 The famous Gateway Arch was across the street from the Hyatt Regency hotel where we met. Christian fiction is ministry. Christian fiction is business. We heard both at the recent American Christian Fiction Writers conference in St. Louis, Missouri. As I wrote on another blog, the conference was bathed in prayer both before and during. We had wonderful times of worship, aspiring writers and published authors side by side, working together to advance the Kingdom of God.
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 My excuse for not doing much writing this week In the end, 28 of 30 bloggers posted something about my novel, Glastonbury Tor last week. Most also tweeted, posted links on Facebook or reviews on Amazon and other book sites for a total of 74 mentions in six days. Not at all bad. The thing that struck me was that very few of these reviewers were profound or particularly articulate. They simply love books, and people who read their reviews pay attention to what they have to say.  A hippo has invaded our northern lake, brought back from South Africa on my last trip. (I think he's made of acrylic. The kids love him.) This has been a tough week for getting anything done on my current work-in-progress. Temps my daughter would find normal for Tennessee are breaking records here in the north. My office over the garage is not air-conditioned and a ceiling fan can only accomplish so much. So I am working in the house on the couch with my feet propped on the coffee table and my laptop on my lap. Why not the table? It’s fine for checking Facebook, but not the right height for typing. My arms soon begin to ache and I create problems for the future.
 The entrance to Duluth Harbor is through a canal between these lighthouses. Minnesotans aren’t Canadians, but they’re still known for being nice. Except Minnesota N.I.C.E. is not about being soft-spoken or polite. It stands for Novelists Inspiring Christian Excellence. Minnesota N.I.C.E. is the local chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). In recent years the organization has grown way beyond it’s origins in inspirational romance writing. So I joined.  Outdoor assembly I figured out last week that it wasn’t going to work. In writing workshops I have often used an exercise with three groups writing dialog to tell the story of Jack and Jill going up the hill to fetch a pail of water. In one group Jack and Jill are pre-schoolers. In another group Jack and Jill are an old couple who have been married for 50 years. In the last group Jack and Jill are a brother and sister who fight all the time.  “Where have you been so long?”
“I live in the States now. Wisconsin.” “Is it cold there?” my questioner asked warily. It only he knew! I took advantage of being back in Johannesburg to visit my old writers club, Writers 2000. The group meets the last Saturday of the month in the elegant clubhouse of a retirement center surrounded by manicured gardens.  I got there early. Very early. I was afraid of rush hour traffic, but of course, it was Saturday and traffic was light. Even though I was early, children streamed ahead of me through the gates of Central Johannesburg College, Alexandra Campus. They were neatly dressed, many in T-shirts that said Rose-Act Saturday School. The program out of Rosebank Union Church in the wealthy suburb of Four Ways rents the college facility for an extra-tuition school for children from the crowded Alexandra township across the road. (For my American readers, “tuition” here means “instruction”, not the money paid for a private school, although these students do pay a modest fee to demonstrate their commitment to be in class.)
 Etta Wilson was first recommended to me as an agent by Jane Kurtz, adult missionary kid and author of several award winning children’s books. At the time Etta’s client list was full. A few years later I queried her again. That same day, she had noticed an announcement of the release of my picture book So That's What God is Like. It felt right to both of us, and she took me on. What makes historical fiction historical?
I recently finished reading From Dust and Ashes, set in the aftermath of World War II. It has the subtitle A Story of Liberation. Although American GIs liberate the Gusen concentration camp in the opening chapters, the liberation referred to is spiritual.  If I'm ever going to actually finish my book, I have to actually write. But there are all sorts of ways to put that off. Here are a few:
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AuthorLeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives. Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
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