As Christian authors, our goal is not just to entertain, but also to build up our fellow believers. So how do we achieve this?

The foundation of a story that will build people's hope is honesty. What do I mean by that? If we're addressing a topic, we need to honest (even though our characters) about how complicated it can be. If we are addressing a struggle, we need to let our readers see the reality of that struggle and not try to white-wash it. This often means you need first-hand knowledge of the struggle or a lot of research. If it's a historic piece or covers a social issue, this means being honest and true to the times and/or the complexity of an issue. 

If you want to share hope, you need to stay grounded in God's word. You can't impart what you don't possess. If you want to impart real hope to others, make sure you're grounded and filled with the source of your hope. 

Make sure to check your message against the truth. Does your message align with the Bible? Do the facts check out? Get advice from others. Double-checking is important. 

When I'm sick, it's easy to take medicine to deal with a symptom. It's a lot harder to make sure I'm doing things to get rid of the virus. In the same way, it's a lot easier as authors to deal with surface issues like anger, lies, and bitterness. To bring hope and healing, it's important that we address the root of the problem. I heard the illustration once that if you tell a kid to stop hitting a sibling, that's fine, but they will act out another way. Address anger, the importance of self-control, and forgiveness, you won't just end the behavior, you are dealing with the heart of the issue. 

Write from the hope within you. God has done some amazing things in your life and brought hope into some of your dark moments. Write from those experiences and share them with others. There is nothing like reading a book where it's obvious the author is writing about how God brought hope and healing in their own heart.

What do you think? How do you feel we as writers can share hope? 

As I was making plans for this year, I prayed that God would give me direction. The word hope kept popping up. As I sat a few days before New Years, I didn't feel hopeful. I was discouraged about my arm not healing quickly, I was sick, and I saw several challenges up ahead. Again, I found the word hope springing up.

I was reading in Psalms and I saw this:

*post contains affiliate links*

Read the rest of the story HERE

When I pick up any book, I like to go into it knowing who it's for. So, for those who have been wondering if the Tales of Taelis series is for them, here is a look into who I wrote if for.

I wrote this with tweens and young teens in mind. When I was eleven, I was hard-pressed to find things to read. I was bored with the youth books, but not mature enough to handle a lot of the content found in adult books. I ended up reading mostly non-fiction. This series is the kind of book I wanted to find: adventure, excitement, dealing with real problems but not sad, scary, or dealing with things in an adult level.

These stories explore deep heart struggles. Is God good when bad things happen? Why is forgiveness important? What's going on when siblings are always arguing? Where is my identity found? How can I handle all my hopes and dreams shattering into a thousand pieces? All these have been addressed in one of the Taelis books. Young people need these truths but will understand them better when wrapped in a story that isn't over moralized. If a young person is struggling, stories are often a good way to reach them.

When I was younger, I loved adventure stories. I ate up books by G.A. Henty, because there was always something exciting going on and the stories moved quickly (well, except for a few times when he was giving a history lesson. This series is all about adventure stories. While that doesn't mean there is action non-stop, I wanted each story to be exciting and full of things that would keep the readers interested.

I wanted to write characters that younger people could both sympathize with, and admire. These books do not contain perfect characters, However, they do contain characters that learn their lesson and strive in the end to honor God with their lives.

Are you a young reader? What are you looking for in stories? Are you an older reader? What kind of books did you want to read, but couldn't find as a kid?

Some lessons, I've learned the easy way as a writer. I knew how important from the get-go that covers were important. I hired the one person I knew with design experience to do the Destiny Trilogy covers and I paid what I thought was a lot. In retrospect, I got an amazing deal for those covers. Anyway, that isn't the real point. Because today, we are here to talk about a lesson I learned the hard way.

Book classification.

Now, let me state from the start that I'm really good and knowing genres, sub-genres, and helping to define where books go in any given system. However, I hit a snag with the Taelis series. I wanted a fictional country but I also wanted to pull in some history as well (especially in some of the books later in the series. After all, a lot of authors use this with modern princess stories and it works just fine for them so it would work for this series, right? Spoiler alert, I was wrong.

While a few people like this blending, it confused most of my readers. Some loved the fantasy aspect but then were confused by the historical aspect. The people who loved history just plain hated the books most of the time. It irritated them that it was neither straight-up fantasy or completely historical.

When I decided to have Adventures and Adversities edited, I decided to move the whole series into the non-magical fantasy (or kingdom fantasy) category. I took out all references to the real world (except those that had to do with Jesus and Christianity) and rereleased it.

How can we avoid a mistake like this?

Several friends who had read the book knew that my straddling genres would cause trouble. However, I didn't ask. So I learned that you need to ask your beta readers if they agree with your classification of the book.

Look at books that are like yours. Yes, I was one of those who thought that no one published books like mine. However, when you find books that are like yours, even if they are not exact, pay attention to their classification.

If you are caught between genres, get a lot of opinions before you pick a genre. I know, it's so easy to go with our feeling and think we as the author knows best. It's important to remember that for classification, readers, not authors, need to determine this.

Now, for a fun question! What book did you either read or write that was hard to classify? Why was that?