Happy New Year, , 

Okay, fine, I'm a little late—Happy Lunar New Year! 

I took some time off in January to mentor a group of interns on a vision trip as part of their journey into mission aviation! It was a pretty cool experience!

That time off was also a nice way to gather my thoughts and pray about the direction of my writing.

In 2021, while I was writing Living Uprooted, I decided to try the "Word of the Year" challenge to have another gem of encouragement to turn to when things got challenging. My word that year was "Confidence." It was fitting. 

At first, I lacked the confidence that I had anything to offer that someone would want to read in a book. I gained confidence as I finished my manuscript, and it was accepted by a publisher and eventually published in February 2022. 

My word of the year for 2022 was "Faithful." I felt the Lord calling me to be faithful in two tasks: offering encouragement through my blog and writing a companion workbook for Living Uprooted. I stayed faithful to those tasks. I posted a blog every month in 2022, and the workbook will be finished and published this year. 

My word for 2023 is "Bloom."

Since around July 2022, I've been sensing a change in the direction of my writing for the long term. I tried my hand at writing a short story, and once I did, I was hooked. The seed had been planted in my heart to begin writing Christian Fiction.

About a month later—as I was trying to work on a blog post—ideas started popping into my head for a novel! After about four hours of plotting and tweaking, and writing a couple of scenes, I had an outline of a novel. Since then, it's turned into ideas for a trilogy!

I am trusting this direction is from God and it is time for my writing to bloom!

That being said, I want to continue offering encouragement through my blog and write another non-fiction book on the transition back to our home culture, here's where I need your help. I sent out a query last year asking what topic you would like more information on. The majority of the votes came back for spiritual warfare. So, that's what I plan to write about for my next blog series. 

Well, I set about writing that series and had hoped to finish before the end of the year, but it is such a vast and complex subject that I got lost in all my research, and I couldn't discern what you would want to read about.

So, here's where YOU come in.

I want to hear from you, .

What would you like to learn about spiritual warfare?

Call to action

I would love for you to reply to this email with your ideas, questions, personal experience, or even resources that have helped you, regarding spiritual warfare, and I would love to incorporate it into my series.

I appreciate you being part of this community and I hope to hear from you. Thank you in advance for your encouragement in my writing endeavors. I pray I may write inspirational fiction you will enjoy!

My writing endeavor has never been about making money, so I will not post ads on my website or in my email. However, I will occasionally share works that I feel may interest you or people you know.

Writing is often a solo endeavor. However, God has brought a wonderful group of people into my life who've made this journey so much fun and quite the learning experience!

Since the Fall of 2021, I have been part of a writing group called the Lady Lits. We are seven Christian authors writing a diverse variety of genres ranging from Historical Fiction to Young Adult, as well as some Non-Fiction works. These ladies are part of the inspiration for my shift to fiction writing. 

Our group meets every other week as a whole, and we have informal meetings  we call "work-alongs" every Tuesday and Thursday to "work together." We formed our group as a way to encourage and support one another in our writing journies. 

One of the ways we offer support is by sharing our work. So, this year, from March to September, I will do a featured author post to introduce these authors to you and what they have in the works! I hope you enjoy their writing as much as I do! I will be the featured author for July, so I will share with you what's in the works for me.

I pray for the Lord's blessing as you go about your day. May you feel His presence around you, and His peace in your heart.

I love that you're here, and I hope you'll follow along in my fiction writing journey. If you know of someone working in missions or just beginning their journey, please feel free to share my web address, blog posts, and my books.