’s always a good thing to…

by Blythe Daniel @BlytheDaniel When I was a student rising in the ranks of junior high and high school, the tall, full-of-life (and voice!) choir director would distinctly take a stand on a platform so we could see him as we nervously prepared our songs. The prepared platform gave him…

By Leilani Squires The week of writing this post, my deadlines looked like this:  Write Article 1 Write Article 2 Write Article 3 Edit 5,177 words Proof a 128-page manuscript Edit 5,861 words Finish/launch website Also, both kiddos were sick, one with “the coughin’s” and one with “the throw-ups.” And…

The Contest is open! New Categories Added In addition to last year’s date changes, we also added new categories. We will continue with those category additions this year. In doing a little research, we discovered that professional writers who write short-form were being slighted. There isn’t a national contest associated…

by Rhonda Rhea @RhondaRhea I’ve probably mentioned before that I don’t usually cook for the people I love. Because I love them. And while there’s much that could be said here about being hospitable, there are also a couple of sentences I could add about being “hospital-able”—which, I’m telling you, could…

by Vincent Davis @vbdavisII How can we possibly hope to value a book that we've written? Blood, sweat, and tears were poured into that manuscript. It became our baby. So, now that our baby manuscript has grown up to be a big-boy book, and it’s ready to go out into…